Customizing Toys and Gear: DIY vs. Buying

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host Steve Megatron Phillips and joining

me in this episode is... Michael Booth Ninja

Powers. Yep, and we return for another episode

of one of our Off the Cuffs and in this one we're

going to be talking about customizations of...

things that we've owned or things that we've

modified specifically because of just wanting

to do it. Yeah, so what are some of the various

things that you've done, either customizations

or paid for or just modified because you really

wanted to? Okay, so we brought this topic up

earlier today. uh and i've been kind of like

racking my brain trying to think of some things

because i don't as i've gotten older um i don't

i don't do a whole lot of customization because

i don't buy a lot of toys anymore like i buy

legos and this could be anything right i'm getting

there like i you know i i buy like okay i'll

just start when i was younger okay i did customization

when i was younger i would do things like um

with my Legos. Like, kids these days have it

super easy. Like, there is a Lego Batman figure.

Yep. And there are, I mean, they're knock -off

Legos, but there are Ninja Turtle figures. Lego

Transformers. But as a kid, didn't have any of

that stuff. So, one of the things I remember

doing as a kid is I would break out my dad's

model paints, and I made myself a Batman Lego.

And I made myself Ninja Turtle Legos. And I also

made myself a Robocop Lego. And also Power Ranger

Legos. I would just paint the little Lego figures,

the mini figures. You know, I'd put the various

accessories on them to make them look the way

that I wanted them to look, and then I'd bust

out the model paints and... Would paint up the

helmet to look like the the white ranger with

like the gold and the yellow I'm sorry the gold

and the black or you know Batman with the the

yellow symbol on the chest That that was kind

of like one of my early things of like customization

One of the other two other things I can think

of up top my head were I don't know if you've

seen this you must have seen this because you're

an action figure guy probably but there was a

I think it came out with Batman Returns okay

with the Batman Returns toy line there was a

Robin okay I'm fairly sure it was the Batman

Returns toy line there was a Robin figure and

it was based off of Robin 2 yep from the comics

I had it okay that was my favorite figure and

one of the things I like to do is the cape this

is an aside the cape right it was black and yellow

yep um but it was two sheets if you got i i found

out that if you got the cape wet and you pulled

it apart you could actually blow it up into an

inflatable what yeah i did not know that it was

like it was like a balloon like it was obviously

i had this when i was a kid so i could play with

it in the bathtub but like i would make robin

float around the bathtub on his cape. That's

funny. That wasn't a mod, mind you, but I did

modify the, one of the things I did though is,

you know, Robin's got to have a grappling hook,

right? I got, do you remember Sky Commanders?

Did you ever have any of those? I didn't have

them, but I was familiar with it. Okay, well

every Sky Commander had the little bungee cable

that attached to their back. and attached to

this little wrist -mounted thing. Remember that

at all? Yep. Yep. Okay. I took one of those wrist

-mounted things, the little red wrist mounts,

and I got some fishing line, wrapped it around

there, and then I put an actual... I think it

was like a three -point or a four -point fish

hook on the end of it. Okay. For, like, a grappling

hook. So I'm, you know, 10, 12... 13 years old

playing with this action figure that's got this

ultra sharp fish hook. That's like Like just

swinging it around like it's nothing So like

I I did stuff like that like when I was a kid

I also had One of the most destructive things

I've ever done was I used to have they weren't

matchbox cars But they were days of thunder cars

they were They were metal. They might have been

match. They weren't matchbox. They were knockoff

matchbox, but they were the days of thunder cars.

So like Mellow Yellow, the super flow and Exxon.

And I remember like, you know, you watch the

movie and the cars are all banged up, but you

get the car, you buy the car, a little matchbox

looking thing. And it's like in pristine condition.

Remember my cousins and I like scraping them

along the concrete Like to get them like Worn

in like to get that that race and look that authentic

Nice ain't scraping look never thought about

that. So I I mean, that's just what we you know

what we did But as I got older like I just I

got out of I think I think my customizing stuff

kind of kind of follows the trajectory of like

My What I've done with Lego like I don't really

I don't free build out of Lego anymore I go and

I buy the kit, you know, so I don't Like when

it comes to like action figures and stuff like

that, I don't I don't kit bash or anything like

that like I I I buy the Amiibo that is the character

that I want, or I buy expensive Japanese figurines

of Samus Aran. Those are the action figures that

I want. But that tends to go over with everything.

When I go to buy something, I tend to make sure

everything about it is what I want because I

don't like... Like I said earlier, I think one

of the things that immediately popped into my

head was the only time I really customized anything

is like with a car But I don't care for aftermarket

anything like I've done the I've painted like

the grill on my volts I painted that black and

it made it look really great I've done. I've

done stuff like that. Just like modding my car,

but I've never done like I'm gonna put a stereo

in this car or anything like that, you know,

I put it I put vented disc brakes on a car, you

know drilled and slotted but you know, I I've

never gone and like Added a whole bunch of like

aftermarket stuff or gotten aftermarket ribs

because I like I try to buy Like I said, I try

to buy everything the way that I want it because

I don't feel like I have the time or the Patience

to do that kind of stuff anymore So but I know

you do Yeah, I I kind of go through these spurts

where I like to customize things and then I go

through these spurts where I'm like I'd just

rather buy it And it just kind of depends on

my mood like a few years ago like some people

will be familiar with it some people might not

I I was doing legends of the dark night. I was

really enthused with well, I think it was actually

before that podcast but I was really enthused

with Batman Beyond Return of the Joker, and I

had the film. I was like, why did they never

make an actual old man Joker in the toy line?

They had the molds. They could have done it.

It would have been easy, literally easy. It drove

me nuts, and so I customized. a uh two figures

i bought two of them on ebay it cost me like

five dollars a piece so for ten dollars and like

five dollars in paints i made this figure um

had to use sandpaper had to use like like two

different grits of sandpaper um because i took

the the joker from uh they had this like ultra

realistic looking joker that that had like green

hair and everything uh and I couldn't get the

head to come off the torso of it, and I really

didn't want to break the body, so I actually,

because his neck was so long, I hacked his neck

right off, took his head right off the body,

and then I bought a Nightwing figure, and I hacked

his head off. And then I shoved the Joker's head

in there, and glued it in, and... So then I painted

the the Nightwing like the the bird emblem black

and then I painted the rest of his body black

and painted the hands like that kind of off white

that the Joker's skin is. And then the nails

black with like really tedious painting painting

on it. And then the Joker, I painted his I sanded

his head down so he didn't have all that weird

curly hair type setup and then painted his his

head. and then repainted part of the face that

wasn't matching the rest of the figure and then

I basically created my own Batman Beyond Return

of the Joker figure and you know so it's still

on scale with the rest of the figures and I have

like the old man Bruce and then the Terry McGinnis

Batman and so it kind of went all you know hand

-in -hand and I was like okay I have the movie

set here now with these and So I thought that

that was kind of cool. So I never did customize

a figure again since that. But before that, I

used to because I had a lot of Beast Wars figures

and some of them I had doubles and it would irritate

me that some of them weren't show accurate color

wise. And so I would buy paints to repaint the

figures. And I did it as a kid. And granted,

some of the paint jobs did not turn out very

well. And it actually would get scraped when

they would transform, but I tried. I think if

I did it now, they'd come out much better, but

now I just wait for them. You get an A for effort.

Yeah, now I just wait for the masterpiece figures

to come out, and then I'm just like, I'll just

get those. See? That's where my toy stuff went,

right? Like, it's not... I gotta find a way to

make this myself. It's... I have... For lack

of a better way to say this I have disposable

income. Let me find someone that already made

the figure that I want, you know like Well, it's

it's like way to make that happen Yeah and and

so like that that's part of it and then back

in those days like when I was Real little and

I was building things out of Legos. I used to

build because you know, they didn't have Lego

Star Trek or Lego Transformers back then I had

to be creative. I took all of my bricks and I

hit a massive amount of Legos and I built my

own Star Trek Enterprise bridge with sliding

doors in the back. Everything was laid out like

the Enterprise A. I had this whole setup of how

it looked. I built the engineering. I built the

briefing room. I built everything. It was insane

the amount of stuff I had. See, I never built

that stuff. I built the ships out of Legos. I

did do that, too. And funny you should mention

that, I used to take permanent marker, which

was really stupid back then, to draw the lights,

like the different color. Like I would draw the

detail on the ships that I would build on Legos.

OK. Like for like the little dots or the little,

you know, the little specific like window effects

or things like that. Because every now and again

when I'm building with my boys, I'll see a random

Lego piece that I colored as a kid Because I

had this giant almost almost Two foot tall transformer

that I built out of Legos, which I shattered

a few years ago for parts for them But it used

to transform into a jet That was like my last

transformer world that I built out of Legos,

which was fully detailed but It was like bigger

than Fortress Maximus. But I used to build all

the Transformers out of Legos and they would

not look as show accurate as I would like. But

you could kind of tell who they were based on

color palette. But that was some of the things

I used to do. Now my thing is, is I want a Star

Trek uniform. And I'm debating whether do I make

it? Do I buy it? And so that's that's kind of

the road I'm at now. Yeah, I don't know I Was

wondering if you were gonna if that you know

if you were researching it to make it or if you're

researching it to buy it So that I don't know

I don't have the I Don't think I've ever had

the guts to Wear anything Star Trek related ever

like I like Star Trek but i feel like that's

the one fandom if you will like that's the one

like outwardly like like i will talk star trek

i will i will go to the movies i will watch the

movies i will watch the shows but that is one

thing that that is one part of like geek fandom

that i will not like advertise If that makes

any sense, yeah Like and I I don't I don't know

what it is like, you know I I would have no problem

putting like the rebel symbol or the Jedi symbol

on my car or I have no problem putting like an

Apple logo on my car I think I think there's

a difference in it though like because I used

to put transformers like Autobot or decepticon

symbols on my vehicles Mm -hmm before I didn't

have one that I had to share Which now they're

not allowed on the vehicles anyway Apologies

to anyone they can hear my cat. That's all right.

My kid did that earlier. He's very chatty right

now. I hear Hello kitty Hello, that's what it

sounded like um, so yeah, I I used to have a

Like original series Captain Kirk costume as

a kid and then I had the next -generation Picard

uniform as a kid and then I had the Basically

the homemade Star Trek generations Kirk in the

vest Okay uniform which Was my mom helped me

make it. I don't even know what we used but it's

I Did the best I could for what I had? I still

have the the flip communicator from when I was

a kid, and I have the Next Generation and the

Voyager com badges to this day. But with another

one coming on the way from the motion picture,

I still need to get the one from the the original

series films from like two through seven. But

so I mean, like I'm still like kind of debating

the whole process of it, like, because and luckily

I'm a part of Starfleet International, so. There's

people there that they all build ad nauseam these

things. My thing is, is if I'm going to do it,

I don't want it to look like crap. And because

it's almost worse if you buy one and it looks

like crap compared to if you have a good one.

See, that's where I get hung up on just about

like anything. So like, you know, we talk about

kit bashing or, you know, Making these changes

to things but like I feel like that's something

that I run into And and and you and it sounds

like you do as well like trying to create Something,

you know, it's like if you're gonna do it you

want to do it, right? Right and then and then

you get so stuck up in your head That it almost

paralyzes you to the point where you just don't

pull the trigger on it, you know, cuz it's like

you can't Either you can't make the stars align

or you can't nail down Your vision or something

like that. So it's like I don't you know, because

I can't get everything in a row I don't want

to I don't want to do this because I don't want

it to evolve over time I want to be what it is

out the door Yep, and that's that's my my dilemma

is because I've been looking at nauseam at eBay

and my I play Star Trek online. So It lets you

customize. You can choose the different uniforms,

the color palettes, everything. There's this

one uniform that they sell, but the colors are

totally wrong compared to what I want. They only

sell it for the science division. They don't

sell it for the command tactical division. They

sell it for science, not engineering. It kind

of drives me nuts on that. The one I want is

kind of a mixture of multiple costumes which

they created for the game But it's it's basically

like two of the uniforms like just mixing parts

of them and so like that's the kind of dilemma

I'm running into and because I can't get the

color palette I want and because Either the material

looks cheap or or whatnot. It's it's prevented

me from pulling the trigger all these years Yeah

So I have some people in Starfleet International

helping me research because I know nothing and

I told them as much I'm like look I'm just trying

to find out like if what the cost effectiveness

of buying or paying somebody to do it like it's

you know Compared to me making it or figuring

it out So because I think I could make one of

them Fairly Easily and cheaply but like the other

ones like there's no way I'd have to have a pro

do it But I mean that's that's kind of the thing

with anything that you're doing is like if you

kind of have to weigh the option if is it worth?

Putting time and energy into doing something

if you know you're not gonna hit that that aesthetic

and that look that you want or You know, do you

have that OCD for perfectionism or is you know,

it's just okay if it looks similar Yeah, I Like

I said, I just get paralyzed when it comes to

that stuff. Like I tend to, if I can't get it

the way I want it, I tend to just leave it the

other way and I don't even care for it. I'm trying

to think of something that recently where that

has happened to me, where I've felt like that,

but I can't. Nothing's really coming to mind

at the moment. You know, uh, so yeah I'll close

it out. Yeah, I mean if people have comments

or things that they want to say about this topic

You can use the hashtag altered customs To to

kind of converse on maybe your your thoughts

or what you've personally kind of run into with

You know when you've customized something when

you've wanted to customize something whether

you know, it's it's cost -effective for you or

you know, just It would be interesting to hear

what you you think about the situation like when

you you personally may have done something like

this in the past Or even currently Yeah, so you

can let us know on the Facebook page or at geecastradio

.com You can also obviously use the hashtag on

Twitter to hit up myself at BoothNinja81. Yep,

and you can get a hold of me on the Twitters

at SCP -21. I'm fairly frequent on there. So

until next time, get altergeeky with the Altergeeks.