Custom Figures – The World of Kevin Smith

If you saw one of my earlier posts, you might have noticed a plush homage to the world of Kevin Smith. But before those plushes of Jay and Silent Bob came the vinyl and plastic versions.

I go through obsessions every 5-10 years. In 1999 a movie called Dogma came out. This was the first of Kevin Smith’s movies that I saw, so a lot of the “Askewniverse” references went past me. I hadn’t seen Good Will Hunting, either, so this was the first I’d seen of Ben Affleck or Matt Damon. I thought they were fantastic in Dogma, excessive swearing and all. REALLY. Excessive swearing. Then Jason Mewes‘ character showed up…

ANYWAY.

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Ladies and Gentlemen…

Here is, first, a customized figure of Silent Bob, aka Mr. Kevin Smith, in his Dogma outfit.

 

Bob started as, of all things, Sideshow Toys’ “Sargeant Schultz” figure from their Hogan’s Heroes line.  I was never a fan of the show, but after looking closely at Schultz’ face, realized that it looked just like an older version of Silent Bob.  There was still work to be done, though.  For one, Schultz’ head is longer than Smith’s, therefore, much sanding (using a Dremel tool) was necessary to flatten the head as much as possible.  Magic Sculpt was used to complete the beard and moustache, and to fill in Schultz’ wrinkles.

 

Sideshow Toys was kind enough to create a “fat suit” for the Shulz doll, eliminating the need to make one of my own.  This still meant I had to make all the clothes from scratch.  The shoes began as boots, cut down to sneaker height, painted, and finished with some white thread tied into a bow and glued on top.  The pants, sweatshirt and coat were also handmade.

The cap was more complicated to sew, but fortunately I’d already had some practice making the cap for the Plush Silent Bob.  The scale was a bit smaller this time, meaning that painting the Mooby cow and logo on each side would be more challenging.  I think I did a respectable job of it, though.

I took the pics before finishing Bob’s ubiquitous cigarette.  That was made from the smallest dowel I could find, cut to size, then just painted with white, butterscotch and gray paint.

Where is Mini Bob? In the clutches of Mr. Smith himself. I had the good fortune of being able to attend a Stash Bash in Jay Mewes’ honor, and was able to present it to him in person as a gift.

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JAY

Never a last name. Just “Jay.” And this was made long after I finished Silent Bob. The original doll face – I don’t recall who “donated – needed quite a bit more sculpting than Bob above. I thought I did… okay. Nothing to sell for thousands on Ebay or nothin’.

It was Smith’s own website that aided me immensely in creating Jay. Or rather, Smith’s online store, where one can purchase replicas of the Smith-created “Berzerker” tour shirt, or a replica of Jay’s Drug Dealer Union card. And to sell them, they have these things called thumbnails that I saved off, then printed out for Jay’s use.

His outfit was quite complicated. This is the one from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. If you look closely, he’s wearing three layers of clothing: the Berzerker shirt, a Quick Stop employee jacket, and the yellow coat. Also, he’s wearing, not normal pants like normal humans, but some weird kind of workout pants with a white stripe halfway down, followed by a split with some red showing. Sunovabitch! The research almost killed me. So did the sewing.

Does it currently reside in Stately Mewes Manor? Alas, not yet. I finished Jay long after meeting… Jay.

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BARTLEBY

I liked Ben Affleck as soon as I saw him in Dogma, and long before it was… Oh, I guess it’s not cool to like him. Well, it should be.

I like to challenge myself in my art, and Bartleby was about as challenging as I could get at the time. The Bartleby at the end of Dogma, in full battle armor and feathery wings. That one. See what you think.

I didn’t sculpt the face at all, but used a figure that, I think, was of a character from the CGI Final Fantasy movie. There was a character that looked an awful lot like Ben Affleck. Thus, so did his doll. I may have tweaked the hair a bit, but that was it for any head sculpts.

The rest of the figure, however…

How did I do the wings and armor? First, my hope was to make the wings poseable, starting from the connection point at the shoulder blades. I found some very small universal joints for that. For the rest of the wings, I tried to create some hinge points for them to fold and retract. What prevented any of that, and forced to make immobile wings, was that the amount of feathers needed – glued one by one to a framework of wire and stretched gauze – kept making the wings stiffer and stiffer. Eventually I accepted that there would be no mobility, so I shifted my focus to form over function.

The armor was… if I recall correctly, pieces of thin, clear plastic – like any of the plastic you see as packaging for products – were cut to make the concentric shapes for the shoulder armor. As for the torso, that was Magic Sculp again. Instead of painting it silver, I used an extremely thin chrome that was made just for modelers. The material is kind of like Saran Wrap in how it sticks to and conform to different surfaces. And looks shiny!

I showed it to Kevin Smith at the same Stash Bash mentioned above, but didn’t give it to him. Someday, if I ever meet Ben Affleck, I’ll see what I can do.

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GOD

I didn’t save the best for last. What I did was save an example of how things don’t always work out as I’d like.

Alanis Morrisette played a personification of God in Dogma. If you haven’t seen it, then I don’t know what to tell ya, man. You should, even though this whole article is a bit spoilerish.

Brace yourself.

What did I like about my work? In this case I would say the costume. I got wicked lucky with the silver material. I have never seen its equal since in any other fabric store. It was the exact shade and shininess that I needed, and best of all, was stretchy. That meant I could make the pieces as tight as they needed to be, and still be able to move the joints.

The skirt was my first adventure with a typical material for bridal gowns: tulle. That stuff is not easy to work with, never mind sewing. I think I resorted to just gluing it in place. As for the orange, foam sandals: well, in the movie, “God” wore cheap, orange flip-flops. According to Smith, they cost maybe a few bucks. The dress, though, went into the thousands.

The face is an example of the sum of the parts not equaling the whole. I can tell you that every individual feature – eyes, mouth, nose, chin, cheeks, ears, hair – all matched the reference photos that I used to recreate Alanis’ face. If you don’t believe me, that’s understandable. I know: I missed the boat on combining the features properly to make Our Lady Alanis look good. Smith saw the doll and was sympathetic to my plight, but agreed that the dress and skirt looked good.

Snooch to the nootch, amigos!