Ray Rice Custom McFarlane
July 30th, 2007My absolute favorite part of SportsLizard is our Custom McFarlane section. I started the section in late 2004 as I myself was becoming addicted to the idea that I could make my own collectibles (particularly since I loved collecting SLUs and McFarlane’s). I had heard of SLU customizing as a kid, tried it a few times, and then never thought of it again. But one day I thought “I wonder if people do that with McFarlane’s” and sure enough I Googled it and they did.
I spend quite a bit of my time each day answering eager questions of new customizers, and I absolutely love it. I’m proud that SportsLizard has helped thousands of people learn about customizing (we rank #1 when you Google “custom mcfarlane“). But in the last year I’ve been devoting so much time to the web side of things that I haven’t had the chance to make a custom myself. So I recently decided to pick up my paint brush and attempt a Ray Rice custom.
I chose Ray for several reasons. Primarily because I absolutely fell in love with the Rutgers story last year - that Thursday night game against Louisville where they lit the Empire State building in red is one of my favorite sports memories ever and it gives me chills every time I think about it. I also wanted to make a Rice figure because Ray is one hell of a running back and probably deserves more attention for the Heisman this year. He rushed for a whopping 1,794 yards and 20 touchdowns as a Sophomore last year and Rutgers has begun their own campaign at SeeRayRun.com.
Here’s the look I was trying to replicate:
I chose to start with an Ahman Green NFL 8 figure:
Here’s the figure disassembled:
And primed:
Before decals:
After decals:
Painted, before assembly:
A few shots of the completed figure:
Overall I give myself a B/B-. I forgot how damn hard this hobby can be! I obviously know what to do, but my painting skills weren’t where they were a year and a half ago. It took me about 30 hours to complete, which is longer than it should have. On top of that, I used some old supplies (notably paint, glue and clear coats) that were at least two years old, and I could tell the consistency wasn’t correct…I should have replenished my supplies before starting.
I also learned how much I hate photoing stuff (next time I’m going to have a friend who is a photographer take care of that). And I forgot WHY it’s best to do white or black jerseys - it’s hard to match decal colors to paint colors, and it shows that my red doesn’t exactly match the red on the decals.
But most importantly I rediscovered how much freaking fun customizing can be, and I can’t wait to tackle my next project. I really WANT to do a Fab Five custom of all of the Michigan bball players standing together in a huddle, but that’s a large one so it might wait until next year 
July 30th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Nice. I so badly want to do a customized figure of of Seau or a McNeill blocking in front of Tomlinson. Again another great article.
Andrew
http://cardboardnews.com
July 30th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Andrew - you should give it a shot, it really is an extremely fun and addicting hobby to get into.
July 31st, 2007 at 12:47 am
I have got to get my wife to do one. She can paint just about anything. I saw a Major Applewhite for sale a few years ago and almost bought it. Maybe she can make that one for me. Or maybe paint myself in my old High School uniform.
I see you have had several people send you picks of their customs Maybe it would be fun to do a tournament style contest of the figures people have done and crown a champion. Just a thought.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:55 am
Joey, that’s actually a great idea I never thought of (the tournament that is). I do want to re-vamp the customizers site in the next six months with some new features, so that would be a great way to kick it off!
August 24th, 2007 at 12:29 am
It’d be a popularity contest. Then beyond that.. some people have better cams, printers, Photoshop CS, etc. etc. There’s no FAIR way to do it IMO.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Like all contests, it would definitely be a popularity contest….and someone like JOMO would probably win. But I think that better printers and Photoshop skills and cameras are part of making a great custom, so I’d welcome those discrepancies. Let’s be honest - to do a GREAT custom, you need quite a bit of $$$ and quite a bit of skill (computer and painting).
We’ll see…we may or may not do it, but it would definitely be fun if we did
August 24th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I disagree with needing alot of $$ to make top customs. Imagination is what is needed in my opinion. Making a single-bar facemask out of a paper clip, using the Mcfarlane packaging to make a visor, using masking tape and super glue to lengthen uniform sleeves…these are examples of things needed to make great customs.
The Rutgers decals are quite good. The figure is pretty good. I paint up to the numbers so that there aren’t any matching concerns.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Jack, I’m not doing to disagree with that…but initial supplies (brushes, paints, gloss, primer, etc) cost ~$100. A good digital camera can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand depending on your definition of “good”, and a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 runs $649. If we held a tourney, I would think the winner would at least have those things….plus probably have spent some money setting up a lab (take a look at pics of Jomos work area on his site) and also setting up a photo box and probably built custom displays for their figures. Doing a custom isn’t super expensive, but the best of the best IMO have spent a lot of money on the hobby.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Oh also - the Ray Rice decals are up if you’d like them http://www.sportslizard.com/customs_decals_4.php. They don’t include the “R” that should be on his pants because this figure had that covered up.
And I should have painted up to the numbers better…one of the many mistakes I made having not done a custom in a while…eh.