Wednesday, February 12, 2014

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: HYPERDRIVE

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By: Darth Daddy


When it comes to customizing, Hyperdrive's signature "weathered and worn" soft goods are unique. He has been honing his craft for many years without a studio; just his wife's sewing room and his kitchen island. He told me it takes about a week to create each figure and the work entails great care and attention to detail. Each piece is sanded down to remove any features that may reveal a bump or bulge from under the custom clothes. The clothes are then custom crafted to the size and shape of each figure for the best possible fit. Hyperdrive strives for maximum articulation underneath the soft goods cloth giving his figures a realistic look. Some of his favorite characters include: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui Gon Jinn, Vader, Yoda, General Veers, Watto, Maul, Greedo, Jawas and Gamorreans.

Hyperdrive's soft goods work is just amazing! Once we saw his figures we knew we had to include his work amongst the other artists I have featured in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner. Hyperdrive is the guy that should be hired by Hasbro to handle all the soft good clothing design on future figures going forward! 














Hyperdrive is also one of the few Star Wars custom action figure artists that I have had the privilege of collaborating with on a project. When I was creating my Clone Wars General Pong Krell action figure, I came to a point where I  started to think about how I was going to do his clothing.  I really wanted to do soft goods, but I didn't feel like I had the skills to pull it off.

Immediately the amazing custom soft good creations of Star Wars customizer Hyperdrive popped into my head and I thought to himself, "I wish I could do soft good's like Hyperdrive."

My immediate second thought was, "I wonder if I could get Hyperdrive to do the soft goods?"

Followed by, "How should I go about asking him?"

The General Pong Krell action figure collaboration was willed by The Force.  No lie.  True Story.

In "less than a minute after I had that thought of asking Hyperdrive to make the soft goods from my Krell", I got an email from him asking me if he could update the video of his work on our "Customs I Wish I Owned" page. I immediately obliged and while I had Hyperdrive's ear, I asked if he would collaborate with me on Krell. The rest is history.

When I was finished with all the sculpt and paintwork, Krell was shipped off to Hyperdrive who not only created the beautiful looking soft goods tunic that Krell is now sporting, but Hyperdrive also made one awesome diorama stand for Krell when he's on display.

Hyperdrive created Krell's soft goods tunic, tabbards, and wraps with fabric that was hand dyed and then weathered. He also created the leather removable belt held on with a metal clasp located at the back and then inlaid magnets that were set inside for saber hilt connections.  He then fabricated a custom swamp display base with water effects.  And after all that was done, he fixed his busted sewing machine. 



"JEDI GENERAL PONG KRELL"
created by Darth Daddy

(KRELL's TUNIC and DIORAMA STAND created by HYPERDRIVE)




"Hello all. I just had the privilege of contributing to one of the coolest, most beautifully sculpted figures that I have ever worked upon. Darth Daddy's sculpt work on his General Pong Krell figure is top shelf, TOP SHELF! Having seen it in person, I can attest to his craftsmanship and skill. While the entire piece is nicely sculpted, I was blown away by the head sculpt and his feet. Also his paintwork was awesome. Pong Krell is en route back to Darth Daddy as we speak. Looking forward to sharing the finished product with you all.  It was awesome to lend a hand with this figure. It's way more rewarding to collaborate with others, I highly recommend it. When the figure arrived at my door, I wanted to live up to DD's craftsmanship. We emailed constantly once it was on my bench, and after several alterations, arrived at this finished product."  - Hyperdrive




To see more Star Wars custom action figures created by Hyperdrive, click the link below:



1 comments:

Greg said...

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