.: Toy Geek's Blues: Why are so many of the best 1/6 customizers Japanese?

These are rants dedicated to things about collecting toys that bother, annoy, irritate, and frustrate me. I did promise you some ranting, didn't I?

My latest rant is about Japanese customizers, and why they seem to be the majority of the best damned custom figure people in the friggin' world.

Before I get started, let me clear the air. I do not think that all Japanese people possess a magical ability to be really, really good at making things in miniature. Likewise, I do not think that people of other nations are inherently inferior to the Japanese in this respect. An online acquaintance of mine has sculpted a ball-jointed doll body that looks like a grown woman instead of a damned early-blooming 11-year-old girl, and I don't know if anyone in Japan has even considered that, much less pulled it off. So, no racism either way.

Likewise, just because hobbies like this tend to attract lonely, anti-social nerds (and misanthropic, anti-social freaks like me), it doesn't mean that these uber-customizers are all lonely, desperate, horny, single Japanese men who can't get laid enough. The only two men I can think of that can get "laid enough" are Hugh Hefner and Prince. Those two can get enough action to where they say "OK, I think I need to do something else besides banging busty young golddiggers." But I digress.

I will likely say I hate these custom geniuses, too. In this instance, at least, "hate" should be read like a catty high school girl. In other words, envy. It's more of a recognition of my lack of experience, devotion to my craft, time to devote to my craft, single-mindedness to get that much better, etc. It is a reflection of my lack of prowess more than an anger at theirs. So if I say "I hate these bastards" it means "I envy these guys and their ability to get everything just so and not have their stitches meander like an AA member falling off the wagon."

This guy is the latest in a long line of amazingly good Japanese customizers. A member of one of my usual haunts posted a link to this person's latest work, and I am just blown away to the point of wondering why I even bother. Just look at this, damn it! Other than the texture on the leggings (which are there to help hide the articulation gaps), this looks like it could easily be a picture of a real fetish model's delectable ass. That is how fucking awesome this is.

Assuming I learned Japanese, put up a snazzier website instead of relying on someone else's work, and plugged the living hell out of my projects, who the hell is going to care? One of these customgods (if you're reading this Louie, sorry- had to say it) could just decide to study my photos, recreate my design minus the flaws that still remain, and bang out a superior version in half the time it takes me. Then everyone oohs and aahs over it and my work goes unnoticed. This is despite the fact that I know at least one person who cited me as an influence on their work when they started, and suspect at least 2 or 3 more who would probably say the same.

This of course leads to another problem- I am starting to wonder if I am trying to be a big fish in a small pond with this hobby. I enjoy it enough, but at the same time I am not as single-minded about it so I don't dedicate as much time to it and end up with inferior skills. I picked an odd niche (do not pronounce that "nitch" unless you want me to smack you with a ruler, Catholic-school-style) because I was interested in it, because I thought there might be demand for it, and because I also knew deep down it would be relatively easy to look impressive with it. Those who used to make the better-made, but less interesting swimwear designs are all but gone now.

When I first started making swimwear for female action figures, there were a few people making stuff for sale, but most of them were very utilitarian. In other words, they fit well and got the job done, but they were not flattering (if not ugly). Half the point of Cool Girls is sex appeal, so I felt they needed swimwear to reflect that as much as their combat gear does. An early bikini I added as part of a trade ended up being a small part of a big Brazilian Joe show:

A closeup, before I sent it to Brazil.

How cool is that? A simple little extra thrown in with a trade leads to being part of a big diorama in an international convention.

Fast forward a few years, and thanks in part to my own shifting interests (not even counting all of the personal bullshit I have had to work through that is completely unrelated to this hobby), and suddenly there are several people that do this as well or better than I do, not even counting the insane Japanese customizers. One of these newer guys is a teenager. A 16-year-old kid and he's already making stuff more complex than mine.

I didn't want to talk about this elsewhere; this is my site, my rules, and my place to bitch about shit that is, in the end, all just ways of lashing out for my own lack of talent and/or devotion to the craft. That has been a problem of mine for a long, long time- I am a would-be renaissance man who wants to be at least pretty decent at a lot of things.

There are several things I do decently- sing, on-air talent, ballroom dance (screw you, macho asshole, the chicks dig it), write (okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch), fix computer crap, make chili, play video games. The problem is, with the possible exception of the computer crap (because my livelihood depends on it), I'm not really, truly good at much of it. My singing has deteriorated in recent years, I haven't been on the air in almost 3, we stopped going to dance lessons about 4 months ago, I still have to go back to someone else's recipe to remember the rough measurements for my own recipe (which is still a work in progress), and I am no good at the popular video games that all of the mouth-breathers play. Some renaissance man, eh? Most real renaissance men can parlay one of their skill sets (that they like, and don't just not hate) into a living. Not me.

So yeah, there are only two ways I will get better:
1) Get better equipment than a $99 sewing machine
2) Learn more about sewing, practice tons, give up other hobbies to do so. I've already done this to some degree.

I can do the former, not sure if I want to do the latter, so I might be stuck.

But why is it that very few non-Japanese customizers can hold a candle to these cats? I think my girlfriend is one of the few- she sews well and actually knows how fashion works (even if she thinks a lot of it is stupid). CustomDawg over at Triad is another, as is Doc T, whose Reaver sculpt was so good even one of the Japanese forums oohed and ahhed over it. By the way, Rob- work out a licensing deal and cast those things for sale already! I only wish I had people demanding I make more stuff so they can buy it from me. Several other people on my usual haunt, Men With Dolls, come to mind, but specifics are a blur right now.

I am not one of those people anywhere near these uber-customizers. My facepaints are from the Monet school (i.e. they look good enough at arm's length but fall apart if you get too close), my sewing ability is, at best, competent, and my pattern design seems to be as much trial and error as it is any sort of spatial relationship skills.

I guess the gist of this is "I'm designing original patterns from scratch for stuff that no one else is doing, I'm making it, it looks pretty good, and yet only a handful of you care. GIVE MY WORK RESPECT, YOU PHILISTINES!" This is nothing new. I will likely never be as good as these folks over the other pond, but I'd be happy with getting more views and feedback than the latest "I bought this, here's some crappy pictures of it since I don't even know how to use my camera" post. Is it too much to ask that more people look at something I made from scratch than a couple of pictures of something some company made, that was purchased by the poster?

Perhaps I should start a new forum for custom work. No kitbashes, no "I bought this" threads, no mentioning products except to discuss their potential custom capabilities. Sewing, painting, photostories, sculpting, forging, and any other activity related to 1/6 that requires more ability than changing the clothes on a figure will be welcomed. Kitbashes trying to pass as custom will be savaged. Kitbashes used to highlight a custom item are perfectly OK. I want some damned work done on the stuff people post.

Then again, the board might be composed of about 10 people after all is said and done.