Costa Rica Keepers, World Cup 2014

(Click to enlarge)

If you follow my blog regularly, you may remember me featuring several Costa Rica repaints a year or so ago.

Well, buoyed by Los Ticos' superb World Cup, the same customer came back to me with the ambitious project of repainting the entire squad, including coaching staff, and even a couple of injured players who didn't end up going.

I'm gonna post them a few at a time, like I did with the last big batch, and where better to start than with the keepers?!

Above is Keylor Navas, one of the stars of the tournament.

The picture below features all 3 keepers together. Initially I was skeptical of the idea of painting bibs onto the unused subs, but think it ended up looking great, perhaps more so on the outfield players. 

Anyway, here are the 3 keepers together:

Oliver, School Rugby kit!

(Click to enlarge)

This was another Christmas present; Oliver plays rugby for his school team, so when I was approached about doing a figure of him, I was excited to use a Rugby Headliner figure for the first time!

The shirt number is 12, to match his age!

Have a similar figure request for a rugby playing relative? Get in touch!

Woodgate, Leeds

(Click to enlarge)

So... you may remember me declaring a while back that I probably wasn't going to bother with any Fan Favourite figures for my own collection...

Well, here is my first one; Woodgate, who I have also painted in Spurs kit before.

I stand by what I originally said about FF figures- I don't like the movable head aspect; I don't like the cheap feeling bases; I don't like the lack of a ball; and I don't even like the arms behind the back pose!

So why did I get it? Because, barring unreleased figures, I'm now fairly sure that I have all Leeds related Prostar sized figures, and collecting has become an itch I just have to scratch! (As is further illustrated by my growing Soccerstarz collection)

For the record, I decided to go with the Champions League season kit:

Another Milestone!

Yesterday, I noticed that my Facebook page had sneaked up to 298 likes. So I took action!

I shared my page on my own personal timeline, and on the Prostars, Microstars and Soccerstarz page. I was pleased with the results!

(Click to enlarge)

I was hoping that the shares would take me up to about 305 or so, but to be honest, would have been happy just to reach 300!

A massive increase for 1 day!

400 likes next!!

PS this post also shows you my swanky new(ish) cover photo, done by Eighth Avenue Photography. Good eh? 

Gueye, Everton

(Click to enlarge)

The first time I've painted this particular Everton kit, I think.

Quite a straightforward repaint, really, but one that also illustrates that the white name on the base definitely looks better on figures with thicker bases!

Here's Gueye:

Holt, Rochdale

(click to enlarge)

Grant Holt in his Rochdale days. I'm showing that I don't forsake the lower leagues here!

Grant himself had this to say about it:

I wondered if he was ever gonna shut up, tbh!

Klinsmann, Spurs

(Click to enlarge)

I want to start this post by just saying: I never encourage people to buy repaints from me when there was a version of the figure they want made by Corinthian, for my own gain. 

This case was a bit different. The guy who asked me to do it was a bit of an expert on Spurs figures, and he pointed out to me that it would work out cheaper for him to buy a Klinsmann in another kit (Inter, if I remember rightly) and get me to repaint it than it would be for him to get an 'original' figure in Spurs kit.

So I was happy to do it after that!

He chose the kit from Klinsmann's first stint at Spurs:

Haven't managed to get a tweet back from Klinsmann yet! 

Seaman reply

So, if you follow this blog regularly, you'll have seen that my "David Seaman, Leeds" post already contains a response tweeted by the aforementioned David Seaman.

So what's with this post?

Well, while I had his attention, I thought I'd get his opinion on another repaint I'd done, using a figure of him as a lookalike; one that I probably wouldn't get a response on from the player himself...

If you want to see the original Dino Allegro, Hurricanes blog post, you can find it here.

Terry, Chelsea

(Click to enlarge)

This is another figure that was a Christmas present! 

When someone asks for "any Chelsea figure", surely John Terry would be the first player to come to mind!

It was for me, anyway!

I've said before that I don't like Fan Favourite figures as much, although I have now succumbed to getting one for my Leeds collection (pics soon)

Here's Terry in the current Chelsea shirt to compare it to:

You can't see them on my repaint photo, but I did do the Adidas stripes on the sides.

'Doyle', Detroit Redwings

Another hockey figure! 

This one was actually a Christmas present for someone I know who plays Ice hockey.

I was discretely sent pictures of the kit, as well as the details on his pads and stick.

Added a nice bit of variety to the repainting!