Les Ferdinand, Bolton

Here's a figure I just decided to do as I had a spare Ferdinand in my box of figures.

This, along with a recent few Bolton orders showing me that there was a bit of demand, was enough to make this happen.

I think it ended up going on ebay!

Lisbon Lions, Scotland, part 2!

Of the alternative Lisbon Lions Celtic set that I did for a big Celtic fan, I think I am right in saying these are the only ones I haven't posted yet.

Here's John Clark in a Scotland away kit, and manager Jock Stein, in his sky blue Scotland blazer!

Leeds United 92-93 Tonkas

The next set of Leeds United Tonka figures!

Here are all the 92-93 season kits. Pretty memorable to Leeds fans, and fairly popular despite of their grossness!!

We didn't win an away game all season in the league, so choosing who to put on the back of the shirts based on good performances was tough!!

Dorigo was pretty steady, so I chose him for the home shirt. I have vague memories of Speed scoring in the blue kit, and sub Carl Shutt grabbed the winner vs Stuttgart, in the Nou Camp,  in the European Cup (long story!)  in the yellow kit, so he seemed the best choice... especially considering our only other win in the yellow kit was a cup tie against lower league opposition!

More Tonkas to come!

Charlton Villa, Part 4 (Newcastle kits)

Here's the latest installment of the Charlton Villa set of figures I did for a returning customer.

Charlton Villa were his Park team, meaning they wore  few different kits over the years! The players are all 'lookalike' figures of his teammates! 

(Click to enlarge)

If you'd like a 'lookalike' of yourself, or a friend, get in touch via my facebook page or on twitter.

Sheffield United 06/07 Premier League campaign

I've recently got myself a new regular customer!

No Sheffield United players were produced by Corinthian, and none by Soccerstarz as yet, so we've got a few to be going on with!

Here are some in the kit of there mid 2000s Premier League season under Warnock:

Inamoto, 2002 World Cup

Well, it's been a long time since I've been here!

Hopefully I'll get a few posts up during the Christmas break!

Here's Inamoto, as he looked for Japan in the 2002 World Cup:

Chelsea, 2003 Repaints

Here we have 3 players in a kit from the early days of the Abramovich era! (in shirt number order, of course!)

Desailly, Bridge, and the billion pound goalscorer Gronkjaer!

In case anyone is wondering, these figures have been remodelled (well, "head-swapped") but not by me!!

Gudjohnsen, Bolton

So, my blog posts may be a bit shorter recently, and infrequent... sorry about that!

Since I started teaching again, I just don't have the same amount of time to dedicate to my figures!

I figured (ha!) that it's better to get the pics up with less detailed posts and links than to not get them up at all.

With that in mind, here's Gudjohnsen, in his first Bolton spell.

Nainggolan and Dzeko , 'Blood' kit

... I don't know if 'blood kit' is how this was marketed in Italy, it's just how the guy who bought these described it in our messages!

Anyway... here're Nainggolan and Dzeko in... it.

Sheringham away set!

Spurs 1991-94 yellow away kit was pretty memorable. It certainly is for me now, as I have painted it onto several different figures, not least 3 different varieties of Sheringham figure!

You can find the first here (along with Razor Ruddock)

Here are the next 2:

The first of these was my first ever Corinthian XL repaint, while if you follow my blog or Facebook page, you'll see I've had plenty of practice with the Vivid Imaginations figures!

I enjoy painting the larger figures! While the area takes a bit longer to cover, some aspects of the detail work are actually easier to do, because of the size! 

Sheffield United Soccerstarz

Here are my first Sheffield United Soccerstarz repaints:

They both now belong to a customer who originally just asked for a Brian Deane figure. I looked through my spare figures to see if I had any other players I thought he might be interested in, and these were the first 2!

Funnily enough, I only had them both due to their brief spells at Swansea, and the fact that I had bought myself a Swansea box set, just to get Garry Monk... seems hardly worth the effort now!

While I think the repaints ended up well (striped shirts can be tricky on Soccerstarz) the customer's comments are the most memorable thing about this deal, particularly his thoughts on Britton. He described the figure as 'a novelty', as 'bringing back painful memories' and also used the phrase 'pinched a living'!

I do genuinely enjoy the conversations these figures inspire with my buyers!!

As it turns out, he's become pretty hooked on collecting Blades figures, so more to come!

Waterreus, Man City

Quite a rare figure, this one.

My Man City regular said it was pretty difficult to get hold of. Still, well worth it for his 2 League cup appearances for them!!

Straightforward repaint, but note the boots!

Speed, Leeds Vivid Imaginations Figures

I already posted some pics of early '90s Leeds figures... well there are plenty more where they came from!

Here are 2 I was asked to do as Gary Speed.

(Click to enlarge)

This first one was a bit different. This is the tracksuit top Leeds had for the 1991-92 season, and also what they were wearing when presented with the trophy at the end of the season. 

I was very pleased with how it came out, in terms of both the detail, and the fact that I had to do a minor remodel, as the original figure was short sleeved.

 I've got to say, I was even more delighted with this one! A shirt that I think of as "One of the nicest ugly shirts we've ever had"!

Obviously there was plenty of intricate details to add, and I think this makes it one of the best I've done!

The guy who bought it was very pleased too! A fitting tribute to a shirt that we won 2 games in!!

Shay Given, Celtic

A bit of evidence that my regular Celtic customer is becoming as obsessed as I am (with my Leeds collection, at least!)

Here is Shay Given, who never made a first team appearance at Celtic!

I enjoyed this kit: a decent challenge! And I was happy with how it ended up.

Shay's lack of first team appearances at Celtic are the reason for the 13 shirt, and no name on it!

Given himself liked this repaint enough to like a picture of it on Twitter!

Di Canio, Celtic

So... it's been over a month since I last posted... I'm a teacher again!

Without further ado, here's a repaint that I think looks great!

I felt the lines were crisp and neat, and the sponsor and logo just look bang on! 

I also did the trademark white boots!

This is the second Celtic Di Canio I've done. The first, in an away kit can be found here.

Another point of interest, I also made a youtube video about painting this one, sort of tutorialish, at the request of the buyer who fancied a go at painting a figure himself afterwards. 

Click here if you've got too much time on your hands!

Adriano, Roma

(click to enlarge)

Here's Adriano, in an away kit from his spell at AS Roma.

A while back, I remodelled a Kevin Pressman figure to add some extra... erm... timber around the stomach area. Having looked at some pictures of Adriano in his Roma days, maybe I should have done that with this one too!

It was good to do a different Roma kit tho- I've mainly done home ones, so this added a bit of variety!

Leeds United Early 90s Vivid Imaginations Figures (part one!)

This has been a pretty big project!

As well as getting figures of loads of his mates in their Sunday League hey day(!) one of my regulars wanted Leeds' famous 1-11 from the title season in various kits from that era!

Here are a the first few! Being as many successful teams are built from the back, here's the goalie and 2 centre halves!

Choosing to start with these three figures also gave me the chance to show 3 different kits!

Interestingly, he chose the goalie kit from the following season (the first ever Premier League campaign) for John Lukic, which I didn't mind, as it was a nice challenge to paint.

The other 2, Chris Fairclough and Chris Whyte, were both in kits from the title winning campaign of 1992. They were chosen on the suitability of the collars on the figures!

Al three of these had to be 'lookalike' figures- in fact the only Leeds players of this era produced in this style of figure were Batty and Cantona.

I had to change the hair colour for Lukic, and add a moustache, and hairless patches for Whyte!

Rooney, Groggs figure

In a week where Wayne Rooney has been making headlines again, I thought I'd post a Rooney repaint to the blog!

And here it is!

(Click to enlarge)

As I mentioned in my previous post about painting a Groggs Figure, one of the main things on my mind is the fact that I'd better do a good job because of how much the figure costs!!

This was quite a straightforward one though, to be honest; even the shape of the sculpt of the collar suited the paint job.

One of the other issues with these figures is getting the transfers on straight, and neatly because the figure is shaped very differently to most of the figures I do. It has more contours that are much deeper. These ones went on OK tho... it just makes the number look wonky on the photo!

Heskey, Bolton

Considering the... status(?) that Heskey has among football fans, and the number of clubs he's played for, it's somewhat surprising that I've never done a repaint of him until now!

Here he is in Bolton colours:

(Click to enlarge)

This was part of a little spate of Bolton figures that I did, including the Lofthouse that I blogged a few days ago, and some others you'll see soon, if you keep your eyes on the blog!

I love the trim round the collar and cuffs. Definitely something I wouldn't have even attempted in the past!

A pleasing repaint overall!

A couple of Man City Tonkas!

The majority of the Tonka repaints so far have been Leeds ones, but here are acouple of Man City requests I've had recently:

(Click to enlarge)

I enjoyed doing both of these, but in particular the goalie kit!

I was very pleased with the 'patchy' patterns, and the guy who bought it also highlighted these!

Also, as I'm sure any regular reader will know by now, I was pleased to have the exact font that City wore at the time for the shirt numbers!

Ruddock and Sheringham, Spurs away

Back to posting a couple of figures together, due to them being in the same kit!

Here, in a Spurs away kit, are Ruddock and Sheringham:

Nice little kit to repaint, this one. It's design is just so early 90s!

Keep an eye on the blog and the facebook page for other figures in this kit!

Jim Rollo, Vivid Imaginations figure

For a player who's spent the majority of his career in non-league, Jim Rollo has a higher than expected number of repaints!

Having done home and away Prostar versions of him, here is the latest:

While these figures do take a lot more work to finish, they do allow for a lot of detail to be added with a bit more ease.

I particularly liked the second sponsor on the back, and the Errea captain's band!

More Vivid Imaginations figures coming soon!

Barton, Wimbledon

In those rare times when I don't have many orders on, I have a look in my box of spare figures, and do a repaint that just takes my interest... or that I think will sell on ebay!

Here's one of those:

You often end up with a few Warren Barton figures from the original England '96 range when you buy a joblot of figures! 

And while Wimbledon aren't a massive club, I felt that this might be of enough interest to entice someone!

It's currently on ebay with a few others. Click here to view... and have a cheeky bid!

Warhurst, Man City

To try and get on top of my massive selection of repaint photos, I've been lumping similar kits together in these blog posts recently... but I've never done another figure quite like this!

(click to enlarge)

I was really pleased with this one! The lines to make up the criss cross pattern were thin and consistent. I knew this kit would be a challenge, but I think I rose to it!

The Man City fan who this was for didn't know what number Warhurst wore in City's reserves in the 80s... so we went with 8!

Leeds Tonkas, 89-91

To continue in chronological order with these Leeds Tonka figures, here are the next 2 home kits, both sponsored by Top Man:

 Two popular kits from part of a great spell at Elland Road! The first was worn in the promotion season, as Leeds were crowned champions of the old Division 2 in 1989-90.

The next was worn as Leeds announced their arrival back in the top flight with a creditable 4th place finish.

In a time before squad numbers, 5 was usually worn by Chris Fairclough in both of these seasons, and by 1990, 11 nearly always worn by the ever popular Gary Speed.

More Tonkas to come... including a few non-Leeds!

Goater, Wanchope, Weah, City

Thought I'd lump these 3 together, as they're all in exactly the same kit... and I haven't posted in a while!

I've gone against my usual inclination of putting them in shirt number order here! I've gone for surname alphabetical order!

In recent weeks, as I've added really fine details, I've found myself thinking; "I probably wouldn't have done that a year ago!"

On these figures that crossed my mind with the 2 white stripes on the front bit of the collar, and the thin blue stripes on each side of the white shoulder strip.

I'm happy to feel that even now, my work is progressing, and I'm adding things I wouldn't have attempted before!

Lofthouse, Bolton

I absolutely love 1950s/60s figure repaints!

I've done a Stanley Matthews Blackpool figure, a Tom Finney Preston one, and here's a player held in similar regard at his own Lancashire club:

Nat Lofthouse, in Bolton's 1958 FA Cup Final kit.

There's something about the simplicity of kits from this era that I love! 

I was happy with the clean lines on the collar and cuffs. The badge and accurate number font mean that, in spite of the lack of modern names sponsors etc, this figure is very distinctive.

Love it!

Spurs, League Cup Final '99

Spurs first trophy after the 1991 FA Cup was the League Cup in 1999, where they beat Leicester by a goal to nil.

One of my regulars is trying to put the team from that day together, as many of the players are available as Prostars, but not in the right kit.

I've already done him a Ginola and an Ian Walker (and possibly a Nielsen!) but here are the ones in the latest batch:

I decided to do them all in one picture because, to be honest, I am completely losing track of which Spurs pictures I have posted on this blog, and which on my facebook... and which I haven't posted at all! 

This way also saves effort on the uploading!

I was happy with these repaints! I feel the fine white lines around the collars and cuffs are particularly neat and crisp- the neatness of these kind of lines is an area where I really feel I've improved! 

Keep an eye out for a Bolton Heskey for further evidence!

I'm not sure if these figures mean I'm done for the League Cup final team- I know no Vega figure was produced, so it would have to be a lookalike if my customer wants one of him!

Terry, last Chelsea game

Normally, I don't do repaints of players in the kits of teams they were released in unless requested, simply because I don't imagine there to be as much demand.

I made an exception for this one tho:

John Terry, in the kit worn in his last ever game for Chelsea, complete with correct colour boots, captain's band and, of course, the number 26.

I thought this one was sure fire for an ebay sale, but it didn't go the first time I listed it.

Maybe I should have saved it, and put it in a Villa kit!

If you're interested in this figure give me a facebook message or tweet at the links above... or just comment below.

(Note: Guard of honour not included!)

Leeds Burton Kit Tonkas

I am all over this series of Tonka figures at the moment! (Even though they aren't for me!)

Here are the ones from the days of having Burton as a shirt sponsor:

Love these!

...

But love the upcoming 1990s ones even more! More memories for me personally- the start of my own Leeds United Odyssey! (Oddity?!)