Gordon Banks

I know England are playing tomorrow, but the chances are I will forget to post this then!

So here, without further ado, are 2 England Gordon Banks figures.

 I'm gonna be honest and say I don't know a great deal about these. I don't know the brand, and couldn't even say for sure if they were mass produced.

They were a bit different for me, in that when they arrived, they were a sort of bronzey brassy colour all over, so as well as the kit, I had to do the skin, eyes and hair too.

I think they came out pretty well, and so did the guy I did them for.

Gazza, Euro '96

 Hi chums! In case you haven't realised, I'm self isolating, which explains the daily posts, after about 2 months without one!

Anyway, what a treat I have for you today. It's also a treat for me, cos I don't have to think of plausible reasons why figures that aren't really related to Euro 2020 are related to Euro 2020.

Nope, today, I've got a good old 'on this day' figure. 

Because on this day, England played Germany in Euro 96. And Paul Gascoigne looked a little like this:

So many vivid memories of that game; Shearer's early goal, the disallowed German golden goal, Anderton hitting the post, Gazza sliding just short of the ball at the far post. 

And Southgate's penalty. I remember Barry Davies shouting "Oh No!" like it was yesterday.

Euro 96 was the first tournament I watched England play in, and so the first one that I was properly invested in. We even put up a Euro 96 display at school, with my kit poster in the middle!

That was 25 years ago now. Surely we are due a great night against Germany, right?

Euro 2020 ish post...

 Well I haven't been here since April! If you follow my socials, you'll know I've not been taking any new orders due to real life work commitments. I have managed to get a bit of painting in, but absolutely zero blogging!!

As a result of lack of new orders, I don't have any specific Euros related figures, but how about some with tenuous links?!

Ian Wright may have never played in the Euros, but he's at this year's as a pundit! Here he is in Celtic kit!!

Sheva! Here he is in Milan European Cup final winning kit. It'd take a brave man to bet on him winning the Euros as manager of Ukraine!

Another of ITV's punditry team, and another European cup winner! Graeme Souness, in Liverpool kit.

A couple of active players... but not in their England kits! Kane and Walker soccerstarz in Spurs away kits. We need both of them to step up, I'd say. Not seen the best of either in this tournament yet.

And last, but certainly not least, the Yorkshire Pirlo: Kalvin Phillips! You'll notice this custom funko is in the number 7 shirt, and has different hair than Kalvin has now- I made it just after his England debut based on his appearance then.

And that's your lot for today. Hopefully giving you a few more pics than normal makes up for the absence. I'll try to not leave it so long next time... not least as I've got some more figures tenuously linked to the Euros!

British Keepers

Day 3 of blog boost week! Still going with international figures, as it's international week, but today'd specific theme is keepers!

Here are 5 goalies (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) in freshly repainted kits, including gloves!

If I can say this about my own work, I'm a big fan of these! The gloves add so much!

I particularly like the patterns on the Jennings Northern Ireland kit!

I can also reveal to you here, that all of these figures are set to feature in the book Glove Story 2, set to be published next year!

Coleman, England

I thought I hadn't posted a Vivid Imaginations Figure for a while, so here's one that someone asked me to do as a present for a mate.

This is 'Coleman', and the kit requested was England's World Cup Italia '90 strip.

I've done it several times before on Prostar figures, but this was the first time on one this size. That certainly made for the details round the collar and cuffs to be a bit easier!

I've still got more VI repaint photos queued up in my repaints folder, so maybe you'll see some more soon!

If you'd like a similar service, please contact me, via facebook or twitter.

Clemence, FT Champs figure

Here's another FT Champs figure, and the first 'lookalike' one that I've done.

As far as I know, they have only done 'modern' players, so this customer chose a goalkeeper who he felt looked enough like Ray Clemence!

A lot of detail went into this one!

As well as the kit, of course, I had to repaint the ball, the gloves (to 1980s style ones) and Adidas boots. I even did the trademark white tape around the wrists.

I was pleased with this one!

Oh, and I almost forgot; I remodelled the arms into long sleeves, as England 1980s goalkeeper shirts would never have had short sleeves!

Alli, England

Being as it's the Euros...

(click to enlarge)

...here's my Dele Alli repaint!

I had to use a 'lookalike' to make this figure, and, while it's not perfect, I thought it was a reasonable likeness!

Hopefully his performances in the tournament pick up, and then, maybe this will sell on ebay!

A slight difference between this kit, and many of my other repaints is that I included the kit manufacturer, Nike. I don't normally add these, but thought the kit looked pretty plain without them.

Come on England!

England, World Cup 2002

The last 2 England World Cup 2002 repaints:

(click to enlarge)

In my memory at least, Nicky Butt was one of the stand-out performers for England in this World Cup. He probably wouldn't even have been starting were it not for Gerrard's injury, but one of my clear memories of this World Cup is of him bossing the midfield for England; quite an admission for a Leeds fan!

James was very much there as back up... it didn't really come as a surprise when he didn't make it onto the pitch. The kit was quite a simple, but also effective repaint!

I couldn't find a decent image of James in this kit, so here's one of Seaman!

England, World Cup 2002, part 2!

Next 2002 World Cup post, 3 more players!

This latest few England figures, comprising of one Fan Favourite figure, and 2 prostars. Put up in numberical order, naturally!

It's a nice little kit to paint, this; relatively simple, but with enough extra details to keep me interested!

All 3 of these players went to the 2002 World Cup very much as understudies, and it shows in the amount of game time they got between them.

Bridge made it on as sub a few times, but realistically had no chance of ousting Ashley Cole from the starting line-up, while Keown and Southgate offered experienced back up, but were never likely to start ahead of Ferdinand and Sol Campbell.

Here's Bridge in the kit... not sure if this photo was taken at the World Cup or not!

England, Euro 2000: The last bit!

Three more England Euro 2000 figures, including one Microstar goalie!

Corinthian never made a Prostar sized Richard Wright figure, so my customer compromised with this micro to complete his Euro 2000 set!

Not a great tournament for England... or any of these three personally.

Barmby got on as sub in a couple of games, but for the other 2, it was a case of being well down the pecking order; Shearer, Owen and Heskey were all ahead of Fowler, while Wright had the unenviable task of trying to displace David Seaman and Nigel Martyn.

If you've checked out my other Euro 2000 posts, you'll have seen the kit plenty of times, so I've decided to only include a picture of the goalie kit here:

This picture comes from an article entitled: Players who got injured in the warm up!

England, World Cup 2002... part 1!

So, as I have mentioned before, I have a returning customer who is attempting to put together the most comprehensive and accurate collection of England tournament squads I have ever seen!

My repaints have already been used to plug the gaps in the released squads of the Italia '90, Euro '96, France '98 and Euro 2000 squads.

Here are the first couple of England World Cup 2002 repaints:

(Click to enlarge)

In number order of course, we have Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair; two players who, were by no means regulars, but became unlikely regulars in the campaign.

An injury to Gary Neville gave Mills his opportunity, while Sinclair wouldn't have even been in the squad were it not for injuries to both Steven Gerrard, and Danny Murphy. Nonetheless, he made the left midfield spot his own by the end of the tournament. 

This was a favourite England kit of mine when I was younger! Here's a picture to compare the repaints to:

(image from historical kits)

England World Cup 90; the final post!

Well, my OCD isn't entirely happy about it, as it ruins the order of the shirt numbers, and the 3 figures per post pattern, but here are the last 2 World Cup '90 repaints!

(Click to enlarge)

Bryan Robson and Trevor Steven, who could be described as having 'mixed' World Cups for England. Robson got injured early on (allowing David Platt to take on a significant role in central midfield) and Steven didn't start a game... though he did get on the pitch in both the Quarter and Semi finals as a substitute.

Unless the guy who ordered these goes for 'lookalikes' to fill the holes left in the squad by 'unsculpted' figures, I'm done with this kit for now!

England, Euro 2000; the next 3!

Here are another trio of Euro 2000 repaints!

These 3 have nice, neat round necks, as the figures didn't have moulded collars making things awkward!

England, Euro 2000: the next 3!

Without further ado, here are the next 3 in the England Euro 2000 series!

In my opinion, it's pretty surprising that none of these were manufactured in this kit in the first place, especially Scholes!

He scored a hat-trick against Poland in qualifying, and also got the crucial goals in the play-off against Scotland!

My thoughts on the actual painting of this kit were posted on the previous set of Euro 2000 figures, so if you want to know them, click here, rather than making me repeat myself!!

England: Let the Euro 2000 figures commence!

So, you've seen World Cup '98, Euro '96 and Italia '90 repaints on this blog; here come the Euro 2000 ones... in number order, of course!

If these series of England repaints have taught me one thing, it's that Martin Keown went to way more tournaments than I remembered! And that Corinthian didn't expect him to!

This kit was fairly simple to repaint. The thin white stripe on around the collar and cuffs being the most interesting bit!

I also was able to use the spot on shirt number font, which you'll know pleases me if you've followed this blog for a while!

I had it from when I did this Michael Bridges repaint for a Leeds fan, who wanted to commemorate Bridges' u21 caps!

Here's the kit (via historical kits):

England, Italia 90...wherever I'm up to!

I think this is the 4th post of England World Cup '90 figures! On to Euro 2000 soon...

I was very surprised that there wasn't already a Gascoigne made in this kit, to be honest. I said the same about there being no Spurs one when I repainted him in that. Surely both would have been very popular!

Platt and Gazza had good tournaments- Platt scoring against Belgium in the last minute of extra time, and Gazza... well, rocketing to stardom!

...

Seaman had to pull out of the squad and was replaced by Dave Beasant!!

England, Italia '90... the next bit!

The next batch of Italia '90 England repaints! Parker, Wright and Dorigo.

(Click to enlarge)

I think I've talked enough about how I feel about the kit and the shirt numbers in the previous posts!