4 Versions of Gary Speed!

First post of the new year! Hope you're all keeping well, and are ready for 4 very different iterations of Gary Speed!

First up, Funko Gary Speed. I'm not sure if I've written about it at any length before (and I don't really intend to now!) but Funko figures are much easier to use as 'lookalikes' than corinthians! Essentially, if the hair is the right style, its good to go. 

Added bonus is the eyebrows are right!! They can change the character of a figure considerably!

Anyway, the 1991-92 kit was chosen for Speed on a Twitter poll... also because I wanted to do it, and thought it would be easier to sell on afterwards!!

A somewhat unusual one next, but one that I like a lot. In case you can't tell, this is the training top in which Leeds were presented the League trophy in 1991-92. I've only done it a couple of times before, and this was the first time on a microstar.

Love this kit. I still own it, with 11 and Speed on the back, no less. This was the first time I've done it on a Speed figure, having done it on Yeboah a few times before.

 Last but not least, a Vivid Imaginations figure. Not the best 'lookalike' for my  money, but it's what the buyer wanted. I was happy with how the kit ended up looking anyway! I've done Vivid Imaginations repaints of Speed before, but from his floppy, boyband hair era, using a figure of another Welshman...

Tenuous Euros post, part 3

Yes, it's the post that none of you were waiting for! Let's crack straight on with some figures vaguely related to Euro 2020!

Lloris, who gave a penalty away yesterday by punching someone in the face! 

I can't tell you the full story of this figure. Clearly it's not an original corinthian of Lloris, cos he wasn't on the scene when they stopped making them. My best guess is that it's a remodel using a Soccerwe head... or a remodel using a lookalike from another corinthian that I'm unaware of. Anyway... I didn't remodel it!

Here's an away kit repaint of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in his Leeds days. Hassebaink has done a bit of punditry in the Euros... on Netherlands games, I would guess.

He's done a bit of punditry on Leeds games over the last couple of years too... here's hoping that he does a few less when we can get back to grounds and the amount of games to be covered goes back to normal.

Speaking of pundits people want to hear less from...

Also, why does this Danny Murphy microstar look like it might steal my lunch money?!

And last but not least:

What would these posts be without a Kyle Walker Soccerstarz?! This one was requested in Spurs training kit... for some reason.

I didn't realise this post was so Spurs heavy until I did all the tags. Don't worry; I've got some more figures that are sort of related to the Euros to show you soon!

Woodgate, Spurs

To prove I was telling you the truth yesterday, here are 2 Spurs Woodgates!

 I don't really have much to say about them, to be honest!! Other than you'd struggle to know that they were the same person, based on the differences of these 2 sculpts!

Bianchi and Recoba, Torino

I haven't posted any 'overseas' figures for a while, so here are a couple of Torino players.

I did both of these quite a while ago. The one thing that jumps out at me about this one- I can see that the number 9 is hand-painted. Other than that, it's pretty standard!

This one is definitely more recent than the first. Something that I find myself pondering with this one is that with all the other diagonal 'sash' kits that I've painted (River, LA Galaxy), I'm sure it goes from left shoulder to right hip; ie the opposite way to this one. I don't know if that's usual, and I've probably never thought about it until now!

I might not have considered it at all, if i hadn't just finished a load of River Plate soccerstarz. Pics up soon, when I've had it confirmed that they've arrived in the US.

2 Youthful Forest Players!

Looking through my repaints album, I thought: I haven't posted any Forest pictures for a while, and these were the last 2 left.

I thought to myself  that John Terry must've had a rough paper round if he looked like that when he joined Forest as a young player, and then realised it was pretty much the same case for Sheringham!!

The thin white lines round the shoulders and cuffs are definitely the best bit about the terry figure!

Mixed Leeds figures:

 First of all, I thought I'd let you know that this blog has gone past 100 000 views! Which obviously is not crazy numbers, but is certainly more than I would have anticipated when I first started painting for my own amusement all those years ago!

Thanks for the views, comments, 'likes', support, and of course, purchases! 

And I suppose it's fitting that, before I even realised I had reached this milestone, I'd planned to post Leeds United figures here today; the first team I ever painted.

I thought I'd go with another variety bag of a post today! Starting with Leeds' current top scorer, Patrick Bamford in funko form!!

This is in the Championship promotion kit, as part of a whole team set that I did for someone. Funny to think that Bamford came in for quite a lot of stick that year, and is now sat on 10 Premier League goals in half a season.

Next up, Nick Barmby. I used the later sculpt of Barmby for my own collection, as it seemed a better likeness of when he played for us. But the guy who asked for this one showed me a pic of Barmby in the 03-04 season, where he had gone back to having slightly longer hair. And took the number 7 shirt too.

Hard to know if it was just speculation, but there was a lot of talk that James Beattie had a big role in getting the 30 goal a season form out of Chris Wood, in his spell as a coach at Leeds.

I was very happy with this remodel. I also did a microstar one, which you can check out by clicking here.

Last but not least, a standard microstar repaint, from way back when. When I did a Prostar Christie for my own collection, I put it in number 27... it's still on my shelf as a lesson to make sure I research properly!

3 More Spurs

Keeping on my blog post momentum with 3 Spurs figures! Not taking the time to pick a theme, and just going with alphabetical order seems to have helped me keep going, and it usually means a variety of kits in the same post!

Berbatovs can be pretty difficult to get hold of, and so to put one in a kit he wore for a testimonial game takes a certain kind of collector! I was happy with the bit at the bottom of the shirt; also the tiny bit of test in the middle came out well.

I suppose every repainter has this when looking back at figures, but I can't help but look at this one and think how much better I'd do it now!! It's from 2 or 3 years ago, I'd guess. Maybe more.

I feel like it is acceptable, btw, just not perfect... which is what I aim for now more than I ever had the ability to do at that stage.

 Last but not least, a Carrick Microstar. The main thing I think when I look at this one is: I'm much better at photographing them now!!

May be to do with the quality of camera on my phone, tbf!!

3 Real Madrid Legends...

I thought I'd plough on with the posts, and use my alphabetical order system when I can't be bothered to think of any kind of theme!

If you are wondering about the ellipsis after 'legends' in the title, you'll understand half way through the post...

Roberto Carlos can, I dare say, be classed as a Real legend. He was a galactico, anyway! I remember that, when I did this one, I was most pleased with the paw prints on the sleeves. Though I still have no idea why there were pawprints down the sleeves.

Here he is; one of the most bizarre signings Real ever made! But who was a more random recruit; Gravesen or Faubert?! Answers in the comments!

Anyway, I ended up with this microstar, and thought if I painted it into Madrid kit, someone might buy it on ebay, for novelty value if nothing else. 

No one did.

 Last but not least, a far more recent repaint of McManaman, Champions League final kit. Lovely!

Spurs- Mixed Bag

As the post title suggests, I thought I'd just post a real mixture of Spurs figures today! 

From the Spurs section in my repaints album, here are the first 4 alphabetically. I think this may be the way to go, when it comes to posting up some of the backlog!

Anderton, away. The neatness of the lines round the collar and the fact that i feel like I actually remember this one would suggest it's at least recent-ish!

As for these next 2, the background is a bit of a clue that I did these a while back- I've long since found the best place to take the pictures in my flat for good lighting!!

 And another recent one, and second Bale of the post, though in very different form!! I did this one as I thought it would go down well, and I managed to get the original figure reasonably cheaply!

After putting it on my Instagram, I ended up sending this to a Spurs fan in the USA!

I do have one more Bale funko, but feel Bale's lack of minutes on the pitch might make it a bit of a risk with regards to selling afterwards. Thinking about the sale, and just doing another different figure that interests me, Wales 2016 comes to mind...

A couple of Sheff United Microstars

It's been a tough return, post lockdown for Sheffield United... so naturally a post displaying some figures in Sheffield United kits will make them all feel better, right?!

Here's Dellas (No Filter!!) I can't remember what kit this was in originally, (Roma at a guess) but I remember it being a bit of a surprise to me that he'd played for the Blades, though I think I did have that knowledge somewhere in the recesses of my mind! 

Anyway, a nice little repaint. A different coloured collar always helps to make a repaint look a bit sharper, I think! 

And on to Beattie! Although I completed these both quite a while ago (at least a year, probably more) and the fact that I've stated I think I've really come on with stripes in recent times... this looks pretty good!

Flo, Leeds

A few more Leeds figures to work thro!

Here are 2 versions of Tore Andre Flo:

The first is a Microstar, and is the kit from his first (half) season at Leeds... the season we went down. A couple of good memories in the last couple of blog posts...

You'll notice the second pic has a different sponsor- it's from his second season at Elland Road, aka, the -15 season. You may also notice that he committed the squad number sin of going from one in the 1-11 to number 19! Tut tut! 

Hleb, BATE Borisov

I've been asked to paint a huge variety of teams over the years, but some do still come as a surprise!

This one is Aleksandr Hleb in what is my first, and I'd be bold enough to guess also my last BATE Borisov repaint!

I even had to google image search to double check that I had the team correct!

I know I've been trying to put at least a couple of pics on each blog post, but I didn't really know who to put with him in terms of a theme!

2 Milan Microstars

Here are a couple of recently finished Microstars for your Monday; lookalike figures of a couple of AC Milan stalwarts:

The same kit for this pair, and obviously I needed to fill the bases as well, to cover their original names. 

I was very happy with these 2; in fact, I'd put them up there as probably the best microstars I've done, when you consider the level of detail. Adidas stripes all round, yellow trim, shorts numbers...! 

Real Madrid number 7s

Today feels like a good day to add a couple of Real Madrid number 7s!

These 2 certainly raise the bar a bit from my only previous Real microstar, which was Thomas Gravesen!!

Coupla full backs! Bournemouth.

Bournemouth played in the cup tonight. My response? Chuck a couple of Bournemouth figures on the blog:

Bournemouth

It's been a long while since I posted any Bournemouth figures here! And it's fair to say Bournemouth have come a long way since I did!

Here are some from a recent order:

Love this one! It's the first time I've used a fluorescent paint, and I think it came out great!

Artur Boruc, who has recently regained his place in the Bournemouth first team.

And here's an outfield player too- Sylvain Distin, who had made 16 appearances for Bournemouth in 2015-16.

Bardsley, Beattie and Cahill: Shefield United

Anyone who reads this regularly (anyone there?!) will know quite a few of my blogging nuances!

One is that I often post figures of a team that I want to lose that day, even though the 'every team I blog pictures of loses' theory only seems to work when I post a Leeds figure.

And another is that I have to have some kind of link between the figures when I post more than one picture.

So here, in matching Capital One sponsored shirts, are three players that represented one of Leeds' current promotion rivals... in shirt number order (habit number 3 exhibited in this post!)

Cracking! The Beattie is the most recent repaint, hot of the press, and finished within the last week!

Although I haven't blogged them all yet, I'm pretty close to finishing all the possible Sheffield United figures that were released (not including remodels, though I do have a couple of those in the pipeline!)

Keep your eyes on my Facebook page (I invariably post pictures there first) for upcoming posts of rarer Sheff United repaints, such as Alan Wright and Peter Withe!

Crouch, Spurs

As he scored on Saturday (albeit for Stoke) and Spurs are playing tonight, I thought I'd make today's post a Peter Crouch tribute... in Spurs kits.

So, it's either doubly relevant or irrelevant to current football events; I can't decide!

This first picture is of Crouchy in his youth team days at White Hart Lane! The customer and I guessed at number 9, and also thought that names on shirts were unlikely at that level; and that time!!

And here we have the same kit, on both Micro and Prostar sized figures. I always found the idea of Microstar sized Crouch figures funny; at least with the Prostar size there is the tall, skinny body variant!!

I think the face on the Prostar is more accurate too.

Interesting to see that he got 2 different Microstar versions as well! Go on, scroll back up to check. I can tell you want to!! 

They have different body poses, and slightly different faces.

And that's it for the Crouch tribute post. If you need some more Crouchy in your life... I dunno, go and listen to his podcast, or something!! Or order a repaint of him from me, I guess?!

Some Sheffield United Goalies

Here are two goalkeepers that a lot of people probably won't remember playing for Sheffield United!

As far as I'm aware, they are the only manufactured goalkeeper figures that did play for them.

Segers had a loan spell at Bramall Lane in the 1980s. I couldn't even find a picture of him in Sheff United kit! 

In the end, I just found a team photo from the correct season, and used the one from there! 

I don't know why, but I quite enjoy mixing a light grey for a kit!!

Segers made 10 appearanced for the Blades in this time. Mind you, he looks like a stalwart compared to Richard Wright!!

Wright signed up in 2010, but only stayed with the club for 4 months. He had a bad time with injuries, and only managed 2 starts. He didn't even manage to finish either game.

Two pretty plain kits here; it's hard to even see the grey trim on Wright's kit.

Leeds Testimonial Microstars.

Many of you will know that I started repainting to improve my own collection of figures. Being as I started doing this almost 6 years ago, I'm starting to run out of figures to do (barring duplicates in different kits, of course)

As a result, I've started reaching!! If you follow this blog closely, you'll know I've done trialists and even youth players before.

Well, here are a couple of players who featured in testimonials!

Michel Platini played for the Leeds XI in the John Charles/Bobby Collins testimonial in the 80s. So... he played in one game for Leeds, and I have 3 figures of him now!! A Prostar, a Fan Favourite, and this microstar!

Obviously this means I have done this kit before, but it was much harder to fit the shirt design, as well as the central badge and sponsor onto a microstar body!!

Gazza featured in the Don Revie International XI in the Don's testimonial game, also in the 1980s. He made a bit of a star turn, by all accounts, scoring a backheel goal past Leeds guest goalkeeper, Peter Shilton... Shilton in a Leeds kit you say...

*makes bid for Shilton figure on ebay* 

Absolutely love how this repaint came out!