Custom Michigan Figures

Submitted by AlphaBlue on

I am not sure if this is allowed or not, so if not, moderators please delete.

I have posted a few of these in the past and received a lot of interest in them so I figured I would post again in case anyone was interested still.

I make custom figures from Mcfarlane sports figures. I paint, decal and sometimes even do a little sculpting if needed to make these. I can make just about any player that you would want to get done; from our favorite Michigan player, to any pro player, and even to any high school or pee-wee league players. Here are a few I've done recently of some of my favorite Michigan and Detroit players:

First, Shoelace.

Next, Desmond Howard

Next, my personal favorite, Jake "MF" Ryan

And lastly, A few of the NFL ones I've done.

 

You can e-mail me at [email protected] if interested.

 

MGoBoard
Football

Brhino

August 12th, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^

I figured he'll run afoul of rules about profiting from the likeness of a college athlete, in the same way the MGoStore couldn't keep up a lot of shirts, even some of the ones that just had, for example, the word "Shoelace"on them.

To be clear I'm not rooting for the lawyers here.  I'll be perfectly fine with being wrong if I am.

Joined: 09/08/2009

MGoPoints: 19549

Blueblood2991

August 12th, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^

It is a bit of a gray area.  He is not selling a licensed product, where the player likeness lawsuits come in, so that's a non-issue.

He is selling a service.  As an example, a body shop cannot be sued by Ford for painting one of their cars a custom color.

However, the problem comes with the logos.  Adidas symbol, the Michigan block M, and the B1G Logo are all trademarked logos.  You cannot reproduce them without permission whether it is considered "art" or not.

I wouldn't worry about it though OP, unless you grow into a massive company (which I wish you the best of luck doing that, these are awesome!)

Joined: 06/11/2015

MGoPoints: 14348

AlphaBlue

August 12th, 2015 at 9:33 PM ^

The Jake Ryan in this post is actually going straight to the man himself. He just DM'd me on twitter and would like to have it.

Pretty pumped about that!

Joined: 05/28/2011

MGoPoints: 667

Wolverine Devotee

August 12th, 2015 at 9:35 PM ^

I can't even imagine the amount of work this must take along with precision and talent. If you don't have the talent, it doesn't matter how much work you put in.

Great details on them. 

These are going to be the hottest things some day if they ever let players profit from their individual merchandise. I'm against players getting paid while in college but the possibilities are endless for things like this.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

AlphaBlue

August 12th, 2015 at 9:50 PM ^

It all depends. Are you familiar with Mcfarlane sports figures? The pose is already created. I just paint, decal and add sculpting where necessary. They take several days to complete because of the painting/letting dry etc. thats involved. But i usually have around 8-12 hours of actual work into each figure.

Joined: 05/28/2011

MGoPoints: 667

marti221

August 12th, 2015 at 10:02 PM ^

Do you mind if I ask how you do this? I know you said the figures themselves are bought separate, but how does it come? Plain, and you do all the painting? If so, how did you get so much detail with some of the patches? What parts did you have to modify (I assume dreads on denard)? Just curious, very cool.



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AlphaBlue

August 12th, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^

It really all depends on the figure i am doing.

The Denard actually was a Chris Johnson Titans figure that came with the dreads so it was a paint and decal job.

Same thing on the Jake Ryan. Came as a Clay matthews figure. I just removed the long hair, painted and decaled.

The Desmond took more work. It started as an Andre Johnson figure that i had to use apoxie sculpt to add the towel, elbow pads, thigh pads, lengthen the pants past the knee and swap the facemask to the one Desmond wore.

The figures are around 6" tall so the painting and decaling can get pretty tedious on the small stuff.

Some are harder than others.

Joined: 05/28/2011

MGoPoints: 667

LSAClassOf2000

August 12th, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^

The Desmond one stands out because it really does remind me of "He went for it all!" on the call for that game (which I had to see later on that next week because I was at the game). Awesome catch indeed, and as I recall, MVictors had the recording from Moeller's headset where he second-guesses this play call for a bit but obviously ultimately goes with it. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130776

M-Dog

August 12th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^

You are obviously very talented.  You got the maize on the helmets, jerseys, and pants to all match.

Even the professionals can't do that.

 

 

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257573

SteelBrad

August 13th, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^

I never thought about the corporate logos but I still think he's ok. As a reference, a large trading card company put out a sketch collection (art) where every card was a "1/1". Because this was deemed art, as I think this constitutes, the company was free to use logos even for major league teams even though they had no license.

If AlphaBlue starts selling mass produced versions that are the same over and over, he's in hot water. As long as every one is technically different, he should be fine.

PS people have been selling customs on eBay for YEARS! And not just for sports teams.



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