Funko Pop Custom: Darth Maul

 

The *insert obligatory excuse of winter depression for why this blog has again been quiet for a few months* here.

Hey! I also made a shitty slideshow video of this project and put it up on YouTube for nobody to enjoy:

 

Anyway, it all started when I found this Funko Pop of Finn, Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker -version, during GameStop's Nordic branch going out of business sale. The figures original price was close to 17 euros, but now I got it for only 3€! Can't beat that price!

I have been wanting to make a custom figure for a while now, something more extensive rather than just a repaint with no modifications. So, I thought the best place to start was with a cheap figure of a character I don't particularly care for. (Finn had the potential to be a great character, but they wasted it all in the movies, but I digress...)

Finn was also chosen because the figure happens to have short hair, which meant less work for me when the time came to shave it down to make room for Maul's horns and bald head.

All Star Wars Funkos are bobble heads due to some licensing issue or something. I don't want that. So, I'm going to make the figure a new stable neck with no springiness. The first thing to do was to take the head off. 

I pulled on the head to get the metal wire to uncurl enough for me to get some pliers inside to cut the wire. The wire is surprisingly strong and it took some effort to get it all out.

Following the decapitation, I started to shave down the hair texture to get it as flat as possible.

I don't remember what the big idea was why I tried to remove the eyebrows, but the end result was a hilariously huge,messy unibrow.

Next up, I drilled a hole in the closed hand where I wanted the lightsaber to go. For extra detail I also cut out an opening in the holster which was closed off before.

I took a white pen to the head and sketched on the tattoos in order to get a better idea for the placement of the horns. I drilled some holes and put in some metal wire to act as a base for the clay later. I secured the metal wires with hot glue inside the head. In hindsight, I made a real mess inside the head with all the wire and hot glue, which doesn't look pretty at all. That's when I came up with the idea to cover up the neck hole with a plastic cap. It's not perfect, but it does its job.

I used a wooden dowel to make a new neck peg for the figure. I cut the dowel in half, used a pencil sharpener to make the other end smaller to fit in the hole inside the head. I drilled a hole in the dowel and the figure's neck and inserted a metal wire to hold everything in place. The wooden dowel is glued inside the head, but as I was still going to do a lot of work on the head so I never glued the wire to the dowel in order to keep the head removable for now.

I knew I wanted the base to be a little bit different, so in preparation, I removed the Star Wars logo off the base with some acetone and then sanded it down. Instead of the Star wars logo I wanted the base to have Maul's name on it written in Aurebesh (SW universe's alphabet) so I made a tiny stencil for that. It didn't work out perfectly, but good enough.

I wanted to change the figure's stance slightly, but alas, the other foot wouldn't come off the base, it was glued on too tightly, so I had to compromise a little.

The peg in the leg had corners in them, that I cut off and rounded a little, which then allowed me to rotate the position a little bit, not as much as I wanted, but enough to make a slight difference.

Instead for his traditional red lightsaber, I wanted Maul to have the darksaber, which I thought was going to be easier to do with the materials that I had at my disposal. I cut down and shaped a plastic drink stirrer, took some thin metal wire and hodgepodge it all together with some painters tape and tiny bits of cardboard from a cereal box. I painted the blade black and then used a needle to scrape off the paint for the lightning effect. I glued the pieces together and added some more painter's tape that I then painted over. The bottom part of the hilt comes off, so I can remove the lightsaber from the figure's hand if need be.

At this point, I had made all my preparations, so next up was sculpting the horns to the head. The clay I used was Apoxie Sculpt, which was always highly recommended by many crafty YouTubers. I was sure I would have to order it from Amazon or anywhere outside of Finland, but to my surprise, I  actually found Apoxie Sculpt for sale in a Finnish taxidermy web shop out of all places!

So this was my first time using Apoxie Sculpt and I really like it! It's not too soft and it doesn't cure too fast. In my inexperience, I sure did make a mess while using it, not realizing how hard it is going to be to remove after it's cured. I ended up using Green Stuff to make the mouth and the stud earring for the figure while I waited the first pass of Apoxie to cure. The first layer of Apoxie was to smooth over the head to make it appear bald. I also smoothed over some details around the pants and added a pocket.

On the second pass, I filled the horns. After that cured, for the third layer of Apoxie I shaped and detailed the horns and added the base of the horns. Somewhere along the way, I added a few buttons to the gauntlet and raised the shoulder pads and collar ever so slightly.

After everything was cured and dry, I gave the figure a spray of primer paint. The body was pretty much good to go, but I had to go back and forth with sanding and priming the head many, many times, because there was so much residue all over the figures face from my messy sculpting. Finally, when the head was smooth enough, it was time to move on onto the painting.

Painting the tattoos was what worried me the most. Even while drawing, I never get anything symmetrical, one half of the face is always lower/higher than the other. In order to overcome this fault of mine, I cut out a stencil of Maul's tattoos that I then used as a guide while drawing the tattoos on with a pencil first before painting them.

The end result isn't of course 100€% symmetrical either, but it's far better than I dared to hope for.

I didn't give much thought to the color scheme of the outfit. I knew it was mostly going to be black and dark grey, but I did end up mixing a lot of silver or pearlescent black in order to try to prevent it all from looking too flat.

I had a hart time mixing a good color for the horns, I always thought something's was a bit off. Third time was the charm, I think. I also went over the horns with some black wash, but it didn't turn out as good as I thought it would. I really wanted to get this project finished, so even though I wasn't really satisfied with the horns, I decided to let it go.

The last thing to finish was the base. I had bigger plans for it in the beginning. Like I had this Dino skull and plants prepped for it, but then I started thinking it would look too cluttered, so I left them out. I really wanted the base to have some texture so I added some fine sand that I could get my hands on. I used a paint brush to paint on the water-glue mix onto the base before sprinkling the sand over it and waited for it to dry. I did this a couple of time more, until I was satisfied with the sand coverage on the base. 

Originally I wanted the sand to be gray like volcanic ash, but then I was afraid it would be too much gray for one figure. So I went with a mix of dark red and brown over the sand. I didn't like how that looked either, so I tried going over it some black  wash again, to see if that would help. It didn't. I still don't like the base. Being so close to the finish line, I didn't really see a way for me to improve it. So I accepted the subpar base as it was and called this project done.

I sprayed the darksaber and the black parts of the base with gloss varnish and matte varnish over the rest of the figure.

I kind of would want to make a custom art for the box, but I don't think I have the energy in me. Maybe in the future (or likely never).

Lastly, obligatory comparison between my custom Maul next to the two official Funko Mauls I happen to own.

before & after

Moominworld Naantali

Not being able to travel abroad due to Covid-19 restrictions, we had to plan something else for our summer vacation. After some thought we decided on traveling to Naantali, where the Moominworld theme park is located. As we had been to the Moominvalley park in Japan, I thought it would be fun to be able to compare the two. 

Moominworld park in Naantali opened in 1993 while Moominvalley park in Japan opened in 2019. So, Japan’s park was practically brand new when we visited the place a few years ago and the Finnish park is almost 30 years old now. You could definitely see some wear and tear in places inside Moominworld and some of the attractions probably could use some fixing up. 

The weather was a bit unstable, the day started as sunny, but as more and more clouds gathered it started to rain by noon.

The cool thing about Moominworld is that the park is on an island. Sadly though, it does not cover the whole of the island and everything is packed tightly around the “main road” that goes across the island.

The normal price for 1 adult is 35€ at the ticket booth or 31€ if you buy it online beforehand.We bought our tickets online, to get the 4 € discount, and just had to show the verification email at the entrance.

There were about twenty minutes before a theatre show was about to start, so we spent that time looking around inside the Sniff’s shop. The shop’s selection of items was really pathetic compared to the one in Japan. Can’t say I’m surprised, just disappointed, like usual.

Well, it wasn’t all that bad. It just didn’t cater to my taste personally. If they hadn’t been so expensive and if I happened to be in need of a backpack they had some really cute designs. I especially liked the Stinky and Hattifatteners prints, but I ain’t going to pay 40-60€ for a bag I have no use for.

As I’m never able to leave anywhere empty handed, I ended up buying 6 small Moomin figures for 20€ total and a Moomin shaped lollipop.

So the show at the outdoor theater was about to start, so we headed there. A positive thing about their theatre is that there is a roof on top and a lot of seating, two things that the theatre in Moominvalley park was lacking. They even had a TV screen that showed subtitles in Swedish and English. They were very limited though, only just enough for anyone to get the very basic story of the play. 

The play was called “Moomintroll and the missing pearl” and it lasted about 20 minutes. The characters included in the play were Moomintroll, Little My and Snorkmaiden and then there was a giant octopus, who <spoiler!> stole the said pearl. Nothing spectacular, but it was mildly entertaining for what it was.

From the theatre, we started walking down the main road until we finally saw the Moomin house. Right next to it was Moomintroll’s house just like in one of the TV episodes, but it was built to be a kid’s playground, so nothing for adults. 

The iconic bridge that leads to the house was pretty darn pathetic looking compared to the Moominvalley version. Smack dab right there on the asphalt is a plastic pond with a tiny bridge over it. It was the most unaesthetic thing to look at. Without some of that childlike wonder, everything is obviously fake at the park, but that bridge scenery is one of the fakest fakes ever to be faked because it looked so unnatural.

So the good thing is that you are freely allowed to enter the Moomin house, unlike in Japan where you have to pay extra to get a tour of the house. The downside to that was they weren’t keeping count on how many people were in the house, so it got really crowded in some of the rooms and of course there were kids running amok everywhere, as to be expected. The house could use some refreshing too, there were places where you could tell people had been nabbing some souvenirs off the walls.

I guess it’s a weird thing to complain about in such an obviously fake environment, but everything looked so staged. Like, this isn’t a house, this is an attraction that is designed to look like a house! Ha ha haa! This is why I hate writing down my own thoughts, because I always feel even more like a moron than I normally do.

We didn’t pay for the house tour in Japan, so I can't with first hand experience compare the two. I saw a video on YouTube (can’t find it anymore) that was filmed on the tour inside the Moominvalley park’s house. The only thing I can say is, it just gives off a totally different vibe, because the house is treated more like a museum, rather than a place where the kids run wild.

In Moominvalley park the only character we saw roaming around the park (outside the theatre play) was Snufkin, while in Moominworld the characters were more present outside the house. Snufkin (again) was the only character we encountered off the main road. 

From the Moomin house we followed the road to Hemulen’s house. It was very small, but I thought it was nicely decorated. It didn’t feel as staged as the Moomin house.

From there we continued down to the beach where the “Bathing Hut” and “Edward the Booble'' were located. In Japan the bath house was locked and you could only peek inside through the windows, but it was much bigger. I’d say at least five adults could fit in there, while the Moominworld’s hut is so tiny it barely has room for two adults. Next to the bath house is Edward floating in the water. And that is all it is, a float or pontoon, whatever you call it. I don’t know why, but I always imagine it to be an animatronic or something more engaging. Nope, it just floats. If it ever was cut loose and drifted away it would make a perfect local “Loch Ness monster”.

From the beach, we took the “Nature trail” that winds through the woods on the left side of the main road. It’s all wooden walkways, so not much nature about it. We walked by Snufkin’s campsite, it was a little bit nicer looking than the Japanese one, but not by much.

We wandered around some more until we came to the “Scenic Lookout Point” that has this big ass telescope mounted on the ground. What do you know, the telescope is fake, and you can’t view shit with it. Or sure, you can look through it, but it doesn’t work like binoculars do. It’s almost like somebody thought it wasn’t such a good idea to mount a working telescope right across from the President’s summer residence or something.

We walked back to the main road and, looking at the map, found this path labeled “Fairytale trail” that would lead to some attractions on the right side of the main road. There was Alice’s Herb Garden (we didn’t see Alice anywhere), Hattifatteners’ cave (featurin’ a very pathetic looking Groke) and the Witch's House. The Witch was there and even had a large audience, lots of kids asking her questions. It was quite sad, in an immersion breaking way, that the actors playing the non-moomin characters had to wear those plastic face covering visors, due to corona, but the current situation is what it is.

The last thing left was “the rapids and suspension bridge”, which sounds kinda impressive on paper, but alas, wasn’t quite as impressive in real life. There was an alternative route to take if you wanted to skip the bridge. I thought it could have been longer, but I can also imagine myself being a kid again and being too scared to cross it as short as it was.

Some of the attractions were temporarily closed for some reason or another. We had pretty much seen everything there was to see at the park. But we were not leaving yet. As expensive as it was, 16€ per person, we had lunch at the Mamma’s Kitchen restaurant. They didn’t have any desserts on the menu in the restaurant, so next we went to Thingumy and Bob’s Ice Cream Bar. It was a good thing there was a roof over the deck at the Ice cream bar because it started pouring rain as we sat down to eat. We sat there quite a while, eating our ice creams very slowly waiting for the rain to stop. From the ice cream bar, we had a good view over the entrance to the shop, at least the park made a buck selling umbrellas that day! Eating ice cream outdoors while it rains is a bit chilling experience. Luckily, the rain stopped, so we were able to move out.

From the park we walked back to the mainland where there was another Moomin shop by the harbor. The selection was identical to the store inside the park, so I didn’t buy anything there. A little further down the road was this “ye olde Naantali shop”, that often came up when searching for places worth visiting in Naantali. The shop also advertised that they have the world’s smallest Titanic exhibition, intriguing. I expected the store to be a lot bigger, but it was really small in reality. I don’t see how more than max five people can be inside the store at the same time. The walls were packed from floor to ceiling with stuff, exactly the kind of place where you are too scared to move because you might knock something over. The Titanic exhibition was tiny alright, everything was fitted inside one glass cabinet.

Next to the Titanic stuff was a cabinet with more rare Moomin stuff. Older, now out of production Moomin mugs and even a few stuff from Japan. It was somewhat expensive for one tiny figure, but I bought the Japanese Snufkin figure, just because I thought if I don’t buy it now, I’ll never find one ever again. I also bought Stinky and Groke keychains. I think they are a bit weird looking, so I’m not sure if they are licensed or not.

After visiting the shop, we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

My final thoughts, regarding the comparison of the two Moomin parks. On surface level they are very similar. But Moominvalley Park in Japan is totally the winner here. To be fair, this is mostly due to the fact that I, as a Finnish person, will obviously find the Japanese landscape to be far more exotic than the Finnish woods I see everyday. Also, I liked the more spread out layout of the Japanese park, in Naantali everything was packed too close together.

The biggest thing in Moominvalley Park’s favor is the museum building, as ugly as it was. The exhibitions there give something for the adults to enjoy. A common complaint for Naantali’s Moominworld is that there is nothing really for an adult Moomin fan, and now as I experienced it myself, I have to agree. The Japanese park has managed to find  that “for all ages” feel, while the Finnish park is too “for small children only”. 

I didn’t think Moominvalley Park in Japan was perfect either, but I would totally want to visit the place again. Moominworld in Naantali was somewhat lackluster, I’d think twice if I wanted to go back there again.

Moominworld vs. Moominvalley house