by the fans for the fans

I had worked on custom figures before in the form of G.I. Joe and Action Master Transformer figures, but I had never done a custom Robotech figure. One night while watching Robotech it hit me.. I want to do a custom figure.. and there was no doubt on who it would be… BREETAI.

Now once I had the idea in my head I set out on finding the perfect donor figure. I didn’t want to use a 3 ¾ G.I. Joe or Star Wars figure.. I wanted something bigger. After all No joe sized figure would do for Breetai and trying to upgrade the original Matchbox figure would take way too much work… Besides it was still too small.

I looked at just about everything from DC to Marvel, to G.I. joe Sigma 6 figures and nothing seemed to fit the image I had in my head. One day, dejected, after another fruitless Sunday afternoon of searching I stopped by my sister’s house to check in on her and my nephew. I went upstairs to my nephew’s room, where he was engrossed in an Xbox game, and there in the corner it stood! The clouds parted, the angels sang, and the sunlight trickled through the window like a spot light on it. BREETAI! I said out loud without realizing it. “Uh what?” my nephew said. I walked over and picked up the figure and looked at it. It was perfect… It had 6 points of articulation making it easier to work on and the size was awesome!

I asked my nephew if he still played with the figure and he said “No as a matter of fact I’m putting it in the garage sale next weekend.” I told my nephew to come downstairs with me and the 3 of us went to my sister. I asked my sister how much they were planning on selling it for. She said she didn’t know and that they’d might try to get five bucks for it. I reached in my pocket and handed my nephew a $10 and said sold. Hell 10 bucks was well worth the price for ending my search. So after a month of searching I had the foundation for my Breetai…. He started out as the 31 inch tall “BATMAN Begins” figure.

Now the head was heavily modified... and I do mean heavily. I had to remove the ears and reshape the back of the head since the Batman head is really a mask and not just a human head.. Then there was trying to figure out ways to fill the holes left behind by all the modifications. His face needed work too to help remove areas that were just to "sharp" to pass for a real face. I left some of the mask detail around the eye. I just had imagines that once the face was painted blue and then detail painted, those details around the eye would give him a meaner look... And I think it worked. Now I liked the color of the eyes and wanted to retain that for the Breetai head so I used an old trick... Using a toothpick I carefully put three light layers of white Elmer's glue over the entire "eyeball" surface.. I let each layer dry before adding another.. Once dry it acted as a "mask" and kept the various paints from covering the original eye color without damaging it.
I'm glad it worked too... I'm too lazy to go in and repaint eyes.. Lol.





The nose was a little too pointed so I use some sanding sticks to blunt the point. Now the nostrils were a very late addition. I'd completely forgotten about them so I used some scrap pieces. Should I ever try doing this figure again I'll do a better job there.

The face plate was made using over 90 individual strips of evergreen styrene. The strips were laid side by side with some being specially cut to fit as the contours of the head deemed necessary. After all the pieces were in place they were smoothed using various sanding mediums and filled with Squadron "Green" filler to give it a "single piece" appearance. I do wish I had spent a little more time in this area as once it was painted I noticed "ghost" lines. The ears were "donated" by a dollar store baby doll. The Ears and surrounding material were cut and then trimmed and thinned. I opted not to cut more holes in the head to graft them in and instead, I thinned the base of the material enough for them to sit on top of the head material. I was happy with how they turned out once they were super glued in place.



His "hair" is actually the fur from the head of a stuffed animal. First I drew an outline of where I wanted the hair to be, then painted that area flat black. I used white Elmer's glue and glued the fur to the head trimming with scissors as I went.



The base skin color is Krylon "Peekaboo" blue can paint... Sealed with a coat of Satin clear to dull it down.. and I did some shading with Testor's acrylic Navy blue gray later.

The body has few modifications because it is mostly covered by his uniform though I did fill and then grinded the bat symbol off of the chest so it couldn't be seen through the material. I selected, what I thought were, ideal and accurate fabric colors and the uniform was custom made on to the figure. Yes, he has a real cloth uniform. I combed the internet, used various printed sources and some creative license for my best all around interpretation of his uniform.

The uniform was kind of tricky as this figure isn’t like I Barbie doll that you can easily flex around not to mention the fact that Breetai’s uniform is kind of form fitting to an extent and there’s no way I was gonna be able to do a uniform in a normal way.

The sleeves were sown directly around the arms so they would fit tightly and the fabric would appear to lay right. The fabric was left longer at the shoulder for later. Next the arms were attached to the body and the body screwed back together. The torso was then covered with its fabric piece that I had pre-fitted and test fitted earlier. The torso fabric was smooth out and the shoulder material was then pulled up and over the top of the torso fabric. This allowed the sleeves to be nice and tight around his shoulders. The collar started out as a thin cardboard template and was then covered with fabric. The yellow details were glued onto the collar and smoothed out with an iron to set them. The collar was then attached to the torso with a small stich at the front and two long flaps in back were glued to the back of the torso material. Next it was time to attach the brown tunic. The tunic was constructed of a single long piece of thick brown material. A square hole was cut in the center of the material and folded around the edges to give neck hole a nice finish, however I left the outer edges of the overall material unfinished and frayed. I figured he’s a Zentraedi and it’s not like they have tailors aboard ship. The tunic was then sown at the sides tightly to help form fit the material a little. I decided to only put the black stripe on the front, one of my little changes. The stripe was glued into place with white elmer's glue and heated with an iron to set it. The Zentraedi Emblem was hand embroidered onto a small piece of gray backing material and then glued into place as the finishing touch.







His boots were modified by cutting a plastic easter egg in half and used it on the toes of the boots to give them the bulged look that the Zentraedi boots have. Though I did a lot of filling and sanding I decided to leave some imperfactions in those areas. I figured it gave the book a little "beat up" look to it. Aside from that I kept the legs unchanged.

Here is a list of paints I used on the figure. I got the cloth material at walmart along with the Canary yellow and black accent ribbons. I also picked up some really dark yellow and black embroidery thread for various details.

Krylon:
(Fusion) Gloss white
Peekaboo blue
Matte Aluminum
(Crystal Clear) Satin clear
Satin Black

Shading:

Testor acrylic
US Navy Blue gray (4847)
Gloss Green (4669)
Flat black



I want to give a special thanks to my fiancee who helped me out with some of the sewing for this project.

Next figure being prepped to stand alongside Breetai... Lord Dolza himself.

Now we are talking!!!

Hey Mark!, you always came up with these great stuff, nice work, that is pure love!.
I'll be wating Dolza's figure.

Lobizon wrote:

Now we are talking!!!

Hey Mark!, you always came up with these great stuff, nice work, that is pure love!.
I'll be wating Dolza's figure.

Thank you for the compliments. It really was a labor of love. I have always loved the Breetai character. He had a cool look and I liked his honorable ways. You know in the show he had a mission to complete and he did it with honor. He didn't really stoop to dirty tricks or cruelty like Khyron. He believed in Honor.

Well I sincerely hope that I honored his character with my representation of him.

I will certainly post pictures of Dolza as soon as he is complete. I've spent the last 6 months looking the perfect head and I just recently found it! I can assure you that Dolza will look just as menacing as his TV show counterpart.

This.

Is.

AMAZING!



Breetai *is* a great character: brawn and brains, all rolled into one. He needs more love.

Incisivis wrote:

This.

Is.

AMAZING!



Breetai *is* a great character: brawn and brains, all rolled into one. He needs more love.

Thank you very much. A lot of hard work went into getting this guy just right. I did, of course, take a few liberties here and there just to give the figure my own touch, but I tried as hard as I could to stay true to the Animated character. I like the scale of the figure because compared to the Rick Figure I have at his feet... it's pretty close to being right. It's almost like he can reach right down and pick him up.

I will say doing this kind of figure is very humbling for a customizer... I mean you have to pay attention to so many details especially when it will be put out there for everyone to see. There were times when I was at wits end trying to get something right and almost gave up a time or two… After seeing him completed, I’m glad I didn’t.

Thank you again,
Mark

DO YOU MIND IF I PASS IT ONTO THE GUYS AT THE STATE FAIR? WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF THEY COULD PUT IT ON DISPLAY. THATS IF IT'S OK WITH YOU.

MEMO1DOMINION wrote:

DO YOU MIND IF I PASS IT ONTO THE GUYS AT THE STATE FAIR? WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF THEY COULD PUT IT ON DISPLAY. THATS IF IT'S OK WITH YOU.

Wow, that sounds cool. Sure see what they say and shoot me an email with a time line and some details.

Incisivis wrote:

This.

Is.

AMAZING!



Breetai *is* a great character: brawn and brains, all rolled into one. He needs more love.

yes this is amazing
great love for Breetai
can't wait to see Dolza next

Biollante wrote:

yes this is amazing
great love for Breetai
can't wait to see Dolza next

Thank you. I had a lot of fun working on this figure. Preliminary work on Dolza has begun, Though it will take time.

Mark Warlock wrote:

Biollante wrote:

yes this is amazing
great love for Breetai
can't wait to see Dolza next

Thank you. I had a lot of fun working on this figure. Preliminary work on Dolza has begun, Though it will take time.

man matchbox could learn a thing or two from you when it comes to action figures.