Adam West 12" Doll Projects
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FIRST A BIT OF HISTORY: There didn't use to be quite so many 12" Adam West Batman customs out there. You look on ebay these days and there are several to choose from. Many basically copy the format of Wes McCue from Classic Plastic, who made one of the first 12" style costumes for sale to the world. Classic Plastic started with very high quality repro Captain Action parts and moved into custom CA parts. I think Wes' work is about the best you'll ever see in molded colored rubber. But the CA look is not for everyone with its semi-comical versions of superheroes. |
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OLDER EFFORTS I made my first 12' Adam styled doll in 1993. This was my first effort. Everything was removable and looked so-so. I sculpted the cowl and made all the parts myself and mounted them on an old Joe knockoff that had an Adam-like face. This one went to collector Shawn Nilsen of Long island. I didn't like the quality of the base doll itself and other small issues bugged me. But the belt method remains the same one I use now, 11 years later. |
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Aris Zaroya did a beautiful
job on costuming for this set of dolls, but unfortunately chose to
put them on Ken dolls. I made
a large box for them with accessories and insert art. I sold it
last year and am currently making a box for the Batgirl I have
as well. I would love to get Aris' costumes for one of my dolls,
but I have no idea how to get hold of him or if he still does
custom work.
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In 2003 I started experimenting with different costume parts and doll styles. The quality had gone up in base dolls from Dragon and BBI and others and that has urged me back into striving for a high quality version. I have made them with a variety of parts and head choices. Some people love the smiling, narrower Terry Reynolds head, some people like the bigger, slightly more serious Jim Pagget head. I have made these to order in the past and usually use clothing parts made by Rauty's Toy Shop, Dale Van Slyke or others. After recently learning that terry and Jim were NOT the ones selling or authorizing the castings of their original sculpted heads, I am now moving into new, exclusive head sculpts that will be featured only on my dolls. |
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ULTIMATE ADAM So I now give you the chronicles of my attempt at a super PREMIUM version of the doll. I am calling it the "Ultimate" Adam West 12" doll. And I hope that it actually will be. I'm going to cover its progress here, piece by piece. I wanted to make one that I consider the BEST. So here we go. I will focus on each part separately and in detail once I get each section done.
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THE BODY: There are a number of great 12" bodies out there. Some more expensive or harder to come by than others. I chose the Dragon Neo Adam V2.0 doll because I like its proportions, articulation and the way costumes hang on it. Not overly muscular. The best way to find one is to buy it from a seller on ebay who has stripped the clothes for resell as well.
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THE HEAD: This is the keystone. This is the shot of the rough painted version of the prototype head. Sculpted by Steven Spenser Ledford. Working on the cowl nuances right now with Will O'Connor to possibly do a satin-covered shell cowl. (just like the real full-sized one) |
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THE SUIT: I have used suits from Rauty, Dale, Wes and others. I have yet to find exactly the right weight material for Adam's suit. This is the closest I have come up with and it is one I had sewn locally after picking out the Lycra by hand. I hand cut stirrup style holes in the feet to not bunch up material under the boots. |
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THE BOOTS: I didn't want to go with latex or urethane boots on this one. And reworked plastic boots are always too thick. I got the idea for these boots from staring at another custom doll's boots for a long time. The boots on a couple of the CY Girls dolls feature these well made, realistic leather-look boots with a plastic sole and heel. A repaint and a trim and you get perfect Adam style boots. I'm going to hem the final set. These were a test set. You can waste a lot of time trying to work out a way to reposition the ankle/foot/leg combination. I learned my lesson and will show a much easier way once I get that section up. |
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THE GLOVES: The jury is still out on what format I will go with. I think these are the nicest traditional gloved post style hands I have made. But I'm thinking about doing them with satin tops this time. More as we go. |
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THE BELT: I don't have any pictures yet of my belt. I find things likable and unlikable about all the other belts out there. My favorite is Wes' original CA belt (pictured here). But the bat-belt is an easy thing to make perfect, especially if you have one of Andy G.'s photoetched buckles! More as we get it. |
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THE ACCESSORIES: You gotta have them, right? In this set - I will make the walkie-talkies and a few other goodies, but Rauty makesTHE best set of plastic or metal batarangs that look perfect. You can get them in the blue or black plastic (they were black on the show) His metal ones, actually fold but with a different hinge system than the TV ones. I found tiny versions of the correct piano-style hinges and am cutting one of the plastic ones to hinge correctly for this set. |
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More to come as I start
work on this doll. - UPDATED September 20, 2005 |
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