is the Custom figure movement killing traditional EF/MF

[NEW CASTLE HiTMEN]

If something has been deemed tradition or traditional to me it's saying two things. One it's old and two there is something better out there!

[WEIRDWOLF]

Originally Posted by NEW CASTLE HiTMEN

If something has been deemed tradition or traditional to me it's saying two things. One it's old and two there is something better out there!

Hey, stop talking about Ravenna Al that way..this is about custom figures....

[Coach Rip]

Custom figures add a "flava" to the game, however, ................for competition I'm for "standard" so everyone plays with the same stuff, ............plus at BuzzFest we also offer a custom division too........

I remember when We unveiled the BuzzBall Figures for the first time, ................within the first five minutes, some guys ( Pat Morris) were taking off their arms and repositioning them..............

As far as tradition goes, ......................tradition tells me it has been around for quite a while and it has a proven track record of working.

[NEW CASTLE HiTMEN]

George,

I got your e-mail and I did the Pay-Pal thing. Thanks.

[andre kc]

If it was not for Custom figures, we might not have Buzzball figures or FF.com Figures, I think?

Originally Posted by Coach Rip

I remember when We unveiled the BuzzBall Figures for the first time, ................within the first five minutes, some guys ( Pat Morris) were taking off their arms and repositioning them..............

I agree with Rip... however I'm going to add a little detail to the story. The "some guys" I hope Rip was refering to was Jayboy Combs and Don Smith. It was Jayboy who was repositioning the limbs of the Buzzball figures....within the first five minutes, after the unveiling. He was the one who actually showed me and Patrick. Moreover, when we got home... between Mon-Fri.... Jayboy had created a full 36 man Cowboys squad of custom buzzball figures that he painted, and decaled. Rip thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Peace,

Oldschool

P.S. Jayboy also taught Chris Robinson how to make custom figures. Chris on the other hand took custom figures to the next level.

Now that I think about it... I never saw a custom football figures.com figure (live or photo) before Jayboy showed them to me. And... I had never seen a Custom Electric gridiron figure (live or photo) before I saw Jayboys.

Reg and Dewayne feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But I know for a fact the first photos of ya'lls figures that were customized were put on the miggle message board by me. Way before I ever saw them on either of your websites.

All I can say is Thank GOD for Mr. Combs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace,

OldSchool

[Reginald Rutledge]

my figures long before Jay Boy and I started collaborating. I was customizing when I was getting "hammered" and "bashed" on other sites saying my players looked like army men and Frankenstein and everything else.

I once stepped on one of my figures in the early days of FF.COM and realize that "I could take what some see as a negative and turn it into a positive". This meant that while most were highly critical of my softer than traditional plastic, for what I wanted to show, it made customizing even more easy. I then took my knowledge of engineering, especially in metallurgy, and concluded ways of taking our product plastic and heating it and then re-cooling it to shape whatever I wanted.

I showed this process to my good friend Jay Boy. He then came to my house and I showed him many ways to enhance the figures. He showed me some of his methods as well. I think we stayed up about 50 straight hours just hanging out.

But out of necessity and "rage", I took a negative and turned it into a positive. I now produce well over 1,000 different custom figures and it came from knowing sites and people thought so bad of what I was doing. I have DVDs that show people how to do the same thing. Not many vendors or people would be willing to give back after being slammed so negatively.

Old School, my friend, while your memories are fond, mine are not so fond. But what I did was for the good of the game. And now, guys are customizing all over the country using the figures that many criticized and are doing an outstanding job with them. I don't think customizing players hurt teams but enhance the overall miniature football experience.

Reg

[Coach_J]

Hi Biglock,

Greetings to you my friend and good post. Here is my opinion on the subject. To begin with the custom figure movement is NOT killing traditional EF/MF. There is still, and always will be, a place for traditional figures. Unfortunately the traditionalists might be ruining themselves and here is why. I might be wrong but my guess is that at any tournament you go, with one exception, custom figures are allowed and used by most coaches in attendance. As was said earlier life evolves and this hobby has evolved. When we got our first EF gameboard as children we were excited and played with the traditional figures. As adults we want more realism. Not just adults but even those who are not adults who play the game want more realism. Why is Madden so popular among the younger generation ? Answer because of the realism. I was speaking to a new coach in my area the other day. He now is looking to purchase custom figures after seeing pictures of them on the chatboard. Gameboards have been updated and made larger so why the fuss about the custom figures. I am pretty much a tradionalist but now I only want to play with custom figures. Yes the traditional figures will always be there but for the traditionalists you might as well deal with reality because custom figures are HERE TO STAY. Not only are they HERE TO STAY but trust me with so much talent in the hobby the custom figures will only GET BETTER.

Coach J

Reg,

I wasn't here at the start of this community so I can only go by what I've seen since 2001. I don't doubt that you were the first person who customized your figures. I just stated that the first time that I saw your figures customized it was done by Jayboy. He brought home the figures he had done in Texas while hanging out with you. At the time that he did them... there were no pictures of your customized figures on any of the websites. The first pictures of FF.com custom figures were the ones I put up on the Miggle message board.

Please keep doing what you do. Because we are all still learning from all of you great customizers. The point that I'm trying to make is that no matter who the manufacturer is.... Jayboy has customized your stuff and he did it years ago. I know that a lot of guys on this message board and miggles remember a lot of the pix that I posted of Jay's and Chris's works over the years. Many coaches have told me that they have downloaded a lot of those pix to use as models for their own works. I'm just fortunate that I was able to see most of their stuff up close.

Peace,

OldSchool