Under Construction: Admiral Natatsi Daala (Legends)

I detest the fact that many of the stories and plots that kept the fans interested--in fact that kept the franchise running and bankrolled its creator until the end of time--are now considered invalid.  However, there are still a few fantastic Legends stories and characters who deserve to be in some way revitalized that I wanted to create one of my favorites.

From the Jedi Academy Trilogy comes the first wholly badass female Imperial, Admiral Natatsi Daala.

A fan favorite for many, her story was revitalized again and again until shortly before Disney decided they would rewrite canon and dole out storylines like methadone.  The cheek of it.

Still popular despite her virtual nonexistence, Daala commands attention and could still be rendered cannon (like Thrawn) with a one-off story or inclusion in a collection of stories about the "remnants" alluded to at the end of Aftermath: Empire's End.  Throw us a bone, will ya?

I have yet to commit to a final product due to the sheer confusion about the character's actual appearance.  No one can fully agree on what Daala looks like.  Here are some facts.

Daala is described as having incredibly long hair that flows like copper fire and hangs well past her hips.  She wears an olive green jumpsuit uniform.  She has green eyes and a stern bearing.  I finally chose a head that conveys most of that with Red Sonja.  The only other Pop character extant that wears an olive green uniform is Grand Moff Tarkin, so his body was used.

Now, here is where the confusion enters in.  On the cover to the first book in the trilogy, Daala is depicted as a stern woman with long plaited hair coiling over her shoulder.  I find no instance if her hair described like this.  Only that its long, red to orange, and flows behind her.

Second, her uniform bears the insignia of a Grand Moff (technically, Oversector Command to parse a military indium).  Agian, this counters how she is described in the novel.  In Jedi Search, the first book of the trilogy, her rank insignia is described as "a row of six scarlet rectangles set above a row of blue rectangles."  This is most definitely the insignia of an Imperial Admiral and not a Grand Moff. 

The few custom Daala figures I have seen all depict the plaited hair and wrong rank.  I elected to go for as accurate as possible.  Still, i did create a few with the Grand Moff rank just to see.

Seeing as how I'd like to shoot for accuate based on the story, I will maintain the Admiral's rank.  Its doubtful that Disney will rr-cannonize Daala, seeing as how they have already broken many barriers with other female leader like Grand Admiral Sloane and Moff Mors.  However, it would be great to have some plotline following her mission of vengeance against the nascent New Republic. 

Upcomings Customs

Over the next few days I will be posting a few new creations.

First up, a revised and more accurate version of the First Order's Captain Canady.

Next I am diving into Legends with one of my favorite characters, Admiral Natatsi Daala.

The Last Jedi Custom: Captain Canady

Even though he was on screen for a scant few minutes, Captain Moden Canady made an impressive entrance in The Last Jedi.  Commanding the Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix, Canady proved himself to be a component and highly capable leader. 

His scenes in the film present him as a dedicated officer concerned only with accomplishing his mission.  His ship is also pretty badass.  

Canady even stands up to the simpering General Hux, whose grand gestures and pompous rhetoric seemed geared towards playing to a galactic audience rather than decisively eradicating the Resistance.  

The novelization of the film gives further detail to the character's backstory as one of the survivors of the Galactic Empire who escaped into the Unknown Regions and helped forge the First Order.  

Rather than stand content to risk his ship and the pilots under his command to theatrics, Canady got the job done.  In this, he is very much like General Veers.  I won't outline the obvious parallels to The Empire Strikes Back except to state that both Veers and Canady know their roles and perform them well.   

Unlike General Veers, Captain Canady does not survive the battle. After all but destroying the Resistance fleet, Canady and the Fulminatrix fell victim to the suicidal run of the last surviving Resistance bomber.  

To construct this figure, I used Grand Moff Tarkin's head painted to resemble Canady's graying orange hair and placed it atop a General Hix figure.  I then added the singular black band indicative of all First Order ranks.  Finally, I removed the code cylinders from the First Order Finn figure with an exacto knife and glued them in the appropriate spot on the figure.  

My first inclination was to paint the First Order Finn figure black and place the modified head atop it but when I attempted this I was unhappy with the results.  Despite locating the appropriate paint, I was less than thrilled with the end result. The figure looked too rough and tacky.  This was mostly due to the imperfections in the figure itself.  

The uniform on the Hux figure looks much better despite the greatcoat he wears. While this is inaccurate for Canady I am much more pleased with the results.  

Gen. Maximilian Veers Custom Pop

He was the straight-backed, competent Imperial who crushed the rebels at the Battle of Hoth.  A fan favorite, he has yet to be presented as part of the Funko Line.  Well, Veera fans here he is. 

General Veers was not the typical Imperial officer.  He was smart enough to follow his orders and skilled enough to carry them out successfully. 

Intensely loyal to the Empire, Veers is also unconcerned with grandstanding.  He does his job.  Fans can like a character such as Veers because he is not evil.  He is a military leader fighting a war...nothing more.

To make the venerable general, I took a Tarkin body and painted in the gray of the Galactic Empire's line officer corps.  I then took a General Hux head and painted the hat to match.  This required me to paint over the First Order emblem in order to paint the silver officer disk. 

For the rank insignia, I used the image on the Tarkin box. 

Luke Skywalker with X-Wing

This will be a short post as there was very little by way of creativity in the construction of this figure.

While Funko Pop has recently offered a figure of Luke Skywalker with his X-Wing, I noticed that due to the purposeful undersupply of the product its market price has increased. This is simple manipulation of the supply chain to increase demand and raise profits. Economics 101. 

To create my own version, I used the already existing Galactic Heroes X-Wing and slid the Funko Luke Skywalker into the cockpit.  Easy.

I'm back. Been a while since I posted anything but I recently got back into making some custom designs.  For my first offering, I elected to create something within the sphere of Funko Pop's "Delux" line of vehicles with characters. 

As is always the case, Funko seems to keep it's own counsel when considering which characters to design and offer rather than listen to the fabase.  Despite this, they have managed to produce several hits while also missing out on golden opportunities.  Example: Wedge Antilles with Rebel Snowspeeder yet no General Veers with Imperial AT-AT...WTF.

Above we have the First Order TIE Silencer, used by Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi.  I took the current Kylo Ren Pop and removed the head.  I then removed the head of a common First Order TIE Pilot (as the Special Forces one seems to be stupidly expensive) and affixed it to the neck.  This required some elbow grease.

The Kylo Ren neck piece is slightly larger than the spring for the pilot.  I filed the neck to make it smaller and twisted the head on.

To affix the chest plate, I detached the oxygen hose and glued the control box to the chest.  I then constructed a new hose using sculpy.

The look is almost as if it were an offering from Funko itself.