Fully articulated goblin Griphook (Star Ace / Mr. Z kitbash)

Let me start of by saying that I'm not a Harry Potter fan by any stretch of the imagination. That said, I have picked up a few bits and pieces from Harry Potter Star Ace sets over the years. Now for the first time I picked up enough to more or less recreate and entire character -- Griphook (who is apparently a goblin). The original set was reviewed by Michael Crawford.

I just thought he looked different and interesting for a random goblin or dwarf character. I had read the review, so I don't know what I was thinking buying the body. It would have needed changing anyway -- as it had no torso, thigh, or knee articulation -- but almost immediately the relatively brittle plastic elbow joint broke. I do not have the skill or patience of Alex (shovelchop) to put together such bodies myself, but I remembered the Mr. Z child bodies already discussed by Ovy. I had picked up a couple of those (not that I had anything to do with them), and decided to see if I can substitute one of them for the faulty and under-articulated Star Ace body. The child body is slimmer and just a little shorter, but it works reasonably well. More importantly, it is fully articulated. I gave Griphook a young apprentice (yes, that was the most youthful head sculpt I had handy) to help demonstrate the articulation (these bodies are not meant to be seen disrobed). I could use a little extra padding for Griphook, and still thinking of ways to improve the fit of the Star Ace ankle and wrist pegs (or shoes and hands) to the Mr. Z body, but I think it worked out ok.





















What do you think?

#harrypotter #griphook #starace #mrz #kitbash #custom #goblin #dwarf #fantasy

Griphook turned out great on the Mr. Z body! Really good idea to improve the articulation. I can see what you mean about the padding, to fill out the clothing a bit more. But otherwise seems like it worked out well. 

And 'baby' Joffrey is hilarious. 

skywalkersaga wrote:Griphook turned out great on the Mr. Z body! Really good idea to improve the articulation. I can see what you mean about the padding, to fill out the clothing a bit more. But otherwise seems like it worked out well. And 'baby' Joffrey is hilarious. 

Thank you, Sky, I'm very glad you enjoyed this.

So they made a statue with clothes and removable heads, hands and feet? Interesting choice on their part indeed. I've never been interested in harry potter either, maybe I'm too old fashioned when it comes to magic but mixing the modern world with it has always felt too weird to me, that said the body upgrade is a good idea if you plan on posing him and he's got an apprentice too which is a bonus.

Those guys looks great Ian! nice work.

So the body was a statue with moveable arms and head basically? I don't really know Potter but he looks like a bureaucrat who would sit from time to time.

So good call with the Mr Z body. Was thinking about making a small adult too but didn't find a fitting head yet. Will you cloth little Caligula too?

Caligula

Interesting upgrade. I agree about adding some extra padding, but otherwise it looks good. I’m now glad I passed on this guy, as I had a similar idea as you to use it for something else, but since the underlying body is garbage, there’s no point — since I would want him to be half clothed, like a barbarian or something.

Theboo-bomb wrote:So they made a statue with clothes and removable heads, hands and feet? Interesting choice on their part indeed. I've never been interested in harry potter either, maybe I'm too old fashioned when it comes to magic but mixing the modern world with it has always felt too weird to me, that said the body upgrade is a good idea if you plan on posing him and he's got an apprentice too which is a bonus.

Yes, that is exactly what they did. Well, the arms and elbows had some limited articulation. And thank you. I think I have a similar take on HP. Perhaps it is also I didn't come across it until I was an adult and it never really resonated. The mix of magic and modern-ish wasn't really compelling to me either, although I suppose that could be done.

BAMComix wrote:Those guys looks great Ian! nice work.

Thank you very much, Dal.

Ovy wrote:So the body was a statue with moveable arms and head basically? I don't really know Potter but he looks like a bureaucrat who would sit from time to time. So good call with the Mr Z body. Was thinking about making a small adult too but didn't find a fitting head yet. Will you cloth little Caligula too?

Exactly, right on both counts. I thought the same thing. I don't know that I intend little Caligula to be a permanent character, but if I do, finding clothes to fit might be quite the challenge. Here I was just using him for a clearer view at the Mr. Z body's articulation.

Stryker2011 wrote:Interesting upgrade. I agree about adding some extra padding, but otherwise it looks good. I’m now glad I passed on this guy, as I had a similar idea as you to use it for something else, but since the underlying body is garbage, there’s no point — since I would want him to be half clothed, like a barbarian or something.

Thank you, Mark. I did put a little padding around the waist and lower torso, but I think he can use some around the arms too. If you were shovelchop, you could saw off the lower part of the Star Ace body and mount it on a functional pelvis and legs. Better yet, add new arms too, since these might fail you like they failed me. The Mr. Z body seems to be the best available solution for a fully clothed look, but a shirtless barbarian dwarf would not be easy to pull off with that.

Great result! Reminds me of my Yoda building phase, think I converted 5 Hasbro barely articulated ones to fully articulated using a similar body, can't remember the make, Japanese I think with swap out everything and magnetic feet. A bit shorter that this, around 4" tall.

Thank you very much, Alex, glad you liked it. Of course you usually get much more creative to get the exact right thing in your builds, but it's nice to find an easy solution once in a while. You did 5 Yodas? Wow. Glad there was an easy solution there too, although I imagine you did some extra modification so that the right heads, hands, and feet would show and stay put.

Great intel on the overall workings of Griphook and that there's (unfortunately) a workaround to what looks like a really badly designed body.

Star Ace has always been hit and miss - I have their Voldemort and it's great but Ginny wasn't as good as expected so I'm careful now with Star Ace.

GubernatorFan wrote:Thank you very much, Alex, glad you liked it. Of course you usually get much more creative to get the exact right thing in your builds, but it's nice to find an easy solution once in a while. You did 5 Yodas? Wow. Glad there was an easy solution there too, although I imagine you did some extra modification so that the right heads, hands, and feet would show and stay put.

Used spme spare Sideshow parts for hands and feet mostly, then fabricated costumes, repainted heads etc..so I have 3 prequel Yodas and 2 ESB Yodas.Sorry if I'm derailing your thread..

Allotropos wrote:Great intel on the overall workings of Griphook and that there's (unfortunately) a workaround to what looks like a really badly designed body. Star Ace has always been hit and miss - I have their Voldemort and it's great but Ginny wasn't as good as expected so I'm careful now with Star Ace.

Thank you. But why unfortunately? I agree, they can produce some very promising pieces and then some that fall quite short. I remember someone calling them "Star Disgrace." Likenesses seem to be one of their usual weak points, although this character, with the non-human make up, seems pretty good. I think the only Star Ace product that I have as a complete set is their first Queen Gorgo, which was one of the first things I reviewed here.

shovelchop81 wrote:Used some spare Sideshow parts for hands and feet mostly, then fabricated costumes, repainted heads etc..so I have 3 prequel Yodas and 2 ESB Yodas.Sorry if I'm derailing your thread..

Not at all. This is pertinent. A long time ago I bought a parted out HT or Sideshow Yoda body (I have to look it up) to make small characters with it, although I haven't gotten around to it yet. I suppose with my tunnel vision focused on the Original Trilogy I never really had much interest in owning a prequel Yoda.

Come on you need at least kickass fighting Yoda! Lol. Sorry just quick snaps, probably will come out sideways!

I prefer my Yoda more as a quirky sage, but that is a seriously badass version you made. He poses and looks excellent. Very cool Prequel Trilogy collection. What line is the medical droid from or is it also a custom? Funny, I had just dug up my Yoda (it turned out to be Hot Toys) for a rare appearance here (at the end) --
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t4402-sideshow-and-hot-toys-star-wars-scout-troopers-updated-comparative-review

Great looking Yoda!

GubernatorFan wrote:I prefer my Yoda more as a quirky sage, but that is a seriously badass version you made. He poses and looks excellent. Very cool Prequel Trilogy collection. What line is the medical droid from or is it also a custom? Funny, I had just dug up my Yoda (it turned out to be Hot Toys) for a rare appearance here (at the end) --
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t4402-sideshow-and-hot-toys-star-wars-scout-troopers-updated-comparative-review

It's my customised 2B-1 medical droid, turned a resin bust into a fully functional figure even storing a AA battery in each leg to power his light up effects lol. Here's the thread of build "the building of Darth Vader" made an FX6 medical droid from scratch too with fully posable limbs (12 I think?) and light up feature too.

https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/threads/wip-the-building-of-darth-vader-07-31-12-fx-6-electrickery.635021/#post-1896514

BAMComix wrote:Great looking Yoda!

Thank you BAMC!

shovelchop81 wrote:It's my customised 2B-1 medical droid, turned a resin bust into a fully functional figure even storing a AA battery in each leg to power his light up effects lol. Here's the thread of build "the building of Darth Vader" made an FX6 medical droid from scratch too with fully posable limbs (12 I think?) and light up feature too.

https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/threads/wip-the-building-of-darth-vader-07-31-12-fx-6-electrickery.635021/#post-1896514

"Electickery" is right! Very cool, and so interesting to see how you tackled it, and the others. One day, when you are not working on a specific figure, feel free to showcase some of the finished Star Wars characters you built -- you can leave the WIP part to a link like you did here.

Will do mate cheers!

That´s a excellent upgrade. Great idea. Here in the forum we show photograpie of figures and posing is important that for. Thanks for showing ! The Yoda upgrade is fanatastic too

Thanks Ephiane. I hope one day you could use one of these for one of your characters -- although it is not seamless. And you already have a very cool dwarf...
The badass Yoda is all shovelchop's.