Reworking old-style Jeff Stryker head experiment

I was rummaging through a box of odd bits and pieces looking for something, when I came across items saved from a figure I had discarded long ago. Before there were TBLeague male figures, my female figures needed to find their (semi-)seamless male counterparts where they could, which led to the somewhat unlikely acquisition of a Jeff Stryker action figure (if you are going to look it up -- or him -- be aware you are likely to stumble across plenty of NSFW stuff). This was made around 2003 (I think), had very disappointing articulation, clothing that was probably fine at the time but does not look good now (you can see that below), except perhaps for the leather vest, and a head that was at once old style, stylized, and distinctly off-putting -- to me. I had tossed the body out ages ago, and was about to do the same to these remnants, but it occurred to me that it is a good thing to experiment with: could I repaint it to make it more realistic, and could I make it fit (physically and visually/color-wise) a TBLeague body. So here it goes.

















I still don't particularly like it, but think it is an improvement. The skin tone match seems pretty decent. And I think so was my attempt to paint hazel, although it is barely noticeable in the end. I don't think this was an instance of one of those pretty good head sculpts simply buried beneath a poor paint job. Then again, my painting skills are pretty limited in this scale. The head also required a lot of modification to sit more or less properly on the TBLeague neck peg.

As always, what do you think?

#repainting #head #male #custom #contemporary

For what little the sculpt offered you to work with in the first place, i'd say you did a good job.
the new paint job is definately an improvement and theres only so much you can do to make a neck fit, which sadly doesnt quite due to the odd straight neck line.
Something similar i had to deal with when trying to use a wolfenstein blazkowicz sculpt on a newer body. luckily could opt for a clothed look
this one here seems semi-giraffe but i guess theres not much space left inside the head upwards before you break through the sculpt.

Tjolnir wrote:For what little the sculpt offered you to work with in the first place, i'd say you did a good job.
the new paint job is definately an improvement and theres only so much you can do to make a neck fit, which sadly doesnt quite due to the odd straight neck line.
Something similar i had to deal with when trying to use a wolfenstein blazkowicz sculpt on a newer body. luckily could opt for a clothed look
this one here seems semi-giraffe but i guess theres not much space left inside the head upwards before you break through the sculpt.

Thank you, and thanks for commenting. If I keep fiddling with it, I might be able to do something about the straight neck line, but I think that, after a little further drilling, I have gotten to the point where going beyond that would drill through the top of the head (I can feel the dremel under the surface). It might have gotten a little better. The head is made from somewhat soft (but not hollow) rubbery plastic of some sort, which is why it takes paint and drilling a little differently than the PVC I usually work on.

I would have sworn that the original was a female sculpt.  Your repaint sorts that out and gives him a much more realistic portrait and some much needed character.

I keep seeing Dr. Robert from the Blow Monkeys in there somewhere between the original and your version. The hair wouldn’t be quite right though.

Xavion2004 wrote:I would have sworn that the original was a female sculpt.  Your repaint sorts that out and gives him a much more realistic portrait and some much needed character.

I keep seeing Dr. Robert from the Blow Monkeys in there somewhere between the original and your version.  The hair wouldn’t be quite right though.

LOL well, between the pencil eyebrows, the very heavy solid strip of paint eyelashes, the very dark red lips (darker in hand), and the cheekbones, I believe you. And thank you for the kind words. There is something of the subject's appearance in there, but it is overly stylized. From what I saw, the hair should be messier and bulkier -- but if they tried to make it so, I bet it would have looked worse. He shares that with your Dr Robert -- and the slightly orange-y lips. There are some other features that would have probably made Dr Robert suitable for the look valued in Jeff's line of work.

I really like how you painted his eyes - the original sculpt has such an intense gaze and the repaint really complements that. I’m very envious of how well the brows match too - I can never draw them evenly on my gigs! lol
If it were me I’d have toned down the lip colour a little bit as it looks a tad vibrant for my taste though. XD

Lynkhart wrote:I really like how you painted his eyes - the original sculpt has such an intense gaze and the repaint really complements that. I’m very envious of how well the brows match too - I can never draw them evenly on my gigs! lol
If it were me I’d have toned down the lip colour a little bit as it looks a tad vibrant for my taste though. XD

Thank you very much. Given your expertise and my own misgivings, that is praise indeed. The original head's pupils looked overly dilated and had the dreaded doll dot anyway. I covered the original eyes in white (with a bit of ivory to keep it from being industrial), then repainted them with concentric successive black, hazel (greens+brown+gold), and black circles, looking just a little bit off to the side. I can't seem to capture it with the camera, but I gave them a good doze of gloss. Unfortunately, the sculpt did not include any indication of an eyelid. I partly dulled (with "German black brown" from Vallejo) the heavy eyeliner effect, partly broke it up into segments (eyelashes, if you will) with some flesh-colored paint. It looks horrible in macro photos (I'm trying to avoid them LOL), but ok in hand. The eyebrows were well-sculpted, I just carefully applied the darker brown onto them in contrast to the underlying flesh color. I may have extended them a bit for accuracy (to the sides). Point is, I had help from the sculpt. I agree about the lip color, although it really was sorta like that on the reference photos I found -- an orange-y pink (may have had something to do with light, camera filters, fake tan, I don't know). As usual, I struggled with it, but it kept coming out lighter or indistinguishable than the flesh color, so I ended up with this. I do wish it were not quite as bright, but I don't seem to be able to find a happy medium.

GubernatorFan wrote:I covered the original eyes in white (with a bit of ivory to keep it from being industrial), then repainted them with concentric successive black, hazel (greens+brown+gold), and black circles, looking just a little bit off to the side. I can't seem to capture it with the camera, but I gave them a good doze of gloss. Unfortunately, the sculpt did not include any indication of an eyelid. I partly dulled (with "German black brown" from Vallejo) the heavy eyeliner effect, partly broke it up into segments (eyelashes, if you will) with some flesh-colored paint. It looks horrible in macro photos (I'm trying to avoid them LOL), but ok in hand. The eyebrows were well-sculpted, I just carefully applied the darker brown onto them in contrast to the underlying flesh color. I may have extended them a bit for accuracy (to the sides).

…and now I remember why I don’t paint eyes…or anything else for that matter.

Xavion2004 wrote:…and now I remember why I don’t paint eyes…or anything else for that matter.  

Yeah, eyes are a special sort of pain (and apparently so are lips -- to me). You wouldn't know it by looking at my work -- especially macro photos -- but it isn't that hopeless. With eyes we have discussed the possibility of using decals -- I ordered some but haven't gotten around to trying them. Also, in hand things tend to look a lot better than in macro photos (even macro photos as small as the ones I'm allowing myself to post). But if you are a beginner, make sure you practice on stuff you won't miss. And it's always nice to have back ups.

I tried using decals for a particular project recently and gave up after several attempts - far too fiddly!

Lynkhart wrote:I tried using decals for a particular project recently and gave up after several attempts - far too fiddly!

I'm sorry to hear that. Been hoping they would be the answer to my eye-painting woes.

In fairness they were homemade decals and I smooshed one of them before I had the chance to actually apply it, so it was mostly down to human error; the decals themselves were sound!

Looks pretty good. Reminds me of a young Morten Harket from A-Ha.

Lynkhart wrote:In fairness they were homemade decals and I smooshed one of them before I had the chance to actually apply it, so it was mostly down to human error; the decals themselves were sound!

Well, I'm unlikely to have any more luck with them.

shazzdan wrote:Looks pretty good. Reminds me of a young Morten Harket from A-Ha.

Thank you very much. I looked him up, and yes, I see some resemblance.

I originally thought it was a lady headsculpt but I see I was really wrong. I think a skinnier body would work, or maybe a female body? What a strange product that Jeff Stryker action figure was.

Theboo-bomb wrote:I originally thought it was a lady headsculpt but I see I was really wrong. I think a skinnier body would work, or maybe a female body? What a strange product that Jeff Stryker action figure was.

LOL with those fine features and dark red lips, who could blame you? And it works a little better now that the head sits a little lower still on the neck. Yes, it was a strange product, but I think at the time a number of those actors were getting themselves rendered in action figures or dolls. But that body was very poorly done in terms of functionality. Ultimately the main point of the experiment was to see if the sculpt can be made more realistic -- I'm not expecting much use from it.

So I had no idea who Jeff Stryker was and looked him up...
I remember some company made a small scale Jenna Jameson figure, and some other female porn stars, but not as detailed as this Jeff doll...
I wonder why TBLeague hasn't started doing figures of porn stars (other than the two they released a few years back), they would make a killing.

ahbake wrote:So I had no idea who Jeff Stryker was and looked him up...
I remember some company made a small scale Jenna Jameson figure, and some other female porn stars, but not as detailed as this Jeff doll...
I wonder why TBLeague hasn't started doing figures of porn stars (other than the two they released a few years back), they would make a killing.

I remember someone did a Jenna figure too, but there were already (or soon) plastic skeleton Phicens and then the modern stainless steel skeleton ones, which performed better. Of course, male figures in that line appeared considerably later, hence the attempted recourse to Jeff -- which was not a practical alternative. Apparently Jeff was quite a star in various adult areas, and had a stab at a legitimate film career too. Good question about TBLeague failing to do more of those. I think most of us are perfectly happy kitbashing our own characters, but I'm sure there would be some demand for it -- and it's not as if TBLeague has been overly prudish or even tasteful. But perhaps even they think it would create a certain perception about their company and product...

Not the Stryker I was looking for, but nice nonetheless. Does anybody know one of the Korean/Hong Kong/Chinese/etc master painters ever painted an old head realistically?.Like, that adorable GI Joe regular dude with super realist face paint and hair and eyes etc, would be fun.

Ovy wrote:Not the Stryker I was looking for, but nice nonetheless. Does anybody know one of the Korean/Hong Kong/Chinese/etc master painters ever painted an old head realistically?.Like, that adorable GI Joe regular dude with super realist face paint and hair and eyes etc, would be fun.

Oh yes, no relation to our Stryker, I expect. Thank you. I have a vague notion that it has been done -- painting old head sculpts realistically, but I might be partly confused by improved custom repainting of newer head sculpts (even Hot Toys!). There is certainly a notion that at least some old head sculpts (not so much this one, apparently) are actually quite good, but usually that is partly obscured by poor assembly line paint jobs. Which GI Joe regular dude  did you have in mind?

GubernatorFan wrote:..... Which GI Joe regular dude  did you have in mind?

Don't know much about GIjoe, but I mean like Jake by BAMcomics. Would be fun to see how it looks.

I don't know much about these or own one, but that would be a good question. At least in this case the head does not look too large for the body (I think many of those older heads might be), and that is a good start.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ahbake wrote:So I had no idea who Jeff Stryker was and looked him up...
I remember some company made a small scale Jenna Jameson figure, and some other female porn stars, but not as detailed as this Jeff doll...
I wonder why TBLeague hasn't started doing figures of porn stars (other than the two they released a few years back), they would make a killing.

I remember someone did a Jenna figure too, but there were already (or soon) plastic skeleton Phicens and then the modern stainless steel skeleton ones, which performed better. Of course, male figures in that line appeared considerably later, hence the attempted recourse to Jeff -- which was not a practical alternative. Apparently Jeff was quite a star in various adult areas, and had a stab at a legitimate film career too. Good question about TBLeague failing to do more of those. I think most of us are perfectly happy kitbashing our own characters, but I'm sure there would be some demand for it -- and it's not as if TBLeague has been overly prudish or even tasteful. But perhaps even they think it would create a certain perception about their company and product...

Ugh.  No thank you.  It’s hard enough to shake the stigma attached to Phicen/TB League seamless bodies as it is.

Xavion2004 wrote:Ugh.  No thank you.  It’s hard enough to shake the stigma attached to Phicen/TB League seamless bodies as it is.

That's exactly what I was getting at.

According to The OneSixthCloser, here’s the deal in regards to adult film stars:

The question was asked directly to Phicen/TBL by a friend a long time ago after the figures of Seka and Sarina Valentina were released.

The answer is obvious and simple.

They didn’t receive the usual reception in the Asian market. They “sold,” but it was not necessarily popular/profitable as their non-adult releases. They received inquiries and supposedly proposals for other adult film stars, but the owner of Phicen was not keen to pursue it.

Sarina took the longest to sell out and the major complaint about her was her body. Many repurposed it by removing the penis that was glued on (I myself did exactly that). The hilarious part is now the secondary market prices for a MIB/NRFB Seka and Sarina by collectors. Phicen/TBL was approached for male adult stars, but they were not “comfortable” with the idea.


By the way, they also did a third Asian star: Okita Anri, a Pop Star who also happened to do adult films. It was only available through Asian retailers. I actually own that one, as it is a really nice head sculpt -- one in which they specifically had this young lady come in for 3D scans.