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Staff Spotlight – Fled74

Staff Spotlight – Fled74

We took the time to sit down and do a Q and A session with him. Here is what he had to say.

1 – Some people have collected their entire lives, others have started and stopped at various times. So how long have you had the toy bug and the customizing bug?

Well, I’ll be 39 in December, and I can’t recall a time when I DIDN’T have a toy or model I was pulling apart or gluing together. I suppose having modular toys like blocks, Legos, etc, helped fuel the customizing fire. Not to mention the ARAH Joes whose parts were so easily interchanged!

2 – I know you venture into a lot of different scales, Which is your favorite?

Joe scale or anything nominally 1/18, first and foremost. I really only buy the larger action figures if it’s a character I like and it would be too expensive or time-consuming to make my own 1/18 version.

3 – You have great paint skills, so I am sure a few readers may like to know which brands you use.

For figures I use primarily Games Workshop and Tamiya acrylic paint, although I sometimes use craft store artist’s acrylics in tubes. For vehicles I use hardware store rattle cans then top it with airbrushed Tamiya acrylics. With my cardboard buildings I just use cheap household interior latex paint, thinned with water and tinted with tube acrylic paint. I’m a cheapskate and my hobby motto is “Do what I can with what I’ve got”.

4 – When your not running for your life from the native poisonous critters that lurk everywhere in Australia, what other hobbies do you enjoy?

Besides action figures? God, where do I start? The hobby I’ve actually made money with is building custom lowrider/cruiser bicycles. I have three in the garage at the moment, one of which (a Schwinn Stingray chopper) is in pieces for respraying. Then there’s my toy gun collection. Given Australia’s draconian gun laws, they’re the closest I can get to actually owning a rifle. I also love to draw. I once worked in TV animation, and I like to keep the skills sharpened. Writing is another love of mine. I have a half-finished novel in the works, as well as a Voltron fan fiction collaboration with my wife (we have a lot of followers on fanfiction dot net). It can be a crazy juggling act sometimes.

5 – OK, I know your wife is a Voltron fan and you really enjoy Final Fantasy. So, a movie producer asks you to pick just one script for a major motion picture release, live action. Voltron or FF. Which do you choose?

Voltron, of course. We’ve already had the dismal big-budget FF movie, and the excellent FF7 Advent Children (Blu-Ray extended edition, of course). I’m currently working on a Voltron fan comic that bridges the gap between the classic 1984 series and the 2011 sequel series.

6 – We all get customizing war wounds, sliced fingers, glued fingers, burns………etc. What is your worst customizing war wound?

Besides all those you mentioned… breathing problems from neglecting to wear a mask while spraying paint outdoors. Stupid me.

7 – In your entire collection, what is your favorite piece, any scale, and why? Is it because of nostalgia, sculpt, likeness, or what?

I’d have to say my customized BBI Blackhawk (original release). It was my first “serious” 1/18 purchase, and my gateway from Joescale to “realistic” 1/18 collecting. I think anyone who has one will agree that it’s a gorgeous piece, especially with Pickelhaube’s add-on bits!

8 – We all want to know, well I do, how long does it take for you to come up with the brilliant Eddieism’s you come up with? Do you see a post and jot it down for the future, or is it done all in one shot?

Most are done in one shot, but occasionally I’ll spot a post with potential and save it in a Notepad txt file for later. Yeah, it’s immature and my mind is always in the gutter, but you guys (along with my wife) seem to like it!

9 – Speed round! – Pepsi or Coke? Regular or decaf? Day person or night person? Cat or Dog? Tom or Jerry? Hamburger or Hotdog? Left or right hand (for Eddie of course)? Butt or Breasts?

Coke. Double espresso shots(decaf is for the weak). Night person. Dog. Both. Both. Right. Both.

Final Thoughts from Fled.

“The last few years of 1/1 life have been tough going, but this hobby (and this board) have helped preserve my sanity and sense of well-being.
Toy collecting itself is therapeutic, but being surrounded by like-minded folk is even more so.
I have not met a single one of you in real life, yet I consider many of you my friends.

To all the people who have made this forum such a great place to be, I offer my thanks.”

Now for a gallery of some of his pictures.

I would like to thank Fled for taking the time to answer my questions. I would also like to remind everyone that the opinions in this article are those of the Authors and not of the Fighting 118th’s. Thanks for reading.


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