Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: SOLD OUT!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-10-07, 09:30:02

Now's your chance to own my latest Droids Custom: Klaatu Skiff Guard! I gotta tell you, I absolutely LOVE how the art turned out on this one. Dynamic. Thrilling. Competent. Couldn't be happier.

I am really unhappy with how these photos turned out, though! I took them in the late afternoon yesterday, and it made the light source very bluish rather than the warm morning light I usually get (when I actually remember to take the photos at the right time). So almost all of the warmth of the you could see in last week's photos is completely washed out. I really gotta retake the photos when I get the chance. I just don't have time before the sale goes live...

Seeing how this Klaatu is the same character as the other Klaatu, I reused the description on the back of the card. Is that lazy? Perhaps. Does it bother me? Not enough to make me do it differently.

So, you probably know the drill by now. To add one of these beauties to your collection, sadly you're a bit too late. They've already sold out.

Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: On Sale Wednesday!!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-10-05, 14:49:46

It was a productive weekend! I finished the art for the card:

Then I took a photo of the figure and updated the back:

Interesting note - I learned from Wookieepedia that Klaatu and Klaatu Skiff Guard are actually supposed to be the same character, not two different "Klaatu" species aliens. In fact, Klaatu is a Nikto! Which brings up a whole new problem - what's Nikto's name then? Is he like a human named "Human"?

Saturday and Sunday I assembled the figures, much to the distress of my lower back. And I finished.

So all that's left to do is sell these things. They will be posted for sale here on Wednesday, October 7th at 9:30am Eastern (NYC) time. The cost on these will be $130 + shipping. The figures themselves were a bit pricier than previous ones. First-come, first-served. I recommend if you want to score one you bookmark this website and start hitting refresh at 9:30am until you see the ordering instructions.

Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: Finished colors!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-30, 10:46:00

I finished the colors for my next Droids custom. All systems are go for production this weekend! Here's how it went down. First I worked on the Sarlacc Pit:

Next I worked on Klaatu himself.

What else was left? The Skiff, obviously!

For the sky, I used one of my photos when i visited Tunisia as a reference. I know it's not Death Valley... but it is still Tatooine!

And the final thing was the sand... which we hate. It gets everywhere...

All that's left is to drop it onto my template and start printing. Check back Monday for confirmation when they'll go live.

Touring Lucasfilm HQ (Part 2)

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-30, 10:36:45

Last week I shared the first 2/3 of the photos I took during my tour of Lucasfilm Headquarters at the Presidio in San Francisco. So before you read any of this, you should really check those out if you haven't already. So where were we? Oh yeah, we had ...

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Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: Color blocking

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-23, 10:48:58

I completed blocking out the base colors for my Droids Klaatu Skiff. It's a bit of a tedious process, but it's gotta get done. Here's a quick display of the process (and progress):

I was looking at the calendar, and I saw next week the Steelers play Thursday night instead of Sunday, which means my weekend of October 3rd & 4ths is completely wide open. So I'm planning to finish the colors before the end of next week so I can spend that time assembling these. I love it when a plan comes together!

Touring Lucasfilm HQ (Part 1)

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-23, 10:36:27

So about a year ago I learned I was gonna be in the San Francisco area for a collector get-together. This would be my first ever visit to "NoCal" and it quickly dawned on me it'd be a perfect opportunity to finally visit Lucasfilm headquarters at the Presidio. I've seen ...

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CreatureCantina.com does Lucasfilm HQ!!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-16, 09:00:31

One week ago today I got to do something truly incredible. I visited the Lucasfilm headquarters at the Presidio in San Francisco.

I was joined by a few friends from the Pennsylvania Star Wars Collecting Society for a tour. It was unreal - being in the actual place where Star Wars is made. Much to my surprise our guide told us we were welcome to take as many photos as we wanted... just no video. So I ended up taking over 200 photos.

I still need to go about processing those photos, but I wanted to start by sharing this one. I have a feeling this might be somehow important in an upcoming Star Wars project...

I hope to post a full review next week if I'm able to get it all together.

Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: Final inks!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-16, 08:53:08

It's been a super crazy busy couple weeks, but I did find a few moments to finish the inks on my KS:

It really turned out spectacular (if I do say so myself). I also scanned it in, and I'm ready to begin cleaning up the inks. I do this by making a new "black lines" layer in Photoshop then giving it an 8-pixel red stroke. This makes all the stray specks really obvious and easy to erase.

Check back next week for some colors!

Droids Custom Klaatu Skiff: Almost entirely inked!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-02, 09:55:11

Over the weekend I finished penciling my Klaatu Skiff.

As you can see, I used a Vintage Kenner Skiff to fill out the background. I think it turned out really nicely. With that complete, last night after work I sat down and began inking.

I wasn't super happy with the way my ink flowed while drawing my last Droids custom, so I tried watering down the ink quite a bit before I began. That ended up being a very smart decision, cuz the inking went' fantastic.

Inking stuff like tentacles is right in my wheelhouse. I'd say it's just super easy because they're alien rather than real and you can get away with a lot, but whatever the reason mine always look great!

I finished the session working on the teeth in the Sarlacc as well as some of the walls of the pit. I didn't finish completely, but what's done I'm super happy with!

I'm about to head away on vacation for a week, so I won't have any progress to share next Wednesday. So stop back in a couple weeks to see the finished inks and hopefully a lot of color.

Action Figures & Their Beers -- Hefty!

by Bill Cable
on 2026-09-02, 09:33:45

This week we look at the second Icelandic beer I grabbed during my visit to Shangy's in Emmaus, PA... a Scottish ale called Wee Heavy.

The can notes it's brewed with Angelica root, which is something I'd never heard of. After looking it up, I discovered ...

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