Droids Customs: Dawn of a new era!

by Bill Cable
on 2024-07-31, 08:35:31

Something new is brewing for my Droids customs. This would be the biggest changes since I switched to custom-ordered bubbles back in 2015. I recently received these in the mail:

So this all started out when my normal bubble guy said he couldn't pull Max Rebo bubbles because they were too thick. They ended up failing too often to do a full run. But I really want to do Max Rebo, so I looked around for another vendor. And I discovered a company called Beggar's Canyon Toys offered a Max Rebo "restoration kit." I reached out and asked if they could do a run of bubbles with the coin bump on the opposite side. They replied that maybe they can do even better than that!

Scott was like "send me your art and I can print your cards for you." And I was like... I've been making them myself via an excruciating 43-step process for a decade now, and it works for me. But then I got to thinking... mounting the printed front and back to comic book backers and attaching the bubbles is getting tougher and tougher on my back. I'm leaning over my table for close to 12 hours over a weekend. I kind of enjoy it, but it's also a lot. So I figured, what the hell. I sent him some image files and printed out color samples just to see what he could do with it.

I was impressed! For a first shot at it, they turned out very nice. I sent the back image with no bleed (that's how I cut mine to size), so there's some alignment issues. But in-hand... they're like a production Kenner cardback. Die-cut punch and everything.

The color still needs to be tweaked slightly (a bit too blue v/s cyan on the back). But it's really close. And when we nail it, my customs will be an even better product than I currently produce!

In particular, I like that the image quality is actually better than what I get from my laser printer. More vibrant, and higher detail.

But wait - there's more! On top of printing the cards, he said they could also mount the bubbles using an authentic heat seal process. Check this out:

Waffle pattern and everything! How wild is that?? I gotta say, I'm pretty excited by this opportunity. I still need to talk to Scott and nail down pricing, but I really think this could be the next evolution in my Droids Customs: production-like MOC figures. It's crazy. Better quality product. Far less back-breaking labor. And hopefully, the same collector-friendly price. Stay tuned!