Donnie Yen in Kill Zone SPL 殺破狼 [ REAL HAIR ] – Custom 12″ Action Figure 1:6

Kung Fu Cinema Madness!  Here’s my tribute to kung fu superstar Donnie Yen in his darkest and maybe best film, SPL (殺破狼, 2005) – Known as Kill Zone in North America.

Donnie Yen 12" SPL Kill Zone Custom Figure

BACKGROUND:

American-born Donnie Yen has been a martial arts actor & choreographer in the Hong Kong film industry since the late 1980’s. Though he was widely considered one of cinema’s best martial artists, megastardom like that of contemporary Jet Li consistently eluded him in the first half of his career. After a brief stint in Hollywood (that’s him as samurai vampire “Snowman” in Blade 2!), he returned to Hong Kong to make SPL, the first in a series of collaborations with director Wilson Yip. These films would eventually lead to Ip Man, the smash hit about Bruce Lee’s master that would finally bestow to Donnie the superstar status that he had long sought after.

This newfound fame was not without a price. While Yen could make polished, big budget films with elaborate action sequences, his status as a Chinese National Hero meant he could now only play heroic characters in stories with happy endings.

Here then, is my tribute to that brief perfect moment before Ip Man, when he was pushing the boundaries of action cinema but was still obscure enough to play anti-heroes in dark serious films.

FIGURE:

1/6 Donnie Yen in Saat Po Long / Kill Zone

Donnie Yen 12" SPL Kill Zone Custom Figure

Donnie Yen 12" SPL Kill Zone Custom Figure

spl_killzone_actionfigure4 spl_killzone_actionfigure6_boots

Donnie Yen 12" 1:6 custom action figure SPL Killzone 2010

With natural lighting to show the paint job:

Donnie Yen 12" 1:6 custom action figure SPL Killzone 2010 Donnie Yen 12" 1:6 custom action figure SPL Killzone 2010

 

One more full body shot: Donnie Yen 12" 1:6 custom action figure SPL Killzone 2010

Making of:

On the Shelf:
spl_killzone_actionfigure_ontheshelf

For the real fans who know the score:
spl_killzone_actionfigure_vs_wujing

RECIPE FOR THIS DONNIE YEN SPL FIGURE:
RECIPE:

Head – Enterbay Ip Man (recast, drilled, repainted, added real hair)
Body – Soldier Story (elongated neck)
Hands – HT & Enterbay
Shirt – 21C (Their shirt uses surprisingly thin material! I took the shirt in heavily for a better fit and added buttons. I also sewed it close.)
Pants – TTL
Jacket – Ebay knockoff of Saturday Toys Prison Break sets. Heavily taken in for that fitted look.
Baton – Hot Toys
Necklace – Custom
Boots – ITPT zip up jack boots (opened it up, reshaped it into square toe, sculpted new sole, added straps and ring)

12″ Head Sculpt Repaints – Quantum of Solace 007 Daniel Craig & Blood Diamond DiCaprio

Finally found some time to work on figures. I wanted to practice my blonde hair painting technique as I find that hair colour very hard to capture.

Both of these happen to be Feng headsculpts released commercially with terrible paint jobs. I stripped the paint off and repainted with Liquitex acrylics (truly loads better than the cheap craft paints – Try them). Feng’s sculpts can border on caricature, but to me that just gives them more character and feel than other more accurate but conservative portraits.

First up is 12″ action figure of Daniel Craig as James Bond in Quantum Of Solace.  The original head sculpt came from the Toys City Gestapo 12″ figure set.

quantumbond_mid

quantumbond_faceright quantumbond_faceleft

quantumbond_fullquantumbond_mid2

 

Second is Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond. The headsculpt is from the Toymaster War Journalist 12″ figure set. The eyes are moveable and I almost destroyed them painting, stripping and repainting them 4 times (seriously). In the end, the eye paint ended up looking almost the same as the factory eye paint.

He still needs weathering and a weapon upgrade courtesy of Subway’s 24 Hero set (can’t wait for that fig).

blooddiamond_figure blooddiamond_face

quantumbond_blooddiamond_duo