This figure started life as a test idea I wanted to see how it would turn out.

I'm sure many people have see the Kotobukiya Bishoujo Statues-basically they take superheros and other big name icons and turn them into anime styled statues. A cool concept, but they're usually a little pricey depending on the character. After seeing a lot of off brand anime character statues on EBay, I decided to use one as a base and try making my own.

In this case, I decided to use an Android 18 figure from the DBZ series and turn her into Raven from the Teen Titans. Obviously most anime figures come pretty sexualized, but I didn't want to go overboard on this so I picked a casual looking Android 18 figure to make a casual looking Raven. Body proportions are still a bit out there, but again, it's pretty tame for the style.

To start with, the right arm, her hair and her top were removed. Then everything was repainted with the original head having the her forehead crystal sculpted on and painted. Before I reassembled everything, everything (minus her top since it is made of more flexible rubber) was sealed to help keep the paint nice. I knew if I tried to seal the top it would just end up sticky due to the rubbers reaction.

After everything dried, I reassembled all the parts, repainted the original base and sealed that as well.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this figure turned out, especially since the anime facial expressions and having to repaint things like the eyebrows was originally daunting.

The only part I have a love/hate relationship is the hair style. On one hand, I feel like the forehead looks big and exposed. On the other, I understand it's part of the anime style and it actually helps make her forehead diamond not look cramped, so mostly I just have to get used to it as I come around more.