I purchased some tripod lighting to see it I could play around with illuminating the “dark box” I made for shooting still photos
Now, interestingly when shooting photos on the iPhone 11 the smart lens automatically opens enough to get surprisingly good pics even when there’s next to no light available. But when recording a video without the tripod lights it came out just too dim and grainy.
Anyway here’s four poses, one revolution each on the carousel. Turned on every light in the room plus an open window on a sunny summer afternoon. I had played around with different angles for the two light sources and settled on placing them high and pointing a bit down onto the figure.
It’s passable, I’d say. But evidently I need to either upgrade my iPhone (at least to 13 if there’s now a higher one) or just bite the bullet and buy a camera that can do what I want for this hobby.
I think I’ll give Minsc a rest for a while. Unless I pick up cool new weapon or other accessory for him on EBay. Actually, it’d be great if I could find a 1/6 D&D monster to pit him against!
Come this fall I’ll turn my attention to building BG1 Imoen.
One Sixth Baldur's Gate 
I love, love, love Baldur’s Gate (especially Baldur’s Gate II, so much nostalgia)! It is my dream to see some Baldur’s Gate action figures. I would love an accurate Sarevok, Irenicus, Imoen, Minsc (and Boo), Haer’Dalis, Valygar and Neera.
If you need some help in spreading the word, their is a big Baldur’s Gate fan-group on reddit, there is also the official Beamdog forums. Have you tried pitching this idea to Beamdog?
From my knowledge, there is an official Minsc miniature? And a Funko pop. Clearly, Baldur’s Gate figures are popular with us fans. Why not create some 1/6 scale figures?
I truly treasure these games. It’s such high fantasy! Whenever I play, I get so immersed in the story, usually playing a thief or a bard, imagining their interactions with different companions, etc. The music, art and writing are incredible. I love the companion reactions and banters. They feel so real.
I’ve included two links below, one is to a fan figure someone has created of Sarevok already – for anyone interested. It has a cool Bhaal display too. The other is to a similar request on the Beamdog forums. You could bump the thread?
Sarevok: http://forum.action-figure-district.de/viewtopic.php?t=2218
Beamdog post: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/74867/1-6-scale-collectible-figures-for-bg-a-la-hot-toys-or-asmus-if-they-existed-would-you-collect-them
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you my friend! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the encouragement and support. Baldur’s Gate is a special world for me as well. My love for the Forgotten Realms is on par with Tolkien’s Middle Earth (which is saying a lot).
I haven’t played the game in a couple years now. And now I’ve got this secondary hobby of making the figures that sort of took over. But every so often I get the itch to adventure and fight those intense battles. Maybe I’ll start making time for it again. Although with the little time I do have I might also explore BG3 some more. Just in the introduction area so far BG3 hasn’t really grabbed me. I’d much rather see Beamdog use the Infinity EE engine to create an entirely new adventure. The Infinity Engine is to me is damn near perfection. A brand new adventure would need writers other than the ones that penned SOD imho.
I’m actually getting started with making Imoen. I still kind of want to make BG1 Imoen because that’s the first companion that started the whole adventure for me back in 1999. But on the other hand, in more recent years I have used a custom portait for BG2 for her even in BG1. I think I’ll run a poll at the BG subreddit to guage what people would most like to see. If it was just a choice between stock BG1 versus BG2 portraits I would definitely pick BG1, though. There is a small advantage to the BG1 portrait: a photo of the young woman used as inspiration. That would help I should think for making the STL file for the head sculpt.
Thank you for your suggestions for getting the word out on this. I posted at the reddit sub on it about a year ago, and folks were very enthusiastically supportive. However, it remains to be seen how many of people that play the game would actually buy a $200-ish 1/6 action figure! I think the market for a line like this is going to be among already established collectors that would find this particular set of figures interesting, somewhat offbeat, and attractive to display.
And thank you also for the Beamdog suggestion! I am in fact Lemernis, lol! I love that forum community although I haven’t been active there in a dog’s age. Last time I looked I still had mod status even though I’ve been inactive for so long. I started the “Challenges and Playthroughs” subforum, i.e, that was my little sandbox there back in the day. Anyway, the thread I posted about it in the Off Topic forum there got like zero response, lol. So I think the members there are really just into gaming and not interested in collecting 1/6 figures.
I was going to wait until I had at least two NPCs completed before I reached out to one of the Beamdog staff to see if they could help, had suggestions, etc. But the more I think about it, maybe even just having Minsc and Boo completed will be sufficient to demonstrate that the figures look cool and would be desirable to own for enough 1/6 figure collectors to be profitable. Beamdog has contacts with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. I would imagine that its probably WotC that owns the license required for a toy company to make the figures.
There’s also a growing number of so-called “third party” companies in China that make figures that are unlicensed. Meaning they don’t have the license but they don’t care because they’re in China, etc. But even putting the morality of that aside (i.e, many of the things we buy are knock-offs made in China and people don’t even realize it), I don’t see any of those companies making figures from a 20+ year-old game!
LikeLike
I believe many people would pay for 1/6 Baldur’s Gate action figures. McFarlane Toys are selling Doom action figures (on Amazon), and there are also figures of Darth Nihilus, Revan and Malak from the Knights of the Old Republic role playing games out there.
I think it wouldn’t hurt for a company to make one (let’s say one of Irenicus or Sarevok) and see how the figure fares. If it does well, why not create more? If it doesn’t do well – they get an idea of what people want. Minsc was popular enough to get his own Funko Pop.
It’s lovely to hear from you and have this discussion.
Imoen sounds great! I think Imoen was always supposed to look like her Baldur’s Gate II portrait depicts her. Otherwise, they would have kept her with something similar to Baldur’s Gate 1’s portrait.
Personally: I think pink hair AND a scar are essential. I like Siege of Dragonspear’s take on Imoen’s portrait (a mashup of her two other portraits).
I would highly recommend reaching out to the Beamdog staff right now. Your Minsc figure is an amazing accomplishment! You can contact them now, and everytime you create a new figure. No reason why you cannot do both at once. Your figures are good enough. The Minsc figure speaks for itself. Contact Beamdog and Julius Borisov. Find out what person you need to speak to from the Wizards of the Coast.
You can even post to the Baldur’s Gate subreddit to gauge the interest people would have in action figures, for something else to potentially show Beamdog/Wizards to sell your idea and showcase people’s interest.
Don’t mistake the fans active in online groups for all of the fans either. I know many people in real life who are Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons and Dragons fans who would kill for figures of Sarevok or Minsc, but who are not active at all, in the online world.
I don’t like how the “3” was added to Baldur’s Gate 3’s title. The new game has no real connection to the old games. I’m not a fan of the graphics or the style of it. Sure, it uses the D&D ruleset, but to me, it sadly looks like a generic fantasy game and not something of the standard or caliber of Baldur’s Gate 1 + 2, Planescape Torment or Kotor 1 + 2. (Or Fallout New Vegas).
I had no idea you were Lemernis. It’s cool to hear of your involvement there. The Beamdog Forums have so many interesting and funny threads. Enjoy life! Chase your dream and all of the fans dream, to see some 1/6 action figures or at the very least a set of Baldur’s Gate miniatures.
LikeLiked by 1 person