“If money wasn’t an issue, what would you be doing now?”

 

Dave Navarro couldn’t answer that question until 2015, when his work, a bust of Marvel’s Rhino, was exhibited at the Singapore Toy Game and Comic Convention by XM Studios.

 

After the event, he left Hit Productions (“the Philippines’ top supplier of music, sound and voice talent for advertising”), where he had spent almost 15 years as senior audio engineer.

 

“I finally accepted that I am more of a visual artist than a sound designer,” said Navarro.

 

He started painting as a hobby. “When I was in college,” he recalled, “my uncle Mon gave me a 10-inch-tall plastic statue of Superman for Christmas. I thought that the anatomy was amazing! But it was painted terribly.”

 

He was art editor of the Malate Literary Folio at De La Salle University, “so I was already familiar with the basics of painting, thanks to the workshops held in school.”

 

His girlfriend then gave him model kits of Michael Keaton as Batman and Brandon Lee as the Crow. “The kits motivated me to learn more about painting realistic portraits,” he said.

 

Navarro trained himself to paint better through research. “This was before mobile phones and YouTube, so you can just imagine how difficult and expensive it was for a student to buy art books,” he said. “Even more difficult, I was struggling with a double degree in psychology and business management. It didn’t end well; one degree had to be sacrificed.”

 

When “The Lord of the Rings” figures were released, Navarro found them highly detailed, but also poorly painted and proportioned.

 

Winning prizes

 

In 2007, Navarro joined his first custom-figure contest at the Toy Convention (ToyCon), the biggest comic-book, cosplay and toy event in the Philippines. People from toy companies in the United States judged the competition.

 

He placed second for his “Lobo” entry from DC Comics, but a few days after posting the photo online, a guy from Spain contacted Navarro and asked if he could make him a Conan figure. “That was how I started making personally commissioned work for clients all over the world,” said Navarro.

 

In 2014, he placed first at the ToyCon’s diorama competition for “The Hunt,” featuring Jon Snow and his direwolf Ghost from “Game of Thrones.”

 

At the 2015 ToyCon, he placed second at the custom-figure contest with his entry, “The Punisher.” After the awarding ceremony, Navarro was approached by Rad Pearl Thunder Studios, asking if he wanted to make a statue for Marvel.

 

His other awards include World’s Greatest Customizer March 2015 (for a seven-inch-tall figure of Spawn, which sold locally for P6,000) and April 2015; Custom Tag team champion with Brett Brayman in July 2015 for WeaponX Age of Apocalypse; and World’s Freestyle Cup Winner in November 2015 for a seven-inch-tall figure of Ares.

 

World’s Greatest Customizers is a Facebook group for pro-sculptors, artists, pro-customizers, toy designers, collectors and enthusiasts. “We post our work every month,” explained Navarro. “Administrators nominate the best. Members get to vote which entries are the best in selected categories. I feel honored and grateful that the best in the world chose some of my figures to win.”

 

On his decision to go full-time, he said, “I was getting more and more requests from people on Facebook and other hobby threads online, asking if I could make figures for them.”

 

He even made a Yoda figure for someone from Disney, but “I was finishing the job after getting home from work, so I had to turn down a lot of people. It made me wonder if I could do this for a living. I knew a lot of guys who did it full time, and most of them are Filipino. Bias aside, the best figure customizers are Filipino.”

 

Navarro has tried making a living out of his other talents, like acting on TV and Repertory Philippines. “But those didn’t work,” he admitted. “I realized that the most fulfilling and financially rewarding are voice recording and figure sculpting. In the end, I really just wanted to sculpt, paint and make works of art I can share with the world… particularly the geeks and fan boys of Earth. And hopefully, once I’ve acquired enough skills and get investors, I’d like to train and give jobs to other artists.”

 

Today, Navarro is an action figure custom artist and a freelance sculptor, creating prototype hero statues for companies.

 

He accepts commission-based projects of action figures.

 

“I’m working on a project for Rad Pearl Thunder Studios, a local statue producer and manufacturer internationally known in the hobby community. They supply statue bust prototypes for XM Studios in Singapore. XM Studios is one of the top global companies that make premium-quality statues of Marvel and DC Comics characters,” he said.

 

Sculpt anywhere

 

“What makes me different from other sculptors is that I can sculpt anywhere,” he pointed out. “I’ve never had a workshop since I had spent most of my waking hours at work, editing and recording audio. So I always have a sculpting pouch in my satchel.”

 

His customized six-inch-tall action figures range from P2,500 to P10,000 while statue prototypes go for P20,000 to P100,000.

 

“The price depends highly on the design and parts needed to make a custom figure,” explained Navarro. “Some figures require parts from more than

one base figure. For example, the body and legs come from one figure, but to complete the custom figure you have to break another action figure for the arms and the head. The more figures I have to break to make a new one, the more expensive the figure.

 

“Same goes for the amount of sculpting required to complete the figure. The more parts are in need of sculpting, the longer it takes to build the figure, the more expensive it gets.”

 

The Rhino bust is his proudest achievement. Measuring about 15 in tall, it is Navarro’s first licensed statue of a Marvel character.

 

“It’s my first project as a pro, technically, at least. But my skill level is still that of a novice. Whether or not it will ever be mass-produced remains to be seen, but I’m still proud of it,” he said.

 

See Navarro’s work on Instagram @bladenavarro and Facebook; e-mail [email protected]