[GnatGoSplat]

Been looking for a new hobby to take my mind off things. Joked around with my wife that I should make her an Obama doll (she was an Obama fan). She said she actually wouldn't mind one.

I know there was a DID 1/6th Obama figure, but in pictures my wife and I both thought the likeness looks really bad, so I was thinking to make a custom one, but have zero experience.

I know there was a Hot Toys TTM15 that had a pretty decent likeness, but Amazon reviewers all said the skintone is WAY too dark.

I was thinking maybe this head sculpt:
1/6 Custom Male Obama America Head Sculpt 1/6 Fit for Phicen Body A-29 | eBay
The eBay pictures don't look like it's the best likeness, but I can't seem to find any pictures of it from actual end-users. EBay and aliexpress sellers all seem to use the same photos for it. I don't suppose anyone has this one and can share real life pictures?

Say I go with that HS, what to use for a body? The title says it's made for Phicen, but I don't really think he needs anything that high-end. He'll be in a suit, so a seamless body seems superfluous. I see a lot of very inexpensive ZC Toys bodies for $20 or under. Could that work? What skintone would match that A-29 HS? Maybe an Asian skintone would be darker than caucasian, but not so dark as to stand out?
Also, I've noticed some figures have a giraffe neck when mounted on a body. Is there any way to figure out neck fitment before buying something, or adjust it after the fact? Do I also have to worry about clothing possibly ending up too short (or long) for the body height and not fitting right? Most sellers don't provide detailed measurements.

I don't know how to sew or airbrush paint, so this is going to be a very beginner project.

 

[Joe Friday]

Maybe buy the DiD Obama and swap heads. He's only around $70 last time I looked. You'll spend about that much by the time you get a body, suit, shoes etc.
I thought about doing something similar with Trump and Kim Jong-un... Buy the bodies and swap out the noggins.
If you did buy a separate oriental skin toned body I think you might need to somehow paint just the hands... Possibly neck too? I too can't sew and have never even used an airbrush.
I'm excited to see your custom!

 

[Moonbase Alpha Male]

This is probably the only context in which you would ever hear anyone say that a Hot Toys head sculpt is so deficient that an older DiD sculpt, or unnamed sculpts, might be much better.

There's a specific reason Hot Toys got the skin tone "wrong." At the time they were still selling loose generic bodies. This wasn't actually made as a HT Barack Obama figure but rather it was HT's generic loose African-American body, to which the Obama likeness sculpt was a bonus. As such the skin tone of the body dictated over the head, rather than the other way around. There aren't enough 1/6 African-American male bodies (and virtually no females, but don't get me started) and virtually all of them have darker skin, so the HT loose AA body did also, for commercial viability, and they carried this over to the head.

Evaluated as an Obama likeness this was a rare case of clear inadequacy in a HT sculpt, so I think people were quick to over-react to it. The skin tone isn't perfect for Obama but I wouldn't call it WAY too dark (and Obama looks darker in some pics than others). It's otherwise a great sculpt. You're going to have to compromise somewhere. If it was me I'd accept the sculpt with somewhat overdark skin but otherwise having the advantages of a HT level excellence. Opting for any alternative sculpt will take the overall quality down quite a bit so is it worth it to you to do that just to improve the skin tone accuracy? To say nothing of the fact that I can't think of a lighter AA body available, so as Joe Friday points out you'll need to paint the hands and neck. If you just go with kitting up the HT head and body, you'll have none of these problems, and frankly I think the skin tone is still close enough for jazz. I also note that I've owned a couple of other Obama figures (a novelty short one, and a speaking Hallmark-ish ornament) and they were made too dark also.

 

[Joe Friday]

One thing you could do too is hire a painter to repaint the HT sculpt. I've gotten Mary Frost here from Frost Vision Studios to paint a whole unpainted sculpt for a reasonable price.
Are you wanting to do a scene with him debating? I'd like to see people setup different past presidents and leaders for historic scenes.

 

[sculley]

Did you see the unpainted ones ,they do look better than the painted ones , less round and closer to his head shape and cheaper. Give it a look

 

[Psycho gijoe]

War toys has some nice DID Obama figures . About 20 dollars .

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Thanks for the suggestions. Joe Friday is right; the clothes are pretty expensive, swapping the head on a DID Obama figure does seem to be less costly than buying everything individually.
I actually stumbled upon a video by "I Am Toys" about the DID Obama figure. DID Barack Obama 1/6 Figure Review 4K - YouTube
It actually doesn't look that bad. It looks a lot better in his video than the promotional photos online. I decided to go ahead and buy one for just under $50 shipped for a sealed, never-opened kit from eBay. Hopefully he looks as good in person as in that video. If not, then I'll see about finding a way to fit a different head sculpt to that body.

 

[Joe Friday]

I'd like to see some pictures once you get it in.

 

[THE MAD DEBOXER]

here is a picture of my DDN Barack