The Artists Corner

Mikey Tavarez- Artist of the Month

The Black Ops Toys Artists Corner focuses on people in the 1/6 hobby who make amazing art out of 1/6 scale action figures. Often you’ll hear that toys are to be left brand new in the box to be worth anything at all. But we believe that taking these 1/6 scale action figures out of the box and painting, weathering, gluing, sanding, cutting, stitching, and photographing them makes them more valuable to us (THE ARTISTS). The figures are more than just pieces in a box. Kitbashing artists make the figures come alive. These are the artists we focus on.

In this episode, Sully and Jensen speak with Mikey Tavarez. Mikey has been kitbashing for over 20 years and, in 2010, started painting action figure faces, weathering and posing them in action positions. He has been selling them on Facebook for years.  Mikey shares how he first fell in love with one-sixth scale figure, what his favorite tools are to use, and what advice he’d give to new artists in the hobby. You can reach him on Facebook about a commission. 

We recorded this episode on November 20, 2023. 

We ask everyone on The Artists Corner a series of rapid-fire (and ever-changing) questions to help you get to know them better. Here are the Artists Corner questions and answers from Mikey:

1. What is your favorite movie? Aliens
2. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
3. What did you want to be when you grew up? a Paratrooper in the US Army
4. What profession/job would you never want to do? Plumber
5. What’s your favorite podcast? Bill Maher and BlackOpsToySTORY
6. xBox or Playstation?  Both
7. If you were a menu item at a restaurant, what would your entre be called? Miguel’s Pastrami
8. What is your favorite curse word?  Mother fucker
9. Do you have a Zombie apocalypse escape plan? I’m gonna get a machete and a shotgun and go out in the streets and kill zombies. That’s what I’m doing.

Mikey’s Photo Gallery: