The DR.WHEELO Project (A custom-first)

Dr.Wheelo (DBZ Movie 2-The World's Strongest)

Date: February/March 2014

Creation Time: 125 Hours

Difficulty: 20/10

Height: 10 Inches

Head: Jakks Pan Robot Suit

Stomach: Scratch

Waist: Irwin Series 10 Yakon

Thighs: Irwin Series 10 Yakon

Lower Legs: Irwin Series 10 Yakon's Forearms

Upper Arms: If Labs Launch

Forearms: Jakks Pan Robot Suit

Feet: Jakks Pan Robot Suit

Tail: Jakks Pan Robot Suit

Antennae: Scratch/Plastic

Hands/Clasps: Scratch

Brain/Dome: Scratch

Articulation: 10 Points (Shoulders, elbows, groins, knees, and ankles)

Process: The myth has been broken. A real Dr.Wheelo figure now exists. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm raving over my own work, but when I dedicate this much effort into a custom, I better damn well like it. So, I rated his difficulty a 20/10 because he took at least twice, almost three times longer than my previous longest customs (Birusu 45 hours) and (North Supreme Kai 50 hours) which were 9s and 10s also on difficulty. Wheelo took me 125 hours! That's with the scene included. He is my greatest work BY FAR...and has become one of my favorite characters in the series from making him. It was hard work, but really fun to make the first real Dr.Wheelo figure ever. Keshi's one-incher doesn't count lol Anyways, he is now my favorite figure in my collection without a doubt. If the world was ending and I could take one figure with me, it's Dr.W! Case closed. Okay, enough of that....how the hell did I make this guy???

It started with a lot of thinking and contemplating. I found myself staring at the pieces for so long, trying to figure out where to start. That step was difficult to pass and once I did, I didn't stop. My first few combinations didn't work. I knew I had to pop the Yakon and it was tough, but I managed it. From there, I used the Jakks Pan Robot Suit as the main base, using Yakon's upper legs and forearms...yes, his forearms as Wheelo's lower legs. Combined with the Jakks Robot feet and some heel sculpting, it was perfect. I covered the entire Robot head with apoxie, sculpting piece by piece, section by section on the head. It wasn't sculpted at once as you'll see in the slideshow. Though, while making the protruding shoulders, I had to insert the If Labs Launch shoulders and upper arms. Wheelo has small shoulders for a big character and the Launch ones were a great base to use. From there, I shed down his waist and legs a lot with the manicure tool I got from Branjita and had to pry the back of his ankles open to thin the leg and sculpt the appropriate accommodations back there for Wheelo. Talk about surgery. You can see that process in the pics. The forearms' base was from the Jakks Robot Suit as well with a lot of apoxie to sculpt the clasps as his hands. It took a lot of patience to get them to curve that way and stay since apoxie droops when drying in such a manner. His mid-section I filled with damp paper towels as a filler and tape to keep them wrapped tight as I sculpted over them with apoxie. Worked out just right! The brain was made from scratch too. I used my knife to make the squiggly lines in it and used a plastic rubber ball packaging for the dome, once I cut it to fit. If you look within the dome, I even made wires attaching the brain to the body. The antennae were also made from a thick plastic orange juice bottle I had. I cut out the symmetrical shapes for both sides and added a thin layer of apoxie to each. I actually messed up and made two of the same side lol but in the end, is hardly noticeable. In other words, instead of having the apoxie side of them on the outsides, one has it on the inside and I didn't know until after it had dried. Still worked out though. The head bump was also made from apoxie only. Some images of Wheelo have him with a big, sagging head, but others do not...so take my pick, I went with the ladder.

Honestly, he is such a complex character, that it was IMPOSSIBLE for Toriyama to stay consistent in his drawings. One image, his head is massive. Another, it's not. Another, his tail is short. Another, like the one I used for my scene, it's very long. This was good and bad for making him. It gave me options, but with options, you don't know which is really best looking or which may go against other people's interpretations of him based on how they remember seeing him. I turned out very happy with everything I did on him except one real mistake. The tail isn't aligned on the direct center of his back and doesn't have a solid exterior where it comes out of his back. But if I had cut that, it would have created a difficult process to attach to his body, without the tail sticking out straight backwards, rather than curving to the side like I have it. With everything sculpted, it was time for sanding. I spent many hours doing this. Maybe 8-12 and I couldn't sand it any further. He was as smooth as a baby in every place. At this point, I had to create the scene stealer with him unpainted as most of you could probably tell. Once I got that done, I could finally paint. First coat was thin, but after four, he looked black. Then I got some Metallic blue and black and I didn't look back. After another five coats of that, he looked right to me. For the lavender spots, I used silver and purple to give him a complete metallic paintjob. Lastly, the red light on his face/nose area was a small sticky pearl my wife uses to decorate items on etsy with, so I used it on him and seemed to fit the bill. I even painted red speckled lights in his "mouth" area, but the pics didn't capture it. Overall, this guy required a lot of paint and even more apoxie, that I completely ran out as I finished him. But man, was it worth it. I hope you all like it too....and regret your scene stealer votes. :-p Enjoy!

Here's the refined images with better lighting.