Ryan Whittaker

After reading A Philly Collector's latest post about the Ryan Whittaker action figure, I decided to take some photos a do a post of my own.  A while back, I received a couple of Ryan Whittaker action figures from a collector friend.  I received a complete figure, and a body without the head.  The complete figure is pictured below.  He arrived without his original boots.  The boots that he is wearing below come from another figure (one of my dollar store guys, but don't tell Ryan).

He's not a bad looking guy.

 Ryan is outfitted in a suit that is very difficult to remove.  The fabric can not be removed without cutting or ripping, and the plastic armor is sewn on.  His pants are even screwed onto his legs.  He has gloved hands.

I had a Denzel head that needed a body, so I used the second Ryan Whittaker body for that.  The body came to me with the suit already removed.  I used a couple of Hot Toys hands to complete the figure.


Ken doll clothes fit Ryan very well, but Ken shoes are slightly too small.

Here's a photo showing how the Ken shoes do not fit properly.  I have a shortage of action figure shoes at the moment, and Ryan (Denzel) is able to balance on these shoes, so these will have to work for now.

The Denzel head has a longer neck, so the figure on the left is slightly taller than the figure on the right.  They are both able to tilt their heads forward and back.

I can also get Denzel's head to tilt from side to side by rotating the base of his neck.  I am unable to rotate Ryan's head on the base, so I can't really get his head to tilt from side to side.

Ok brace yourself.  This is why Denzel will never do a nude scene in any of my stories (unless he gets another body).  On the left is the Ryan Whittaker body in the nude.  The body uses 2 or 3 different shades of brown, and different types of plastic, so some parts are shinier than others.  

He has great articulation, though, and his range of motion is increased with the removal of his suit.

Here he is from the back, flexing a few muscles.

So let's talk about feet and ankles.  Here are the ones that my figures came with.  They look like they belong to this body.  The seams in the front align, and the width of the ankle and lower leg is more or less the same. The material and coloring looks the same for the lower legs and ankles.

Here is what the ankles look like when turned to the side (front seams not aligned).

The collector who sent these bodies to me does a great job of customizing figures.  I can't say with certainty that these are Ryan Whittaker's original factory manufactured feet and ankles, but they look like they belong to this figure to me.  Last year, I asked the person who sent these to me how he had removed the boots, and this is what he said:

"If I remember correctly I slipped a letter opener in the thigh and worked it around the perimeter. I let it sit in so hot tap water for about five mins and pull them right off. The pants are screwed on at the sides under the boots (you'll see what i mean when you remove the boots. If you are still having trouble then slice a thin line into the boot on the back center where the indentation is."

 The photo below is of Ryan's pants screwed onto his leg, and what his leg looks like after the screw and pants have been removed.

If these are not Ryan Whittaker's original feet and ankles, I would love to know what figure these came from.  Do these look familiar to anyone?

Edit:  These are indeed Ryan Whittaker's original feet and ankles.

Becoming Rather Handy

Today I made some modifications to Denzel and Tariq so that their hands would fit better

Denzel is on a Toyfare Final Fantasy Ryan Whittaker body and he's using Hot Toys hands.  The wrist pegs for the hands are too loose for this body.  I didn't want to make any permanent modifications, so I did some brainstorming.  I ended up taking some of the clear plastic bands that secure dolls to the inside of their boxes, and I wrapped them around the wrist pegs.  Now the hands fit, and I can remove the hands and use them for another figure in the future if I need to.

Tariq is on a Blue Box body, and I don't even know what kind of hands he's using.  GI Joe perhaps?  All I know is that the wrist pins were too long and too wide for this body.  I didn't mind making permanent modifications to this one, because I think that these hands are going to stay with this body for good.  I used an exacto knife to carve away part of the wrist pin, and I cut the ends off with a kitchen knife.  It's not pretty, but it works.

Now these guys are ready for action!