Fans are making custom Nendoroids of their faves

polygon.com:

Howl Pendragon, the dashing young wizard from Howl’s Moving Castle, might steal the hearts of fans, but the dreamy eyed heartthrob doesn’t have his own official Nendoroid yet. That’s where fans come in: building their own by buying Nendoroids and mixing and matching the parts to create their own custom figurines.

These palm-sized chibi figurines made by Good Smile are a popular choice among collectors and fans. Since the first Nendoroid came out in 2006, Good Smile has listed 1,800 different versions of its big-headed figurines, featuring characters from anime favorites like My Hero Academia, video games like Overwatch, Disney franchises, and more. There are still plenty of characters that don’t have an official Nendoroid, so fans use the parts from characters that Good Smile sells, as well as individual parts from unofficial retailers, to bring their favorite characters to life.

Kate, who goes by Rose.Arrow online, is a 21-year-old student from Texas who started making custom Nendoroids as a hobby in the beginning of 2021. She runs a TikTok account and an Instagram page where she posts her figurines. Since starting, she’s shared custom Nendoroids for characters who don’t have them yet, like Howl Pendragon, as well as characters from games like Genshin Impact.

Xiao Nendoroid is done!!! #genshinimpactxiao #xiaogenshinimpact #genshinimpact #nendoroid #customnendoroid

“The process starts with studying the character you want to make. It helps to really know what their outfit, hair, and face look like before going to buy parts,” she told Polygon via Discord. Nendoroids have swappable parts, so you can switch features like faces, clothing, and hair between different figures.

Although there are tons of places to buy Nendoroid