Winners, Honorary Award announced for second year!
Custom of the Year remembers one of its own.
http://www.customoftheyear.com (April 14, 2006). The 2nd annual Custom of the Year (COTY) awards is proud to announce this year’s winners. After nominees were selected by a committee of celebrity judges and two weeks of voting by the online community, winners were decided in over 20 categories including Best Marvel, Best Sculpture and, of course, Custom of the Year.
“This year’s awards had excellent entries all around,” said COTY founder Tommy Sanchez, “Just over 4,000 votes were cast in what was some really tough and close competition.” All the winners can be found at http://www.thefwoosh.com.
“I’m also proud to present this year’s Honorary Award to CustomCon,” announced Mr. Sanchez, “For the last seven years they’ve promoted a spirit of sharing, innovative ideas, praise and cooperation within the customizing community.”
CustomCon has literally hosted thousands of customs over 14 online conventions that display lines or series of customs, similar in nature to Toyfair. While the hosts have gone through several websites, the current roster of hosts includes Cason Pilliod and Joe Acevedo of toymania.com and joeacevedo.com respectively.
However, the COTY awards also suffered a loss this year. Liz FitzSimon, who created the COTY website and logo and was a general consultant on the founding of the COTY awards, passed away this week at the age of 27 after a battle with cancer.
“Liz was a wonderful person, a great graphic design artist, and a life-long friend,” explained Mr. Sanchez, “In her memory I’m announcing the Elizabeth FitzSimon Award for Best Website and also asking for donations to a cause close to her heart.”
Donations can be made one of two ways:
Make checks payable and mailed to:
Providence St. Joseph Foundation Cancer Center
501 S. Buena Vista
Burbank,CA 91505
IMPORTANT – please add in notes: "Elizabeth FitzSimon"
OR
Go online to
http://www.providence.org/LosAngeles/foundation/saint_joseph/donationchoice.htm
-select: Cancer Center General Fund
-select: In Memory of
-enter: "Elizabeth FitzSimon"
Custom of the Year will continue to seek entries later in the year so please be on the lookout for those details on this site or www.customoftheyear.com.
Best Sculpture
Girls of WB Fairy Sarah Michelle Gellar by Shivi
Best Articulation
Ash from Army of Darkness by Maddog
Best Paint Application
Jack of Hearts by Darth Leon
Best Repaint
Republic Commando by Sithfire30
Best Accessory/Accessories
Training Taskmaster by SamuRon
Best Base/Diorama/Playset
Dark Castle by Green Lumux
Best Packaging
Thundercats by Spoon
Best DC
Arkham Asylum Joker by Iron Cow
Best Marvel
Black Knight by Darth Leon
Best Image
Conan the Barbarian by Carl
Best Masters of the Universe
King Hsss by J Sun
Best G.I. Joe
Firefly by aeseven7
Best Star Wars
Mon Calamari by Glassman6
Best Movie/TV Custom
Wonder Woman by Julien Magnat
Best Independent/Misc.
Dick Tracy by Iron Cow
Best Original Character
Maddog by Maddog
Best Animated
Hawkgirl by Glassman6
Best Mid sized Figure
Batman by Iron Cow
Best Large Figure
Fin Fang Foom by Cal
Breakthrough Customizer
J-Sun
Custom of the Year
Ronin by Darthleon
Elizabeth FitzSimon Award for Best Website
Iron Cow Productions
Honorary Award
CustomCon
CustomCon is an online custom action figure conventions where action figure customizers create new action assortments and series as though they were real action figure manufacturers. Created in 1999, CustomCon has run roughly twice a year since then and just finished its 14th online show.
Originally developed by Customize It!, CustomCon has continued on in a variety of forms thanks to the excellent work of Joe Acevedo, Tim J. Priebe, Trip Somers, and the current folks over at Raving Toy Maniac with main coordination by Cason Pilliod.
In that time period, entries of lines have covered a number of genres, including literature, comic superheroes, video games, television, movies, and animation in varying styles such as traditional action figures, dolls, block figures, and original sculpture. Since its inception, there have been over 700 different assortments and series presented which translates to literally thousands of customs.
However, as impressive as the numbers and longevity of the event are, what has made CustomCon unique time and time again is the respect to community, non competitiveness, willingness to share ideas and custom recipes, and the praise and positive feedback all participants receive.
The CustomCon archives can be viewed at http://www.toymania.com/custom/customcon.htm and http://www.joeacevedo.com/docs/customzone/customcon/customconmain.htm
Custom of the Year also wishes to recognize Luke314pi and Johnny LaRue for their entries into Best Block and Best Simpsons, respectively.
For further discussion on Custom of the Year 2005, please visit this thread at the Fwoosh: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25050