My First Scoble: a DIY gift idea

Give that special boss, client, co-worker, employee, friend, etc. their own action figure doll. You can do it the cheap way -- about $6.00, or the ultra-expsensive way -- $300 and up. It's a great way to call out someone's special attributes and let them know you've been paying attention. This "tradition" started when I was at Sun, and several of my former Sun co-workers have kept it up. So for this Christmas, I made a My First Scoble doll for Robert Scoble.
This little DIY project takes about an hour, and the following materials:

1) An action figure / doll
I prefer Barbie or Ken-style dolls, but virtually anything will work. The "Blaine" doll (one of Ken's friends) cost $4.00 at Target. The easiest ones to work with have a simple rectangular box, so it's easy to completely cover it with your own print-out.

2) Some digital photos of the person

3) Some typical or favorite quotes/sayings... things the person is known for (or that you want to make fun of)

4) Ink-jet paper with low-tack sticky backing.
I prefer the Post-it Picture Paper, in 8.5 x 11 size, because it's got a fairly strong stickiness, but you can still reposition it without tearing anything!

Original Front:

Modified Front:

Original Back:

Modified Back:

Modified Side One:

Modified Side Two:

Basic Instructions

First, I measured the box--the one I used for My First Scoble was 13.5 inches tall and 7.5 inches wide

Next, I made a single image to cover the back and sides of the box. I used Photoshop, but any desktop publishing or image-creation program will do. Even though this isn't a "talking" doll, people seem to enjoy having their quotes, so we always include a list of things the doll would say.

Finally, I printed the image on the ink jet post-it note paper, cut the edges off with a paper cutter, and wrapped the entire thing around the box. Since the box was longer than the post-it note (the box was 13.5, and the paper was only 11.5 inches tall), I had to print it on two separate sheets and then splice it together. The post-it note stickiness makes this really easy.

For My First Scoble, I also needed to make a label/logo for the front to cover up the "Barbie". And just for fun, I changed the shirt to a white one I had from another doll, so that I could make it into one of Hugh's Gaping Void t-shirts. The cartoon on the shirt is actually one that Robert's been photographed in many times.

So that's the simple and inexpensive version.

Options

* Include miniature items (accessories).
I was going to make a tiny copy of Robert and Shel's book, Naked Conversations, and put it in the doll's hand, but I ran out of time.

* Alter the clothes or make new ones.
OpenOffice goddess Solveig Haugland (her new OpenOffice book just came out) is the one who started this whole thing at Sun, and she's quite the crafter. She's made clothes for some of them that match what the person is wearing in a picture. I took the easy way out and made a custom t-shirt for Scoble just by sticking an image on a white t-shirt from another doll of the same size.

* Create a completely custom box.

THE EXPENSIVE OPTION
For a usually-hefty fee, you can have a company make a custom-molded head based on photos of the person. In other words, you can have a personalized action-figure created! Companies that do this include:

Highly Flammable Toys creates one-off action figures. Very very cool.

Herobuilders makes personalized action figures. I don't know much about them.

HeadBobble makes... wait for it... custom bobble-heads. They're much less expensive (the site says they start at $69) than a fully-custom action figure.

Michael Leavitt can be commissioned to make custom action figures.

Andgor is my favorite company for this, but I can't get to their website right now... I'm hoping that's just temporary and you can try it later.

On this blog, we always talk about making our users into heros, so why give at least one special user or client their own superhero figure or... at least a custom Ken doll like My First Scoble ; )

Have a festive Christmas or a happy whatever! I'll be back in a couple of days with "real" content. For now, cheers to all.

(Robert: sorry I didn't finish this sooner; it'll have to be a post-Xmas gift ; )

(I also modded Barbie for my friend Tara Hunt -- complete with a miniskirt and boots (Tara is, well, hot)-- but I still have one thing left to do, Tara, so stay tuned...)

[I used CC photos of Scoble from Flickr, taken by the following people:
JDLasica, Thomas Hawk, Derek K Miller, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, Peter Orosz, Mike Dunn, Kris Krug,Jason DeFillippo, Tantek. They all have tons of other wonderful photos]