Some artists in the wrestling community are absolutely fantastic talents. With pro wrestling being an action figure frenzy over the last 3 decades, many fans have found themselves in a position where they create custom figures of performers in the industry. One such example of that is how prevalent custom Funko Pops are in the wrestling industry. While they take time – some of them come out looking better than the official merchandise sold by WWE.
One such artist – @DaveyPainting – is both a professional wrestler as well as a talented artist. Bodyslam.net recently spoke to the artist as he walked us through his process following his epic creation in tribute of Cody Rhodes’ fantastic performance inside Hell In A Cell, with sledgehammer in hand.
The detail in the creation is incredible and has more detail than any pop produced by the WWE. We asked Davey a few questions in regard to his work designing the pops and he revealed how long each one takes and what part is the hardest to design:
“This one in particular I did in a day yesterday. I had the parts available. Sometimes I have to order parts. Then I had some skewers and sculpting clay to create the sledgehammer. That took a little while to harden but a day is a fair estimate of time.
Hardest part is the details on gear usually. It’s so small and I really try to get it accurate.”
@DaveyPainting
Of course, Cody isn’t the only custom pop that Davey has designed. He has designed pops for some of the biggest stars in the industry, including an incredibly detailed three faces of Foley pop.
“I did a three faces of Foley one with like a split head that I’d say is my best ever.”
@DaveyPainting
We also talked how he came to creating Funko Pops and who the first one he ever did was inspired by:
I wanna say 2014 was my first. El Generico. Someone at one of my wrestling shows brought me a blank DIY Funko. I had never heard of Funkos! I made the DIY into El Generico and it really caught peoples eyes cause they wanted all these different wrestlers as pops. I kinda took the reigns and made it my thing.
@DaveyPainting
If you are looking for a custom made pop or would like to make Davey an offer on one of his custom figures, you can find him at @DaveyPainting on Twitter and Instagram. Davey is also a skilled painter, with many canvases of his creations on his social media platforms. They are fantastic work and you can see other pops he has created below.
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