Lewisburg couple create action figure

By Jerri Brouse
For The Daily Item

September 27, 2008 06:02 am

— LEWISBURG -- She's a mother of five, a governor and the first female Republican to run for vice president of the United States. And now she's also an action figure.
Danielle Palmer and her husband, Benjamin Derr, of Lewisburg, owners of Boskoes Toys, have made hundreds of action figures in the past three years. Most, Palmer said, are modeled after popular action heroes such as Spider-Man or Captain America, but every so often someone comes along that inspires them to create something a little out of the ordinary.
"Anyone who is part of pop culture is fair game to us," Palmer said.
The couple has also done likenesses of Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and the "Mind Freak" -- Chris Angel. The Palin figure, though, is by far the best likeness she's done, Palmer said.
"I wasn't entirely happy with the others," she said.
It took about two days for Palmer to complete the figure, which comes with a toy gun, hockey stick, stage and microphone, as well as several other accessories a working mom and politician might need. She worked from a photograph of Palin downloaded from the Internet. Then, using some basic parts, including a base face, Palmer alters the figure as needed.
"I will file things off or add features with sculpting material, such as her hair and ears," Palmer said.
Palmer said it doesn't matter that hers isn't the only Palin doll available. The Boskoes doll is still an original and will be a valuable addition to someone's collection.
"We actually got the idea when we noticed another company was doing dolls of Sarah Palin and they were really selling," Palmer said. "In our realm of work, we all kind of get ideas from each other -- try to one-up each other -- and we thought the action figure would be different, rather than just selling her as a Barbie-type of doll."
Palmer and Derr have been making and selling their action figures full time for about three years. It was Derr's interest in collecting the figures that spurred the idea.
"We saw that people were out there customizing these figures and we've been into sculpting for a long time and thought We could do this,'" Palmer said.
And so they did. With just $300 in start-up money, the couple began creating and selling their own action figures on eBay, but soon branched out into doing commission work.
"We do a lot of commission stuff," Derr said. "People have sketches of their own items and we've made original characters."
An original is exactly what the Sarah Palin figure is. There is only one and there will be only one like this, Palmer said.
"We try to limit our pieces to one just because the people are collectors and buy them for collectible purposes," Palmer said.
Palmer did say, however, that depending on what type of buzz the doll creates, she may make other variations of the vice presidential nominee.
The eBay auction for the Palin figure ends today.
n Jerri Brouse is a freelance writer who lives in Lewisburg. E-mail her at scoop@ptd.net.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.