Homebrew junk action figures made by US soldier in Afghanistan

Noah Scalin sez, "Check out these amazing articulated action figures made from bottle caps and other found materials by Private First Class Rupert Valero, who is stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Wilson in Khandahar, Afghanistan. A former oil rig engineer, Valero has been a collector and customizer of 6" super-articulated action figures for many years, but since being stationed in Afghanistan he has begun making his own figures entirely from upcycled materials."

Upcycled Action Figures in Afghanistan (Thanks, Noah!)

• [Phlip]

  JFC why is a “engineer” working as a “private first class”?

  Doesn’t Afghanistan have (ahem) a pressing need for engineering right now??

  • [travtastic]

    While there are still terrorists around??!?

  • [turn_self_off]

    Saturated job market?

• [music_coder]

  reminds me of the “dolls” from the movie nine

• [Cowicide]

  This makes me happy we spend our taxes on those guys out there instead of having decent healthcare in the USA. Wonderful.

• [Anonymous]

  Very cool. Reminiscent of Raleigh’s guerilla art Barrel Monster.

  http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/barrel-monster-spotted-on-hillsborough-street/

• [BookGuy]

  Those? Are super awesome. Someone get this guy a job in toy and game design when he gets back.

  • [keving]

    I second that!

• [bcsizemo]

  Isn’t this how Iron Man started out?

  • [turn_self_off]

    Yep, largely thanks to a super efficient reactor with the size of a hockey puck.

• [Anonymous]

  Those are awesome. The prices on his Etsy page are very reasonable, too. Might have to get myself an upcycled desk buddy.

• [spriggan]

  just in time for NY ToyFair. Now get back to killin’ terrorists boy!

• [Nadreck]

  Instant Collector’s Item Classics (from his “Afghan period”) and possible start of a Cargo Cult!