Inspired by the stories and novels of P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse (1881-1975) -- perhaps the funniest writer in the English language -- I decided to try my hand at action figure renditions of his two most memorable characters: The Hon. Bertram Wilberforce Wooster (Bertie to his friends), wealthy layabout par excellence, and his faithful manservant Jeeves, the brains of the outfit.
There is also a wonderful television adaptation of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, starring Stephen Fry (Jeeves) and Hugh Laurie (Bertie), about which more can be read here. Naturally, the show definitely was an inspiration for the overall look of these two figures, but I don't claim that my Jeeves and Wooster are meant to look anything like Fry and Laurie. For one thing, it’s just a matter of what I have available (Stephen Fry is particularly hard to match with Star Wars parts). But for another, since we’re dealing here with characters from a book, may as well use the old imagination, what what?
It’s a source of some pride to me that Bertie Wooster is made from 100% Star Wars action figure parts. His head and arms are from Elan Sleazebaggano, with some Dremel alterations to the hair to get it to look less ’80s-ish. His torso, including the way swanky cummerbund, comes from an Anakin Skywalker (Outland Peasant Disguise). I added fabric tails to the coat. Finally, the legs are from VOTC Lando Calrissian, and have both knee and ankle articulation.
Anakin’s cummerbund works out well for this figure, since a bright red one is a story factor in “Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind” (The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923) -- i.e. Bertie wears it, and Jeeves objects to it (as usual):
Bertie has a number of accessories. Here he is with his walking stick (made from a red blast effect, with some sanding and repainting) and his removable hat, adapted from a Chap Mei explorer figure:
And here he is, as in Thank You, Jeeves (1934), playing the banjolele (in this case, a repainted Playmobil instrument), much to the consternation of his poor valet:
Bertie’s extraordinary manservant is made from a Spy Kids Donnagon with the head from Ep. I Ric Olié, one of my favorite generic Human male heads in any Star Wars line, with a bit of sculpting and repainting. As with Bertie, I added some cloth tails to his coat, but they could have turned out better. (Still, it took me about six tries to get these!) Like his employer, Jeeves has a removable hat (which also didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped), crafted from that of another Chap Mei explorer and rounded out with Sculpey.
One more accessory, shared by both master and man: Aunt Agatha Gregson’s pearls, which Bertie and Jeeves rescue from the sticky fingers of con artists in “Pearls Mean Tears” (The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923). I strung these myself, using tiny pearl-like beads and some elastic beading line. They would fit a 12” Aunt Agatha, but that seems all right, given the larger-than-life-qualities of an aunt who, in her nephew’s words, “eats broken bottles and conducts human sacrifices by the light of the moon.”
And before we say “tinkerty-tonk” and “toodle-pip,” one final close-up of master and man:
