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Want an Action Figure of Your Kid Athlete? This Man Can Make It for You

 Alan Ithal of Mount Greenwood makes custom sports figurines for amateur athletes. Ithal spends about 15 hours on each figure, adding details such as tattoos, jersey logos and specific brands of shoes or hockey skates.
Alan Ithal's Sports Figurines
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MOUNT GREENWOOD — Professional athletes often wait years before a company makes an action figure in their likeness. Some never get a bobblehead or statuette of themselves.

Tyler Ithal, 10, of Mount Greenwood plays goalie for the St. Jude Knights Hockey Club. His dad, Alan, made him his own custom figure when he was just 7 years old.

"As my son had friends over, they'd say, 'Oh, that's cool' and ask me to make one for them," said Alan Ithal, a Chicago Police officer.

This was the beginning of AI Custom Sports Figures, an online shop Ithal runs through Etsy. The website is a popular vehicle for artists and crafters interested in selling their unique — often handmade — products.

 Alan Ithal of Mount Greenwood made this figurine to resemble a goalie on the St. Jude Knights Hockey Club. Ithal spends 15-20 hours on each figure adding details to the jersey, pads, helmet and stick.
Alan Ithal of Mount Greenwood made this figurine to resemble a goalie on the St. Jude Knights Hockey Club. Ithal spends 15-20 hours on each figure adding details to the jersey, pads, helmet and stick.
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DNAinfo/Supplied Photo

Ithal launched his Etsy site two years ago. He's since made custom sports figures for the Chicago Fire Department's Blaze Football Team, Team Illinois AAA Hockey Club and many individuals who want a figurine of their favorite young athlete.

Howard Ludwig describes the intricate process:

The figures cost $35 each and require about 15-20 hours of work, according to Ithal. They include plenty of small details beyond just the names and numbers on the back of the jersey.

For some figures, Ithal has removed facial hair, added specific tattoos and outfitted hockey players with their precise brand of stick and skates.

"I enjoy doing it just for the artistic part of it," Ithal said.

Ithal's figures begin as professional athletes made by McFarlane Toys. For example, his son's figure started as a miniature version of former Chicago Blackhawks netminder Nikolai Khabibulin.

In a bit of a macabre ritual, Ithal soaks the roughly six-inch figures in hot water before dismantling them piece by piece. He then repaints them by hand before reassembling them and adding details such as jersey colors and skin tone.

Sometimes he swaps parts. For example, Ithal might take a sports star with a rounded head and replace it with the head of someone who has a more narrow face to better represent an amateur athlete.

Other times he uses small sanding wheels to remove things such as facial stubble. Or he may use clay to build up someone's nose or add some heft to eyebrows.

For the finer details, Ithal relies on small decals he prints off his computer onto special paper. This allows him to customize things like jerseys, goalie pads and baseball spikes. Ithal works carefully to incorporate even the smallest details into each figure.

"I want it to look as real as I can, especially with the kids," Ithal said.

Ithal has also made figurines for some adults, including Brent Seabrook. The Blackhawk's defenseman doesn't have a McFarlane figure of his own. Ithal happened upon Seabrook one evening at a downtown lounge and offered to make him one.

Ithal and his son delivered the completed figurine to Seabrook at a sports memorabilia signing in September at Yorktown Center in suburban Lombard.

Seabrook liked it, Ithal said. "He was very nice, very down to earth."

Ithal has been receiving disability benefits from the police department since May 2011. He badly damaged his right wrist while he was trying to get a suspect from the back of his vehicle.

The altercation so badly damaged his wrist on his "gun hand" that he had to wear a halo-like device on his arm to help repair the cartilage that will never fully heal.

The injury makes crafting the figurines difficult but not impossible, said Ithal, who estimates he's completed about 100 figurines since he began working in miniatures.

Mary Ann Schultz of suburban Highland Park is among Ithal's satisfied customers. She ordered figurines of all 19 players on her son's hockey team and two coaches. It took Ithal a couple of months to complete the project for the Team Illinois AAA Hockey Club.

Schultz said the individualized figures were distributed last month and remain the talk of the team.

"I'm always looking for unique gifts to give the kids that they can put in the room to remind them of their year, and this is better than anything I've seen out there," Schultz said.

"Each stick is the exact stick the boy uses on the ice. These kids will have this on their shelf for life and will always remember the team they played on," she said.

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