FINALLY! The Vicomte Raoul de Chagny.
Raoul was always the hardest to figure out for this custom Phantom of the Opera project because he's just, like, a guy. I could pillage stuff like Red Hood and Dracula figures for Erik. The Pirate Deadpool was a perfect starting point for Erik's Red Death look. Yavin medal ceremony Princess Leia's outfit was very close to Christine's Faust look. And the Persian exists as an archetype that's popular enough in media that there was bound to be a figure of a similarly styled character out there.
Raoul though? He's a dude. An aristocrat, sure, but just a young man in late 19th century France. And that's not the sort of thing that there's a bevy of options for, you know?
As luck would have it though, I came across some clearanced figures from that live action Dungeons and Dragons line. I'm talking $5 a pop, please just take them, get them out of the store levels of clearance. And while I needed a Chris Pine Edgin to complete that collection, I realized that... hold on.
That base body.... it's not too far off from some of Raoul's more
casual outfits. And at only $5 a figure? Sure. I got a second one.
The head was a bit tricky. Raoul is just a young, handsome guy. Patrick Wilson played him in the most recent movie. Which is like... broad enough to have the problem of too much choice. In the end I settled on a Wyatt Russel head from the MCU US Agent Marvel Legends figure. It works, by following the broad strokes of Raoul's description, the skin tones match the base body, and the ball joint (mostly) fits. I may swap it out if a better options comes my way, but this works for me.
But yeah... Raoul is done. Which means that the core cast of characters for my custom Phantom set is complete. Sure, I could do Madame Giry and Meg... and the Managers... but you know what? The madness needs to stop somewhere! So we're good.
For now.
Maybe.