Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egyptian Engineer: Made-in-Egypt Custom Figures is My Dream


Wed 19 Jun 2019 | 11:17 AM
Salma Yassin

Mostafa Yehia is an Egyptian mechanical engineer who got an MBA in marketing and discovered his talent in making custom figures; cartoon characters at an early age.

When did he first discover this unique talent, what are his achievements so far and what about his future plan, this is what SEE revealed after interviewing Yehia and taking pictures of his hand made work.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Q. First of all, tell us more about your self

I’m Mostafa Yehia, I’m 35 years old and I graduated from faculty of engineering at Helwan University.

I mainly work in selling and marketing cables and electric motors.

Q. When did you discover your hobby?

A. I discovered my passion in the custom figure field since I was 9 years old.

I mainly focus on producing cartoon characters, superheroes and robots.

Q. What about these figures’ manufacture technique?

A. They are generally made by combining parts of existing figures with newly sculpted and created parts.

Q. What are the materials you use frequently?

A. I can use materials that already exist in the surrounding area like toothpicks, wooden pieces, papers, cartoon and plastics.

Moreover, I buy special materials like ceramic paste, epoxy clay and thermal clay; which is used for carving.

Some materials are expensive like acrylic colors and dremel tool; which costs more than 1000 EGP.

Q. What was the first action figure to produce?

A. Mazinger Z statue was the first figure to produce and it was made of a wooden piece then I made Ninja Turtles from papers and toothpicks.

Q. How long does it take to make 1 figure?

The duration depends on how many details I should focus on in each figure and it could take weeks to finish 1 piece.

Q. When did you launch your Facebook page and how many followers you got so far?

I’ve launched a Facebook page called “My Super Craft” for 4 years now to display my work and number of followers exceeded 10,000 persons.

Q. What are the characters that people liked most?

Many people admired the custom figure of “Sultan”; the character of the Egyptian actor Ahmed Mekky in “Khalsana be Shyaka” Series besides Mazinger Z bust.

Q. Are you planning to establish your own project soon?

A. Till now I deal with these figures as a hobby and I didn’t sell any of them but at some point, I’ll launch my own business.

I just need to take some specific courses to enhance my hobby and be able to handle more professional work.

Q. Are kids the only target group of your work?

Of course not, as many adults prefer to collect and own such figures.

Q. Have you made any female figures?

A. Yes, I made Merida bust; a famous female character in Brave movie.

Q. What is your future dream?

Most of these figures are made in China and I hope to produce made-in Egypt custom figures and be able to compete both domestically and internationally.