Your favorite Rams players, in statue form

Can't find statues of your favorite Rams player? One fan made his own.

By Ryan Van Bibber@justRVB Jun 5, 2013, 9:33pm CDT

We see some cool Rams-related memorabilia make its way through the TST inbox ... jerseys, autographs, the occasional groupie story. The Rams have a dedicated group of fans. How they choose to wear their fandom is unique. Recently, a Rams fan sent us something that I really had to share.

Jake Manternach recently tweeted (@jakem70) a photograph of something he made: a statue of Rams punter Johnny Hekker.

Just love how this turned outThanks @jhekker @stlouisrams @turfshowtimes twitter.com/jakem70/status…
— Jacob Manternach (@jakem70) May 21, 2013

I asked Jake about the Hekker statue, and he sent me some info about what he does AND some more pictures of other Rams players he's captured in sculpture.

Here's how he makes them:

I make custom players from a toy/figurines called McFarlanes or the occasional Starting Line-Up toy. The company that makes them only ever makes the popular players on the most popular teams (Ex: Aaron Rodgers-Packers, Big Ben-Steelers, Peyton Manning-Colts, Broncos, etc..) So Rams players rarely get made by the manufacturing company. That's wear my customs come in. If I wanted to make a Sam Bradford custom, I would look for and buy a quarterback figurine that somewhat resembled Bradford's characteristics.

I make customs all the time. My work desk usually has two or three going on at a time. I make customs of mostly Rams players and a few of myself because I play football and I make them for others as well.
I can make any player from anytime period. I have made Deacon Jones all the way to current uniforms like Greg the Leg. I add details of everything about the player. My customs have the same facemask they used, I painted the shoes like they use, all the gloves are almost identical, and all heltmet decals are accurate.

That's pretty cool. Anyone that's ever built models or done much painting knows how difficult it is. To customize your own with you favorite players is really cool. And these happen to be Rams players, which is obviously makes it better than any other team's players!

While you're reading this, what is your most unusual or favorite piece of Rams memorabilia, souvenir, etc.?

Here's Deacon Jones: