Hi Autunna,
To remove thumbnail controls you can use the following code to do so:
instance.UI.disableFeatures([instance.Feature.ThumbnailMultiselect]);
This uses the disableFeatures API and you can find a list of features you can disable here
To add your own customization you can read this answer here: How can we create our custom thumbnail panel beside our viewer? - #3 by Logan
Cheers,
Dustin