A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 12 - DC Universe Classics Speedy by 37 Customs1/13/2015 Today is more Titans love. This project is going to be very X-Men and Teen Titans heavy with a few other random pieces thrown in so you've been warned. Speedy is a recent custom done by 37 Customs. I held out in having a custom made of this incarnation of Roy since Mattel promised a teen sidekick in Club Infinite Earths if the 2014 subscription went through. I figured it would be him or Aqualad but we may never know. Roy was the last of the Pérez Titans that I needed to complete the core team. Although he was only recurring, he was integral to the stories and a necessary addition to the team. Speedy uses a DC Direct a robin head with a sculpted cap and a DC Universe Classics teen body. When he was first completed he had two fists and could not hold his bow. 37 Customs was quick to chop off his right hand, add a couple of magnets giving him the option of two fists and the ability to hold his bow. 37 Customs does a fantastic job with lining his work. I own several pieces from him and he uses some type of thin black "tape" to accentuate the folds and edges of the costumes he does. The yellow arrow on his chest is also a sticker. They are all perfectly cut and precisely laid on each of his pieces. It's a nice signature to his work. Yellow is notoriously the hardest color to paint on an action figure, most of the pieces he's done for me have a fair amount of yellow on them. The paint work is very smooth and clean. I'm proud to have a few of his pieces in my collection.
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Of the five Thunderbolts, Songbird was the most difficult. I searched for a long time for some type of plastic piece to use as her sonic carpace but never found anything that worked. So I had to make one of my few (failed) attempts at sculpting. She uses a Snowbird figure as her base with Gwen Stacy's hair and, of course her lumpy, poorly sculpted sonic carpace. I don't know how to smooth out the sculpting medium and my sculpting always looks like a first grader trying to make an ashtray for dad for Father's Day. Anyway, here's Songbird flaws & all. Day 10 is a 6 inch scale Teen Titans Bumblebee figure by Optimusleo. I own several pieces made by Optimusleo, I believe only one is an actual commission the rest were won on eBay. This figure uses a Marvel Legends Wasp as the base figure. When I received her the wings were still the cream color that they were for Wasp so I repainted them blue to match Karen's comic look. She helps round out my Titans West collection. Atlas is one of five members of the original Thunderbolts that I did back in the late 90's. He stands 12 inches tall and could go with Marvel Legends or Marvel Universe scales but since I've only done his team mates in the 5 inch scale, he's stays with my Toy Biz collection. He uses a 12 inch Jim Lee WildC.A.T.S. Spartan figure as his base with gauntlets borrowed from his teammate Maul. The 'A' is sculpted on his chest and has cracked over the years. Eventually I'll get around to fixing him. My collection is very random. There are bits and pieces of toy lines, there are full on complete collections, there's collections that exist solely because of the custom pieces that make them up and a bunch of miscellaneous one offs to fill in the gaps. The customs displayed throughtout this project will cover a wide variety of toy lines and characters from throughout Pop Culture from the past 40 years presented randomly but over the course of the year you will be introduced to all them. I passed on collecting DC Minimates. I have a few random pieces but no focused teams except for Pérez's Titans. Having seen Luke's custom Titans four pack and his individual Jericho, Kole & Terra customs I commissioned him to make a Terra for me. She's my favorite DC character so I wanted her in as many forms as possible that would go with an existing Titans set. Since DC Direct did most of the Pérez Titans as Minimates she made sense. I added the power effects from my parts bin and the rock base is from a Toys R Us Terrax Minimate. I love her, she blends nicely with the existing Titans Minimates. Still need a Kid Flash & Changelling to finish the core team. Maybe a Deathstroke too since they made him but it's not a priority since he's pricey. We'll see. Anyway, here's Terra. Day 7 is an Unmasked Terry McGuiness Batman Beyond. Hasbro saturated their Batman Beyond line with multiple versions of Batman in rainbow and camouflage colored paint schemes and only released a handful of villains before the line was cancelled. Of all of the Timmverse cartoon series, Batman Beyond lacks the most as far as characters represented in plastic. I did this Terry while the show was still airing taking Terry's head from the Power Attack Batman and glueing it on to a Future Knight Batman body. I added the mask and batarang from the Total Heroes Batman Beyond to give him a more complete look. Luckily Mattel released a few more Batman Beyond figures in the Justice League Unlimited line. It's a shame that this show seemed to find itself AFTER it was cancelled. The direct to video Return of the Joker movie and the few appearances on JLU were the best of its run. The Jokerz became darker and far more interesting. I have a few more customs that I will be sharing over the course of this project from this corner of the Timmverse so stay tuned. Today we take a look at the second piece that Flipmode created for me in exchange for getting him the Wal-Mart exclusive Marvel Legends Avengers that he couldn't find in the UK, Aquagirl. Tula uses a DC Universe Classics Katma Tui as her base. The detailing is so crisp and clean. This wouldn't be the last time Flip complained that I gave him carpel tunnel syndrome. I can't help it, I have to take full advantage of his talents! Tula is another figure that helps boost the roster of my Wolfman/Pérez Titans. Day 5 is a Toy Biz pre-Marvel Legends 5 inch scale Jack of Hearts figure that I made back in the late 90's. I don't collect Marvel Legends. I passed the line up when Toy Biz changed their scale from 5 to 6 inches. I started toy collecting as a hobby because of the 5 inch Ⅹ-Men line. Back in 1990 my brother brought home a Nightcrawler & Collosus figure from Toys R Us and I was hooked. I went and bought two sets of the first series; one to open and one to keep mint on card. I did this with most if not all of the Toy Biz 5 inch lines. Ⅹ-Force, Generation Ⅹ, 2099 and the various Ⅹ lines, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, all of the Spider-Man lines, the Toyfare magazine mail away figures, the Puzzle Zoo exclusives, the vehicles, the playsets, the KB Toys, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us exclusives, the multi packs and the repaints. All of it. Nearly a decades worth of collecting and they turn around and change the scale. I was bitter and was in no rush to start all over building the Avengers and Ⅹ-Men when I already had all of the heavy hitters in 5 inch form, not to mention dozens of custom figures that I had made to fill in some of the holes on my shelves. I moved on to DC Direct so that I could have an in scale DC Comics figure collection and didn't return to Marvel until Minimates and then the 4 inch Marvel Universe line from Hasbro. A perfect custom Marvel Legends Psylocke figure on eBay recently changed my collecting habits and I now have more than a few Marvel Legends figures most of which are customs and from the Ⅹ-Men side of the Marvel Universe but more on that another day. Today we're talking about Jack of Hearts. Of all of the 5 inch custom figures I've made, I'm the most proud of this one. His detailing was a bitch but it was very rewarding when it was all finished. He is Frankensteined together with parts from 3 separate figures; the head from the Ⅹ-cutioner, arms from an Ⅹ-Man and the rest of his body is Black Tom. His boot cuffs are rubberband and his tunic is toothpaste tube. The rest is acrylic paint and marker. He was put together in a way that he maintains all of his articulation but I never pose him. Jack of Hearts has yet to be done as a figure. Marvel Legends nor Marvel Universe have done him yet. I would imagine that his paint scheme would be costly to reproduce but I love his design and had to have him with my Avengers. I hope Hasbro gets to him eventually but for now, here he is. Day 4 brings the first villain, another neglected faction by toy companies. They must sell worse than female figures. Most toy lines are very main male hero heavy so you see lots of Batman, Wolverine, Iron Man, Superman, etc. in different costumes filling up the retail shelves. DC Direct, Mattel and DC Collectibles combined only produced four 6 inch scale New Teen Titans villains, Dr.Light, Monseuir Mallah, Trigon & Adrian Chase as The Vigilante. Five if you count The Brain "accessory" that comes with Mallah. Flipmode was gracious enough to make this for me in exchange for me tracking down the Wal-Mart exclusive Marvel Legends movie Avengers figures for him since he could not get them in the UK. Brother Blood uses a DC Direct Black Manta figure as his base and stands around 6 inches. I really love the blue highlights in the blacks and the two tones that he gave to the reds in his costume, this really makes him look very Pérez. I loved Brother Blood's Titans appearances and am glad to have another Titans villain represented in plastic on my packed Titans shelf. The New Teen Titans was my favorite comic in the 80's. Want to see them all? Keep watching. Tomorrow I think we'll be visiting the Marvel Universe for some custom Marvel Legends love, maybe who knows. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by! A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 3 - DC Universe Classics Don Hall Dove by 4:F1/4/2015 Day 3 brings the other missing member of the Hawk & Dove team, a DC Universe Classics Don Hall Dove by me, 4:F. Don was necessary to help build the classic Teen Titans West team. He was made using a DC Universe Hawk body with a Earth 2 Hawkman head and cape thingy from a DC Direct Dove. the rest is paint. Dove is displayed with my Wolfman & Pérez New Teen Titans. |
A Custom A Day....
Since
I began toy collecting as a hobby back in 1990 I have always had a
need for custom figures. Toy companies begin action figure lines, begin
to release individual characters to create teams and, more often than
not leave them incomplete. Many collectors find that custom figures
pollute their collection's authenticity by not being mass produced
creations from the toy companies that created the preexisting toy lines.
I disagree. I feel a quality custom action figure enhances a
collection and help create a complete picture. Archives
July 2016
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