Good custom but the "HA" mon3y cracked me up. I love your mini-dio stories for your custom reveals.

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Gentlemen, thank you! It's that ridiculously awesome Professor X body and the existing Joker design from The Dark Knight! I've always loved Nolan's realistic take on the character, and have been wanting to do this piece forever. When I finally got the chance, I went in with the intent of doing my personal "ultimate" Joker for my collection, so I really went at it.



The head is, indeed, from Angel Forge. I LOVE their work, and have had nothing but the most pleasant experiences doing business with them. Their sculpts are phenomenal, and until I can learn to work at that level, AF it is. I really gotta stop going on there at 3 am, though. My wallet hates me.







Yes! Professor X is a godsend! Best. Suited. Fodder. EVAR!1! I agree about Chuck being put to good use... loving hitting up my usual haunts and seeing new work using this fantastic fodder. Actually got a couple more customs using this base... kinda stocked up...

It's funny: Joker's thugs existed before he did! After knocking out a lot of Batman's rogues, I noticed none of them had goons, and what's a Batman villain without lackeys? They're just LBCs utilizing Absorbing Man's giant, freakish noggin'. Had the fodder in the bin and didn't wanna over-think it.



Thank you sir! That 3-panel "sequence" was something spontaneous that came to me while shooting the pics, and that HA scene is kinda near & dear to me. Once the idea appeared, it latched onto my brain and wouldn't let go. The photo shoot was a lot of fun, but tedious... I kept knocking over the cash while staging, so I had to use tweezers, but I eventually got my shot!

This won't be the last of Mr. J you'll see.

He needs to give a young, idealistic police lieutenant from Chicago a few rough nights first...

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This whole thread is filled with fantastic work, but that Joker is one of the best I've seen at this scale. I wish Hasbro had shipped those Prof. X's to retailers by the caseload.

Growing up, all I knew of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon was the version from the 1960s Batman TV show: An old dude with a cool red phone that he used to call Batman when trouble was afoot... not a bad guy, just kind of an elderly male damsel in distress. He had a better portrayal on Batman: The Animated Series, where he at least saw some action and wasn't stuck in his office all the time. By no means Dirty Harry, but better than he was 30 years earlier.



Then I read Frank Miller's seminal Batman: Year One and disregarded everything that came before. Miller's Gordon is AWESOME, some kind of highly-trained, black ops bad-@$$ that is transferred to Gotham from Chicago, and is literally the only good man in the entire police department. He takes down street punks, psychos and corrupt coworkers with ease, but can't manage to track down some loon in a bat costume-- the one person he's obsessed with catching may be the only ally he has.

And so began my love of the character.



Completed in June 2013, this is actually my second attempt at Gordon for my Gotham's Most Wanted "universe." This version is a Wild Bill head (he always looked dead-on like Gordon to me) on a Professor X body, AKA THE BEST SUITED BODY EVER!! with a cloth coat from the Star Wars line.





MORE PICS & FULL WRITE-UP AT: http://strangelabs.blogspot.com/2013/06 ... -city.html

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Very solid Gordon.

I'd been looking for an alternate, younger head.

Wild Bill is a brilliant choice.

Thank you, Spin!

For me, the 25th Wild Bill head doesn't look much like WB... because it's destined to be Jim Gordon! Gordon was one of those pieces where I waited for the perfect parts to come along, so I could do my personal definitive version for my collection.

Not really planning to do an older version of Gordon, but I might do one specifically from Nolan's universe that resembles Oldman...

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HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY FROM STRANGE LABS!


Unlike my fanaticism for The Batman, I've always had mixed emotions about his Kryptonian counterpart. I LOVE the concept of Superman and how powerful he is, but also dislike the way he's always portrayed in movies and TV... a little too good; a little too wholesome. I think that's a disconnect a lot of people have with the character: NOBODY is ALL good. Each of us has a dark side, so to believe that Clark Kent is all Truth, Justice, and The American Way Boy Scout 1,000,000% 24/7/365 is hard to swallow.

David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan understood that when they created Man of Steel, easily my favorite live-action portrayal of Superman ever. Their version of Superman has so much more depth and humanity, and is truly a fully-realized take on the character. I knew I had to make one for the collection...





Kal-El here originally started as a Mattel Man of Steel Superman, though I ended up only using the upper torso & neck and upper arms. The lower body is a combination of Spider-Man and Ghost Rider's boots, GI Joe lower arms, and hands from the fodder bin. After going through at least four separate heads, I finally decided on Duke with his hair repainted black, which looks more like Henry Cavill than the official movie figure.





While I do have a version of Superman for my own universe (to be revealed...), I loved the way he looked alongside my Gotham's Most Wanted version of Batman. My take is always the same though: Superman is the first sign of alien life known to humanity. The extent of his powers is still unknown, and though he is technically considered a vigilante by the US government, he has cooperated with them on hundreds of assignments and saved the Earth countless times. The United States knows it cannot apprehend and hold Superman, so it does not even attempt to do so...






MORE PICS & FULL WRITE-UP: http://strangelabs.blogspot.com/2013/07 ... steel.html

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The figure looks great, just not feeling the cape. Fabric can be hard to work with.

yeah, there's something off a bit. Maybe it's just the way the cape connects. Or maybe it's that I'm so used to the Noir customs, lol. I'll admit I'm mostly looking forward to what the Supes for your own verse will look like.

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Thank you for your compliments about the piece and the feedback, gents! The cape is still a work in progress, and though I'm not 100% happy with it, I feel I'm close, and will experiment some more before working on another attempt.

The always-brilliant Hemble posted a tutorial about working with cloth to make it look more real at a smaller scale, so I think I'll hit the books.

Made a Superman for my universe a while back, but after working on my Man of Steel Supes, I've been inspired to revisit it. Mainly want to add washes and do any touch-ups. He has a molded plastic cape, so no fabric weirdness.

Expect The Last Son of Krypton-- and perhaps some friends-- before the end of the year if I can get a couple more pieces done

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To celebrate this past 4th of July, I updated Strange Labs every day of the holiday weekend with brand-new, never-before-seen pieces. They were originally intended for the June weekend Man of Steel opened, but Superman required last-minute sculpting that blew the deadline... so, who better to ring in America's birthday than an alien played by someone who's British?

While the Kryptonian is an ultimate bad-@$$, what good is a hero without his villains? So, to coincide with my Man of Steel-inspired Superman, I also created a General Zod (also from the movie), and expanded universe versions of Lex Luthor and Brainiac-- characters I'd been meaning to get to for some time.

Enough blabbing.


ZOD:









Zod for me was one of those characters that I knew of-- but not about-- forever. Like many, my first exposure was Terrence Stamp's Zod from the Donner Superman films. When I was 4 or 5, he didn't look scary, so I didn't take him seriously as a threat... to my pre-school mind, he was little more than a mean-looking man who screamed a lot. Later I researched the character and grew to respect him, and now thanks to Man of Steel, I can honestly say I love him as a villain. The film made him more complex, at first bordering on anti-hero, then a full-on dark, villainous version of our Kryptonian savior... and I love that he's the catalyst for an unforgettable Superman moment.

Completed in June 2013, General Zod is a Mattel Zod upper body with Iron Man parts kitbashed on, topped off with a movie Firefly head. It's not 100% on model, but then again, neither was Mattel's! The inner geek is still nit-picky about it, but I'm happy for the most part. I have a feeling, though, that I'll be revisiting the general in the future.

More pics & full write-up: http://strangelabs.blogspot.com/2013/07/kneel.html


LEX LUTHOR:







Lex Luthor, World's Greatest Criminal Mastermind, has always been a favorite. My first exposure was more than likely via Super Powers and the various Super Friends repackagings out in the early 80s. When I was 4 or 5, I clearly remember being completely confused by Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor WITH HAIR! My pre-K mind was blown. Despite Hackman's wisecracking performance, I loved Lex Luthor. While playing with my Super Powers and Secret Wars toys, I had Lex conspire Dr. Doom, Kang the Conqueror, Magneto, and Doc Ock-- the ultimate league of evil!

Lex here was completed July 4th, 2013. He is fairly straight-forward, consisting mainly of a GI Joe movie Destro body and Professor X head. The original plan was to do Lex in the Kryptonian battle suit, but, in true Wile E. Coyote style, my robot body has issues... still very much in the works, though.

The Luthor I grew up with was still kind of the mad scientist version, which slowly transitioned into the billionaire industrialist with lackeys. I sorta see him has an evil version of Doc Savage or Indiana Jones: A villainous adventurer with a never-ending supply of resources to get whatever he wants...

More pics & full write-up: http://strangelabs.blogspot.com/2013/07 ... earth.html







Brainiac has always been one of my all-time favorite Superman villains, though I first encountered the more Terminator-looking incarnation from the Super Powers toy line in the mid-80s. An evil robot who's smarter than Superman? Sign me up!

Completed in June 2013, Brainiac was actually the first of the Man of Steel set finished. He's almost all GI Joe movie parts, with a BAT arm and greebles grafted on. Credit where credit is due, Heroes Assembled Customs' Brainiac was a huge inspiration. Love its mechanical arm and quasi-Giger vibe!:

http://www.figurerealm.com/viewcustomfigure.php?FID=49323

More pics & full write-up: http://strangelabs.blogspot.com/2013/07 ... stroy.html

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All of these look great. I really like the recipe for Brainiac.

Awesome, all three.

And crap. Now I have to make sure mine are even cooler now.

Very cool! What did you use for the Kryptonite inside the jar (I know ehere the jar is from, but not the K)?

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Nice work on these.

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