All right - last day of my gratuitous "look at me" custom showcase. I wanted to finish strong, but I think I may have come up a little short - I don't have nearly as many new customs in this category as I though I did when I started putting these threads together. So if this one peters out, I may end up showing off a bunch of dios or something later in the week to try and redeem myself.
Anyway, after I got bored with my Superheroes, I started making some fantasy-style customs. Wanted a bit of a Tolkien vibe with some, a Robert E. Howard vibe with others (the guy who wrote Conan). Never really got any of my concepts totally fleshed out, and I ended up giving up on most of the ideas because I was bored. Might revisit them at a later time, but for now, they're just hanging out.
Conan - had this guy in the works ever since the Sentry comic pack came out. originally had the Sentry head on him, but once I got a Doc Samson, I swapped heads because Samson's jaw was much stronger and more square. Although honestly, I'm not digging the Samson head that much either. Guess I need to search for a new one. And no, I won't be using any Arnold heads for Conan - because he sucked as Conan.
Yes, yes -- he should totally be wearing furry speedos and I completely ruined the character by making him wear pants -- I get it
-- 
Well, everyone needs pants once in a while
:
Speaking of putting pants on everyone - this will REALLY piss off the fanboys:
Red Sonja:
Chain-mail bikinis are another form of idiotic never-touched-a-boob fanboy nonsense, IMO. Sonja is a super bad-ass and wouldn't wear something so stupid when kicking the "LASER BLAST" out of monsters & demons & barbaric douchebags. I almost dropped the chain-mail completely, but wanted something to make her recognizable. I may still go back and sand off her bra and give her a practical leather top later on. (Sorry guys, no removable top like Conan's
)
Hardest part was actually making her big enough to look threatening next to Conan. Ended up taking the longest legs I could find (ROC Cover Girl), some muscled but not-too-manly arms (Anakin Skywalker) and elongating her torso in such a way so that she looked long & lean, but didn't have freaky proportions. Ideally, I wanted to use the MU Dark Phoenix head, as it had the scowl and wild hair that I wanted, but after "up-sizing" the body, the head was way too tiny. So I cannibalized "Lil' Chief's" Teela custom from the MOTU NJC -- (don't worry, I gave her a new head - you'll see in a minute) and was almost there. The Joker Squad head was big enough and had enough of an exotic look (though not the fierce badass scowl that I wanted), and all I needed was hair. Started out trying to sculpt an entire wild mane of hair on her, but it looked like nasty-ass red dreadlocks when I was done, so I ripped all that off, carved quite a bit off the head so it could fit with some Ms Marvel hair, and finally got it looking more or less how I wanted it.
Wolf Warrior:
This guy came about when trying to make a Lycan/Werewolf custom for my Monster Squad - took the head off a McFarlane Monsters figure that I got from JoeCzar, sculpted a neck and whatnot, then stuck it on a gray MLS Beast and fell in love with it. Decided to turn it into a wolf-warrior figure instead and just kept adding details until I ended up with a look that I liked. Not sure if he fits better in the Conan universe or with my next group of figures better:
Dragonslayer Team -
Beowulf:
Started out as a Little John custom for a Robin Hood that I never made. Didn't know how to use him - so I named him "Beowulf" and called it good. Might mod him to be a D&D "Strongheart" character (the only one I had as a kid) -- Maybe I'll make a second one for that, though - since I like this one as-is. Never played D&D, and was only partly familiar with the toys (watched the hell out of the cartoon, though - maybe I should make some of those guys?)
Wizard:
Another one that I just sorta slapped together - mostly as a place holder. Probably need to sculpt a longer beard to make him more like whatever the D&D wizard's name was. This guy needs a name, though - I don't know, Carl? Carl's a cool name, right?
Goliath:
I don't know how many people remember my Goliath custom - initially he was supposed to be Goliath from Gargoyles who had been made half-human. But I think I like him with more of a Middle Earth feel, so I might just have to "Elseworlds" his ass...
Draco:
From Dragonheart -- voiced by Sean Connery (which is fitting considering the Wizard in the group...) -- I've made some folded, alternate wings but they still need a lot of work & paint before they're ready. Draco is one of the last "good" dragons. Small, yet wise and honorable. He helps the heroes do battle against his evil cousins:
Ok - now for the Sci-Fi (it's not that much, honestly)
Tron - Thought the new movie was ok. Not awesome, but ok (then again, I wasn't a big fan of the original, either.) But despite how the movies turned out, I always did like the concept/character of Tron himself. And I was pretty disappointed in the lack of Tron in the new movie, so I set out to make my own. Using actual Spin Masters figs as a base was a no-go because they totally suck Donkey Balls. The only redeeming part of these figs were the ID discs, so I grabbed a Rinzler because he came with two of them and that's all I needed.
Managed to snag a K-Mart IM2 "Proving Grounds" 3-pack for $15 on Ebay, so I went to work modding "Tron Iron Man" into an actual Tron. Didn't take a lot of work - replaced the head with a movie Hulk Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) who looked enough like an old-school Bruce Boxlietner for my purposes, then started modding the chest emblem to look more Tron-y and less Iron-Man-y. Wish I could have been able to match the discs a little better, but they're good enough for me. My only problem with this figure is that the way the neck post is angled makes it hard to position the head. I may try some neck-post surgery later, but I have to be careful that I don't dick up the transparency -- I'll have to splice a hinged post inside the clear neck or something.
Anyway, the important thing is how bad-ass he looks when he's on Cortana's (Chick Tron's) lighted base:
But then I was left with a problem - how to use him in my 'verse. If I limit him to just being on "the grid", then I'd have to make an assload of customs for him to interact with. I decided that he'd somehow be a hybrid of Tron and Alan Bradley -- Alan contracted terminal cancer, so he went to the Grid and merged with Tron, allowing him to transit between both worlds - but he can only survive in the 'real world' for short periods of time. Still, he needed a bad guy, so I decided to make a CLU 3.0 -- evolved from CLU 2.0 in Legacy, this new one is completely corrupt and is looking to do more than just "make the perfect system." I snagged a different Holographic Iron Man fig (don't know if it's pre-prod or canceled or what) from China and went to work. Used a Wolvie:Origins head because I don't care if he looks like Jeff Bridges or not - this version has almost no trace of Kevin Flynn in him anyway. He's still a little too Iron-Manish, but I'll deal for now.
These guys fit in the old-school light-cycle just fine - I may end up picking up CLU's cycle and a 1-man jet later one when I have some ready $$$.
The next group is kind of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy mix, I guess (at least, that's how I use them) - you've seen most of them before.
Keldor:
Always had a problem with Skeletor as a concept -- yeah, I know: "magic" -- magic is why he can have a skull head and still be able to see, talk, etc. But it's just lame, and makes him seem like a joke. So I decided just to make him Keldor - evil wizard and enemy of my MOTU customs. I think he looks more sinister like this, anyway.
Evil-Lyn:
Never thought to make an Evil-Lyn custom, but I figured Keldor needed a #2 and Beast-Man was too much of a clod.
At first I was going to try and stick to a traditional look, but when I was scrounging parts, I realized I didn't want to waste good lady parts on a character I didn't care for that much
-- I thought about either sanding down the "leathery" parts or just painting her a full body suit until I looked at it this way: I figure she's one of those typical evil chicks that thinks a little too highly of herself. Being the only female surrounded by lowlife thugs, I'm sure the views herself as "hotter" than she actually is (worked with quite a few gals with the same mindset) - so despite her leathery, yellowed, wrinkled skin, she still considers herself a "cougar" and dresses like someone 30 years younger. That's my justification for being lazy, anyway
Also painted up a Screech to go along with my Zoar (both made from ML Falcon Redwing figures)
Then I've got a couple of vehicle WIPs -- still need a lot of work, but they're starting to take shape:
The Wind Raider is a Flash Gordon speeder that I got along with the Ming Throne (under $10 for both and it was a local pick-up = score!!) Still need to figure out what to do about putting the weird horse-head thingy on the hood. -- Not liking the wings, either. Might end up just scrapping the whole project. I would just grab an original Wind Raider and make it a 2-seater but it's too damn round & clunky-looking for my purposes.
The Battle-Ram I just chopped off the giant-ass "handlebars" and added the controls from a JvC mini-helicopter. Gave it an initial coat of paint, but still need to sand down the sculpt work on the controls and then hit it again. Still have a bunch of detail work to do, and I may try to make some replacement stickers for it, but I'm not sure if I want to go down that road yet.
Anyway, that's it for me -- thanks again for taking the time to drop by and look through all this crap. See you at next year's Custom Celebration!
