In the 1950s, war hero and newly-minted Army Intelligence Major Nicholas Joseph Fury was tapped to lead a special Global/International Joint Operational Effort (G/I J.O.E.) comprised of elite agents from the U.S., U.K., Canada and Israel. Nick would take the team all over the world in search of advanced weapons technology and paranormal artifacts smuggled out of Germany by Nazi agents just before the end of World War II. And his godson and middle namesake, Joey Colton, would come along for the ride.

This was the premise behind a series of customs I did a while back. You can read more about the idea here. As the picture above shows, I've expanded the team and tweaked some of the existing members a bit. More on that later.

More importantly, I finally figured out who their primary enemies are going to be.

Hydra was formed by Baron Wolfgang Strucker, who fled to South America at the end of the War with a cargo plane full of artifacts and relics of purported supernatural power -- many of which his elite unit had been tasked with recfovering for the Fuhrer in his mad quest for power. With much of his unit still intact, Strucker set up a compound in Venzuela and planned to sell the items on the black market to support a luxurious lifestyle. But without first-hand knowledge of how the artifacts were supposed to work, he found their appeal limited. Fortunately for him, an old friend caught up with him.

As Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull had been the first volunteer for the Nazi effort to create a super-soldier counterpart to Captain America. The experiment failed, leaving Schmidt disfigured. But it also earned him the gratitude of the Fuhrer. Schmidt was given resources and personnel to establish a paranormal sciences research division of the SS. Schmidt attributed his survival of the super-soldier experiment to divine intervention and believed the powers that control the universe wanted him to survive so he could learn how to unlock their secrets in the service of the Nazi dream. After the war, he found Strucker in South America and offered to help turn the artifacts into weapons, which the two of them could sell and use to establish a new world order.

On the figures themselves, Strucker is an SDCC Red Skull exclusive with the legs completely re-engineered to increase both the range of motion and the figure's overall height. His head is a Star Wars Rancor keeper. I opted for a creepy metal glowy eye instead of a monocle to reinforce the theme that these guys are fiddling with technology that's beyond their time -- and beyond this world.

In the picture below, you can see Strucker facing off with Fury, who is a completely new custom (first version was movie Sabretooth in the trenchcoat with different hands, feet and a DTC Bludd head). I wanted the Nick that leads this team to seem younger and ready for action. i may still use the trenchcoat body for some scenarios.

The Red Skull is a movie concept series Target exclusive with an SDCC head and some shoulder deco from a comic-pack CC figure (I think). I also sliced off the base figure's feet and put on some new ones from a Star Wars Bespin guard to increase articulation and height (the movie Skull figure is pretty short).

In the picture below, he's squaring off with 50s Cap (no, that's not Steve in the suit), who combines elements from the MU early appearance Cap and Ultimate Cap.

Finally, the Hydra A.R. (Artifact Recovery) Troopers are movie Red Skulls with Para-Viper heads, new black hands and Alley-Viper gasmasks. I also chopped off their feet and replaced them (with IGs, I think) to increase articulation and height.

In the picture below, you cansee one of the Hydra A.R.s getting gutted by Logan, who now has a swappable set of bone claw hands.

So what do you guys think?

I love it. I'm a huge fan of mixed genre teams. I'm curious who Cap is.

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Is Cap the Commie basher? Or the guy in between steve and the commie basher, I think he was called Patriot before becoming Cap... I love that Cap.

all in all great group of customs.

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great back story cant wait to read some more.

One thing I love are groups & this is one of the more original ones I've seen in awhile. I really like them all. Good job.

Big fan of the original team. The tweaks are all nice and the proper era bad guys are winners. Nice all around.

Ever thought about doing a self-custom that fits in this era? Don't know why I thought that, but would be cool.

Also, even your baddies have a lot of possibilities for tie-ins from other period sources.

Nice job all around

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Excellent all-round. Love the Hydra troops.

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Thanks, guys. Glad you dig the additions to the mythos.

I noticed as I was looking at the pics that Nick's shoulder rig isn't very high-contrast with his shirt in the pics. So I decided to fix that and take a new shot of him:



You know, I hadn't considered that...until now. Very interesting idea (you seem to have no end of those). I'll have to ponder.

I'd totally buy the line if it for sale at retail.

Thanks again for the comments, guys.

Quick question: How is The Infinity Formula supposed to work? Does it stop or just slow the aging process?

extrememly slows it...

I dont know where to begin! all awesome all around!

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These are great designs and the execution is brilliant. I love the concept of a WWII era Joe team made up of these characters who were around in that era. The villains on display here are perfect. Red Skull's colour scheme is beyond perfect.

Ever thought about adding some of the Howling Commandos, Doc Savage or Sgt Savage to this Joe team?

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