I had hoped to finish these guys and a few more Adventure Team figures for Custom Celebration, but instead I kept tinkering with them well beyond the end of CC7. I finally finished them and had a chance to photograph them today. As was the case with my previous AT customs, these guys are fully playable: there are a couple of painted details on both of them, but otherwise they're about as sturdy as a production figure. As always, if you've got any comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.
Adventure Team Commander:
Adventure Team Commander
Nicholas Charles
Birthplace: Manchester, England
Birthdate: July 18, 1950
Charles was born into a life of comfort: his father managed one of the largest and most successful cotton mills in Manchester, and his family enjoyed the privileges of wealth in an area marked by poverty and poor working conditions. In order to educate his son about the economic and social realities of the world, Charles’s father eschewed private schools for his only son and instead enrolled him in a public school. Charles was initially the subject of his classmates’ scorn for his family’s wealth, but over the years his charismatic personality and hard-working nature earned their respect. As he progressed through his education, his father’s mill was feeling the effects of the British industrial downturn of the 1960s, and the Charles family’s affluent lifestyle was impacted. Charles’s father felt immense guilt and shame as his family’s wealth plummeted, and in 1966, he committed suicide after receiving dire projections of his mill’s financial future and potential closure. Soon after, the mill’s owners sold their business to a rival, who quickly closed the facility and laid off the vast majority of its workforce (including the parents of many of Charles’s classmates). Charles, whose father had tutored him in the theories and practices of the business world since early childhood, saw the situation as the inevitable outcome of working for others: a business’s employees labor to increase the owner’s wealth and are guaranteed nothing for themselves. Further, Charles saw his father’s participation in a dying industry as a doomed endeavor, and recognized that old-guard industrial businesses were unlikely to see significant growth. Coming of age during the rise of England’s youth culture in the 1960s, Charles saw in his peers an opportunity to capitalize on their enthusiasm for music and fashion and their willingness to spend money on those interests. At age 18, he used the small inheritance he received after his father’s death to publish a magazine catering to the British teenager. The magazine proved to be a success, and Charles used the profits to open a chain of record shops. His business ventures thrived and expanded, and within a few years, he was among the wealthiest people in England.
Charles enjoyed the spoils of his success, but remained preoccupied with his father’s decline and death. Obsessed with the idea that his father had died miserable and unremembered, he channeled his considerable wealth into ventures that he felt had the potential for greatness. Charles funded and participated in scientific expeditions, challenged world records in a variety of fields, and became one of the world’s foremost adventurers. His nearly unlimited resources and matching ambition emboldened him to take on any challenge he could dream up. Employing some of the brightest and most daring minds in the world to aid in his efforts, Charles is always looking for the next great adventure.
This figure came together after stalling on several different ideas that I was excited about, and realizing that they would work even better together. I wanted to make an Adventure Team Commander character for my AT figures, but I wasn’t sure how to integrate the idea into the story that I had created: there wasn’t really a place for a boss. I had considered making a business tycoon-adventurer character as a villain, but hadn’t really settled on a concept. I also wanted to make a bunch of AT vehicles similar to the original line’s, but couldn’t find a way to tie them in, either. Then, after talking to a friend who had worked on Richard Branson’s reality-TV show several years ago, I got the idea to make a Branson-like character who could use his financial resources to fund and equip field missions: that way, I had a good excuse to make a bunch of weird, yellow semi-plausible vehicles for the AT figures to tool around in, and I had a reason for the characters to be working for someone. Still, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t have a wealthy-industrialist villain. Then I saw the Collector’s Club’s Man of Evil figure. I realized that I could have both ideas at once: the AT Commander didn’t necessarily have to be a good guy. The basic idea is that the character funds missions and expeditions and likes to participate when possible, but that he’s just enough of a pragmatist and egomaniac that his methods and intentions aren’t always honorable. He’s also willing to hire less-than-reputable help when necessary, and I’ve got a few other characters on the drawing board who will fill out that side of things. In any case, I was happy to be able to incorporate all of those ideas into one figure, and I’m looking forward to fleshing out his storyline.
Head: Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi
Chest: Iron Man 2 Nick Fury
Arms and jacket: Star Wars Yavin Luke
Hands: Star Wars Owen Lars
Waist: 25th Snake Eyes w/ custom belt
Upper Legs: PoC Quick-Kick
Lower Legs: RoC Destro
Pistol: 25th Croc Master
Rifle: BBI SWAT
Satellite phone: ARAH Comic Pack Firefly
Backpack: Unknown modern-era figure (modified w/ BBI frame)
