25th Hawk was never quite as good as he could be. I liked the shoulder rig, but hated that it made his epaulets and collar sit as high as it did. Plus, Hawk is blonde, Sunbow be damned. I didn't much like the original 25th Hawk head though. Too small and too harsh looking. Never could find a head I really like though, until PoC Duke. I hemmed and hawed over using it though, since it is a damn fine Duke head, but once Renegades Duke came out, he became my default, and that head looked different enough that I could use PoC Duke's head for Hawk.





Had to hollow the helmet out some more so it'd sit right. I also gave the elbows greater range of motion and hollowed out his shoulder holster.




So you all know that Jack Kirby is amazing right? Since we're all in agreement on that, you can understand why just seeing the package art he did for Mattel's Big Jim line would make me a lot more interested in both the toys and the story.



See? Isn't that just incredible? So I dug into the line (this was years ago now) and discovered a pretty cool contemporary of GI Joe, and a lot of great characters that fit nicely into the Adventure Team's 70s era. Plus, they had actual villains, which definitely puts the line one up on Joe. I really wanted to make customs of these guys, and I'm finally getting around to taking the piles of parts I've picked out for them into actual finished figures. A burst of warm weather gave me the opportunity to finish up Jim himself finally, but didn't hang on long enough for me to do much more. Rest assured though, the rest of the PACK, as well as plenty of other Big Jim characters (seriously, the European exclusive Big Jim stuff is awesome) are coming . . .





Jim here is the SE v54 torso, RoC Cobra Commander legs, Star Wars feet, a Star Wars head (X-Wing pilot John Brannon I think), and hands from a Star Wars ROTJ Deleted Scenes Luke Skywalker. Shoulder holster is RoC Hawk's modded and the pistol is from Wolverine Origins Maverick. The wrist communicator is a combo of the gauntlet from the shirtless RoC Storm Shadow, the blade from a Marauder Inc chainsaw modular attachment, and bits of a Star Wars Clone Trooper belt for the buttons. I'm really happy with how he turned out, and I'm hoping the rest of the team ends up this good.

Please, let me know what you think of them.

Pretty sweet update. Not sure if I'm 100% sold on the head, though (especially after looking at Kirby's art), but this is still one bad-ass custom.

Any plans to put the PACK logo on the sweater?

_________________

Both look spectacular,Great work!!!

Great job! I think you nailed it!

_________________

Chief, I'd considered using a Corran Horn head as well.




Can't remember why I didn't. Might have just the skintone. The square jaw does seem to fit better though . . . Maybe . . . what do you guys think?

Definitely want to put the patch on his chest, but I don't have a printer at the moment, and I don't want to free hand it. But yes, someday . . .

Crap - now I have to find a Corran Horn or six. That head looks perfect for SO many different customs I have on the bench.

Would definitely like to see how it looks on your Jim.

_________________

Well, the skintone matches the hands well enough, which was my concern. Repainting the neck would be easy enough.


Which do you guys prefer? Or do you have suggestions for another option?

Oh, hell yeah - love it!

_________________

That Big Jim is a whole heaping pile of superduperwin.

_________________

The changes you made to Hawk make a big difference. I never really liked that figure, but it looks a lot better with some relatively minor alterations. I had that head set aside for a Hawk custom, too, but ended up going in a different direction. It's a good fit for the character, though.

The Big Jim figure is just plain awesome. Everything about it works. I could go either way on the heads: I like the 70's-ish look of the first head, and I don't think it detracts from the figure to move away from the source material; on the other hand, the Corran Horn head is much closer to the artwork, and it looks great, too. The only thing I don't like about this figure is that I have something very similar sitting on my workbench right now, but yours looks way better! I can't wait to see the rest of your P.A.C.K. customs; that line had some really interesting designs, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

I hadn't seen that Kirby Big Jim artwork before, either, despite having looked at the figures themselves hundreds of times. It's great, as one would expect from the man.

The second head is a better choice for sure.

_________________

The Horn head is the way to go. Chief, good luck finding the figure cheap though. When I used it to make Ghostbound I needed multiples and it was pricey.

I also like his as essentially a 25th anniversary type of take on Jim, and dig that he's modern era compatible in appearance for that reason

_________________

I'm diggen the Big Jim I like the horn head better but I think the original matel head would work better. Check out mine and bindys version if you like the he

Head if you like it ill try to dig one up for you. Iknow I have the small versions somewhere around here. If not asphalt may still have them

That's awesome.
That Jim really rocks.
Really shows that Mattel has great properties and if they really put the effort they could really make great stuff.

_________________