I am going to guess that one of the villains is Clayface? He was always pretty impressive on Batman TAS...

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Really amazing work.

I would totAlly jump to that scale if stuff was available at retail with this level of detail.

That batman kinda makes me hate you.
Awesome job and I'm jealous of how well that turned out.

Wow! Batman is stellar

Oooh… good guess… we'll just have to wait and see when Mr. Hagen gets his cue...



Me too, man… the whole time I was working on him, I was thinking, "10 year-old me would've flipped his s___ if he saw this. 10 year-old me would be bouncing around like a Looney Toon." That's why it had to be perfect.

Honestly, Hasbro is missing out not importing these and creating their own toyline with them. Honestly, H, dudes! I know you guys scope out the boards! You have a hit line on your hands and don't even realize it. Hit up Takara and be like, "Sup? You up?"



Ah, yes… I know the feeling… When you posted your custom Gung-Ho just as I was wrapping up Batman, I saw your great work AND the potential in these figures as fodder… but then I also realized you were possibly the first to completely customize a Dianaut on the 'Net (that I've seen)… I love it! Inspiration driving inspiration!



Thanks, indrox1! Man, you have so many customs that I love that I don't know where to begin! Your eye for parts and painting skills are a force to be reckoned with. I look at your pieces and say, "Dude, I gotta step my game up."


I'm off for the next couple days, and I'm planning quite a few photo shoots with tiny Bats and friends.

...Is it cold in here, or is it me?

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THE COOL, CRUEL MR. FREEZE



Until Batman: The Animated Series came on, Mr. Freeze was just that weird dude with the purple mask from Super Powers. The tragic take on Victor Fries forever changed my view of the character, and elevated him to near-Darth Vader status... That's pretty much where he falls on the villain spectrum in my Batman's 'verse, anyway...



Batman's no fun without rogues, so I began working on Freeze & Batman around the same time.

I've loved Iron Cow's Mr. Freeze design for 15 years, so this is my tip of the hat to Matt, my first customizing hero.

Matt's brilliant figure: http://www.ironcowprod.com/mr-freeze-ke ... s-version/



Freeze is pretty straight-forward:

Mega Construx base with a 1:72 scale head (heavily modified) and a teeny custom dome. His freeze gun is Cobra Commander's pistol, shortened and drybrushed. The tank on his back was found in my fodder box and I have no idea where it's originally from.



I really dig the height difference between Bats and his villains. I'm still figuring out how to make a poseable Joker or Penguin in this scale... may have to seriously mod a Dianaut, but I don't know if the fragile plastic can take it.

In the meantime, I'll make some of the big baddies... any requests?

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Clayface, Manbat, Rhas Al'Ghul, Bane come to mind!

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just magic! almost cinematic! great pics of freeze and some dynamic shots of the batman!!

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Man, another great one. I'm simply blown away with what you're doing with those MB figures, making them practically unrecognizable as the original product. I find myself looking at them saying, "Wait, is that these?" Great job.

It's almost showtime for Mr. Hagen. Someone knock on the door to his trailer and see if he's ready for his scene!

Dr. Langstrom would be fun because I've never made a Man-Bat... but Dianaut Batman would look awesome with him.... hmmm...

Bane could be cool, too. Never was the biggest fan, but his design is great for this scale. Got a new one I'm working on today that's another favorite rogue. Wrestling with this one's always fun.



Thank you sir!! There's something about this scale and using even the smallest background diorama pieces. It's almost comical how underwhelming the sight is in person, but it yields pretty cool results.

Posing the figures can be frustrating, sometimes. They're so tiny that breathing can knock them over (Batman especially), but I got some good stuff yesterday...



Thank you so much, Mark!

I think I just found my scale and base figures and ran with it. To me, they're an ultimate blank canvas and perfect for teaching customizing to anyone starting. It's the price, sure, but also the ability to make all-new super-poseable creations without tools, screws, and O-rings. If my nephew or Godson ever want to start, I'll teach them with Mega Construx.

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Helloooo, Killer Croc!

And for Manbat, I could see using some of those... can't remember the figure names, but the ones with the long spindly arms, for a good base for him.



Yeah, the price helps, but the fact that they're truly modular, so there's no boiling, cutting, or anything like that to mix and match parts really makes these my go-to now. And with them being the scale they are, there are so many other lines and accessories that can be used with them. I'll be dabbling in Dianauts for sure and jiggering with Joes, but MB is where my customizing is now.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF MATT HAGEN: CLAYFACE



Clayface is a character I've dreamed of making since his appearance on Batman: The Animated Series.

Over the past 25 years, I've attempted him countless times; wasted who knows how much money and fodder... truth be told, I needed to step up my sculpting skills if I was going to seriously do it.



Hard to believe as it might be, Mega Construx didn't exactly jump out at first as a good base. It wasn't until Dianaut Batman was almost done that I thought I'd take one more shot at Matt Hagen.

Clayface was made using the same combination of sculpting materials (2-part putty and gel glue) as my custom Groot, just on a modified Mega body. To recreate the character's top-heavy design, I shortened the base legs.

The head is from my Warhammer fodder box gifted to be by my BFF Dave. I think it was some kind of orc or something. All I gots is lots and lots of sprues full of greebles, I don't know for sure.



The alternate hands were made from various spare parts I had laying around the lab.

The mallet was made from part of a missile, I think. The larger hand is from a Darth Vader, and a cool block hand that didn't get photographed because it broke... that block fist is from a Gundam figure.

I'm going to fix it and post it!



Very happy with how he turned out... FINALLY, a successful attempt after two and a half decades. 30-something me is pretty psyched with the result, but 12 year-old me would've been floored.



After re-watching his classic 2-part debut, I'm inspired to make more hand attachments, including chromed-out blade hands. Ideally, I'd like to eventually make an alternate torso that has Batman trapped inside... all possible future updates!



Got one more Batman rogue I'm finishing up and need to shoot, then that should wrap up this tour of Gotham. Got some great suggestions for the next round of villains. That Man-Bat sounds fun...

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Looks good. A character like Clayface is deceptively hard. You think, "He's just a big blob, so he can't be that tricky, right?" But to make him look like a living mass of clay and not just a man-shaped turd can be a challenge. I think you did quite well with it. Also, I find it funny that your Bat-figures have better articulation than most of those released by Mattel.

THANK YOU, MARK!

Dude, you nailed it!

It's unavoidable, at some point, to think: "Am I working on a giant crap monster right now?"

Happened while sculpting.

DEFINITELY happened while painting.

The classic B:TAS Clayface was pretty much the only option, but I did consider other designs. I was kinda fond of the gray one from Beware The Batman, but it doesn't have anywhere near the character of Timm's design.

So I went in with a couple hopes:

-Somehow recreate a miniature version of the AMAZING Four Horsemen Clayface from Mattel

-Not make Clayface look like s___ (literally)


Pretty happy with how he turned out, but I definitely want to make that chromed-out blade hand. The photoshoot for it could be so fun...

The trippiest part of the whole thing with Mega is that Mattel owns them. No idea how much/little interation & input they have with Mega, since they were an already-successful operation, but Mattel's sitting on a gold mine and kinda-sorta realize it... they could go much, much bigger and do original lines like Beyond. To me it's awesome that Mattel's mini action figure division is putting out the best at mass retail and the sheer variety of classic product released under various brand names/licenses:

-Soldiers
-Pirates
-Revolutionary War soldiers
-Astronauts
-Robots
-Superheroes
-Aliens
-Dolls for girls

I think they sorta see what can be done, but have no clear vision of where to go (outside of licenses). There's been vocal interest in the Beyond line, even from non-Mega collectors, so they have something there. To be continued in the Mega thread...

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These are awesome. Can't wait to see you tackle the Joker.

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