DANTE

evenflow, & pooda-Thanks guys! This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, I never really liked the Conan from the LCBH two-pack from Toybiz/Marvel toys. While the figure was based on a decent piece of artwork, I don't think Conan would have ever been caught dead wearing all of that gaudy get-up! My goal was to pay homage to some of my favorite Marvel era Conan artists, namely Ernie Chan, Alfredo Alcala, Pablo Marcos, and of course the late John Buscema. I never really liked the "fur diaper" and I never thought that the plain, golden armband that magically stayed in the middle of Conan's bicep was practical or had any feasible use or purpose. Nevertheless, this is the way Marvel depicted Conan for the majority of their run, so I included them here. The recipe is pretty simple, besides the LCBH base figure, I used boots from a contemporary (2002) He-Man figure and added ankle articulation. The fur diaper was from a Hanna-Barberra "Thundarr the Barbarian" figure, and I sculpted extra fur that laps over the belt. I'm pretty lazy and did not want to remove the dagger straps on Conan's leg, so I left them there, but I replaced the dagger with one that could be unsheathed from some LOTR figure. I shortened the original sword hilt and placed a thinner blade on it. The scabbard is from a McFarlane "Conan the Cimmerian" figure, I added a spare belt from the fodder bin with some chain links to attach the scabbard to the figure. I lengthened the right arm so it would be the same length as the left, and re-sculpted the arm bands. The round pieces were shaved from a ML Moon Knight's staff. The necklace was CAREFULLY shaved off of a McFarlane "Conan the Indomitable" figure. The axe is from a Blizzard Entertainment Diablo Barbarian. I intend to do a series of Marvel era Conans with different outfits and including interchangeable heads such as the one in the third picture. The helmet is from a ML X-Men movie Juggernaut and the horns are from some demon figure from McFarlane. The fourth pic is just for a little entertainment purposes, anyone familiar with Robert E. Howard's original Conan story "Rogues in the House" will know who the ape figure represents. Of course that is the build a figure Gorilla Grodd from DCUC. I shaved off the electrodes from his head and resculpted the hair. I also trimmed his mutton chops down to look less like Grodd and to make it a better multipurpose figure for interaction with other characters that I may make in the future. Anyways, hope you guys like! [img[/img][img[img[img[/img]

Many thanks Pooda and BrotherShane! I've been busy working on several challenging projects lately and decided to take a break and do a quick head-swap... So I bought the DCUC series 2 Aquaman (modern version)...I really wanted the classic version, but have yet to find one at stores. Is it just me, or was the DCUC series 2 harder than heck to find?...Oh, well. Anyways, I thought the head on the original figure was just too...how should I say this?...Fey?!!!!... Really, I thought he looked like Prince Charming from the "Shreck" movies, and what is with that stupid grin?... My original intent was to totally rip off Buzzy Fret's Aquaman custom (Classic Aquaman without the black trunks), but after getting tired of waiting for a DCUC Classic Aquaman to surface, I looked back at previous Aquaman entries. I really liked the one done by Arez. So I decided to give Aquaman a testosterone charged makeover. A set of whiskers could really go far at making Aquaman look manly, so (just like the one done by Arez) I used a Marvel Legends Sentry variant head (which fit surprisingly well on the Aquaman head peg). Then I sculpted just a little bit of extra hair in the back and painted it blonde. I wanted an Aquaman that looks like he does more than just talk to fish...I know it's just a simple headswap, but I'm really happy with the way this turned out. [img[/img][img[img[img[/img]

You've got some great skills there, you nailed the unique style in which this series was designed!

JFAK075-Thanks, Conan will be a recurring theme with my customs... This is a Green Lantern concept that I originally came up with about a year ago or so when the Figurerealm had a Green Lantern contest. I was stumped for ideas and by the time I came up with a sketch that I liked there were just a few days left for the submission deadline. My favorite version of GL is the "Kingdom Come" Alan Scott, so I initially thought I would make a custom of him during the period somewhere between his stint as the "Sentinel" and the Kingdom Come story arc. As the deadline was fast approaching, I decided not to pursue it, but then I kept coming across the sketch again and again, so I decided I would try a "quickie". I wasn't totally sold on this design, so I thought I would just take a different approach than what I would have normally done. I decided to use a base figure that I am really not particularly fond of, the "Black Panther". The Black Panther figure looks kind of deformed to me, with the rounded off shoulders, small chest, and the severe case of hip displasia. However, the texture of the BP body kind of took on an alienish look when I applied the green paint. I wanted to make a little bit of a different looking Green Lantern, but also maintain a streamlined, traditional look. I also thought it would be cool for him to have a beard, so I used a ML "Sentry" variant figure head for the beard, the cowl/mask is from a DC "Batman" and the hair was sculpted with AVES Fixit sculpt. The gauntlet style gloves were made with thin plastic from (of all things) a yogurt cup. I wanted some biker-style boots, so I sculpted them and made some straps and used some buckles from a Sleepy Hollow "Headless Horseman". The jewel in the center of the chest is from my daughter's "Barbie" collection, I think? Alan Scott's hair is/was blond as the Sentinel, but it was stark white for the Kindom Come arc. I didn't want to make him look old, and I thought blond hair with a beard and green mask would just make him look too much like Green Arrow, so I scrapped the Alan Scott idea and I am sorry to say that I don't have any original ideas for an origin or story for this custom. But nevertheless, I like the moniker of "Green Sentinel", so that's what I'm calling this one. I figure he's a distinguished member of the GL Corps "honor guard", and is not assigned to any specific sector, but has broad authority and explores the universe. His five year mission....whoops!, I started waxing like William Shatner there for a sec...Anyways, here it is, no where near in time for the contest. But overall, I am pretty happy with how it came out.

That Conan is sweet! I need to rip off that recipe! Great Work!

This looks great man, I love the new 25th anniversary series. I may have to do some Joe customs the future.

BrotherShane-Thanks, man! Most of my customs are a little outside the mainstream (Not Marvel or D.C.) so it's nice to see some people appreciate them! Perhaps this next custom will go toward establishing some "Street Cred" for me?... SABRETOOTH (MLS) I originally envisioned this custom about 2 years ago. I really liked the Marvel Legends Showdown series of figures (didn't care for the game mind you). In my opinion, some of the MLS series figures were far better than their ML counterparts. Anyways, I had hoped they would release a Sabretooth to go with this line...there were not many villains released and Sabes is probably my favorite villain. Sadly, the series was discontinued and the figures that were released were very hard to find. I knew that I wanted to make a Sabretooth and I thought the Venom figure might be the right base for it, but I had not seen any in stores. So after much waiting in vain for one to show up at retail, I opted to buy one online for an exorbitant price. I went through many trials and errors on this custom, this is my first full paint job on a custom, so I learned a lot on this one. After several near disastrous attempts, I have finally finished this and "ALMOST" couldn't be happier with the results. In a twist of irony, the head is actually Sabe's arch-enemy Logan (Unmasked Wolverine Variant). A little Fixit sculpt was used for the hair and fur mantle, and I used the ends of toothpicks for his claws. Anyways, here it is! "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO!"

That is a great idea! I picked up the whole line of Build a Brawl figures, and I was just at a Big Lots the other day and almost picked up some of these figures...I guess I'll have to go back now!

That looks really cool! I like the use of real fabric, and the helmet looks pretty cool too! Is it removeable? Also, what is 3060?

That's a great concept and you pulled it off with flying colors!

Here I am commenting...again...third site...I can't help it, that's got to be one of the very hottest female customs ever!

Samus looks Way-Cool!

Well, here's another custom that I came up with called "Tara" I would have made this as a character within the Conan mythos, but as I was really just wingin' it on this one, I really wasn't inspired by any particular character. "Tara" is the name of a longtime family pet we had that passed away and I just thought that would be a good name to use (it was better than Cone-Ann the Boobarian anyways). I figure that Tara is just a female barbarian who's life kind of mirror's Conan's in many ways. She has probably been a slave, a thief, and a warrior at different stages in her life and has led an adventurous one at that. This was just an exercise in fodder that I wanted to experiment with. For a while now, I have wanted to create a basic female barbarian like those in the cheesy 80's B-movies. I think the base figure is a wrestling figure called Torrie?, while the head is from another wrestler called Lita or something. (I'm not a wrestling fan). Tara's outfit and boots are courtesy of some "adult superstar" figure. I did some minor touch up work on the head and added some fur arm bands. The belt is from a Pirates of the Carribean Elizabeth Swann figure. The sword is from a Lord of the Rings elf, I cut the long handle off and did a little resculpting on it and the scabbard. The cape is from some Xena figure. The Polar Bears are from the line of figures for the movie "The Golden Compass", a little paint here and there and that's it. I hope you like!

Thanks BrotherShane! Here is another older custom of mine that I call "Demon Samurai"

I've been really busy lately, but I had some spare time and decided to tackle Beowulf I haven't even seen this movie yet, but I am familiar with the story from several different translations though, and I have always been a fan of the story. Even though I haven't seen the flick, I was anxious to make an articulated Beowulf out of Todd McFarlane's figure. First, let me give props to ToymakerB for the recipe...I used the LCBH Conan the Barbarian as the base figure. My first order of business was to carve away at the armpits on the Conan so that his arms could be posed all the way down to his side. I used the 'heat n pop' method to get all of the original Beowulf's armour off. I really wanted the chain mail to look like it was underneath the breastplate, so I painstakingly shaved off the pieces in very thin layers and attached them to his harness. I would have really liked to have been able to keep the breastplate/harness removable, but I could not come up with a very practical solution to do this and still make it look right. I had to really dremmel off a lot of Conan's back and shoulders to get the harness to fit and wrap completely around his torso. I pieced together some spare chain mail as best as I could and attached the harness permanently (*the last picture was taken prior to this as I wanted to kind of capture the mood of one of the scenes where Beowulf is confronting Grendel's mother for the first time). All in all, this was a pretty simple 'cut n paste' job, but it took quite a while to get it done. Still anxiously awaiting the movie's release on video...