Friday, February 27, 2009

Sly Rax - the MASK tribute custom

Several weeks ago I saw a really cool custom figure go up on eBay - it was a GI Joe 25th Anniversary style Sly Rax custom. I knew I had the parts and so I had a go at it. Here he is:



In my Joeverse I put him in with the Dreadnoks since he's a motorcycle-driving n'er-do-well. Yeah, I don't know of many of bikers that tuck in their shirt and button all they way up to the collar, but hey what the heck. He's made from the legs of Torch, Cobra Soldier torso and upper arms, Cobra Commander lower arms, Mutt Williams coat and head, with some slight modifications all around.

Here he is with his Stiletto mask:



I bought a large lot of "crap" figures that somebody had painted over several times as a child. There were quite a few jems in the lot - among them was Countdown's helmet. Which was used to create the Stiletto mask.

Finally, here is with his Piranha Motorcycle:




Yeah - it doesn't transform and has little in common with the original motorcycle. Truth is I just got it off eBay with a very good price and decided it'd make a great 'Nok vehicle. Turns out it was the best fit with ol' Sly here. I tweaked it a little bit, but mostly this is how I got it from the package. It is made from the Silver Mirage motorcycle with paint and some decals.

Next up on my MASK tribute tour is Miles Mayhem. I don't have the vehicle I want to stand in for his Switchblade helicopter but thanks to a suggestion from a friend I know what I want to get for it.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Green Lantern Corps



Here's my little group of Green Lantern Corps. I created the backdrop in photoshop and added my own version of MOGO. I neglected to take a pic of my growing Sinestro Corps, so they'll have to come later. Additionally, I just got the Green Lantern 4-pack with the battle damaged Manhunter and I'm looking for the G'Nort figure. They'll have to be in a GLC part 2 blog I suppose.



While I really like the look of the sculpts, I'm not in love with the pearlescent paint job. I repainted Kilowaq here with white gloves and a better green (IMO).




Eventually I'd like to create a large army of Green Lantern Corpsmen. Here's my first addition - Honnu - sometimes "Hannu." Here's a bio on him: Hannu. I made him from a Fantastic Four Movie Thing base with some sculpy. I painted him accordingly and then added about three or four layers of dry-brushing to give him a slate/stone look.



In the the current Green Lantern comic series Hal's former girlfriend gets hunted down by the Star Sapphire entity since she's viewed as competition for Hal's affection. Hal, ever the gentleman, lends her some of his Green Lantern power and creates a uniform on her inspired by the classic Star Sapphire appearance. Basically with the new Star Sapphire figure I didn't want to let my classic figure to go to waste. Just a simple re-paint.



Also in the current GL series, Batman tries on the ring and takes on his appearance. This is a repaint on a DCU Batman figure I got in a 2-pack with Batgirl and him. I call this the Bat-Lantern.



I don't remember a specific spot in the comics where Supes takes on this appearance, but I thought it would be cool and I had an extra Superman figure so...

UPDATE: One of my friends pointed out that he appeared this way in The Last Son of Earth.



This is my first complete Fan-Fiction Green Lantern. I call him Dex Derhan. There are a few examples of Green Lanterns that aren't your typical size and since I got this little dude out of my parts box I figured why not him. I don't have a bio for him yet - maybe I'll get to it some day.



One of my good friends' daughter got this in a happy meal and decided she didn't want it and thought it would be good in my collection. How could I refuse something so sweet? I painted Kung Fu Panda here up like a GL. Not a real serious member of my Corps, but hey - it's fun.

That's it for my tweaked or customized Green Lantern figures. I'll take shots of my new Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps probably once I get the G'Nort figure.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

GI Joe movie toys

Images of the action figures and toys related to the new GI Joe: Rise of Cobra movie have started to surface. The action figures bear a good likeness to the actors playing the roles, but look more like Godzilla themed figure rather than Joe figures. Completely gone are the campy uniforms of days past. I'm saddened to think that the phenomenal 25th line of figures will be replaced by the movie line. I hope that after a few waves of these "realistic" figures are completed that we will see a return of classic-inspired beauties. We still need a Zap figure after all.

Figures

Vehicles

Insert

That Night Raven looks pretty awesome - probably the best offering of the lot. The Mobile Command Center I'll need to see more of, but for now looks like the equivalent of a transforming batmobile/batcave monstrosity.

I hope we'll see better offerings than these over time.

UPDATE: I'm excited to see that the line will become GI Joe Movie and GI Joe Classic with a very impressive offering for the Classic line in the Assault on Cobra Island and Defense of Cobra Island 7-packs coming this July:

7-packs