James Bond - 007 for Two Eras

Like most living males (and females for that matter), I'm a fan of James Bond and most of the James Bond movies. I grew up watching these movies at home, at Grandma and Grandpa's, with my dad, on my own, with my wife, etc. They're good for all purposes. Sean Connery was always my favorite Bond. When Daniel Craig came along, I still like Connery, but Craig was more a Bond for my generation - wahoo!

Here's my GI Joe 25th Anniversary style homage to Daniel Craig's Bond:



He's got a Snake Eyes Commando figure base with a Daniel Craig head from the Golden Compass's ill-fated toy line. The head seems a touch over-sized for the body, but whatever - it still works in my opinion.

The Real American Hero line of Joes is now and always will be my favorite line of GI Joe figures so I just had to make a similar Bond figure in RAH style. I had the body of a Snake Eyes and the head of a Flash left over from another custom figure, so I pulled a LBC (lazy-bastard custom) and threw them together:



I actually consider the RAH Bond to be a Roger Moore inspired figure. He most closely resembles the figure anyway.

Steel Brigade Rolls into Town

In the Hey-Day of GI Joe, Hasbro offered a mail-in exclusive action figure that came with a customized file card. You filled in the name, specialty, and whatnot. It was really cool and a fun figure. The figure had a number of variations but basically he looks like this:

Steel Brigade 1987 on YoJoe.com

[Thanks to YoJoe.com for compiling and disseminating this and TONS of very helpful informaiton]

The GI Joe Fan Club produced a number of additional members of the Steel Brigade sub-team as souvenir items for the 2005 GI Joe Convention. I wasn't able to attend the convention, but over the past couple of years I've been able to score some really fantastic deals and put together my only little group. They needed a ride so I gave them the DTC R.H.I.N.O. and off they go!

In my Joeverse the Steel Brigade provide site security for high risk locations in embattled zones. The RHINO rolls in:




The RHINO land and air vehicles are both operated by a Steel Brigade Squad Leader (Steel Brigade Commander as named by Hasbro). The Unit Commander is Ironhide (Gung-Ho v17). The crazy tail-gunner there is Dragon Fire (Dragonsky).



The helicopter deploys very smoothly and is ready for take-off.



Once the copter is clear the troops pile out to secure the scene.




When the action's done, the unit gets together for a group photo:




I equipped all the members of my Steel Brigade with this fine weapon from the great folks over at Marauder's Gun-runners:

NCM Rifle

I likely won't be adding any custom figures or additional troops as this works rather well. I might equip them with a transport, but that's definitely a low priority as this unit is great the way it is.

Matt Tracker and the Thunderhawk

Hasbro released a 25th Anniversary GI Joe figure in tribute to the M.A.S.K. line of toys and action figures. The character they chose was the main hero - Matt Tracker. They re-used some parts from existing figures and re-envisioned him with a helicopter backpack instead of a transforming vehicle. Fortunately they did supply him with a helmet:



Here's the original figure with the Thunderhawk vehicle:



and transformed:



I took off the helicopter backpack - I'll probably use that for a Brad Turner custom since he had a motorcycle that transforms into a helicopter AND the backpack is already the correct color. The harness, chest armor, and shoulder pads all came off too. I wanted a more basic appearance for the figure. Since my Matt Tracker is going to be enclosed in a vehicle I'll save the armor for Brad Turner as well.

Here's my Matt Tracker with the transforming car from the Dark Knight movie line of toys.



and transformed:



I'm pleased that the figure fits in the driver's seat in both modes rather well:





I thought about repainting the car to closer resemble the original Thunderhawk, but for now time constraints force me to leave it as is. I'll likely leave the current paint scheme rather than go with red/purple though there will be some cosmetic changes. The copper parts will either be silver or light gray. I'll replace the missile launcher with either a gatling-type gun or an air-to-air missile. Additionally, I'll fit an extra piece of plastic to cover the massive sunroof.

So far in my MASK/GI Joe cross-over figures I have: Matt Tracker with Thunderhawk and Sly Rax with Piranha. I've got plans for Brad Turner, Gloria Baker, Miles Mayhem, and Cliff Dagger. Now all I need is time - sweet time!

She's really Wonderful, Woman!

Here are my Wonder Woman figures:



From left to right: Cheetah, Ares, Wonder Woman, Circe, Artemis, White Gorilla, Wonder Girl, and Kingdom Come Wonder Woman standing in for WW's mom - Hippolyta.

Here's a close-up of the custom White Gorilla that I made. The character appears in the earlier issues of the current volume Wonder Woman comic series. Wonder Woman is in Africa and encounters the tribe of intelligent gorillas that Grogg once sought to lead. A group of the gorillas follow Wonder Woman back to the US where they hope to prove useful to her. They have in some fairly funny ways. The figure was made on a King Kong movie figure with some lame action feature. I painted several coats of white with various tinting to give it some depth. I painted the fleshy bits and then painted his nails. He actually turned out all right I think.



For Hippolyta I'd like to make her appear like she does in the Amazon Attack series. I think she's already close so it shouldn't be hard - I just need the time.

I don't have a shelf for these guys so they have to hang out in a plastic bin for now. Perhaps I'll rotate out some other characters someday and clear these a place.

Marvel Select She-Hulk in Fantastic Four Uniform

When the Marvel Select She-Hulk first came out I grabbed her up to place with my Fantastic Four figures. I thought that the scale was great, and the figure was a good fit for my Fantastic Four shelf.



I never read any of the modern She-Hulk comics so I didn't really care about her factory appearance. I started off with a few coats of blue on her swimsuit in varying tones of blue. I then put several coats of white on her gloves and boots. I then did some light dry-brushing on her suit to add some depth. Finally came the detail work. Then that's all she wrote!



Unfortunately the time has come to part with her. She's on eBay here:

Fantastic Four She-Hulk

Wings of Silver, Nerves of Steel... SILVERHAWKS!

When I was about 11 or 12 years old I was totally obsessed with the Silverhawks. I even designed and submitted ides for new vehicles and characters. I was so thrilled and yet bummed at the same time when I got my rejection letter - on Silverhawks letterhead if I recall correctly!

All the toys that I originally had were either completely destroyed from excessive play and/or were sold off at garage sales (curse you rummage sales!) Recently I've managed to score some really cheap lots and have collected several of the figures. I'm still looking for these:

Stargazer with Sly-bird
Steelheart with Rayzor
Condor
Hardware
Windhammer
Moon Stryker
Quicksilver in Ultrasonic suit
Steelwill in Ultrasonic Suit
The Maraj
Skyrunner
Sprinthawk

Recently I spotted an auction for a foreign version of Mon Star and unfortunately was out-bid on it.





Mon Star here still has the ability to switch heads and presumably retains the same articulation as the US release. Additionally he comes with a solid set of wings which along with his torso are plated in a metallic gold finish. He also comes with a recolored Airshock.

I have been unable to find any additional information regarding this figure. The seller describes it as Korean but I have not been able to confirm that. I don't know if any additional figures were made as part of the line. If you have any information on this figure, please let me know.

Welcome to the new toy blog!

All of these posts were brought over from my Why, Commander Y blog. This will be the new home of all things toy related. Please feel free to still check out my Why blog for various ramblings and whatnot, but stay tuned to this channel for all things toy related.