Thundercracker and Skywarp Custom Skystrikers

Once I found some Skystrikers on sale, I knew that I had to make Thundercracker and Skywarp to go along with my SDCC Starscream. First step is to as completely as is reasonably possible disassemble all the parts. Wash them with soap and water - this will help remove oil residue left on the plastic during manufacturing. I then primed all the parts with a medium gray primer. This creates a better surface for the top coats of paint to adhere to. Here is a picture showing some of the primed parts.

You could go ahead and get expensive hobby paint, but I find I get better, more durable, results with standard spray paint you would find in a hardware store or even your Wal-Mart/Target stores.

Here's a shot of some of the pieces with a black top coat.

Here is actually the first skystriker that I painted.  I don't think that I washed it well enough or perhaps it was too windy when I sprayed as there are several places where the paint either bunched up or didn't stick very well.  I set that aside and opened another skystriker, washing very thoroughly before painting.

 

Here's the base for Thundercracker



Here's my first and second attempts at Skywarp.  The one on the left was eventually turned into my Dreadnok Waspinator Skystriker.  Bet you never thought you'd see those three words strung together.  Post following on that.














Here's a profile shot of Skywarp, showing off his purple tail fins.  This is the second color choice for the fins, the first purple I chose was too dark, whereas this purple is much more of a "decepticon purple."

 

I've got to take a moment here and compliment the skystriker's level of detail.  It looks great in the normal gray that it comes with, but once you get a different color and in high gloss - the details just pop out.  I don't know how much you can tell from my somewhat lackluster pictures, but it is awesome.

So here are my boys without stickers:

I used some pre-made custom sticker sheets and enlisted the help of a fellow collector with much steadier hands and much more patience to apply them.  Here is the finished Thundercracker:

Here is my finished Skywarp:

And for comparison, here is the SDCC Starscream:

Here are the three seekers lined up.  Don't get me wrong, I think the SDCC Starscream is a fantastic toy, but I knew I had to make my own after seeing the three of them together.  

I liked the foil finish I got with my custom sticker sets, plus they had a shared style which was not present with the SDCC Starscream.  Fortunately one of my friends needed the Starscream and I had another Skystriker!  I painted the tail fins blue and got the appropriate stickers:

These guys look much better matched with each other.

Finally, here's a shot of my Skywarp with the corresponding Masterpiece figure.  I think they look great together even if the purples don't quite line up.  Yes, I do use these as matching figures - you can either go with the increased density in robot mode or mass-shunting theories if you feel the need to explain away the difference in size between robot and alt modes.  Fortunately I'm not too worried about that.

Warpath Custom Joe-scale Alt-Mode

When I got done with my recent Powerglide custom I caught a bit of the Joe-former bug. Here is what I did to make my Joe-scale Warpath custom. I started off with a custom tank that I bought off of eBay fairly cheap:

This was in itself a fairly cool vehicle. I liked the idea of making a Warpath better than keeping this as is though.

Here are the two base vehicles - the turret from a vintage MOBAT, the rest from the Marauder's Equalizer. (both of which I happen to have examples of)

Here I'm testing out parts to get more of a Warpath look. That's the very cool Transformers Generations Warpath figure there. I quickly concluded that the weapon and support on the left looked horrible and replaced it.

The weapon supports and the weapon on the right are the jetpacks from a POTF2 Deluxe Boba Fett figure - two of them chopped up for these. The rocket firing weapon on the left is from... some Joe figure pack-in I think. Dunno.

Here he is assembled after the Mauler Skirts came in the mail. Oh yeah, the muzzle is from a Clone Trooper pack-in radar dish or something. I'm not totally in-love with it and may replace that someday.

Disassembled, washed and ready for priming!

Primed!

Painted! I used silver for the treads, the same red from my Powerglide custom, and left the flat gray primer on the weapons.

All the parts laid out for assembly.

The main body assembled.

Turret parts.

Final assembly!

Here are some comparison shots with the actual Warpath figure. No stickers yet.

And with stickers. I used a combination of Mauler, MOBAT, and Autobot sigil stickers, all from Cobrastickers.com.

And that's all there for this guy - what do you think?

Powerglide A-10 Custom Joe-scale Alt-Mode

After the SDCC Starscream "Joe-former" release I knew that I'd have to start making some similar vehicles to explore that niche-itch. Here is my take on the Powerglide A-10 as a GI Joe sized vehicle. I forgot to take a before picture so here's someone else's picture of the same base vehicle. It was a BBI Combat something or other that I picked up on clearance at Target sometime in 2005 or 2006.

Here he is taken a part and washed (he got dusty after all those years).

I hadn't done a vehicle custom in quite some time so I wanted to try my hand at brush-painting this guy rather than spray paint. This was ultimately a mistake, but a mistake I feel like I need to experience on my own. Here he is primed with a gray paint.

I actually liked the color this came out, but the texture was off and it was very flat. This is a mock-up after the first coat of paint just to see how I was coming along.

Here is assembled after his second coat of paint and with a 25th Anniversary Wild Weasel for scale.

I fairly quickly realized that I would need to spray paint this bad boy as the brush job just didn't cut it. I taped off the gray parts.

After the first coat or so (you can see Skywarp and Thundercracker in the back there).

Here he is all assembled and ready for the final touches.

Another shot.

This is after I applied the Autobot sigils and stood the pilot custom - Buster Witwicky next to Powerglide.

Finally here several completed shots after Sgt Humpty lent his abilities to apply the remaining stickers. I used a combination of ME Skystriker stickers, a sheet from a Power Team Elite F-18, and Autobot symbols from Cobrastickers.com. That is the Transformers Generations Wal-Mart G1 color variant Powerglide Transformer shown with my custom.

Marvel Legends Showdown (aka Superhero Showdown)

I would occasionally use the Wikipedia article on ToyBiz's SHS - Super Hero Showdown - Marvel Legends Showdown line of 4-inch sized action figures. There was a great checklist for both the figures and the cards that were packed in with them. Recently some Wikieditor decided that he didn't like the checklist in the article and deleted it. I'm still trying to work it out but I don't know what will come of it. Regardless of the final outcome, I'm posting the content here so that it will not be lost entirely. Feel free to check out the entry on Wikipedia ("Marvel Legends Showdown") and post on the discussion page for it support for keeping the information intact. Thanks. Also, please note - I am NOT the author of the following content, rather it is from the good contributors of the original SHS Wikipedia article.

Marvel Legends Showdown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marvel Legends Showdown (initially named Marvel Superhero Showdown) is a collectible tabletop game in which the primary component is action figures and cards. It was a collaboration between Upper Deck Entertainment and Toy Biz (Now known as Marvel Toys).

The was played on at least a 3x4 grid of Panel cards. Panel cards broke into two categories; Locations (Places in the Marvel Universe) and Plot Twist (Special events that occurred on that space) The goal was to move around the Panel card grid and knock out your opponents character with Punches, Kicks, or shooting them with an included projectile launchers. Once you did three damage to a character he/she was out. The more characters on each side, the larger the Panel grid had to be. (2 on 2 a 4x4 grid, 3 on 3 a 5x5 grid, 4 on 4 and 6x6 grid and so on)

It was released in 2005 with two starters and two waves of five boosters each. The set was renamed Legends Showdown to tie it in to the popular Marvel Legends figures. The first two starters and booster sets were re-released with the new name, plus 2 new starters, 3 rider packs, and two new waves of boosters (Though these two waves 3 and 4 had limited release, seen in comic shops and KayBee Toys shelves rarely). Toy Biz changed its name to Marvel Toys and then sold the rights to all Marvel action figure properties to Hasbro. Marvel Legends Showdown was not one of the product lines that transferred over.

The Starters included 2 figures, 2 projectile launchers, 3 power cards for each figure, 12 Panel cards, and 2 dice.

Boosters included a figure, a projectile launcher, 3 power cards for that character, 3 random power cards for other characters in the set, and 1 panel card.

All characters had at least 6 Power Cards, but some may have had up to 10 or 12! (Spider-Man had 3 different figures, starter Spider-Man had cards 1-3, Black Costume Spider-Man from the Booster had cards 4-6, and sometimes had cards found only in the boosters.)

Checklist

Figures
Starter Wave 1

Spider-Man vs. Thing
Hulk vs. Wolverine

Booster Wave 1

Berserker Wolverine (chase)
Black Costume Spider-Man
Doctor Octopus
Ghost Rider
The Punisher
Booster Wave 2
Captain America
Dr. Doom
Human Torch
Iron Man
Spider-sense Spider-Man (chase)
Rider Wave 1
Ghost Rider on Motorcycle
Namor on Hammerhead Shark
Wolverine on Chopper

Starter Wave 2

Magneto vs. Colossus
Mole Man vs. Mr. Fantastic
Booster Wave 3
Beast
Elektra
Green Goblin
Juggernaut
Silver Surfer

Booster Wave 4

Cyclops
Daredevil
Invisible Woman
Thor
Venom

Repaints and Variants

Beast's standard fur colour is blue, but the figure has a grey fur chase variant.
Daredevil's standard outfit is red, but the figure has a yellow and black chase variant.
Elektra's standard outfit is red, but the figure has a white costume chase variant.
Invisible Woman's standard outfit is blue and black, but the figure has a blue and white costume chase variant, as well as a semi-transparent variant.
Mr. Fantastic's standard outfit is blue and white in the starter set, but the figure has a blue and black costume chase variant.

Panel Cards

Wave 1 (Starter Wave 1 and Booster Waves 1 and 2)

P-01 360 Degree Vision
P-02 Acrobatic Dodge
P-03 Armory
P-04 Asgard
P-05 Base of Operation
P-06 Baxter Building
P-07 Blind Alley
P-08 Blindsided
P-09 Burning Mad
P-10 Cerebro
P-11 Daily Bugle
P-12 Danger Room
P-13 Dark Alley
P-14 Doc Ock's Lab
P-15 Earthquake!
P-16 Find Weakness
P-17 Flurry of Blows
P-18 Graveyard
P-19 Gust of Wind
P-20 Handy Weapon
P-21 Huge Target
P-22 Leg Sweep
P-23 Medical Attention
P-24 Mindless Attack
P-25 Muir Island
P-26 Mystical Transformation
P-27 Not So Fast
P-28 Outnumbered
P-29 Rejuvenation
P-30 Revenge Strike
P-31 Road Block
P-32 Stop Time
P-33 Super Punch
P-34 Teleportation
P-35 Victory Stance
P-36 War Room

Wave 2 (Starter wave 2, Rider sets, Booster Waves 3 and 4)

P-37 Absent Friends
P-38 All in Due Time
P-39 Armed to the Teeth
P-40 Avalon Space Station
P-41 Body Blow
P-42 Boulder Toss
P-43 Caught Off-Guard
P-44 Come to Me!
P-45 Desperate Measures
P-46 Double Trouble
P-47 Field Dressing
P-48 Genosha
P-49 Hostage Situation
P-50 Meditation
P-51 Mega Punch
P-52 Nerve Center
P-53 New Fantastic Four Building
P-54 Parry
P-55 Phoenix Rising
P-56 Pride
P-57 Reed's Underwater Lab
P-58 S.H.I.E.L.D. Base
P-59 Sabotage
P-60 Sanctuary
P-61 Smash!
P-62 Strength in Numbers
P-63 Surge of Power
P-64 Surprise Attack
P-65 Knee Strike
P-66 The Dojo
P-67 The Maelstrom
P-68 Uncontrollable Rage
P-69 Underground Base
P-70 Underwater Arena
P-71 Brute Force Attack
P-72 Weapons Locker

Power Cards

Beast

BST-01 Acrobat
BST-02 Feral Rage
BST-03 Super-Leap
BST-04 Genius
BST-05 New Perspective
BST-06 True Blue Friend

Captain America

CAP-01 Retrieve
CAP-02 Ricochet
CAP-03 Shield Bash
CAP-04 Leadership
CAP-05 Shield Defense
CAP-06 Tactics

Colossus

COL-01 Organic Steel
COL-02 Stand Firm
COL-03 Strength of Character
COL-04 Fastball Special
COL-05 Self-Sacrifice
COL-06 Transformation

Cyclops

CYC-01 Defensive Blast
CYC-02 Optic Blast
CYC-03 Surprise Attack
CYC-04 Leadership
CYC-05 Overload
CYC-06 Revenge

Daredevil

DAD-01 Baton Strike
DAD-02 Heightened Senses
DAD-03 Sonar
DAD-04 Amazing Agility
DAD-05 Man Without Fear
DAD-06 Swing Line
DAD-07 Blind Luck

Doc Ock

DOK-01 Dangerous Experiment
DOK-02 Tentacles of Fury
DOK-03 What are the Odds?
DOK-04 Easy Eight
DOK-05 Four-way Attack
DOK-06 Idle Hands

Dr. Doom

DRD-01 Plan B
DRD-02 The Power Cosmic
DRD-03 Reign of Terror
DRD-04 Decoy Program
DRD-05 Mystical Confusion
DRD-06 Mystical Fog

Elektra

ELK-01 Crossed Blades
ELK-02 Double Sai Strike
ELK-03 Waiting in Ambush
ELK-04 Concentration
ELK-05 Mystical Training
ELK-06 Group Tactics
ELK-07 Contract
ELK-08 Counterstrike

Ghost Rider

GHR-01 Chain Attack
GHR-02 Relentless Assault
GHR-03 Revenge
GHR-04 Burn Rubber
GHR-05 Penance Stare
GHR-06 Vengeance
GHR-07 Burning Mad
GHR-08 Road Warrior
GHR-09 Spirit of Vengeance
GHR-10 (Unconfirmed)

Green Goblin

GRG-01 Strike From Above
GRG-02 Flight
GRG-03 Pumpkin Bomb
GRG-04 Hostile Takeover
GRG-05 Inner Struggle
GRG-06 Paranoia

Hulk

HLK-01 Crushing Blow
HLK-02 Getting Angry
HLK-03 Super-Leap
HLK-04 Hulking Out
HLK-05 Hulk Smash!
HLK-06 Rush of Adrenaline

Human Torch

HMT-01 Flight
HMT-02 Heat Wave
HMT-03 Nova Flame
HMT-04 Cosmic Radiation
HMT-05 Flaming Aura
HMT-06 Nova Burst

Invisible Woman

IVW-01 Force Bubble
IVW-02 Flight
IVW-03 Enraged
IVW-04 Stealth Strike
IVW-05 Force Field
IVW-06 Invisibility
IVW-07 Shockwave
IVW-08 Psionic Blast

Iron Man

IRM-01 Focused Blast
IRM-02 Jet Boots
IRM-03 Power Strike
IRM-04 Recharge
IRM-05 Energy Shield
IRM-06 Wide Beam

Juggernaut

JUG-01 Flying Tackle
JUG-02 Mystical Energy
JUG-03 Smash!
JUG-04 Appetite for Destruction
JUG-05 Steamroller
JUG-06 Unmasked
JUG-07 Invasion
JUG-08 Reckless Charge

Magneto

MAG-01 Flight
MAG-02 Magnetic Personality
MAG-03 Magnetic Force
MAG-04 Entangle
MAG-05 Leadership
MAG-06 Twisted Metal

Mole Man

MOM-01 Bojutsu Strike
MOM-02 Burrowing
MOM-03 High Ground
MOM-04 Sewer Surprise
MOM-05 Sinkhole
MOM-06 Summon Monster

Mr. Fantastic

MRF-01 Brilliant Mind
MRF-02 Framistat
MRF-03 Stretch Attack
MRF-04 Far-Reaching Plans
MRF-05 Long-Range Grab
MRF-06 Twisted Dodge

Namor

NAM-01 Flight
NAM-02 Force of Will
NAM-03 Shark
NAM-04 (Unconfirmed)
NAM-05 (Unconfirmed)
NAM-06 (Unconfirmed)

Punisher

PUN-01 Extra Ammo
PUN-02 Outgunned
PUN-03 Punishment
PUN-04 Cover Fire
PUN-05 Dual Sidearms
PUN-06 Fully Loaded

Silver Surfer

SIS-01 High-Speed Turn
SIS-02 The Power Cosmic
SIS-03 Surf's Up
SIS-04 Cosmic Awareness
SIS-05 Molecular Control
SIS-06 Tireless Warrior

Spider-Man

SPM-01 Spider Strength
SPM-02 Web Shooter
SPM-03 Web Slinging
SPM-04 Alien Symbiote
SPM-05 Come To Me!
SPM-06 Spider Reflexes
SPM-07 Sticky Situation
SPM-08 Altered Genetics
SPM-09 Spider Senses
SPM-10 Wall Crawling

Thing

THG-01 Batter Up!
THG-02 It's Clobberin' Time!
THG-03 One-Two Punch
THG-04 Charge!
THG-05 Rock Solid
THG-06 Stomp!

Thor

THR-01 Divine Protector
THR-02 Hammer Time
THR-03 Mjolnir
THR-04 Flight
THR-05 God of Thunder
THR-06 Retrieve

Venom

VNM-01 Keen Senses
VNM-02 Rage
VNM-03 Web Slinging
VNM-04 Fear
VNM-05 The Symbiote
VNM-06 Tongue Lashing

Wolverine

WLV-01 Combat Reflexes
WLV-02 Healing Factor
WLV-03 Snikt!
WLV-04 Berserker Rage
WLV-05 Deep Wound
WLV-06 Nasty Surprise
WLV-07 Heightened Senses
WLV-08 Intense Training
WLV-09 Chopper
WLV-10 In One Swing
WLV-11 Shrug It Off
WLV-12 (Unconfirmed)

DREADNOKS! (I found some old pics)

A few years ago, after I took down my USS Flagg, I put out all my Dreadnoks - well all the 'noks I had up to that point. This is just a table that I had in my basement, so no background shots or diorama stages yet.



Here is my custom firebat. I think I'll likely give it a better paint job - ie something like how the 'noks would paint it up. The story is that as part of their pay for doing jobs for Cobra, they got to raid the junked vehicles and spare parts. This thing still has some power, but not enough for sustained flight - just enough to go cruising through swamps and short hops to get the surprise on the Joes. I added a fixed cannon for some added firepower. In my old notes I called it the Dreadnok Wombat - but since wombats are particularly well known for their ability to fly I should probably change it. Dreadnok Swamp-Turkey? Flying Squirrel?



I think that I have 18 or 24 of the Dreadhead figures. For a while there these guys were going dirt-cheap. I'd buy the set for a fairly low price, then sell off the other figures and usually end spending just a few bucks per. I also created a custom using the same parts as a squad leader or whatever. I've got these guys as crew on vehicles and performing whatever tasks around the 'Nok camps and bases.



Copperhead always struck me more as a Dreadnok than a Cobra. Everything from his color-scheme to his vehicle choice to his filecard bio. So I gave him an even more Dreadnok-ish paint job and a new position on the 'Noks.



I turned some spare parts into a new Dreadnok vehicle. In this case, the vamp was a badly painted custom I got in a lot of other junk. I cleaned it up a little, added some guns and threw together a new driver. Bam. Done. I called this vehicle the Gun-runner as it apparently is used to run guns as that's evil the Dreadnoks are bad guys. Sure, makes sense. Though the vamp isn't well known for it's cargo space. I should re-think that. The driver's name is Nitro.
Yes - that is a Jason custom in the background. He is cool. He even has a disfigured head under the goalie mask. I'll probably get around to posting about him someday.



Here are my Dreadnok versions of the HISS and Snow Cat. I call them the Dragon and the Swamp Masher (II). The HISS was rather fun to do, I added some accessory pack missile launchers and gave it a sold paint job. Eventually I think I might re-do the guns into flame-throwers as that was the original inspiration for the name. The Snow Cat didn't get much modification - just a paint job and replacement missiles. I left the canopy off as I figured that in a swamp they wouldn't need it.



This wolverine vehicle (and similar deco'd Ferret) were purchased off of ebay, pretty much as is. The original owner made them as custom Warhammer vehicles, but I think they look great as Dreadnok stuff. I called the Wolverine the Warhammer in honor of that. I think that I'll paint all the missiles with that spiral paint-job as it's pretty cool looking.



Just another shot of my Dreadheads.



And finally a ground-level shot.



I'm looking forward to setting up a massive display for these guys. Since these pictures were taken I've added quite a few more pieces. I got a few guys with dirt bikes, the Convention Dreadnok STUN and two Convention Cycles. There's also a few more motorcycles and diorama pieces.

In addition, I've added a few more figures - several custom figures, but also the Viper (version 4) got added to the rank. The story on that is Cobra Commander insisted that a few of his Vipers accompany Zartan and the noks on a particular mission. In response to being forced to have these outsiders around, Zartan made them wear these ridiculous uniforms as punishment.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!