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.

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.

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

GI Joe: The Coil!

For the 2006 GI Joe Convention, the Club released the Cobra's Most Wanted set, including Serpentor's private army - the COIL! Not being satisfied with the few characters provided by the Club, I created some of my own. First, here's the group shot:



The first addition was an Officer to lead my Coil Troops, named, well, "Coil Officer." He shares the same recipe as the Coil Trooper - Decimater head with TARGAT body. He is painted in the same colors with black and green flipped.



Next up is the Coil Techno Viper - Techno-Viper head on a Coil Trooper body.



I had several Snake Eyes v14 bodies and Storm Shadow v14 heads so I made a few of these guys that I'm calling Coil Neo-Ninjas.



Here is a character I call Virus - or the Coil Biological Trooper. He is made from a Vapor head on a Sludge Viper body - with Techno-Viper arms. I used a blowtorch backpack and some sort of Corps! pistol to create his weapon.




Not as much members of COIL, but rather associates of Serpentor - at least as described by the Devils Due comic series - are the next three figures. Hannibal I changed the arms out on as I really didn't like the look of the coat he was wearing. (I'm using that for a future custom anyway).



These next two are from a former "business associate" with whom I have long ago had a falling out. I'll refer to him as Snake Eggs from now on. Maybe I'll write up a blog about ol' Snake Eggs someday, but for now I'll just say that while he is talented he does not have that measure of integrity or loyalty. First up is Firefly as he appeared in the early issue of the DDP series. I'm not entirely sure what parts were used as he sculpted quite a bit on him. He has most of his articulation, but can't bend at the waist. I really hope his rubber band never breaks!



Finally comes Zandar. He fell out with his brother Zartan and ran off to join Serpentor in his ultimately doomed attempt to conquer the world. Again, I'm not certain what parts were used and the figure doesn't retain much articulation, but its appearance is really great. As much as I resent our dealings, I am happy with Snake Eggs' work.

Cobra's Black Ice and Black Ice Viper

Not to be left out of the exclusive figure racket - Joe Canuck - the Canadian GI Joe Club - created a few of their own convention exclusive figures. As opposed to the 800 to 1000 sets made by the US group, Joe Canuck made I think 25 to 35 of these bad boys. There's little to no chance that I would ever get my hands on an authentic version, so I did what I do and created my own counterfeit version. Additionally, as I was looking for reference information I stumbled on a Black Ice Viper created by Scramble over on JoeCustoms.com. I created Black Ice as close to the official version as possible aside from upping the contrast on the gray bits. I created this version of the Black Ice Viper to serve as his driver/retrieval expert. Eventually I'll do up a version of the Cobra WOLF for them sometime. I won't make it black, rather I'll keep it white since it is an arctic vehicle after all, but I will make some other modifications to make it unique.