The ones with Groot and Star Lord are on Hasbro.com, but the Ronan one isn't. Odd.

My Wal-Mart finished their reset and they're bringing back the 4 inch line.

Same around here. Stopped at one of the bigger walmarts in the area to get some household goods and they even put out figures. Old figures, but hey, gotta start somewhere.

The Universe is expanding.... (pics to follow in next post)

Picked up some exclusives that I hadn't purchased yet with the Masters of Evil set and from the recent SDCC cosmic set the Collector, Howard & Moon Boy. I also got the X-Factor set, but I haven't taken them out of the package yet. Finally got a chance to pick up the all-metallic variant of Absorbing Man for under $15, too. Glad to add him to the collection. I'd been looking for him for a long time. I've been re-reading Annihilation and its sub-books recently (digital copies) and it got me thinking of how deficient Marvel's cosmic characters are in figure form. I decided it was high time to beef up the cosmic side of the collection. I'm reading Operation Galactic Storm now, so the cosmic characters will continue for a while. Viper is there because I got one of her holsters added. Still need the right side holster. Finally picked up the new Vision and took his head (repainted) and cape for my custom finally completing it. And lastly, while I don't usually post these, I added a few QEC's to the end since they came out extraordinarily well IMO. In terms of volume this is basically a double batch of customs to round out my 2016 creations. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Falcon - I've long had this costume design slated for a custom after I stumbled upon the art piece. So I picked up the 2 pack (best value) with Cap. The Falcon body, as is, works for me without any major modification, so he only got a repaint with the wings chopped up - might have cut off a few too many "feathers" though - akin to what I did with Vulture. I decided to change up his costume slightly. I don't like the red wrist gauntlets that the design has, so I instead went with white gloves. I like the look and they provide a nice contrast to all of the red on his costume. With the classic Falcon added I think I'm good on Falcon figures for the collection.

Ravenous - Even though Annihilus was the catalyst behind the Annihilation event he was largely a bit player and didn't actually do anything in the story but drop some exposition. Oh, he "killed" Quasar after he showed up for 5 minutes in the Nova books, but really, Annihilus was an afterthought on the villain side so I keyed more on the Ravenous story. He really came across as the primary antagonist for the Wave's war effort, so I knew right off he was getting a figure made. A largely simple custom, but he took forever to make since I kept putting him aside to do a QEC or something. The sculpting also took forever with the curing and sanding etc. I left off the big bulky belt the character has. For me the figure looks better without it. The second in command is made. Now I just need to tackle Annihilus himself.

Firelord - I've long been a fan of the Firelord character. His team ups with Drax were always enjoyable. Plus, I think his design is very interesting visually. I didn't like the update he has in Annihilation being all red and having no mouth. Just very boring so I went back to his classic look for my custom. Taking his 2D design and making it 3D gave me a chance to get some more flamey sculpting work in. His fire staff was a pain sculpting the two fireballs on the end along with the flame blast effect. (The blasting effect wasn't ready when I took the pic - but the fireball on one end of the staff comes off and can be swapped with the blast effect.) The first ex-Herald added to the collection (no I'm not counting the Surfer) with all the rest to go. Dunno if I'll make a Fallen One since, for all his power, he didn't do a damn thing in the story, but we'll see.

Phyla-Vell - While I'm not all that high on her, she does fill a role though I'm not making her into a "Quasar" just yet. She's just Phyla-Vell trying to uphold the Captain Marvel mantle. I did make her a set of Quantum Bands though. Well, one anyway. I need another gold cuff/bracelet from Namor. I only have one right now since I used the second for Puma, but will pick up another eventually. The bands will be able to slip over the silver bracelets completely giving a different display option. Not much went into making her; a paint job and very minor sculpt additions. Added her dangling skirt thing, whatever that's called and that's about it. The cloak does have a hood but I sculpted it in the down position. She wore this costume only briefly in Annihilation but I went with this one over some of her other looks because it's the direct outfit from the core Annihilation books and, even more so, it's the closest outfit she has to the one from the Avengers EMH Korvac episode.

Rage - This character has always come across as a poor man's Luke Cage for me. If not for Hasbro putting him out it'd have been years before I made one because the guy is largely useless as a character. But, Hasbro made him and, as with most of their figs of late, he needed fixing. So, I kept the legs and head from the Hasbro fig and added them to a Herc torso with Ares arms. A little paint and sculpt later and he's done. I added the "RAGE" to the back of his vest. Painting tiny letters on a 3-D surface is a pain in the ass, but it's on there and I'm happy with it. I did leave off the thigh zippers (ah, the 90's) since his outfit is goofy enough without them. I'm glad Hasbro is dipping into their more obscure character vaults. Regardless of my personal thoughts on the character, Rage was a good choice of a lesser known character.

High Evolutionary - I have no idea what to make of this character. He shows up in some strange places, including having a role in Annihilation: Conquest, but he never made a lick of sense to me. For a cosmic level character he's pretty uninteresting. To me he always seemed a plot device that only existed because 'Evolution!'. I even researched his backstory and other than reading one or two of the "Evolutionary War" Annuals back in the late 80's I can't recall actually reading anything else that involved this character doing anything prior to Annihilation: Conquest. He's a pretty standard recipe using a mix of Colossus and Death's Head parts, but he's been another annoying custom which is additionally frustrating since his design only consists of a two-color scheme and a very plain design aspect (at least for this costume) but he took a good chunk of time to complete. I might go back and redo his head. It's ok, but could be better. I'll fix it up at some point. So, he's there in all his purple and silver boring-ness and is ready to be added to the collection.

Purple Man - I wasn't planning on making this character yet, but I'd recently finished the Jessica Jones Netflix show after numerous aborted attempts to watch it. While decent entertainment boy did that show drag on about 6 episodes too long. It really didn't need 13 episodes, but I digress... The Kilgrave character is the perfect villain! A guy that can make you do anything just by saying the words. Not a shabby power to have. So, while I had this body set aside for a different character, I didn't have the head I wanted and had a last slot to fill on my final custom batch for the year. So, I finally found an extra head that fit the body well and whipped up the Purple Man instead. While I think Kilgrave would have a better tailored suit than the mob style suit that Black Mask came in, it'll do for now. He looks Purple Man enough for my tastes. My only lament is that there's no elbow/bicep type swivel. That added articulation would have had me stocking up on this figure for suited customs that have ok articulation (unlike the Chameleon figure) and aren't super short (unlike the Xavier figure). Ah, well. Now just have to wait until the Jessica Jones/ Jewel figure finally comes out because that is one character I have no intention of ever making, at all, but I'll buy the one Hasbro's putting out.

Moon Dragon - Moon Dragon's Avengers run was before my time so I while I vaguely knew of the character it took a refresher from the Annihilation events to bring the character back to my attention. While she served no real purpose in the story it got me reacquainted with a character I hadn't read anything about in years. And then she turned into a dragon...which was weird. However, given her Phyla/ Defenders(Champions?)/ Avengers connections I opted to go ahead and make her during part one of my Cosmic Revival. She's a very easy custom though I did sculpt her baldy head and earrings. I don't care for her suit of armor look so I went classic with her design since she'll likely be with the Avengers when displayed. I thought about permanently attaching the cape but decided to leave it removable.


QECs:

Nova - As mentioned I was reading Annihilation prior to the start of this batch. That progressed into Annihilation Conquest and then into War of Kings. All that cosmic reading lead to a heavy dose of Nova exposure. So I decided to check out the Hasbro figure and see how he holds up today. Using the awesome Cyclops buck Nova was already a good figure, but was missing a little something. The design, though, was only partially accurate to his comic look. So I added gold stripes on his legs and the star on his back, gave all of the gold plastic a once over with a metallic shade that is a perfect match only it's actually shiny unlike the plastic and lastly I muted the light blue a bit with a yellow gloss and painted the red helmet star. To finish off this QEC I glued the shin guards down so they no longer hang away from the figure and I also glued the belt in place. Very simple custom work but makes a huge difference on the figure. Now I have a proper Nova Prime.

Dr. Strange - I took in the Dr. Strange MCU film recently and found it way more enjoyable than I went in expecting it to be. After taking in the movie I pulled Strange from the storage box and took another look at the figure. While it's a really good figure, I thought the cape was too dark of a red and the head is still ridiculous with that floating eyebrow they gave him. I had a spare cape from a two-pack Strange that I picked up for custom purposes and the coloring on that one was way more comic accurate. It just needed some touches to make it that much better, so I added some enhancing gold shades to the trim, the outer part of the Eye and the inner part of the Eye. It doesn't translate too well in the pic, but it looks great in person. I also gave the head an entirely new paint job. I still don't like painting heads, but at this point I've done enough of them that the fine detail painting isn't difficult, only timing consuming. Oddly enough, one thing I discovered is that the lifted eyebrow isn't a paint masking error on Hasbro's part, they sculpted the figure's brow that way.

Punisher - I have to admit, I never paid all that much attention to the Punisher as a character. He just never struck me as all that interesting. Probably because I would only ever randomly pick up a Punisher comic here and there as a kid so he didn't do much for me. I got a new found appreciation for him following the Daredevil Netflix series and took another look at the Hasbro fig and was really disappointed in the overall execution. I'm not a huge fan of paint washing on figures since most don't need it and factory washing usually sucks. The Punisher figure was no exception. Not only did they half-paint the skull logo eyes (though I get what they were trying to do) making it look like the skull was falling asleep but the gray wash was way too overdone and the base plastic is also a dark gray and not black. So he got a paint job and actually looks accurate now. I gave him a Fury coat just because it looks good on the figure. No sculpted sleeves for the coat since I wanted to be able to remove it later without any issues incase I wanted to go completely comic look for the display. He also needed a good stock of weapons so I gave him some Marauder Gun Runner gear (G.I Joe fans will know of Marauder) and beefed up his arsenal - gave him way more than what's in the pic with him, he has an actual arsenal like the show. Now I just have to make up a Punisher Van and an armory room for him, eventually... I will be adding another Punisher custom to the collection with a more tactical look and sleeves for the coat. That figure, when I get to it, will be much more involved than this one.

Kree - For the Cosmic Revival going on in my collection I decided to build a *small* Kree military force. I'd long since burnt out on army building (my G.I. Joe days cured me of that) and never picked up more than 1 of any MU figure that would be a nameless/faceless minion up to this point - though I wouldn't mind a few more AIM drones. However, after reading thru Annihilation and War of Kings I wanted just enough Kree to fill out a display since they're major players in every cosmic arc I've been reading. It's not so much army building as making a representation of the Kree military structure with each rank individualized. Something Hasbro is unlikely to do since this isn't Star Wars. To that end I started picking up the Marvel Cosmic sets on the cheap. I have an old art piece depicting the Kree military uniform's colors and logo styles, so I made a General (red), a Colonel (blue), a Lieutenant (gray), a Captain (green - has the pencil mustache of Att-Las) and 2 privates (purple). I skipped making a Major (orange) for now but I'll be adding a couple more types to the ranks eventually. You know, the body for these figures is really well done. If it had swivel wrists and torso then it'd be right up there with the JL Cyclops buck for my customizing. Three points of articulation. C'mon Hasbro, put them in!

Captain Marvel - Since I have a bunch of these figures from building up the Kree I just painted up one for my definitive Marvel. It's really just some glosses (clear/red) in spots. Nothing major, but the red gloss on the helmet makes it look a lot better. I still need to repaint her helmet-less head since the factory job is rather dull and lifeless looking.


Will post some pics of all the 2016 customs after I add these to the display.

Group shot:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psnh4rqofu.jpg

Firelord:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psx89swjqu.jpg

Falcon:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...pstxghnzyi.jpg

Purple Man:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...pstphwtdei.jpg

Ravenous:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psfsqxpn8u.jpg

Rage:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psauh2cw5o.jpg

Moon Dragon:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psbruoxp8y.jpg

Phyla-Vell:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psnpbpj5pw.jpg

Kree military force:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psysbuhvgl.jpg

QECs:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...pscwker2yo.jpg

Those are all amazing! Is Phylla Vell new?

I had to look up when the story came out since I only read digital copies these days which are usually years past when they were in stores. Anyway, Phyla had that outfit in Annihilation's main books from 2006. So no, not new at all.

And thanks! Glad you like them. Your 6" customs are very nice also!

Damn mordi.....i love those. Especially ravenous and punisher.

Soooo was looking through the Vortious website for stuff for an unrelated custom and looky what I found:

http://s.ecrater.com/stores/248318/5...1a_248318n.jpg

Just thought I'd bring it up.

Magic effects

nope don't remember that one being mentioned at all as confirmed

I follow several sites and missed Ronan. He's a personal favorite. Anyone have pics?! Web search doesn't return a 3.75 korath weird.

I consider myself "in the know" and I have NEVER heard that mentioned. But I am wrong often, all the time of you ask my wife.

He is in my top 5, as he is on pretty much everyone else's list. I really hope so. Hope the ML 3.75" 20 17 wave 2 has him, Coulson, Banshee,3 re-released army builders and a digital early copy of Guardians Of The Galaxy v2 before it's out in cinemas.

The Rage figure's mask has 3 black marks are those sculpted ?

No.


CCC.

Just checked on that Ronan. I think the dude's corn-fused, cause it was never there.


Not to say that I wouldn't mind having one, but it isn't a figure that has officially materialized, sadly.


I did, however do some research into his second recommended figure, Korath, and found out that there was a 2.5 inch figure of him for the first movie, so it MIGHT have been packed with a Ronan, causing the corn-fusion.

http://i.imgur.com/fAPuemU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5nbWBdq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iWHfaKm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0HGGtLS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HWFqh3D.jpg

What head is your Jasper Sitwell?
Looking GREAT!!

Maria has LONG been my favourite figure. Just something about her. Plus, I personally prefer the black S.H.I.E.L.D. outfit to the blue ones. That is why I sold or traded my TRU agents and built black bodied ones.... mainly JUST to match Maria.

The team looks amazing, add an Agent 13 and consider it done!

Ukmu, that is the GI Joe Short-Fuse head on his Sitwell. Great idea Goldbug

Cheers for that.... we went the Hawkeye head from the AVENGERS film with painted hair. This is 1000% times better.

Oh I knew I forgot someone. Plus I also have another generic SHIELD agent I forgot where I put him.

Rocket/ groom, and star lord /gamora are real, they are the only third round ML two packs, there was a custom ronin out in the wind, and people were passing the pick around at the same time the two packs were announced, this lead to speculation of another two pack, but it ain't real.

I was fairly sure I'd seen pics, but I guess not. Marvel Universe Wikipedia lists the Ronan / Korath 2 pack as being the other pack in the same wave as Groot / Gamora - which are real. It does seem odd that they would release just 2 two packs when they normally come in threes. Maybe they're holding it back for a future release?

I hope so! That'll be sweeet.... don't proclaim to know all the news and I have my fingers crossed this is true!