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

I haven't picked up anything for the collection recently. There's still things that I want, but nothing that I need, so just continuing to knock out characters and filling gaps that way. In comic news I actually forget the last thing I was reading prior to looking at some Darth Vader Star Wars comics which was a while ago as is. I picked up a bunch of digital books but I just haven't had the time to really get into them. I finally got the full run of Secret Warriors after only having up to issue 6 for the longest time, so I'll probably get into those very shortly. Hard to beat Hydra/Shield action so I'm hoping the series wraps up as well as it started. No real touch ups/ fixes with this batch either. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Venom - When I was getting ready to start this batch I had no intention of making this character at this point. In fact I don't even care for Venom all that much and can't stand the rest of the symbiotes - outside of Carnage - at all. But I recently had a couple of Executioner figures in hand and inspiration hit me on what to do with them. While I'm no big Venom fan, I did like when he first appeared and was drawn by McFarlane. He wasn't yet oversaturated at that point. However, there has yet to be a figure made of Venom that had the look, the bulk and the articulation I wanted, so I never had a Venom figure in my collection. Well, when that inspiration hit I decided to try and make that McFarlane look for my MU collection. I started by bulking up the base figure in spots to get the beefy bodybuilder look he has in that first appearance artwork. While the body was curing I started thinking about heads. I knew I wanted an Eddie Brock head, and of course I had to have that sinister smiling head from when he showed up and scared Mary Jane. And lastly, even though I'm no fan of the tongue look, I did make toothy grin head with alien looking eyes (looks like he's sleepy lol) just as another option - all sculpted. Now I just have to pick which head to use on display. I'm leaning toward the McFarlane smile myself. I really like how that one came out.

Malice - I realized that I never finished the Marauders since I had yet to make their field leader Malice. I'm generally not a fan of having multiple versions of the same character in my on display collection, but Malice is a special case. While she's obviously Lorna Dane in form, the character is an entirely different person. That in itself made for a customizing challenge as I had to decide on which version of Malice to make since she's one of the few characters that was never shown as having a physical form of her own in any fashion. Malice in Polaris form is obviously the most recognizable form she took on, and obviously the most lasting with Inferno and how long she was in possession of Lorna Dane's body. I had to sculpt her weird ass gloves and boots. I still can't fathom the final design of her outfit (wtf were you thinking Silvestri?) and the various art samples I looked up are all over the place in both look and color, so I just made something practical. Sculpting the hair was annoying. Well, it usually is anyway, but her ridiculous hairstyle was something else. Unlike Rogue whom I could get away with not doing the full on Flock of Seagulls look Malice had no alternate hairstyles in this outfit, so I had to sculpt it. I didn't go as crazy with the flare as most of the artwork though. Think it came out well enough. Luckily I was on a sculpting kick with this batch since her sculpt work was one of the reasons that I hadn't made her to this point. I originally put her off because when I made the Marauders team it was while re-reading the Mutant Massacre which she wasn't directly involved in. Eventually I think I'll end up making a Malice as Dazzler in the red dress from just before the start of that arc, just for some variety, but that won't be anytime soon. Anyway, Malice is done and now my Marauders are fully complete. On to the next team!

Snowbird - Since I'm still working on wrapping up/ completing small teams I noticed that the original Alpha Flight team I put together was still missing one member. Again, Snowbird is a custom that I willingly put off making because I didn't want to do the sculpt work. That and I was less concerned with completing that team overall since I'm not an Alpha Flight fan at all. But, not having her left a hole in the team and the little bird that came with Puck is a feeble stand in for having her in 'human' form. Like Polaris she's a simple custom with her head being the only real part I had to be creative with. I again used an Enchantress head (repainted) and modified it heavily to fit the character's design. Made up a cape for her and that was about it other than painting. Oh yeah, did something a little different with the cape. It's again vinyl but added something to the edges to give it that leaves it flexible but also allows it to be shaped and hold that shape. I ended up having to paint her twice though. The first shade of blue I used was ok, but it was way too dark for her comic coloring. So, I went looking in my paint bin and found a shade that matches her comic coloring and re-painted her. A tedious chore, but not exactly difficult. So, the original Alpha Flight is done, and since I'm not a really an Alpha Flight I will likely stop there. Honestly if Hasbro hadn't made so many of the team already I wouldn't have bothered with Snowbird at all.

Polaris - From a customizing standpoint I've put off making Polaris for a while now. She's just boring custom wise. Outside of her X-Factor period (which I'm not making right now) virtually all of her outfits are the same: A couple shades of green with cutouts and bare arms - I eventually just went with a ML Polaris figure's design. That said, I was going to be making Malice anyway for this batch and decided to just get the character over and done with rather than kicking her down the road for another day. Pretty straight forward custom with just body mods and paint for the most part. I did have to put in some work on the head. I cut down the top of the Enchantress mask then sculpted up the lower portion the Polaris mask has and trimmed off most of the hair and resculpted that as well and completely repainted the face. And yes, again the Enchantress eyes were horrendous. Hasbro wasn't even trying with those paint masks. In the end she came out well, but there's not much to her design so...meh.

Scorpion - This is another figure that I had no intention of making right now. In fact I've been putting the custom off for ages because I wasn't sure how to make work what I wanted to make. But, as I said with Venom, inspiration hit and I couldn't stop until this guy was done. The entire figure was also an Executioner so you can see how much work went into making him into Scorpion. I actually made Scorpion first between him and Venom. Since the Scorpion character is in an armored suit and not "spandex" I had to sculpt over most of the upper body. I also sculpted the mask detail, gloves and boots. Attaching the tail - flexible - was a lesson in creativity! Now that would make for a good tutorial, too bad I didn't take pictures as I went. I can swing the figure by the end of the tail and it wouldn't come off. I added his costume lines and finished him off with a full body gloss to give it a metallic looking shine. Scorpion is easily one of my favorite customs ever. With the amount of sculpting and curing that went into this figure he took forever to complete, but the final results are just what I wanted. Definite Top 20!

Kaine - I've been talking about making a Kaine figure for a while now. There was no chance I was going to make that hideous first costume, so I put him in the Scarlet Spider outfit because it's a pretty cool design. There's nothing to him custom wise; head and hand swaps and a paint job. Simple. It's still a travesty that the "thwip" hands only ever came with Doctor Strange figures and never on a version of Spidey that could have used them. Ah well. Now Kaine is done which was the last primary "Spider" I wanted to make. Any more from now will be "Spider-verse" alternates that are appealing to me. Although I think I might make a Silk. Her outfit looks like it could make for an interesting custom challenge.

Bishop - I got tired of waiting to get a Cable for a decent price since I was going to take it apart and make this custom anyway so I just used one of the Hyperion bodies instead. I'm not fond of those bodies for custom purposes because of that weird, elongated, midsection they used. At least with Bishop I could do something about that with him having a huge belt which breaks up the long torso. Anyway, I'm not the biggest Bishop fan out there. In fact after his debut, once the mystery of the 'last man to see the X-Men alive' was solved, I really could have done without the character going forward. But I am a fan of most runs involving the 90's Blue/Gold teams which necessitated that I have a Bishop somewhere in my collection. I'll be honest, I only bought the Hasbro Bishop because it was a new character and I knew I was going to make a Bishop custom instead the second I saw it so I needed the head regardless. The head is fantastic, the rest utter garbage, so the head and thigh holster were the only non-weapon parts I kept from the Hasbro figure. Gave him the aforementioned sculpted belt and added the XSE patch to his shoulder. He also has a pair of swap out energy blast hands. Lastly I finished him off with a shoulder harness and neck scarf from Marauder. If I can find a suitable energy shotgun (or whatever that gun he used originally was) I'll get a gun sheath and add that to the figure to carry it. But, no rush there. With Bishop done my 90's Jim Lee era X-Men team is almost complete. Only one left to go and they'll be off the list.

Daredevil (Defenders) - I made this guy due in part to it being both a challenge and a request. Once I decided to take on the challenge I just had to get a DD to paint on. I was able to snag some more yellow DDs before my last trip out of town so I had parts waiting upon return. Anyway, I whipped this guy up today for MUfan. I gave him extra hands and extra boots for alternate display options. But what I think is a really fun addition is the battle damaged head that I made. My first stab at making one of these but I'll definitely be doing more. The logo came together surprisingly easily. I think I spent maybe 20 minutes in total on it. Gave him the double holster straps and moved it down his thigh to where the ML figure has it. Finished up with an extended baton connected by a flexible wire. I'm debating on offering this guy for sale or not. I only made him because of the request. I don't really have a need or want for a Daredevil in this outfit in my collection but I really like the end result. Eh...I'll decide later.

Bonus customs:

Sasquatch - Since I decided to finish Alpha Flight as team I took another look that the 5" Sasquatch figure. It was decent given how long ago it was made, along with the limited articulation, but something was off about it. It was just too damn plain. I had originally only intended to give it a re-paint, but after looking at the upcoming ML BAF (which would be WAY too big for MU scale or I'd just pick it up) I changed my mind and decided to make some simple mods to the figure along with the new paint job. I sculpted fur onto the arms and crotch area. Then gave him a complete repaint from head to toe. Looks much better than just being orange. Now I can put this Canadian mutant team aside and focus on other teams I want to get done. I'm thinking the original New Warriors next.

Hellfire Club Mercenary - The Hellfire Club is a staple of X-Men lore and their mercenary guards have been involved in some key storylines under Claremont. I'm a little surprised that there has never been a HCG made in any scale. Seems a simple 'money grab' figure for a company, but, whatever. This was a real simple 'boredom' custom since I really only had to sculpt a facemask and paint. Honestly I'm not too happy with the mask. It's ok, but I can do better. The next one I'll have to try something a bit different. In the end I'll probably wind up with a total of 5 guards. Two of the red on blue guards (this type) and three of the blue on red cyborg guards who would in time become the Reavers Cole, Reese and Macon.

Group shot:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/791/3...a4370052_z.jpg

Bishop:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/810/4...4db95656_z.jpg

Venom (+art):
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/818/2...57afa196_z.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4782/...e08ba08a_z.jpg

Eddie Brock head:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4778/...d94de178_z.jpg

Scorpion:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4794/...e27fc99a_z.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4771/...57988962_z.jpg

Malice:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/802/4...f8f0210f_z.jpg

Kaine:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/805/4...e2489d93_z.jpg

Snowbird:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4782/...baef96b0_z.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/822/4...414955e7_q.jpg

Polaris:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/802/4...ea66b204_z.jpg

Daredevil (already posted):
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4620/...4b2e7792_z.jpg

Hellfire Club Guard:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/822/4...f202f381_z.jpg

Sasquatch:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/801/4...19f85f1d_z.jpg

Alpha Flight:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/813/3...1b0c29f8_z.jpg

Awesome work as usual dude!!

Fancy yes, ability...no. I shoot you some pictures soon of my Iron Men Pilk

Wow simply amazing mordy! You have got one steady hand my friend... and how the hel do we not have an official Mac gorgon Scorpion yet!
I wish hasbro used that herc buck more often

KB Toys Arise from Ashes!

Really like to see KB continue an exclusive "Vintage" carded line kinda like Amazon. Toy Biz 1990s coincidentally saw numerous KB exclusives. If they can resurrect such exclusives, what are easy-to-make new figures, they can milk from old existing toolings? Here's my list.

Phoenix in bright green costume reusing Dark Phoenix's figure
Fantastic Four She Hulk (repaint)
Iron Skull
Cosmic Ghost Punisher
Professor X (walking) in yellow costume
Magneto in a blue X-Men costume / Sentry or Samson head (repaint)

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d0/84/d5/d...rk-phoenix.jpg

https://static0.cbrimages.com/wp-con...nisher-hed.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/ee...1b53a9abb2.jpg

I actually did customs of both of these. The Phoenix was a repaint just like you suggest. For the Professor I used a Lex Luthor head on an Alexander Luthor body. This was before MU had produced a useable bald head.


CCC.

Lists!!!! Super lazy exclusive wave:
Phoenix
Invisible Woman (dark blue to match SW Reed)
Anti-Venom
Viper
Blonde Black Widow
Toxin

Nice MCU customs, EZTOYDUDE! And thanks for the heads up of the Hot Wheels Thanos.

Cool take on Strucker, DerStahlhelm! i dig it.


SPOT ON, Mordiganne! Great sculpting! Malice was nice touch.

Wow! That would be some welcome good news.

Phoenix can surely be mentioned multiple times (on many of our KB's Exclusive "Vintage" wish lists) given the many great costumes. Forgot to mention I like the ivory / gold version of the Phoenix costume, too.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/50/e1/1c/5...rk-phoenix.jpg

TRU crashing and burning definitely leaves an opening for something like KBToys to make a run at it again. Hopefully they make some good choices with where to put stores and how they use their floor space.

Mordi, great, GREAT, pain work on those customs. Good lines! I love the character selection.

DerStahlhelm, I like the business Strucker! Though I like mine with more party!

My 10yr old son posed some figures for me and I took photos. This is just the start:

https://i.imgur.com/dQwaSA1.jpg

Stay tuned

That's awesome that you two can bond like that. I can't wait to see what's next!

So that's who that was supposed to be! I remember seeing that one in one of your group pics but had no idea who it was.

There's literally hundreds of characters they could make with just repaints. Even more with minor modifications.

Most of the characters I'd want wouldn't have mass market appeal though, so hard to make a viable list.

Here's some with the before and new paint job

About six 1/4 inches

Whoa. Of the 100's of repaints / minor mods, what are some of thee most economical? What are some of thee coolest designs? B-list and C-list characters are okay to list. Such characters exist in past waves. So long as you like it, chances are, others will like it on a KB Toys 3.75 Vintage Collection (wish) list.

Captain America=
USAgent
Red Guardian
Blue Shield
The Crusader
any other cuffed boots, flared gloves characters.


CCC.

KB Toys Exclusive "Vintage Collection" wish list.

- Mary Jane Watson in a brighter colorful outfit. Classic blue jeans, white Tee-Shirt, and new a logo on the Tee. Give her a jacket (Jubilee / Rogue) plus belt (other Rogue / Ms Marvel) and she can be an entirely new figure. Ms. Lion shoukd be there, too.

- Bag head Spidey (retro card art featuring classic blue costume bag head and NOT the previous Future Foundation white costume card art).

- Storm (white repaint of costume) though I'd like to see a new head sculpt of her 1992 The Animated Series hairdo.

- Magus (formally Adam Warlock).


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20120721011355

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/4e/92/94/4...ider-verse.jpg

Blonde black widow
Green suit quicksilver
Crystal (using the invisible woman as a base body)
Silk
Spider Gwen
Domino
Cardiac
Luke Cage (thunderbolts look)

That’s just a few of the easier repainted I can think of off the top of my head without even considering figures that would take some new tooling like 90’s X Force team members, Bloodaxe, Avengers Next characters and so many others.

Awesome! What did you make snowbirds cape out of?

A piece of vinyl cut off an old binder with a wire backing on the edges so it will stay in shape/place when posed. You can just make out one of the wires on the left (the figure's right).

You have to scrape off all the cardboard that it's glued onto also. It's a pain in the ass to be honest but I like it better than soft goods and it's just as versatile.