[Mordiganne]

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

Had a credit with Amazon for returning that Warstar so picked up the newest Rogue. While the figure is just ok, the face paint is fantastic. Probably the best female paint job Hasbro has ever done at this scale. Eventually I'll get another to see if the paint job is as good. Then I can cut off the hair and use the head for someone else. Since "Maximum Security" was an epic failure I picked up some digital copies of some of the more "recent" Marvel epics: Secret Invasion / Dark Reign / Siege along with the entire Thunderbolts run (among others) but who knows when I'll have time to read all this since with the tie-ins they cover a huge volume of issues. Guess I'll start with SI and go from there. With any luck there will be some interesting characters and designs that will require being added to my collection in figure form. Still have a couple of War/Realm of Kings characters I want to make. Most importantly a pair of Vulcan customs. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Unus - I only know Unus from his early X-Men appearances thanks to the old Marvel Masterworks books. Marvel really phased him out after those early X issues. I read that he showed up again on Genosha. I never read those issues so I don't have the full story on why he was there. So I made my custom based on the appearances that I do know. His power is purely defensive and very limiting since it's been shown more than once that when his power grows it has the ability to suffocate him. Pretty interesting stuff. Unus only needed a straight paint job to create. I used a Punisher head as most do but I cut off the dangling hair pieces. Really simple custom and another evil mutant added to the collection.

Punisher (tactical) - I made mention a few batches ago about making a "tactical" Punisher (Punisher v.2 if you prefer.). This is what I came up with for when he's going to be wading deep in criminal blood. While Punisher has had some iconic designs over the years, I modeled this custom off a Jim Lee design (mostly in the head) with my own flair in spots - he's got four holsters for removable items: two pistol, one on each thigh, a knife sheath on right shin and a IR light holder on left shin. I added a customized harness (w/shotgun shells & grenades) and then some pouches to his belt. I cut one holster off the belt and moved it down his leg and added a double ammo pouch. I added the knife sheath and light pocket (custom made) to allow him to carry more gear. For the sculpt additions I added sleeves onto the arms (just onto the forearms), sculpted the headband (flexible ties) and hair along with giving him knee pads. I varied the skull design from my first Punisher to have a complete visual variation. To finish him he also got a full complement of Marauder weapons. A different spread than the original comic style punisher custom: I added a scale duffle bag and jammed it full of various Marauder armaments; two cases - one with a laptop and the other jammed with small arms, grenades, clips & attachments for the modular rifle, etc. And lastly that aforementioned modular rifle, currently outfitted with a long range scope, double ammo drum and grenade launcher. I have some scale money to give to him until I get some mobsters made but I have to find it. This figure was a lot of fun to make. The sleeves look nice and work well either with or without the coat added on. I might add one more holster to his lower back for a revolver if I can find one that fits the gun. This one really came out well. Definitely in the top 20. Still need to make a Punisher van and a Micro sidekick for him.

Baron Strucker - I never really knew the full breadth of Hydra from reading comics as a kid, especially since my primary focus was on the X franchise. With the EMH cartoon my perspective changed and I could see Hydra as not only a global organization but also a major force. Then came the MCU and my interest in Hydra exploded. To that end I decided to beef up my Hydra force with the organization's heads being added to the collection. I started with Madam Viper but Baron Strucker was always on the radar. I just wasn't sure how to pull off what I wanted to make. Then I got a head from Nomad that had the look I wanted (after some mods - shaved off a moustache the head had and then scarred it up after a full paint job) and the rest fell into place. The harness, sword and epaulettes are from a Cobra Commander figure. I wanted to maintain the figure's arm articulation so rather than using an arm from a different figure I sculpted the Satan Claw over the original arm and swapped in a different hand that I could sculpt around, keeping the wrist swivel intact. (Whenever I can pick up a spare Star-Lord body I'm going to make a normal right arm that I can swap with the claw arm for a different look.) The ascot is also sculpted. I had to do some serious modification to the neck to make it look close to normal. Otherwise the head would have sat a scale foot up from the body, and that just wasn't going to work. The neck is still a little too long, imo. I might shorten it a little more at some point in the future. The H is from a Hercules belt. I didn't give him yellow boots because I wanted him to stand out even more from the rank and file. Just need to get some Hydra & SHIELD stickers now. My Hydra hierarchy is not yet complete, but the head is in place now. Still have an Arnold Brown and Arnim Zola to make, among others. Once I get Hydra to a respectable point then I can start on S.H.I.E.L.D. and A.I.M.

Crossbones - Crossbones is a great Cap villain, especially when mixed in with Hydra. While the Crossbones from the Captain America toy line was really good, it wasn't the costume design I wanted. Since I'd long wanted to make a Crossbones anyway, I went with his classic costume as that's the one I'm most familiar with. More often than not I'm going to choose a classic design from the era when I was actively buying & reading comics as a kid over anything modern. Just personal preference there. And speaking of the Cap line Crossbones, it is still undersized for the character even though it's larger than most figures from that line. Next to a JL buck Cap it's still small. He was pretty simple to put together. Swapped the lower legs and sculpted the metal bracelets (anyone know what those things actually are?) onto his wrists for that part of the design. I also made a small hole in the head to attach the tie strings (flexible) . To finish him off double holsters were added along with the pouches on the belt. I had to patch the holster straps because they were made for a smaller figure so wouldn't fit on the leg without being cut. Now he's appropriately scaled and ready for the collection. Another Hydra member down. Have a few more characters to cross off that list. All in due time.

Daredevil (shadowland) - I haven't read the storyline for this version of Daredevil but I have read a synopsis or two. Seems interesting except for the demon stuff, but I liked the outfit and wanted to make one. I never bought the official figure because it was just boring and I had no clue about the story at that time. But I ended up with another Daredevil figure that I didn't immediately need and used the body for Unus leaving me with an extra DD head to do something with. It got me thinking about what DD characters I could make and Shadowland came up during art searches. After seeing the costume design from the comics Hasbro really skimped on their release so I opted to make one that matches the art designs. I added in the forearm blades from cut up Drax knives and sculpted straps. The suit is all a single color with the stylized D's so there's not much to it. The logo is supposed to be lower on his chest, but I didn't want to break it up with the torso articulation. With this guy I think I'm all set for Daredevil figures for my collection. I thought about making a ANAD Daredevil but there's no need for one. Though now I do want some more Hand ninjas. About 5 more will do. I also want some DD supporting characters. A Foggy Nelson for sure and maybe a Karen Page. Maybe. Hopefully I can actually read the Shadowland story behind this guy soon. I still have a few issues to track down so don't want to start reading until I get the entire story in.

Nate Grey - I was a big X-Man fan back in the 90s. It was one run that I wanted to try to get every issue to. Back then that meant hitting the comic store in the mall on a regular basis. Not so easy to do as a kid without a car, but I managed pretty well and had most of the run up through when they turned him into that weirdo mutant messiah character. Yeah, the 90's age of comics wasn't the greatest... Custom-wise Nate Grey wasn't too involved for the most part. Mostly just putting together the paint scheme and a little sculpt in spots. The head is from another ionic Wonder Man so had to have a full repaint done and I gave him a "glowing" left eye. However the jacket took some additional work that I wasn't planning to do. Initially I was going to use the jacket as is. Had it painted and everything, but the look was just off. It was too long with an additional waist belt and the lapels were all wrong. So I chopped off the belt and re-sculpted the hem then sculpted over the split lapels. Glad to finally have the character done. I've been wanting to make him for a while and he goes great with Onslaught and Dark Beast. And the upcoming AoA Magneto.

Onslaught - I stopped collecting 6" Marvel Legends when they transitioned from Toybiz to Hasbro and delved heavily into the MU scale instead. I do still like to get BAFs that scale well with MU, though, and I have to admit, Hasbro makes some decent BAFs. While they are good figures, they are severely lacking in detail and paint apps compared to what Toybiz was doing. Onslaught is no exception. Other than a wash and some paint on the head the entire figure is shiny plastic. The first thing I did was to mute the shine but that still left a figure that was pretty boring, so I took it apart (kudos to Hasbro for making these figures able to be taken apart again) and gave it a repaint. Painted up the body with a two tone red scheme and some purple shading in spots (boots mainly). His gloves are now red with purple fingers like they should be and the boots are two tone purple. Lastly I glossed up a good portion of the figure since it's armor. The gloss does havoc with taking pictures, but it looks stellar in person. I don't know if I'll get the final form Onslaught or not as that part of the Onslaught epic is where I started to lose interest, but I might add him later. Maybe.

Molecule Man - When I started to really get into MU collecting the gems were often the Secret Wars comic packs. It was a good way to get a lot of second tier characters; both hero and villain. Unfortunately Hasbro moved on from them before completing the Secret Wars story. There was a lot of untapped characters that they could have made and skipped some of the overdones (even back then) like Cap or Iron Man. Oh well, lost opportunity is the name of the game with Hasbro. But, that said, I wanted to complete the characters from that story and while most have been made, I still needed Molecule Man to call it complete. Owen was really easy to make once I'd made his cutout. That took a while to get an appropriate lighting bolt style shape and get it all cut. Came out well, but I'm not super happy with him. The head has a good Molecule Man look to it, but it doesn't quite fit the body so he has a real giraffe neck going on. Raising the cutout up on the torso helps some, but the only real fix is going to be finding a head that better fits that body. For now he's just going to be long necked. With Molecule Man done my Secret Wars line up is complete - some characters like the Beyonder I don't know if I want to make. I certainly don't view them as vital for the lineup. Now I just need to make era specific costumes for a few heroes (and remake some horrid Hasbro ones) and the Secret Wars can begin.