[LordMudd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mordiganne

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

While not "new" I picked up another Colossus because the original that I had in storage lost his left hand and needed to be replaced. In comic news I'm ready to get back into reading some digital comics. Not sure where to start since I picked up a bunch of other things that I haven't even unpacked yet much less read. I got some non-Marvel series so might start with those before coming back to Marvel. We'll see. Archangel is there because I painted over his closed up wings so they actually look silver. No custom fix ups. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Geiger - When I first stumbled upon this character I think I was trying to find some Hulk related characters to add to his galleries. Somehow that led me to Geiger, who, coincidentally, popped up during "The Initiative" that I happened to be reading at the time. I didn't think much of her as a character since she had no character then, but I wanted Hulk allies and she fit the bill. Sort of. She's more of a Doc Sampson sidekick. She was easy to make, and given that she's a Mimic for gamma powered types I figured she'd be a larger female type. Especially since she mimics the abilities of whichever gamma powered type is closest to her. I gave her a She-Hulk hair transplant onto a Valk body. I sculpted the wrist portion of her gloves, the sneakers - with shoelaces! haha - and the folded flaps on her jean shorts and repainted the head. (I just noticed how much the face looks like She-Hulk's, it's not, that's the Valkyrie head.) All in all she came out nice. I didn't know she debuted in a Doc Sampson comic (never knew he even had his own comic actually) and don't have much to do with her character wise. I haven't even thought up any story/ background additions for her so she'll hang out on the shelf with the Hulk allies. What few there are.

Spymaster - I don't have any real thoughts on this character since I only have one appearance of his in a digital comic and he died in that same issue (Iron-Man #220). So as with most of Marvel's lower-tier villains I quickly forgot about him as I never saw any other versions of the character either. Somehow I stumbled upon some art work for him and thought he had an interesting design and might be fun to make. So I picked the costume design I liked best, which coincidently was the one from his death issue, and went to work. The entire figure is a Daredevil so had to mod the head and add pouches to his belt and leg after removing the holster. His outfit design is both basic and creative at the same time. I loved putting together the head/mask and the logo on his chest was very fun to create at this scale. The rest of the outfit is pretty blah and unimaginative but the colors really come together well. To fit in my MU this version of Spymaster is still alive and now runs a criminal espionage ring operating in 28 countries across 3 continents. Although he's unofficially retired, Spymaster will occasionally break out the costume and undertake assignments to "keep his legs fresh". Glad to add the character to the collection even if he is underwhelming as a villain.

Colossus - I thought Jean Grey was the only 90's X member that was missing, but then I remembered that even with all the Colossus figures they'd made over the years none was a match for his 90's costume. Ok, simple enough to remedy so that I could get the team completed. I forget which Colossus he was originally. The Astonishing one maybe? Anyway, whichever one it was I sculpted on his belt, forearm guards and constructed his knee pad things. Brightened up his colors a bit and made sure he was shiny where needed and the final member of the team was done. Another team down, more to come.

Jean Grey - I've passed on buying the Hasbro Jean Grey at cost several times now. No matter what I just cannot spend any of my money on that figure (just one among many, sorry to say). There's nothing at all redeeming about it. So that, of course, left a huge gaping hole in the 90's roster for many years. I finally decided to wrap up that team and that meant breaking down and making Jean Grey in her Jim Lee design. Pretty straight forward but I had to sculpt all those weird little raised...things(?) on her outfit. I have no clue what they're supposed to be other than metallic, but they're there. I also sculpted on her forearm guards and belt buckle and added her shoulder pads (not sculpted). As if all that wasn't enough I had to turn another Enchantress head into a different character. I again cut down the top of the mask, then I sanded the rest of it down by about half, added sculpt across the top to fill out the hair (though not as extreme as some art - she'd need 3 cans of hair spray a day to make her hair stick out that much) and repainted the head completely. I've seen this outfit in shades of both yellow and orange. I'm partial to the orange colorings myself so went with that. Nice to have "everyone's favorite redhead" done.

Angel - This is another a figure that Hasbro should/could have long ago made when the line was in its heyday. He was a big part of the New X-Men team in this outfit along with the other teams he served on.. How simple of a figure is this to make. A straight repaint of the blue angel. And frankly, while the blue outfit is nice, this color scheme was a much more prominent outfit for Angel to have been released in. Oh yeah, Angel should have white wings, like an angel, so I gave them a light coat of white to keep some of the gray shading intact. Now that I have Angel in this outfit I can put together a team up he had with Iceman and Spider-Man. Not sure what comic that was, but it was a fun read that sticks in memory from time to time. I'll have to look that one up now. And I painted over my only blue Angel, so have to get another one of him now.

Deadpool - Deadpool has long been in need of a figure upgrade. The first figures are short and have horrible hip construction coming from the Wolverine Origins line. And with MU being what it is now there's no chance that Hasbro is going to release one anytime soon. But he still needed an update and I wanted to get him done sooner rather than later. I used a mix of designs but mostly took from the modern era look with the shin and forearm armor. I had to sculpt the latter along with sculpting the belt buckle and his head(s). I made the mask from scratch rather than using one of the factory produced heads. Speaking of heads, I also made him a "hamburger face" alternate unmasked portrait for an alternate display option. I'll probably leave him masked for now though. I finished him off by adding an assortment of ammo pouches, pockets and removable weapons from Marauder - including custom painted 'Deadpool' grenades, no stickers/printouts. Lastly I customed up some holders for his swords and attached them to the back. There was a lot of gluing and sculpting with this figure. Now I have a modern update worthy of my collection and can stick the Hasbro fig I had on display into storage. In my MU Deadpool has a lot of the characterization from the "Hulk vs." animated movie. He came across not quite ruthless but much less anti-hero and much more merc for hire in that short film. Which is just the way I view the character. Takes him back to his X-Force debut roots but allows his chatty personality to remain. Anyway, Deadpool is done, but there are a couple of his ancillary characters that I still want to add to my collection.

Psylocke - I don't often re-make a character in a costume that Hasbro has already made a figure of, but sometimes it just has to be done. A redo of this character was not at all on my radar right now. Eventually, sure, but not right now. I have plenty more characters that I haven't yet made before redoing any more Hasbro produced figures. Though, as often happens I got a bit of unexpected inspiration to cause me to make her now. Once I started working on completing the Jim Lee era 90's team I took another look at Hasbro's Psylocke and it just wouldn't do for my collection going forward. I've made no secret of the fact that I can't stand the early wave bodies that Hasbro made and Psylocke is no exception. They just flat out suck and the head was an atrocity on its own. So I went looking thru my art stock and found a nice Psylocke design. In most of the art that I've collected she is drawn with straight long hair, so I grabbed a Black Cat head and gave it a repaint once I removed the mask lines. The body is a standard female with a sash added (flexible ties). I might come back to this figure soon. I didn't give her outfit the right "cut" so need to adjust that. A very, very minor thing, but I'm OCD about my stuff and that's going to bug me until I fix it. Until then, she's ready to take her place on the Blue team. Between this and her 80's armor costume I'm good for Psylocke figures in my collection. The Hasbro fig will go in a box unless/until I can use it for a custom of some sort down the road.

Devil-Slayer - Since the Defenders were before my time my first exposure to Devil-Slayer came during the Initiative. While that series sucked it did introduce and re--introduce a wide range of lesser known and forgotten hero characters - like 3-D Man, he made Infiltration bearable for me. Devil-Slayer is one of those characters. The design I chose isn't one of his more common/classic looks, but I liked it a lot more than the weird open face headmask costume, so that's the one I went with. Custom wise he's beyond simple. Some new boots and a new head then just needed a paint job and he's done. He will also have an alternate portrait with said open face mask but the head hasn't arrived yet. Reading through the rest of this guy's history I'm not sure what to make of his characterization currently. He reads more as a psycho criminal than the "flawed hero" that Marvel is known for. But, don't know much about him anyway so, in my MU, with the collapse of the Initiative, he's returned to his demon hunting ways and is a solo adventurer again. Another magic user down. Unplanned, but he's off the list. I need to make Dr. Druid soon.

Nice. Spymaster is one of those I have looked at but never got a round tuit for. Angel started the Champions in the blue but quickly switched to the red, in time for the big showdown with the Imperial Guard on the moon. He actually has about 6 distinct costumes in his history not including Archangel that I would like to do. The Psylocke I wished they would make was the original non ninja in the purple body armor with hood and cape. That is my preferred version. I guess they made her a ninja because another boring telepath standing around with her fingers on her temples just didn't work for somebody.

CCC.