lastmaximal

Fresh from another harrowing disappearance, I return for more perpetually-insecure rambling about my semi-skilled take on the DC Universe! The last couple of months have really been something else. Haven't even been able to check in here for more than a few minutes at a time! Sort of a blur, really, but one I wouldn't have missed for the world as some really good life stuff has FINALLY come together. It looks like this is the pattern I'll continue to be playing with in the foreseeable future, but I'm glad just to be able to still do this after almost two (!!!) years since I started. I've finally been able to get around to painting again of late, thankfully, with a bit of time to myself the last couple of weeks and an infusion of parts, to boot! Now, if only I could scrape together some cash to start replacing some goopy old paint pots... Here goes! RED LANTERN ATROCITUS To make this guy I had to wait until an eBay order came in with an Action League Atrocitus, whose shoulderpads I ganked and put on a 2.5" body. A Kilowog head replaced my originally selected standard-2.5" head, and I used TENIME's Atrocitus face decal. The clear red looks much darker and deeper in person, but it does still show that my clear red is thickening up and getting a bit difficult to work with. GANGBUSTER As an 80s/90s Superman support character -- and, indeed, one of the few I knew of -- Gangbuster had always been on my list to get around to. Finally got a spare Minimate whose shoulderpads looked right for the part -- DC's Green Arrow -- as well as a policeman T-1000 helmet to complete his signature parts. Standard gloves, w36 Silver Centurion boots and Power Man's chain belt rounded it all out. LADY VIC Somewhere down the line I decided to get around to fleshing out my Bludhaven Rogues as well, reminded by how intrigued by them I'd been when I first discovered the Nightwing ongoing back in the day. Lady Vic made good use of an X3 Beast jacket and cut-up Menace mask; two Gamora swords got their tips cut off to become her bundi daggers. DOUBLE DARE - ALIKI AND MARGOT MOREAU Great concept for Bludhaven rogues -- twin acrobats who are out for Nightwing? Sign me up. I dug up a couple of Ultimate Jean Grey torsos that I applied decals to for the torsos. An Ultimate Jean Grey hairpiece also went to Margot, while Aliki's hair is from an X-Force Psylocke. GUY GARDNER, WARRIOR More 90s-ness ahoy. The thankfully short-lived EXTREEM GUY GARDNER phase gave us this fun diversion into horrible beweaponedness -- I'll get around to giving him his arm-guns later on -- with Guy being a fairly easy decal job. Kneepads are from Lady Loki, I think. "THE DARK KNIGHT" - 'HONOR GUARD' JOKER Inspired in equal parts by a MAX Minimate cop figure I got in the mail and Mattel's "Batman Legacy" honor Guard Joker, this was also a good chance to tweak and reuse the "The Dark Knight" Joker face decal I had handy. "NEW KRYPTON" BRAINIAC Another good way to use a 2.5" Minimate as well as generate a non-Brainiac 13 version of this Superman nemesis. Original decals for the face and chest. The top of his head features more painted-on plug things. VIXEN Finally got around to making a Vixen and the results are mixed -- put a lot of work into the face deca, only to have most of the eyebrows obscured by the Power Girl hairpiece [nobody quite has JLU Vixen's hair] and make her look bored. Tweaked my Oracle torso decal and added the bone necklace bits. PHANTASM Another long-awaited one made even more interminably long-awaited by my reluctance to go back to my usual bad sculpting [it gets harder to work with epoxyclay each time, I keep forgetting how I made it work the previous time]. Still, reasonably happy with this -- used an original face decal and someone's Dr. Doom hood-cape recipe [luke? boyd?], and added cut-up Deadman boot tops. COUNT VERTIGO In my "Young Justice" catching-up I saw the episode Coldhearted, which was the first thing to ever make me give a damn about this character. Picked his earlier comic look to make; this is the first of probably many customized Gamora capes with added blister-bubble plastic flare. Original face and chest decals and cut-up NXM Cyclops hair to go over his mask. Really dig how the lines on the inside of the cape turned out. RED LANTERN VEON Part interest in the design, part wanting to give Atrocitus a good number of troops [Veon joins Bleez and Skallox]. Some sculpting on top of a Green Goblin bonnet, and the rest is paint. JUSTICE GUILD - BLACK SIREN My love for obscure stuff and alternate character versions strikes again, this time with the Justice Guild! Partly inspired by the fact that Mattel actually bothered to make JLU figures of this team, I went about looking for reference pictures and decided to make my own. Seemed simple enough. Original face and torso for Black Siren, plus Warbird hair. JUSTICE GUILD - TOM TURBINE Mostly by-the-numbers for this one, with a hairpiece and face reuse and original torso decal. Cut some packaging plastic up to make his circular belt piece. JUSTICE GUILD - CATMAN Another Catman made with a Wildcat mask, albeit a modified one. That's Unmasked SM3 Peter Parker's goofy grin underneath. Venom hands, Batman belt, original torso decal. JUSTICE GUILD - GREEN GUARDSMAN Getting the right shade of green here was the main annoyance, although his packaging-plastic-enhanced Gamora cape turned out a bit better than Count Vertigo's. Original face and torso decals, a BSG hairpiece, lots of indecision on paint. JUSTICE GUILD - THE STREAK Original face and torso decals. Didn't want to go out to buy another Silver T-1000 for the helmet, so I used a Sgt. Rock helmet and a cut-up hairpiece to make a new one. ONYX I will get around to Orpheus someday. I thought of Onyx after Googling some reference pictures, and she seemed a simple enough one to make with some shirt decals and an Ultimate Storm body for everything else. BATMAN INCORPORATED: NIGHTRUNNER Bob Harris' recipe for this was excellent, and I followed the spirit if not the letter. Original decals for face and torso. A Shocker mask and a Psylocke sash made his mask, while some MArvel [belt], Ghostbusters [elbowpads], Street Fighter [gloves] and MAX [boots/kneepads] parts rounded out the rest of him. Decided to make the belt yellow/ochre to match some reference art and make him not-monochrome. BATMAN INCORPORATED: WINGMAN He SEEMS to have been part of Batman Inc, according to some reference pictures. Maybe it's New 52, I dunno. But this Club of Heroes dropout was an easy one that reminded me of Azbats [THERE'S one I pray to someday have the skill for]. Modified Magneto cape with packaging plastic side panels, Crimson Dynamo helmet with mouth cut out and sculpted bat-like ears, and a metallic Regal Blue mix. BATMAN OF ZUR-EN-ARRH Number 300, who would have thought it? Surprise, surprise, it's a Batman. Repainted Batman parts [took a cutter to the cape to tatter it about a bit], with an NXM Wolverine head under the mask for the grin and some marker-drawn stubble. In his left hand he holds... the Bat-Radia! [actually DCD Batgirl's Utility Purse]. METRON with MOBIUS CHAIR Ah, finally, another use for a spare w37 Prof X hoverchair. Metron was always cool and yet such a simple custom [just some pretty involved face and torso decal design], and I wonder why it took me so long to get around to him. Then again, I don't go Fourth World a lot in general, so maybe it's that. The Mobius Chair was a fun little challenge, with a spare circular stand and the top of an old Juggernaut helmet being the main physical add-ons aside from some packaging plastic. CLUB OF VILLAINS: CHARLIE CALIGULA A w38 Iron Fist hairpiece turned out to be perfect with just some sculpting for the laurel leaves. Tried to get the face decal to look like the Tony S. Daniel art with Charlie's wrinkly face, but small thin lines don't come across as clearly as one would like sometimes. Also, I had a dearth of suits that were not w37 Professor X's, so I just went ahead and painted this his custom turquoise shade although it's a bit bulky for the character. CLUB OF VILLAINS: EL SOMBRERO This guy carries bulkiness better. Very happy with how the lucha mask decal turned out, but I still want to track down a Lego sombrero for him. CLUB OF VILLAINS: KING KRAKEN Once I'd started with Charlie the rest was all downhill -- I HAD to make them all right away [and I almost succeeded!]. The parts almost presented themselves -- a slipover mask with a decal, Juggernaut gloves and some old Thor boots, a torso extender, and AOA Sabretooth's torso turned out to be a perfect combo. The cut-up Omega Red tentacles make for decent hoses, but they were hell to superglue on. CLUB OF VILLAINS: SWAGMAN Forgot to give him a gun, heh. Modified Ma Hunkel put-helmet with a decal for eyes, Ultimate Sabretooth coat. CLUB OF VILLAINS: PIERROT LUNAIRE I'm still weirded out that I was able to get so many all-white parts so fast [Movie Jigsaw upper body and skirt/shirt-extension, Dagger legs]. Sculpted his fez/cap thing, as well as his big shirt buttons, and cut up an NXM Jean Grey jacket for his big collar. CLUB OF VILLAINS: SCORPIANA This one was pretty deceptive in its simplicity. A White Queen turned out to be the perfect base, with just a new chest decal and a custom Beaten Purple/Ice Blue/Mithril Silver mix. Modified IM2 Mark II open helmet, with some of the claws and one tail spike from the Mega Bloks dragon figure that gave its wings to Bleez. Oh, and a snippet of packaging plastic painted clear blue [perhaps a bit too much] for her visor. Whew! That is a lot of Minimates before I disappear again for a bit. What's to come in the future? The remaining Club of Villains member/s? Other superteams? A return to Justice Friends? Who knows? Thanks to all of you who keep checking these out!

It's one of my favorite OYL series too, although I've yert to be able to track down an affordable TPB of 52 Pickup locally. you have to make Capital G at least. It's somewhat fitting that he was the first one I remembered when I was telling my brother about the expanded roster. That was just one of the cleverest names full stop.

boyd, hellpop -- what can I say, guys, I learned from the best. I'm very glad that they passed muster with their originators! Punisher, MM, Squall, dr baghead... I am thrilled to see so much love for the Justice Friends. Now I'm even more tempted to make the entire roster!

Thanks for the kind words, guys, that was a great way to celebrate the holiday. I'm pleased to see some other Kyodai Ken fans in the audience, and hell yes on The Kingdom, boyd! And now, ringing in the new year, a whole cavalcade of new characters -- plus a surprise helping of Justice! This batch was an interesting roll, to be honest, and a very fun one to make. Just as I'd finish one, an idea would be sparked for the next, and so on -- and there would actually be parts around! Not that everything turned out as planned, of course -- even with the photography, my hand seems as shaky as it does with the brush. BLUE BEETLE [JAIME REYES] Taking a page out of hellpop's book for this one, I pounced on an Action League Blue Beetle I came across at a December toy sale here. That took care of the backpack, and I came up with original face and torso decals as well as a Dreadnought/Sentinel blaster and Borg arm. Ran into some trouble finding spare IM2 mk5 boots, though, so I used a spare Extremis pair of boots, rationalizing that the points on the boot-tips seemed insectoid. I probably went overboard on the clear blue paint, which resulted in a shade a bit too dark. FIRESTORM: RONNIE RAYMOND AND JASON RUSCH Always a great design to try and translate into Minimate form! luke314pi's and hellpop's customs gave me the idea, and I tried to put mine together largely based on that. Cut up some open-face IM2 helmets and glued them to heads with an original [Ronnie] and TENIME [Jason] decal, added trimmed Torch flame hairpieces , and then some more decals [original for Ronnie, TENIME-made for Jason] and two pairs of shoulderpads to round it out. I based these costumes on the DCUC releases, and used different reds and yellows on each of them. JOHNNY SORROW I'm constantly on the lookout for new characters to fill out gaps, and for relatively easy customs to make. Thanks to an easy Boyd design relying only on a chest decal, as well as a great recipe by boyd for the floating mask, Johnny Sorrow was both of the things I was looking for! Cut his mask and the piece it floats on out of packaging plastic and added a bit of paint. MAJOR FORCE One of many characters represented here for the first time -- I think this batch may be one of the first without any "alternate costume of existing guy", not counting successors to the name. Major Force was another fairly simple one I finally got around to -- essentially a face and chest decal and lots of paint on a standard body. GOLDSTAR Another leftover Nimrod body with some 90s Storm hands and feet made for a very sparkly white base. It struck me as perfect for Goldstar, whom I rediscovered reading the recent Booster Gold comics. Some gold paint, a chest decal, Menace hair and a Supergirl face, and she was complete. AZTEK I've been wanting to make one since April of last year, when I picked up a JLA: World War III trade. Finally done! Silver Centurion gauntlets and boots, IM2 Mk5 shoulderplating and a Yellowjacket mask with additional sculpted spikes [on a Stilt-Man head, heh]. SINESTRO CORPS: SMITHWICK Lucked out on a Sinestro/Salakk during that aforementioned December sale, and decided to keep Salakk's unique chest cap and hands/feet for another custom I've yet to think of. What to do with the rest of him? Why, it so happens he's got a rival from his own race on the other Corps! Used up the last of my claw hands [from Cheetah and Antivenom], and the rest is paint . NIGHTMASTER After making classic Johnny Quick, I gave up on trying to look for another Sentinel hat to repeat Shining Knight's look for this guy. After all, just using a flat head with paint and a face decal would do the trick. A very simple but striking design, this guy was just a standard body with a custom metallic blue mix, a classic Red Tornado cape and Valkyrie's sword. LADY BLACKHAWK Chalk up one more Bird of Prey! Also inspired by a Boyd custom, Zinda Blake joins us courtesy of an M. Bison hat with sculpted hair, a Blackhawk skirt piece, The Spirit sleeves, and a chest decal. VANDAL SAVAGE While tracing the screencap in Photoshop I worried this guy would look too cartoony, but as it turns out that's a perfect for this face. I love how smarmy he looks. As luck would have it, I had a leftover Armored Thor skirt which was a perfect piece for this guy as well [after the belt buckle logo was trimmed]. TERRA III [ATLEE] A tribute to Amanda Conner's excellent art! The face decal was based [traced, hee] on a cover by Conner, in an attempt to capture the memorably endearing look she brought to Atlee [and, frankly, everyone she draws -- I've half a mind to make a new Peej face decal based on her art]. KING SNAKE Bane's dead daddy, heh. Came across a picture of this semiforgotten Bat/Robin-rogue while looking for reference pictures in the DCU Encyclopedia, and thought he'd be a simple one to make. True enough, some spare Mandarin, Anti-Venom, and Thor parts [and a decal of his snake tattoo] were all it took. INERTIA Same basic concept for Impulse and Kid Flash, except I remembered to dig out the treaded "sneaker" feet for this one. I am now out of Flash masks, and need to get back to this guy with some hot glue or clear epoxy for his goggles. I like how the chest decal turned out, though. BLACK CONDOR [JOHN TRUJILLO] Thanks to Blargatron for the Vulture parts! I'd been itching to add to my Freedom Fighters for a while [the last one I made was the Human Bomb, I think?], and this design seemed a lot more unique than his predecessor [who was KIA during Infinite Crisis]. Bit of a bear, though, with the sculpted mohawk and feather bits on the shoulders and legs [okay, I didn't bother making them look like feathers since I had no clue how to]. KANJAR RO This one I put together mostly on a whim, and I'm still amazed he turned out coherent and characteristic. I mainly trawled Google for reference pictures -- settling on the BATB toy since it's so hard to find him in comic scans -- while digging in the parts bin. The Apocalypse torso was, in retrospect, perfect -- and I was able to get the big-brow look with the Thing's big brow, which only took a bit of sanding and cutting to look right. The Arthur boots and Juggernaut fists aren't super-accurate to the toy, but they round out his proportions nicely. MAGENTA I really wanted this one to come out cooler. Maybe I should've used the Gamora cape like I originally planned. Tried to make a custom mix of paint to match Nimrod/Storm's sparkly white, but this didn't turn out as cool as I'd hoped. Either way, it's the basic beats of her design mapped onto a Minimate. Maybe I'll give the body a gloss topcoat to give her a sheen at least. ZOD, URSA AND NON Finally got around to these, based on the New Krypton arc which I did not really follow but thought they looked badass in. Original decals all around [ursa's is based on Champions Black Widow], and I'm glad that reusing my Jack Knight goggles decal turned out pretty well on Ursa and Non. RED LANTERN: SKALLOX Another case of the obvious staring me in the face... while contemplating buying an extra Armored Thor 2-pack for parts, I had a question in the back of my mind about where to get a good base for this Red Lantern's head. Duh, Beta Ray Bill. Some sculpting and sanding later, here he is. . RED LANTERN: BLEEZ Almost the end of this immense batch, and what a high note to end on, in my opinion. ImABarRoomHero is to be credited with giving me a spare MVC3 Morrigan, whose updated hair-wings are absolutely perfect for this custom. Original decals for the face [went with a blank head instead of a slip-on mask] and chest, sculpted shoulder armor, and a lovely coat of clear red that will be standard on my Red Lanterns. The cool part [that, er, was a bitch to photograph]? I found a clearanced Mega Bloks Plasma Dragoons figure, from where I got a pair of rubbery dragon wings that I cut down to skeletal form and painted in a yellowed-bone color and glued to her back. And now the real end of this batch, a set that I won't be counting with my DC total but that I'm very happy to have made nonetheless... THE JUSTICE FRIENDS: VALHALLEN, MAJOR GLORY, AND THE INFRAGGABLE KRUNK I'm a big, big fan of the first two seasons of Dexter's Lab -- that was a pretty sweet era -- and, invariably, of the Justice Friends show-within-a-show. These were shout-outs to Superfriends/comics in general before that became the "in" and marketable thing to do, and I loved them for it. Some part of me had ALWAYS wanted to make these, and with the release of Wave 41 and 42 I got my chance. Valhallen is a fleshtone upper body base with an original chest decal and face decal based on a screencap [Major Glory's is too, but his smile ended up being a bit too big]. Valhallen's boots are Beta Ray's, and his axe is a Lego Minifigures guitar. Major Glory has Red Tornado boots, Beta Ray's torso, and Armored Thor's helmet with a sculpted eagle head. And finally, Krunk is 100% wave 41 Hulk, just cuter. Thanks for giving these a look, everyone, hope you enjoy!

...wow. I HAVE to make a Crazy Quilt. Great work, and seeing a CM Punk mate is intriguing... but once I go down THAT road, I may go mad making wrestler Minimates!

Yes, details and pics would be great. This is the sort of thing I've been waiting for for some time... Custons would ge revolutionized indeed. Just hope cost isn't superprohibitive.

...or you could just wait for Hellpop to show up and be awesome.

My incredibly crude method involves getting a close-up of the head [as always, Minimate Database has great photos for reference] and tracing the lines with the polygonal lasso tool in Photoshop [i've never gotten the hang of the Pen tool].

Kyodai Ken? Wow, I wasn't expecting that. I thought I might've been the only one to appreciate his ninja goodness. Thanks, man! I really gotta make him a ninja mask.

That Odin is a great and actually rather accurate rendition of the character! I've got to try and get the pieces for one -- shame they've sold out of the Armored Thor locally, because that is pretty much him right there.

boyd, hellpop, Geohound, thanks for all the great feedback and I'm glad you like them! I'm glad to be able to glom ideas off of you guys and try to come up with my own spin on them, and any opportunity I can have to return the favor is always an honor for me. The latest batch [of hopefully more familiar faces] takes us to 250... and ALMOST 10 more! I honestly never ever imagined I'd be able to make this many when I started out, especially considering how daunting just starting to paint was. There was paint, then there were decals, then there was epoxyclay... and here I am, not having really gotten that much better, and still perennially living in anticipation [and a bit of fear] of DC returning to Minimates. CRIME SYNDICATE: POWER RING Figured I'd complete the team [i've had Ultraman and Superwoman waiting forever]! This one is based on Frank Quitely's "JLA: Earth 2" design [although I think it may have been used before then too, not sure]. I'd had the decal for the chest lying around forever and only now got around to making a face decal as well. The rest is Menace gloves with corrected fleshtone, a sanded-down Hawkman hairpiece, and paint. CRIME SYNDICATE: JOHNNY QUICK Also from "JLA: Earth 2", I'm less happy with how this turned out -- largely because the epoxyclay wasn't being cooperative and kept falling apart while I was trying to flatten it in place to form his wraparound helmet. CRIME SYNDICATE: OWLMAN The milestone-representing #250 is not a Batman... on this Earth, at least. While this could've been better, I'm generally all right with it -- sculpted the helmet onto a FA/SI Wolverine mask base, cut up some blister-bubble plastic and superglued it onto a trimmed AOA Magneto cape. I then used a Crimson Dynamo's [not a spare, sadly, now I need to buy another one] armbands and boots, which turned out to be absolutely perfect for Owlman. CRIME SYNDICATE: POWER RING This was both simpler than I thought and tricker than I thought. It's a basic face decal and chest decal job, and lots of green and white... but the conflicting reference pictures had me unsure of what color the gloves and boots actually were up until the last minute. CRIME SYNDICATE: JOHNNY QUICK This one's more in line with the classic interpretation in the recent DCUC 5-pack . Basic original face and chest decal, with a different yellow to distinguish him a bit from his Quitely counterpart. Also found a cheap DCUC Kid Flash, took his boot-wings and made them this guy's antennae. BLUE DEVIL This reintroduced me to the old-school powerhouse torso, which I now have a new appreciation for after being unable to find one of the newer muscle-y ones. I had the horns left over from the Lady Loki helmet I cut up to make Barda's headgear, so I glued those onto a spare head and the rest was fairly simple stuff. He still needs his staff though. EFFIGY I'd had this one lying around forever as a quick custom [got the damn-near-perfect red torso from a parts box -- whose is it?], but eventually got around to making a face decal and painting the triangle at the top of his chest. KYODAI KEN Fairly simple work on this oft-forgotten BTAS bad guy. His was one of the few episodes I caught on TV at the time, and I'd always been intrigued by the thought of Batman having learned a Death Touch technique. Eventually I found out he'd be a pretty simple custom so I went ahead and made one -- gave him a face decal and a decal of the back tattoo from a screencap, and the rest is as-is parts [and a powerhouse torso painted black]. KID FLASH Along with Impulse, this is one more off the "why the hell haven't you made these yet" list, leaving Firestorm and Vixen and a few others. Finally got a couple of factory-overrun C3 Flashes to do the helmet trimming on and went to town. C3 Flash face, original chest decal loosely based on the YJ cartoon [you'll note I added his shoulder-armor things too], trimmed LOTR hair, Cap gloves and FA/SI Wolverine boots. IMPULSE About time, Bart. I was very pleased with how well the cut-out eyeholes worked on this one, compared to the Kid Flash mask. The trimmed AOA Magneto hair distinguishes him from Kid Flash and gives him Bart's floppy hair too. Original face and chest decals on an SDCC Sif base, with a bit of gloss finish for the dark red parts. OFFSPRING I'm a fan of Waid's "The Kingdom" -- mostly because it turned out to be pretty good character stories as opposed to the weaksauce marketing-driven continuation of Kingdom Come it seemed to start out as. Plus it gave us Ernie, son of Eel -- whose design was put even within even closer reach with the Future Foundation Mr. Fantastic, whose torso and stretch base I ended up using for this [along with Dagger arms and hands]. Tried giving him regular eyes but they seemed creepy because the red hexagons of his mask looked like stalker eyebags -- so I went with white eyes for a domino mask effect. I also had a Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle based on hellpop's recipe with different decals [lucked out and found a loose Action League Beetle at a convention]. However, I haven't been able to finish him because I'm out of Mark V boots [or anything similar], so Jaime'll just have to join the next batch -- hopefully I get to crank that out within the year, but oh well. In the meantime, enjoy the customs and the holiday!

Oh, that's right! You definitely get credit for that Boodikka recipe. I do agree with you on that last point -- glad you liked Az and Barda, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Whew -- apparently I CAN still do these things in the limited time I've got. I've been sort of swamped, but then what else is new. Thank you all for the kind words for the last update! Long-overdue thanks also to everyone I've been in deals with for parts and such, and I apologize again for being such a shiftless late replier. These customs couldn't have been possible without your patience! Before the latest set, which takes me up to three away from a nice solid 250 to round out the year... some stuff to set the bar and put my work to shame. That's Psyguy's awesome work you're seeing on Larfleeze and Arkillo! Thank you so much again for putting this commission set together, it's really excellent work that I continue to aspire to try and approach. Now, my own crappy work BOMBSHELL Forgot her from the last set and nearly forgot her from this one! Poor Bombshell. Not very familiar with the character [as I understand it she was a mysterious Captain Atom teen analogue], but it seemed like a simple and interesting design so I went with it. [back in Black?] Peter Parker hair, decal face and chest, and the rest is paint. 1980s WONDER WOMAN Again, always wanted to make one, I'm a sucker for alternate costumes, yadda yadda. Redid the Mike Deodato-art-based decal and made an original chest decal for the bikini top. Stargirl hairpiece and legs, James Rhodes jacket, The Spirit rolled sleeves. Painting the stars on the chest was toothpick work. JLU 'FUTURE' STATIC If there were any "short dreadlocks" hairpieces I'd have gone and made a young Static, but this was easier. I picked up a spare AOA Mr. Sinister for another custom [see below], and the hair was left over so I put it together with an Ultimate Sabretooth chest, NXM Cyclops legs and original face/chest decal to make a Future Static. At least this guy is finally represented in my collection... in one of his looks. JERICHO [MODERN] Well, modern as of a couple of years ago. This was a simple one -- original decal face, Nova chest painted gunmetal [black/silver mix], spare Sunspot hair and the rest is paint. ALPHA LANTERN BOODIKKA With both faces! Boodikka was always a Lantern I had yet to get around to making, but with the SDCC Sif coming out this year I finally had the last part I needed. Made a decal for her regular face and her Manhunter-type face and put them on either side of a head that fits inside the Sif helmet. Her shoulderpads are a cut-off 90s Storm cape shoulderpiece. BATMAN INC: SQUIRE Ah, Beryl. The impetus to make this one was born out of both my success with the other Batman Inc. members and my love for Bryan Miller's Batgirl series, where she hung out with Steph for a couple of issues. Took me a while before I settled on just sculpting the beret onto a BSG Kat hairpiece [the Lego beret I had looked weird on it any way I tried]. That's a cut-down NXM Cyclops jacket for her vest thing, she's rocking Spectre shoes, and those are 90s Storm arms I picked for the puffy sleeves. Original face and chest decals, and some of the last of my Snot Green paint. BATMAN INC: KNIGHT Oh, what I would've given for a Tactical Batman around this time. Actually, I still want one, as his parts are an even BETTER match for Batman Inc traitor Wingman. Oh well. Used a modified Pilot Batman helmet and torso armor piece for this guy, a Shadowland Elektra loincloth thing, X3 Juggernaut gauntlets and Titanium Man boots. Had to redo the blue-gray mix because my first try looked too 2000s Black Racer. JERICHO [CLASSIC] This was a bit more involved than his modern version. Repainted Biff hairpiece, original face and chest decals, modified Ryu skirt piece. I sculpted his odd sorta-cape thing, which was an interesting challenge in fitting just right to allow the head to still pop on. BOODIKKA [CLASSIC] After looking this one up I found that she really was essentially a bikini-wearing alien with a Scarlet Witch helmet, so off I went to gather up those parts. Original decal for the face and chest, and a modified Scarlet Witch hairpiece [just padded out the side fins]. Let's pretend this is her before she got her hand Hal Jordan-ed off. "ARKHAM CITY" HUGO STRANGE This was a character I'd long wanted to make but was held back from by a desire to give him a unique look. Put him in a labcoat and he'll look like any other scientist, put him in his Batman-impostor costume and he'll look like, well, Batman. Arkham City to the rescue! Aside from owning 90% of whatever free time I had in the last month or so, this game gave me a new look to use for Hugo Strange. Relatively easy to make, too, with just a face and chest decal and a modified Dana Barrett skirt. Now watch Shamrock beat the crap out of this with his sure-to-be awesome upcoming Arkham City work! AZRAEL Oh, finally, had the guts to do the work and put this one together. Always wanted one, being a big fan of JPV and Knightfall and all that 90s Batman goodness. Hand Ninja hood [tore off some of the original face decal -- this thing does not take decals well], IM@ Mark IV gauntlets, AOA Mr. Sinister cape and Sunspot flat-belt piece. Sculpted his chest armor and other chest stuff. Regrettably I still lack the skills to make his Batman outfit, but I may try my hand at his two other Azrael outfits. And, with some improvement, maybe the Michael Lane Azrael too. BRIMSTONE Really happy with how this one turned out, as the light for him had gone off in my head the second I saw pictures of the AOA Nemesis Minimate. Decal for the "face" based on a screencap [this cap also reminded me to add the little vent in his collar that Green Arrow shoots ], then Nimrod gloves and boots and somebody's torso extender. This is sort of a blend of the robotic JLU and singlet-wearing comic versions, and overall I'm really cheesed with it. BATMAN INC: MUSKETEER Damn, this took forever to get the parts for. I had a hell of a time tracking down a Lego Musketeer from the foil-packed waves, but my luck finally turned last week. The hat and saber were perfect for this custom, and were rounded out by a Movie Loki cape, a Ryu skirt piece, some big gloves and buccaneer boots. Now it really does come down to Tactical Batman parts for Wingman... oh, and maybe some Atlantean soldier parts for Legionary too. CAPTAIN COLD It was around the time I was sculpting the chest flaps on this guy that I realized that this batch was full of long-awaited customs I'd just had to wait for either parts or sculpting courage for, heh. Hand Ninja hood -- no damage to the original face decal, but such a tight fit that I'm petrified to straighten it, Daredevil belt/holster, sculpted glove/boot ends, and someone's futuristic-looking gun. BIG BARDA Speaking of long-awaited... well, she's far from perfect, but at least I got the idea out there. I'd had this idea upon getting the spare Thor Reborn/Lady Loki 2-pack [mainly for Thor's hair, which I would use for the Felix Faust I was working on then]... I finally got around to customizing the Lady Loki hairpiece, albeit with a lot less sculpting than I should have gone with. Cut up a spare cape or something to get the two plastic pieces I then epoxy-clayed/glued to the hair and painted up the rest. SDCC Sif head, AOA Magneto cape -- a last-minute addition that worked fairly well down to the little red collar-dot, and a trimmed Hammer Drone belt piece that gave her the red/black hip panels AND boosted her height a bit. Her Mega-Rod is, er, a cut-down Stargirl staff. KGBEAST This one's for you, Chris Sims! [Yeah, like he'll ever notice.] Again, never really got around to making one despite having been intrigued by the concept and the name, but that had to change! I chickened out, though, and decided to go with his "let's replace the exposed flesh with red panels" look. Original decal face and chest, modified IM2 Whiplash right hand, someone's equipment belt, Nimrod boots, an Anti-Venom chest cap, a pair of Wolverine arms for teh hair, and a custom gun-hand made from a Cylon gauntlet and a cut-down Terminator shotgun. FIREFLY First got to know this guy during Knightfall, so he was on the list for a long time. Mainly because it took me a stupidly long time to realize that C3 Heavy Assault Batman's extra wings would be a perfect base for this guy's wings! As soon as that clicked, the rest was fairly fast -- sculpted some eyes onto him and gave them a bit of the Mr. Hobby clear red, gave him an antenna from a sai tip, superglued the wings and a Ghostbusters proton pack onto a wave 41 Iron Man [replaced his gloves with Stargirl's and the iconic Iron Man belt with a more generic NXM belt], and painted up the rest with gunmetal and gray.

Unbelievable, awesome work. I wonder if i'l ever have enough money for all the commissions i'm wanting after going through this thread.

That Steve Rogers is bloody BRILLIANT. I want them to make one more than ever, now [i'm actually a bit mystified as to why they haven't yet!].

As promised, here they are. An unexpected burst of customs this past week, and a mixed bag of results in general. RED STAR Remember the fairly-easily-done other custom I had waiting after I used the Hydra Trooper parts for Heatwave? This guy was it, and that struck me as soon as I'd disassembled him to make Heatwave. Took the basic Hydra Trooper body and gave it a star decal, added a Shadowland Iron Fist head, couple of arms and an X3 Juggernaut bicep band as a watch, then a repainted hairpiece and belt, and done. MAD HATTER This one, not so easy. He's a bit of an amalgam of his many appearances, with the color scheme from the comics and the face decal based on the BTAS face [had to apply the eyes first, then the mouth, thanks to the tiny face space left by the top hat]. His hat was originally a JLU Zatanna top hat -- I cut the hatband and put it a bit low on the figure's forehead, then glued the rest of the top hat to the top of the head and sculpted around it. He's got a Ghostbusters coat and Mole Man tiny-feet, and a sculpted little bow tie. PROMETHEUS This guy I remember from the Morrison JLA, not the abysmal Cry [Gay?] for Justice mini. Always wanted to make one, too -- thankfully DST put together that Arthur, whose helmet I modified to serve as this guy's by cutting of and repositioning the visor and adding a couple of cut-down toothpicks to the sides to serve as his antennae. The gauntlets are the old Juggernaut gauntlets with some misbehaving epoxyclay, which also found its way to the modified M. Bison cape. That's a movie Loki head underneath the helmet, and a Mark V IM belt. ARTEMIS WONDER WOMAN Had a spare Battle Damaged Wonder Woman and an Omega Red hairpiece and I figured why not. Painted the yellow armor parts gold, modified the ends of the hairpiece then painted over it [changing the Omega symbol to a red star], gave her an Ultimate Wolverine belt, Namor foot-wings and some accessories from the Hand Ninja [quiver, bow]. Had another decal for this face that tried to capture the very-detail-lined Deodato artwork, but it ended up looking too mannish, so I tried another one that didn't outdo it by a lot. :/ BATMAN INC: CHIEF MAN-OF-BATS Thought about saving a Batman Inc. set for Customcon, but I never make those deadlines anyway, so here goes. Found a Lego minifigure with an Native American chief's headdress, so I set about modifying that [it was a MOTHER to try and whittle stuff away from the inside so a Minimate head could squeeze in]. Although it still gave me something that wasn't quite accurate to the design, it was the closes I could get. Face and chest are decals, and I forgot to give him the black wristband things. Also, his pants need fringe along the sides, but I haven't quite puzzled out how to do that. HUNTER-PREY CYBORG SUPERMAN I remember wanting like hell to read this miniseries back in high school, as it was billed as Superman-Doomsday round 2. Also, the Cyborg Superman showed up, and he was in a new non-Superman-based outfit! Eventually the parts presented themselves, and I was able to make a Minimate out of him too. Sculpted some long hair onto the existing Cyborg Superman head [made the mullet too long, though, this is the only pose he'll hold], then painted up an Endoskeleton body with silver and the good old Mr. Hobby clear red. Those are Mark V IM gauntlets and an inverted belt piece used as a chest extender. MERLYN This always struck me as a fairly easy custom, except I was forever lacking the loincloth and quiver parts. Eventually I said what the hell, I can make one and just leave those out as they're not uber-essential. The only special parts here are as a result are a face decal [there's a chest decal too but it doesn't show up so well so I painted over it] and a modified Logan hairpiece, and a Hand Ninja bow [need to start getting more 2-packs for parts]. BATMAN INC.: EL GAUCHO El Gaucho! Another easy one to make, in theory at least. Dr. Baltar torso, NXM Wolverine jacket, Half-Human Endoskeleton belt painted over, and a Crimson Dynamo head for that awesome mustache. I did, however, have to sacrifice a second Shadowland Iron Fist mask [after losing the first one to Ravager]. Gonna have to get another one! BATMAN INC.: THE HOOD When reading through Knightquest [which I managed to snag a complete run of around halfway through college] I found this English counterpart guy neat, but never imagined I'd see him in comics again, let alone be making a custom of him! Hand Ninja hood, Deadman shoes, Darkseid gloves. Decal face and torso, and a pain in the ass shoulder cloak thing rather weakly sculpted atop a White Queen cape-top. DST really should make that shoulder-cloak piece already. VENTRILOQUIST I, AND SCARFACE I swear bobafett and I just make these things up coincidentally at the same time. Anyhoo, after getting Chief Man-of-Bats' sheaddress from that Lego figure I had the rest of the figure left over, and it hit me that hey, here's a block figure shorter than a Minimate! Set about painting the hell out of it and giving it a DCIH Question hat [couldn't find a Lego one], then made the Ventriloquist [sculpted hair, face decal based on one of the show's control art sheets, chest decal based on Professor X]. Cut up a Thing fist to serve as the 'dummy holding' attachment, and kept the Lego tile for Ventriloquist to stand on. PROFESSOR EMIL HAMILTON One of the easier ones, and a character I'd always wanted to make. Was a tossup between the bearded comic version and the JLU one, but he was such a presence in the awesome Cadmus arc that I couldn't say no. Besides, it was 85% part-swapping [lucked out and got the labcoat BSG 2-pack for cheap at a toy convention last week], and the rest was a face decal and repainted Punisher hairpiece. DAVID CAIN Easier than I thought it'd be, especially since I decided to skip the chest holster. Face decal based on one of the many Logans [secret Invasion, I think], chest decal based on X-Force Warpath with the "Mark of Cain" logo on the left chest. Dr. Fate hair, X3 Juggernaut bicep bands, Hand Ninja leg sheaths, White Tiger belt. BATMAN INC.: DARK RANGER Another part sacrifice! I'm gonna be putting in an order at Luke's soon to start replacing these guys. This time it's AoA Cyclops who gives up his distinctive webgear to round this guy out over a modified version of my Murmur decal, along with a Battle-Scarred Thing helmet filled in the eye holes with epoxyclay and painted over with gunmetal and clear smoke gray] and X3 Juggernaut gauntlets/boots. CAPTAIN MARVEL [WHITE/GOLD] Did Freddy Freeman wear this when he took over? I think that might be where the long hair's from. Anyway, I took apart a spare Nimrod Minimate, and saw that he was made of this lovely shimmery-metallic plastic, and I decided to finally get around to Captain Marvel's white attire. Chest decal based on the standard release and painted with gold, repainted Yellowjacket belt [used up my last Capt. Marvel belt thing on Chief Man-of-Bats], Yellowjacket head with Baltar hair, repainted Sunspot boots and gold-tweaked Capt. Marvel cape. MATCH This Superboy clone was a late addition, but it works. Was simpler than I thought it would be. Modified one of my face decals and added some lightning brushes in the background to serve as clone-degeneration cracks [ended up having to add marker details]. Chest decal is a Bizarro Superman logo on a standard torso. The rest is paint, particularly the deliberately pale/off shade of fleshtone. I discovered here that I actually kind of like the original Hulk hairpiece [that's a Gamma Hulk one he uses] -- it's a pretty good 'young guy' hairpiece to use for customs. Whew. Thanks again, all!

Thank you all for continuing to welcome these customs and give such wonderfully warm feedback! I'm particularly thrilled to hear from [in addition to everyone who's become regulars in so generously giving this thread their time] luke314pi and moo2172, whose custom work has always been inspiring and who have come in here for what feels like the first time! hellpop and everyone who commented on the character... must confess, I'm a little blank on Magog, other than his Kingdom Come appearance where he was markedly more sympathetic than his recent JSA pop-ups. Just figured it was a neat design, and any chance to support a dig on Cable and That Part of the 90s is one to take, heh. I really wish I'd had better luck with the helmet, though. Glad you guys dig, nevertheless. Boyd, I do agree with you about the General's head. It doesn't look so bad in person from a different angle [the upward shot made it look considerably worse, I guess], but every now and again I kind of wish I'd at least tried to give him a non-standard head shape. Would help balance the torso width. Thanks for the kind words, karamazov80; for the Challs I used simply repainted hairpieces and decals [as always] closely based on actual Minimate faces. I try to do the latter whenever I can as I find it helps match the aesthetic of "authentic" Minimates. It appears to be helping, in this case EDIT: Your Capt. Boomerang is amazing too, bobafett; that Rocky cap is one part I was looking for over a lengthy period of time but had to give up on. Also, it's funny you should do a Ventriloquist/Scarface custom... And Bob, it's good to see someone likes Houngan. He's one of the more obscure ones in this bunch, in one of his more obscure outfits, and it's interesting to get a 'toyetic' perspective on him! More coming in shortly!

Still life! After a very hectic last few months I've been able to get only a sporadic handful of customs put together. Part of this is the schedule, part of this is a lack of available needed parts [i've since gotten help from awesome people like hellpop and blargatron, and others on eBay], and part of this is actually getting burned out a bit on custom making. I've since then rediscovered my interest in it, and am proceeding somewhat cautiously toward another batch. There's still a lot of DC Universe left to work on, and that's not even counting DcnU [which I don't, at this stage at least]. And here we go. "THE ROAD HOME": 'INSIDER' BATMAN This took some doing. Inspired by a custom I saw here, I worked for a bit trying to look for a spare IM2 Mark V Iron Man [never anything around when you need it, yes?], whose arms, legs and boots I used to help build his cool segmented-armor costume. The rest is a Spymaster belt [or a White Tiger belt painted yellow, I forget], original decals for the face and torso, and HALO Spartan gloves from a single-packed HALO Minimate I saw at a toy convention. MAGOG Lucked out and got a spare movie Loki at some point, although I ran out of luck with the hot water/cold water trick when I tried to bend the horns -- the damn things kept either straightening back up eventually or just not going the right way. Eventually I just cut some spaces in them and filled the rest in with epoxyclay. Sigh, could've gone better. The rest is a reversed Cable face decal, a standard Cable torso decal, and actual SDCC Cable parts painted up [fitting, since he was created as a dig at Cable-type 90s characters]. The leg pads are Lady Loki's, the belt is a standard pouch belt with a holster glued to the front, and the staff is a modified Lego Indian Chief's staff. [EDIT: Forgot to mention I cut up a Hand Ninja shoulder piece and added a trimmed-down GI Joe bullet belt strip to it in order to form his weird 90s shoulderpad. ]ROXY ROCKET I'd wanted to make a Roxy for some time, considering she was a character I first encountered in the fondly-remembered Animated Series -- but I had no idea how to make the goggles. After rereading some recent [steph] Batgirl issues, I saw the one story where she, Dr. Phosphorous [see below] and Riot figured in a big fight that required the involvement of Batman and Robin [Dick and Damian]. This reminded me of the character around the same time I hit upon the idea of modifying a SHIELD Agent helmet [adding DCD Batgirl hair to the back as I did with the Wildcat mask for Wildcat II] to make a "goggles up" look for Roxy. With that main part out of the way, I just made a face decal and used a cut-down Ultimate Sabretooth jacket, an Ultimate Wolverine belt, and Rachel Summers gloves. KATANA After the previous, rather pedestrian Katana I made, I wanted something that reflected her then-current Outsiders look better. Managed to do that with original face and chest decals, the katana, taped hands and boots from a Hand Ninja, and a reversed IM2 Mark V chest piece that actually worked pretty well. Oh, and trimmed X-Force Warpath hair too. "YOUNG JUSTICE" AQUALAD: KALDUR'AHM While it's proceeding somewhat slowly on its course, I rather like the new YJ show, not least for the cool new designs we've been given. Aqualad is basically a painted-over Minimate with face and chest decals and painted IM1 Jim Rhodes hair. His "water weapons" are two Gamora swords , and his backpack... well, I'll get around to it I guess. JLU GENERAL WADE EILING Now my Amanda Waller has someone to conspire with. Original face decal based on a screencap, sculpted hair, and sculpted rank bars on a Tony Stark suit. Custom camo-green mix, same as what I used for the next figure. THE GENERAL This was a custom I'd always wanted to make, for some reason. Originally projected to be made with an Ultimate Hulk, this eventually took on a new form when I saw the Wave 41 Hulk body. I decided to wait for that to show up, and then went to town with a custom brown-gray mix and the same custom camo-green mix from General Eiling's uniform. PARASITE Very happy with how the color on this turned out. Ultimate Hulk powerhouse torso, SM3 Venom claws [thanks blargatron!] and comic Abomination two-toed feet on a regular body, with modified versions of TENIME's decals for the face and chest. Custom paint mix [Citadel Warlock Purple and P3 Beaten Purple] to try and match the DCSH figure. DR. PHOSPHOROUS Sorta obscure, neat design. Always wanted to make one, decided to go through with it already after reading the aforementioned Batgirl storyline. Got a spare SDCC Sunspot for this express purpose, painted on some bones for the arms, and Goo Gone'd off the face and chest to make room for original decals. Pants are X3 Beast's I think. Generally a simple but effective recipe. HOUNGAN Another simple but cool design, this stuck in my head after reading an Infinite Crisis issue to research an earlier custom [Plasmus]. Apparently this isn't a look he's used a lot, but I found some visual reference in a copy of a JSA story that had them getting taken down by Huntress and Power Girl. It was fairly simple, with most of it being s standard Minimate with some Capt. Mar-vell armbands and DA Marvel Boy's belt. It's also a neat way to reuse the Lady Loki coat, which I never expected I'd be able to use in a way that worked so well. CRIMSON AVENGER Horrible sculpting ahoy. This puts me much closer to completing the cast of the JLU episode "Patriot Act" [i'm only a Speedy away, I guess -- haven't decided which look of his to make]. This was born of a Ghostbusters We're Ready to Believe You" coat with some sculpting that could've been refined better, a The Spirit hat, and a face decal based on DCD Hal Jordan. CAPTAIN BOOMERANG I: DIGGER HARKNESS This custom favors most heavily Digger Harkness' circa-Brightest Day look [also seen in the recent DCUC figure]. Scarf is cut down from a Formal Wear Sand Saref, coat is Multiple Man's, watch cap is sculpted onto cut-down C3 Nightwing hair and the boomerang is from a Batman figure. Face is an original decal based on his JLU appearance. HEATWAVE This was another neat idea that was on the shelf for a while until some neat parts came in. I'd gotten the Steel boots a long time ago, and the SHIELD Agent suit had long had the collar sanded off and sculpted over, but getting the gun and goggles from a movie Hydra Soldier was what helped me complete this custom. I may need to get a new Hydra Soldier to replace the original now, as I found a [surprisingly] appropriate use for his base body as well. CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN: PROF, RED, ACE, ROCKY I didn't have a lot of background on these guys, mostly becoming aware of them thanks to the Brave and the Bold comic arc "The Lords of Luck" and their appearance/s on the BATB cartoon. All the faces are decals based on existing Minimate faces or combinations thereof [some Reed Richards, some Biff Tannen I think, some movie Loki, some Guy Gardner], and everything else is paint [mainly some Skull White and a lightened Beaten Purple] and some reused/repainted hairpieces from Wave 41 Stark, Yellowjacket, Shocker and Wildcat.

You must let me know how much those commissions are. I will save up and get as many kidneys as I can.

Grumbling certainly is healthy. It's alive and well wherever there are fanboys

I want a Mango Sentinel.

I'd be all for Minimates of those characters, and this would be a good avenue to release them in. I'd like to see them mix it up and put an MVC or MVC2 character in a 2-pack with an MVC3 character. Maybe even recolors of MVC3 characters we've gotten if they need big names; it;'d be a good chance to throw in some second tries at costumes -- Carnage/Iron Spidey, Silver Samurai/MVC3 Brown Wolverine, Doc Ock/red and black MVC3 Dr. Doom, Blackheart/Dante... and dammit, pack Dr. Strange in with a Shuma-Gorath already! Game-wise, if/when they do an UMVC3, I'd like them to at least toss Cyclops in there along with a bunch of new characters. And Cable, and Ken.

Pardon the ignorance, but where are the sea creature heads from?

Aw, nerts. I need a couple of the ghosts for parts and such. That'll learn me to figure out which ones to get so late What's a UM set?

Thread semi-necro! Anyone out there have a TRU that still has ghosts on clearance?