lastmaximal

I gotta say, you've got one of the best eyes for parts matching and such that I've seen on here. It's amazing what you do!

I remember seeing some art of Ultimate War Machine at some point, but I'll probably need to check again as I'm not a big Ultimate universe guy. In any event your custom if very well done, and I'd like to track down a spare Ultimate IM to do that too at some point and flesh out my concept armory. Same goes for the Prismapolymer War Machine -- it's almost like a Movie "Mark II" look for that armor. Simply well done! Sadly I'm without any local source for Folk Art paint, so I'll have to make do with the Mr. Hobby, Citadel and P3 stuff. It serves me well, though, it's just a little sad not to have as many options.

That is excellent stuff! I love how the Cap-Armor Iron Man looks -- how'd you get that metallic sheen? I tried a silver/blue mix and a gloss blue coat on mine, but it never looked that good. Also, that's a neat torso armor piece on that Volcano Armor IM. Where's it from? And I wish I had translucent plastic mates too. I'm a sucker for clear plastic and it would open up possibilities for customs too! Here's a concept armor in the same vein that would be cool -- no idea how you'd pull off the clear-color look with a Mark VI armor though.

Great work! I dig the Aqualad. You've inspired me to take that custom plan from the list and get around to it next! It's cool how you got the backpack done too.

Amalgam! It's an amazing concept that plays to my sensibilities and begs to be represented in Minimate form. Great work on Iron Lantern! Tempted to try and make one myself, but if I start with one Amalgam I'll have trouble stopping...

That Blue Beetle is sweet! Great use of parts to get the look down.

Thanks, boyd and bobafett! Having only faint recollections of how Mattalica did the Killer Moth helmet I always thought it'd be just a repainted Dr. Fate helmet -- until I dug through my parts box and came to terms with how I probably wouldn't be using the Ant-Man helmet complete with antennae for something else anytime soon anyway. So snip went the antennae, and Moth's chapeau is complete! I'm a little surprised you like Plasmus; I feel I could've done a better job sculpting that face but my uneven mix of epoxyclay had cured earlier in some places than others [with the face being among the first]. Then again, he's kind of an amorphous, overly-lined design to begin with, sort of, so I guess he's always going to look a bit weird. I'm just glad I found a decent use for that marshmallow cap! I'm not sure when it hit me that the new Iron Fist mask was even a new mold -- having not been able to check out good pictures of the wave when it was announced, I just assumed hey reused the old one. I think it was when I saw a spare one up for auction that I realized that the nice new shape and addition of under-mask hair meant it would work for Ravager. The addition of epoxyclay long hair was something I felt would make it more feminine and 'hers'. As for Hannu... I was on the verge of repainting up a TRU exclusive Thing [wave 8?], whose boots and powerhouse torso seemed like a great fit and really made him a big guy. I eventually settled on the recipe I used because I didn't have a spare TRU Thing; I also felt a wave 37 Thing would be too similar to, well, Thing, given the upper arm shape and crauqelure -- you can see I tried to do a different cracking pattern on Hannu. That's just me though One thing I realized is I might keep it at the 2-2.5" scale in the future even for the DC stuff. This is partly because of the lack of available 2.5" fodder here, and partly because of the lack of parts I can use to flesh out a 2.5" custom. This means that Bane and STRIPE [and my earlier Rocket Red custom] will probably tower over even The General, when I get around to making him. Eventually when I get the nerve up, though, I'd like my Doomsday to be 2.5". Time will tell, I guess?

They look awesome all together. Wish there were an easy way to get that many Angels locally

Psyguy, that's very high praise indeed! I look up to your work as setting a standard I have to keep reaching for. Sculpting-wise, it's the unreachable dream, which is why I hope you won't tire of me pestering you for sculpt commissions! Well then. Here we have a personal milestone I didn't realize I'd been building to until I sat down and did the math a bit . Apparently I'm actually *this* close to 200, all in the midst of surviving work given to me over the summer and getting a thesis defense under way. In a way, all of these customs from the very beginning have been partly art therapy for all the stress of the past several months. I intend to keep going, fleshing out the DC Universe end of my Minimate collection -- with a commission or two from our more talented members, hopefully -- and learning. And it would mean a lot if you all keep checking them out! And now, on with the chlorophyll. GEO-FORCE This is my favorite of Geo-Force's admittedly sorta meh costumes. It was a bit tricky to get it looking right though -- I recall starting him shortly after Terra, that far back, and just recently revisited him to put on the finishing touches. Angel hairpiece , Black Panther armbands, decals for the face and torso, and the rest is paint [Citadel Dark Flesh and a Tau Sept Ochre/Blazing Orange blend]. PLASMUS This I'm not exactly thrilled with, but it's good to have him represented I guess. At his core he's a basic body, a crotch cap, some height-extend 'duck' feet, a marshmallow hairpiece from the GB box set, a Powerhouse torso, and some Thing arms, all covered with a lot of epoxy clay and painted over with a Warlock Purple/Khador Red Base/Skull white mix that approximates pink. THUNDER [ONE YEAR LATER] And now my modern Outsiders are more or less complete, although I'd like to finish my modern Katana to round them out. Akuma gauntlets, Whiplash hair, and original decals for the face and torso. I really wish I could figure out how to get the skin tone right when making African-American skintone decals... THUNDER I actually sort of prefer this costume for Thunder, as it's the first one I encountered when Arsenal got this iteration of the Outsiders together. Original decals for the face and chest [again with the skin tone problem], Mark V Iron Man gauntlets and boots, TRU Starbuck hair. I need to go back and paint on the belt, heh. BLACK BAT [CASSANDRA CAIN] Cass is one of my favorite underrated characters. As soon as I found out Cass was going to be coming back, I dug up some photo ref on her new costume. I saw it was easier to adapt to Minimate form than her first post-Batgirl one, so I wasted no time in getting it together. Original face and chest decals, Nova hair, DCD Batgirl cape, Wildcat arms, Batwoman belt, and paint. KILLER MOTH I was looking to add a new Gotham Rogue custom, and I'd always wanted to make a Killer Moth. Then I remembered Mattalica's neat Killer Moth custom, and found a cheapish Dr. Fate on eBay for the helmet. Transplanted the antennae from an Ant-Man helmet [still figuring out how to use the rest of it later on], grabbed a spare Wasp wing bracket/wing set, and got busy with an original chest decal and lots of paint. Ran into my old nemesis -- straight lines -- but he turned out pretty nicely, I think. ZAURIEL This was always one of my favorite characters and designs, and it helped that he debuted during the mythology-driven Morrison era of the JLA. This always takes me back to those early days of college backtracking and checking out the comics and Wizard issues of the time at a friend's house. Anyway, this was an interesting parts mix -- a spare modern White Tiger became the body and head, a Frost Giant donated his helmet [which got some epoxyclay to fill out the shape], a Darkseid dress[?] got cut up to be the chestplate, and my AoA Magneto got robbed of his shoulder and leg armor. The wing pack was just the wing sockets from a Hawkman chest piece cut off and glued on to the back, with Hawk wings drybrushed silver and gold. All he's missing now to make him perfect is a Soul Sword from Magik. RAGMAN First Shadowpact member done -- I've got ideas for Nightmaster and modern Blue Devil, and will just need parts, but this guy had to go first. I've got some concerns that he might look too similar to my Pied Piper, so I'll keep them far apart on the shelves. This is essentially a Cloak hood and cape, original decals for the chest and face, and lots and lots of paint. Gave him a thin coat of gray after I'd painted all of the patches on his body and limbs in order to make him look really worn. WARLORD Off of some neat ideas by hellpop and moc, I thought I'd take a stab at putting a Warlord together once the parts came in. And come in they eventually did, when my LCS finally got their limited stock of Wave 39. A Thor helmet got some white paint, and the Dr. Fate head went underneath it once it came in the mail. Sculpted a skull onto his right shoulder, glued a cut-up Lobo chain onto his shoulder and waist, glued the skull from Lobo's right boot onto his right lower leg, and glued parts from a Frost Giant loincloth piece onto a Gollum loincloth to armor it up. His gauntlet pieces are both from the Frost Giant as well, and his weapons are Gamora's sword and Lobo's hook with some P3 Skorne Red blood. RAVAGER Most of her had been done for a while before the last part came in. The body was simple enough, with just original decals for the torso and back being the tough parts and the rest being paint [okay, figuring out that Dreadnought gauntlets would be a good fit took me a while]. The head was a Six head, the boots from a box set Darkseid, and the belt from a Superman, but I had to wait for the Shadowland Iron Fist mask to come in so I could sculpt longer hair onto it and paint it up to complete the look [now I need another mask, heh]. "BATMAN INCORPORATED" BATMAN Number 200 just had to be a Batman [iirc #100 was already a Superman] -- fortunately I hadn't gotten around to getting this nailed down in full yet! Originally I thought it'd be nice and by-the-numbers, but then I looked at the parts I had on hand, and saw there was quite a bit I could do to make it more than your standard Batman. [sadly this also means I need to start restocking on my C3 parts, Batmen in particular!] The returning Bruce Wayne has a C3 Batman helmet with a Beyonder head underneath, a C3 Batman cape painted black, an original torso decal, a White Tiger belt, glove pieces from box set X-Force Wolverine , legs from Pilot Batman [acetoned off the brown straps and painted the blue piping] and boot pieces from the 2-pack X-Force Wolverine. Hope you guys like them! Thanks for checking my stuff out every now and then, and do stick around for more in the future!

Thanks, boyd! Tekik's actually missing his jetpack thingy, but I'm happy with how he came out. Also, thanks for the positive vibes, blargatron. I know once I get the parts we dealt for I'll be able to put together some sweet new work! Thanks in advance for helping those move a step closer to fruition!

Dude, those Lanterns are absolutely awesome. Mongul is definitely head snd shoulders above anything I could try to put together!

Some clever parts ideas here! Kristoff Vernard reminds me of a recipe I'd thought of for Steel.

See, I knew they'd find a way to make a White Phoenix of the Crown as soon as I started painting mine up. Still want it though, if only to have an official one. I might switch heads and hair, though, as I'm not terribly fond of the way the face on this looks. "X-Men" Deadpool, on the other hand, is my sole reason to get that set. It's third only to Marvel Girl Deadpool and Thor Deadpool in the Deadpool costume-steals I want to see in Minimate form Arthur is mainly going to give me parts for either a Prometheus or Batman Inc Knight custom. Dante will at least lend some neat unique parts. [i'm going to keep the standard-release versions as the main versions.] Is this the only exclusive set we're getting, or is AFX due to announce one too as before? Edit: rats, i got the deadpool costume wrong. Leaning toward a pass now, or a much more delayed buy.

I'd be all over a lot of those suggestions. If they wanted they could even fill a full TRU wave with two-packs of a Spidey outfit or bad guy and a Slinger.

Thanks, Bob! It's the kind of thing that [if you're someone familiar with Shrapnel] you wonder why you never thought of before. Great fun to make too. And now the next set, which has been a bit of a long time coming [well, it sure feels that way] thanks to tons of real-life concerns, some of which have been coming to a head the last few weeks. ICICLE II Cameron Mahkent. Wasn't sure what design to go with, but when I was flipping through my DCU Encyclopedia one day I noticed he seemed to have a decent enough costume that would be a bit easy to do. Original face decal based on Movie Loki, original chest decal modified from the Killer Frost design, and an Ice Blue/Skull White mix for his iced-up parts and a Regal Blue/Chaos Black mix for his pants. Dimitri hairpiece to top it all off. Maybe when I get a new pot of Skull White and dig up a Green Goblin hat, I'll put together an Icicle I. MAXIMA Since I'd already dipped into the Our Worlds At War lineup, I figured, I may as well make a Maxima, whose look there was fairly easy to replicate. Painted over a Rachel Grey torso, GSXMen Wolverine arms and Battle-Damaged Wonder Woman legs . I think that's Dark Phoenix hair painted over in Khador Red Base, a Scarlet Witch cape, and a Black Queen Jean Grey face that I might replace with something better. ANIMAL MAN Bascially parts painted over in a Sunburst Yellow/Blazing Orange mix , with an original chest decal. That's a Rogue jacket and a modified 90s Sabretooth hairpiece, which looks kind of bleh. Not my best sculpt job on the goggles. SINESTRO CORPS LOW The afternoon I was working on Shrapnel I figured I'd see about experimenting with making Low's head. As it happens, a crapload of epoxyclay can put together two Minimate heads in more or less the needed shape -- that's the neck socket forming his mouth, there. From there it was just a powerhouse torso, some Ultimate Storm boots, and SM3 Venom hands. Sunburst Yellow and Chaos Black with Mithril Silver belt, with a custom Enchanted Blue/P3 Arcane Blue mix for the skin. SINESTRO CORPS TEKIK Then, while looking for reference on Low, I came across the Sinestro Corps profile in Blackest Night #0 and saw this guy. A robot Sinestro Corps guy seemed like the ticket for a visually unique custom to break up the monotony of the uniforms on the dispaly. Nova armor piece and belt, Hammer Drone head with sculpted eyes, IM2 Mark V arms with Titanium Man gauntlets, and the leftover IM2 War Machine torso and legs I had from making Stel. SINESTRO CORPS AMON SUR New corps plus turned-bad legacy character with somewhat unique altered-uniform costume? Sounds good. Made a new face decal based on one of the Biff Tannens , used my old Sinestro Corps chest and back decals, and the rest is paint. SINESTRO CORPS LYSSA DRAK Still inspired by that Sinestro Corps group profile. A lot of the parts lying around lent themselves to this custom -- Mephisto's sash, Gamora's cape [which needed some trimming] and Ska'ar's hair. The rest is an original face decal, original chest decal, and Ice Blue skin. Now my Sinestro corps looks a good deal less samey than my GLs. SINESTRO CORPS MURR, THE MELTING MAN This I came up with while looking through the sweet Secret Files and Origins issue for "Sinestro Corps War". Original face decal, touched up with P3 Wurm Green, Snot Green and Scorpion Green. The rest is, I think, one of the spare Spymasters a local Iron Man collector unloaded on me. Ah well, saved some yellow paint on the cuffs and boots. SINESTRO CORPS MALLOW Hee, Mallow. Also got the idea from the "Secret Files" Another original face decal, Mole Man fatsuit, the rest is another Spymaster I think. GREEN LANTERN HANNU Looking for reference pictures for one character sure does give you a bunch of ideas for others! This guy was also born of a desire to have a big guy to stand opposite Low. Original face decal, X-Factor Beast powerhouse torso and waistpiece, Thing hands and Ultimate Storm boots. GREEN LANTERN GRAF TOREN At least here's another visually-different GL. Original face decal, plus a new chest decal I based on the DCD Hal. Also used a Luke Cage jacket and some leftover Colossus arms and legs. ISIS As a '52' fan I'd also wanted to make this for a long time. The leftover parts from a Formal Wear Sand Saref were the base; made new chest and back decals as well as a face decal based on NXM Jean Grey. The rest is Dreadnought gladiator-straps, Gamora hair with sculpted tiara/jewel, and a Rachel Grey skirt. MURMUR I'd always sort of thought this guy cool, one of the most Arkham-ish of the Flash Rogues. Original decals for the face, chest and back, a base painted over in black and touched up with Mithril Silver for the straps and zippers and tabs [and Tau Sept Ochre for the leg wraps], and Beyonder hair. Gave him one of the New Goblin daggers too. JL AMAZO AND JLU AMAZO Or, as the picture has them positioned, JLU and JL Amazo. Bases painted over in a custom gray mix and Burnished Gold, with the same original decal for the faces and some white touchups. ELONGATED MAN [PURPLE/WHITE COSTUME I could use a spare stretch base or two for my Ralphs, I guess, but those can come in down the line. This was a base painted with a Beaten Purple/Skull White mix and Skull White, with an original chest decal and a "We're Ready to Believe You" Ray Stanz head. QUEEN BEE [ZAZZALA] One TPB I picked up in my recent backtracking was the Morrison-penned JLA: World War III. That's an era I'd really like to read up on some more, as I didn't get to read through a lot of it the first time. Anyhoo, one of the lead villains there that hasn't been used much elsewhere was Queen Bee, who I recreated here with original face and chest decals [although the compound eyes didn't come across so well at that size], a Dimitri hairpiece with extra sculpt bits, and a Steel spike-gun armband. The leg detailing was the first time I'd used regular Shining Gold, which came out looking neat. Also, her earpieces were made from cutting a cell phone accessory in half, heh. All this takes me up to ~190 DC customs, with guys like Plasmus [who is more or less finished, but not as good-looking as I'd like just yet], Geo-Force [needs some tweaking], an updated Katana [need the skirt and an Omega Red hairpiece] and Ravager [body's all done, just waiting for one last crucial part to arrive] waiting in the wings. I wonder when I'll get the time to get around to those?

Thanks very much for the kind words, guys. Was hoping to get a bit more response from this set, but I'm really pleased at how it turned out either way. Stel was a neat surprise. One of those things where you put parts together knowing they seem to work, but not re4ally seeing it until it's in color, and then it's awesome. Hellpop, pm'd you about custom parts talk [i'm glad we still manage to get messages out even though we both seem really swamped!]. That Cannonball tip sounds good, I may look into it And boyd, heh, feel free with regard to Shrapnel -- although scraping spare cut-up parts together is hardly a recipe, it turns out that's exactly how to make him!

I am liking the mythology behind these immensely. Way to bring even more life to some awesome custom concepts!

Whew, it's been a while! Lost track of the Minimate world there for a bit, aside from the occasional custom here and there. Thanks as always for the kind words. I wasn't expecting the Metal Men to take off the way they did, but that;s part of the charm of those characters. "The Brave and the Bold" really helped me gain a new appreciation for them, as well as for many of the DC cast who'd just started to get my attention back in JLU. Nessex, boyd, bobafett, Punisher, hellpop, glad you like em! Really also appreciate the Kamandi suggestion, hellpop, I've seen your custom and it does capture his Kirby look. Good to see that the Marvel stuff is also to people's liking. Really glad with how Colossus in particular turned out. Thanks, MsMarvelfan, Nessex, and boyd! And now, our show. GREEN LANTERN STEL Inspired by the DC Direct figure as well as the DCUC C&C figure -- which were generally based on his pretty sweet current portrayal in the comics -- I put together the robotic Green Lantern. Figuring out which parts to use was a bit of a challenge, but I eventually settled on an IM2 War Machine torso and Iron Monger boots, with modified War Machine helmet and gauntlets to round it all out. Also glued on a disc I cut from the shoulder portion of the Endoskeleton chestpiece to serve as his GL logo, then went to town with the Dark Angels Green/Mithril Silver mix and a custom Chaos Black/Mithril Silver mix for the darker parts. JLU KYLE RAYNER This was born less out of an affection for both Kyle and JLU and more out of dissatisfaction with an earlier eBay custom I bought. It came with a fused right leg [and waist joint], and was generally less than I'd expected. Well, put paid to that with a quick original face and chest decal and some sculpting on a Punisher hairpiece to give him the tufts of hair his JLU look had. Mixed up a custom shade of blue-green to try and match his colors on the show. SHRAPNEL This was a simple idea that had been in the back of my mind forever, and ended up being a good way to reuse "waste" parts. One of the first TPB's I got in my "returning to comics phase" when I started working was Our Worlds At War, where I was introduced to the short-lived [lol] temp Suicide Squad. Shrapnel was one of the characters in it, and as a jumbled mass of scrap metal he seemed like an instantly easy custom to make. Grabbed a bunch of Mark I Iron Man parts to serve as the base along with Endoskeleton hands -- and a STRIPE head, which I ended up just supergluing onto the neck joint. Then I dug up all the cut-up shards I'd trimmed off from other parts for earlier customs -- capes, chest caps, the like -- and superglued everything onto him in varying configurations before giving him a Chaos Black/Mithril Silver coat and Mithril Silver drybrush. Then I used some epoxyclay to make his eyeline slightly different in shape from STRIPE's and painted his eyes. JLU ANGLE MAN Fairly easy except for the mask. All-over coat of Dark Angels Green with some Sunburst Yellow lines, original decals for the chest and the face [although the face one got applied a little high, heh]. Had to sculpt some goggle bits onto a modified hornless Daredevil mask before painting it up; at least this time I ended up sanding it a bit better than I did with Evil Star's. The Angler device was clearly something I rustled up on the quick before taking the shot. DR. LESLIE THOMPKINS Now my Alfred custom from loosecollector has someone to hang out with [and complain about Bruce to]. Hee. Basic parts mix with a little paint: decal for the chest, a Six skirt painted Scorched Brown, legs painted fleshtone, and the rest is an old labcoat, a Pepper Potts face, X3 Storm hair, and some gray shoes/feet. WILDCAT II [YOLANDA MONTEZ] I'd thought of making a blue Wildcat variation like DCUC did, but that seemed to be too simple. Then I saw MsMarvelFan's excellent Hellcat custom, executed with an idea so brilliant in its simplicity, really, and I realized I could take the "dark blue Wildcat" idea up a notch by making the fallen second Wildcat, Yolanda Montez. I cut some Barbara Gordon hair and affixed it to a Wildcat mask. Then an original decal for the chest, a good coat of Regal Blue with Mithril Silver claws, and done. MISS MARTIAN Hello, Megan! Hee. Original decals for the chest and face [based on the Young Justice character model], a coat of Enchanted Blue on the Drax boots and X3 Storm cape/gloves and a custom mix of green for the skin. Finally, adding a Rachel Grey skirt and X3 Storm hair made for a sweet M'gann M'orzz. MARTIAN MANHUNTER [OUTSIDERS] Wasn't sure what to call this, so this will have to do, heh. I had one last X3 Storm cape lying around plus a C3 Martian Manhunter conehead without a head or body to wear it, so I worked for a bit trying to match the shade of green to paint a new head and make a matching face decal basedon the C3 face. The rest is a Minimate body painted in Regal Blue [with Enchanted Blue boots and Khador Red Base accents] and a botched chest decal. Took some more Endoskeleton shoulder disc things and glued them onto the shoulders to be the clasps, but they were too big so I tore them off -- with the happy accident of leaving much better-sized rings on the cape. SUPERNOVA As a big fan of 52 I'd had this one on the back burner forever, but seeing the eBay custom guy put him up for sale drove me to finish it already. Original decals for chest and face [that starburst is a bit of a dickens to design], Enchanted Blue and Khador Red Base accents. Alt Superman cape attached to a trimmed Batman-cape shoulderpiece. MISTER MIRACLE I was a bit hesitant to put this up without having made a Big Barda yet, but I'm certain she's going to have to wait a while -- the complexity of the helmet is just beyond my meager sculpting skill range right now. Mostly a painted-over Minimate body in Snot Green, Sunburst Yellow and Khador Red Base with original face and chest decals; the only unique part is a Red Tornado cape. [Oh, and the cape clasp discs are cut from Dr. Doom's.] I'd wanted to get an extra X-Factor Iceman to give him a more accurately-shaped belt but I didn't have the cash, so a cut-down waistpiece/belt had to do. ADAM STRANGE This one I'm rather happy with. One day I was staring at a broken Rhino helmet that came in a parts box from an earlier deal, and it hit me that it'd be a great base. Removed what was left of the horn, sanded off the rhino eyes on the sides, sculpted on a central fin, and went to work on the rest of him. A Hawkman chest cap got the pegholes cut form the back and the front trimmed into an x-shape, before I cut down some missiles from the 3.75" Mark V Iron Man's somewhat wtf suitcase launcher and used the ends to serve as rockets. Rather clumsily epoxied them onto the chest cap and then went to town with paint. Turned out a lot cleaner-looking than I'd expected, which was a nice surprise. B'WANNA BEAST Fired up on how well Adam Strange had turned out, I turned my attentions to this obscure guy. Having enjoyed his quirky presence in JLU's "This Little Piggy" and having appreciated him more through Kevin Michael Richardson's BATB portrayal, I'd wanted to make a B'wanna Beast forever. What held me back was not exactly having the skill needed to make his mask. As it turns out I still don't have it all down yet, which is why instead of fins separate from the rest of the helmet it looks like bunny ears coming from his face, but it's good enough. The sculpted "fur" boot-tops are only marginally better, heh. The mask base was a Wolverine mask, but the rest of him is fairly standard -- Kraven torso and arms, Elektra sash/skirt, Supergirl legs [they're fleshtone with red boots, I'm sure B'wanna understands]. SHINING KNIGHT After Adam Strange and B'wanna Beast I felt like I was on a roll with the stuff, so I went on ahead and hacked up a JLU Shining Knight based on antacost's design. It all happened pretty fast -- Yellowjacket base body with marker "scales", cut-down Sentinel helmet and chestpiece, decal chest, blue-costume Angel face, and an Ares sword with a trimmed handle. JLU VIGILANTE Really feeling on a roll with all the modifying and whatnot, I figured I couldn't just leave Sir Justin without his TV-viewing buddy. This was another custom I'd had on the backburner from long before, held back by the sad and sore lack of cowboy hat. Eventually I gave up looking for either a JLU Vigilante figure or 'Man With No Name' Minimate, stole my "Wolverine Through the Ages" Canadian Logan's hat and cut the hair off. Epoxied it onto an Ultimate Logan head. Made the bandanna mask from some mysterious cut-down ninja-ish face covering I also found in that old parts box [which I got a few years ago from... Nessex, I think?] and some more epoxyclay. The rest is a Regal Blue-painted upper body, Skull White-painted lower body, and a repainted gun belt and cowboy boots from a different, older Western Minimate. Last detail was a repainted Wonder Woman lasso glued onto his left shoulder to complete the look. CATMAN A character I figure I should really be reading more about, this guy had gotten a pretty cool character upgrade in recent years and was calling out to be made. Mostly Radioactive Man arms/gloves and legs, an original decal for the torso [matching that shade of mustard was a pain], Bizarro cape and Wildcat mask with new eyeholes [matching that shade of brown was also a chore]. 'OUTSIDERS' INDIGO Now I'm just a Thunder and a new Katana away from rounding out the Outsiders, I think. After the original face [based on Morrigan] and chest decal she was mostly just a body painted with a mix of Arcane Blue/Enchanted Blue with Chaos Black for the boots and fingerless gloves. A Mary Marvel skirt and Adam Warlock hair rounded out the look.

I believe both 80s and 25th/ME Joes have their customizing followings, although 25th/ME seems to have outpaced the classic stuff by quite a bit. I'd definitely appreciate a good and cheap source of Minimate fodder, come to think of it!

Thanks very much again to all of you. I'm always thrilled to see people here, customizers and Minimate enthusiasts I admire and respect, responding so enthusiastically [and positively!] to my less-than-perfect work. I'll try to respond to everyone this time. Really should have been doing that all along! Hawkeye's Junk, yup, still use some of the Mr. Hobby paints. Just the clear gloss ones, mind: of the previous batch, only Classic Red Hood and Lt. Kraggar [the former for the hood and cape and the latter on the pants] seemed to need the Mr. Hobby clear gloss treatment. AJV, gotta give credit to hellpop for the hairpiece idea. It was stunningly simple -- I'd had the Half-Endoskeleton for like a year before seeing his custom and realizing what was possible! Thankfully by that time I'd also learned to sculpt a bit, so I was able to fill in the gap. Dr. Baghead, glad I'm able to give you ideas. I've gotten a handful of them from your work also [beast Boy is the clearest example I can remember], and it's good to be able to give back, heh. Plus it makes more sense in that direction than the other -- no way in heaven or hell am I ever going to be able to pull off your The Dark Knight Returns Batman! Fancy a commission? TM2 Dinobot, hopefully I've got more JLU in the future. Still waiting on parts to make both versions of the General, and I need hats for my Crimson Avenger and Phantom Stranger concepts. robomate, thanks for the props as well. I'm glad those guardians look good to someone Fujis, boyd, glad you guys dig Per Degaton. I never really appreciated him until seeing him in that simple classic costume in BATB! And now for something... slightly different. INTERMISSION: MARVEL CUSTOMS I tend to avoid Marvel customs on the whole, especially once I realized that duh, Marvel is still going strong and is likely to make everyone who isn't Kang eventually. But I needed a handful of guys to fill out display cases, and some were just tweaks of older customs or official releases that were "eh, may as well." NEW MUTANTS DANI MOONSTAR, BOBBY DACOSTA, DOUG RAMSEY, RAHNE SINCLAIR The New Mutants I just made because I needed more bodies to fill out my New Mutants display cases, and I was too cheap to spring for either another New Mutants box set [which isn't even available here, so shipping would double the price] or the FA X-Men box set. Also, too lazy to go full-blast and make a Magma custom. Dani Moonstar is the only really notable one, at least the only one who's more than just gloves/boots painted yellow, body painted black, and head from the official release. She's got repainted Valkyrie hair [had that idea for quite some time now!], a Hawkgirl face painted a different skin tone, and Shocker boots with marker "fringe" details. WHITE PHOENIX OF THE CROWN The White Phoenix was a re-do I felt necessary because my loosecollector-ordered one had the joints fused for some reason. Not just painted shut, outright glued. So after I'd gotten the hang of painting I thought I'd make a new one out of the same NXM Phoenix head and hair and a Dark Phoenix body. By that time the Marvel Girl flame base was available, so I brushed that up with some Mr. Hobby clear yellow [as I did with her gold gloves/boots]. WEAPON X Weapon X was an improvement I'd long wanted to make on the official one. First I gave him the adamantium claws instead of the bone claws the box set gave him, because IIRC the whole bloody point of the project was to bond adamantium to his skeleton. Went with a Gollum skirt piece as well for better contrast, and used a headpiece/helmet from the 3.75" Wolverine Origins line to round it all out. Put it on a different snarling Wolverine head, cut up a Wolverine hairpiece to fill out the bottom half, filled the gaps with epoxy clay -- fingerprints make great hair flow lines -- and gave the visor part a clear red gloss. 80s COLOSSUS This version of Colossus was an idea I'd had percolating in the back of my mind since seeing a similar custom here [Mattalica, I think]. This always was a near costume, which I think the Acolytes costume kind of hearkens back to. GSXMen Colossus head/hair, arms and legs, with an original torso decal on a wave 6 Iron Man torso and new gloves/boots from Feral and Reborn Thor to give him a very different look from his predecessor. Not pictured is Ultimate Colossus, whom I made based on an idea from here to beef up my Ultimate X-Men display. RAGNAROK/'CLOR' Clone Thor! Lucked out and got a Classic Thor on the cheap recently, and -- inspired by the Marvel Universe Gigantic Battles pack -- figured this was a good opportunity to reuse the head from that Half-Human Endoskeleton. Shame I could no longer find the spare Mjolnir I had lying around [think I may've traded it away ] Back to regular programming! DC CUSTOMS [update: finally got Photobucket to work.] VIBE One of the poster children for obscure, perhaps, was someone I was destined to make in Minimate form. And here he is, crafted from a Cable vest and Captain Marvel hair with an original face decal. KAMANDI What seemed like an easy enough custom was a bit aggravating in spots. Mostly quick-custom style, parts put together -- Ultimate Sabretooth hair, Beyonder torso, Stargirl legs with the white stripes painted over and a Daredevil belt/holster painted black. Ran into a wall when I realized I'd used my last available fleshtone arms for Vibe, and had to take the acetone to a pair of Rachel Grey arms. The yellow flecks on his left arm are evidence that acetone is hard to cotton-bud onto that particular body part/shape. "THE FLASH: REBIRTH" WALLY WEST Lazy Flash custom #519 [Kingdome Come Flash, Barry Allen Flash... dude really does lend himself to the concept] came to me as I was reading the Flash: Rebirth mini. The main costume changes Wally goes through involve his mask having a pointed Batman-style nose instead of the exposed Captain America-style one, a change in the belt buckle area and subtle color changes to the red and gold [deeper and less saturated, respectively] along with a gloss treatment. Tried to get that across in Minimate form by sculpting a new nose and painting a C3 Flash over in Citadel Red Gore then some clear gloss coat, but it ended up looking still too bright a red. GRACE CHOI Adding to my Outsiders! [i'd made a Geo-Force, but he looks a tad... unfinished still, so I didn't include him here yet] Starbuck hair on a Battle-Damaged Wonder Woman face, an original torso decal and Secret Invasion Wolverine arms given marker tattoos. Chief Helo legs, Shocker gauntlets and X3 Juggernaut boots painted black. In retrospect X3 Juggernaut gauntlets might've been a better match for her One Year Later gauntlets. KATANA [JACKET] I may go back and make the non-jacketed, shorter-haired version later. Basically this was a fairly quick custom, with the black-painted Morrigan hair I was going to use for Phantom Lady finally seeing use. SM3 Gwen Stacey jacket, original face and torso decals, some red hands and legs/feet, and a Psylocke katana. DAMAGE Dude finally had a costume I was on board with. Shocker slip-on mask, 90s Beast chest cap [my first time working with the muscle-y chest cap instead of the classic flat one], Mary Marvel arms painted over, and a pait of legs painted over. Original face and torso decals, with some Sunburst Yellow rounding it out. Seems to work well enough in making him all bulky without going 2.5"... I may use a similar recipe for KGBeast. METAL MEN -- MERCURY, TIN, LEAD, GOLD, PLATINUM, IRON -- AND DR. WILL MAGNUS Ah, the Metal Men... and Platinum. Brings to mind a Scott Pilgrim quote from the clash with Crash and the Boys. "Is that GIRL a BOY too?" "Yes." [Trasha gives the finger] I'd originally saved these for the spring CustomCon -- having sadly missed the last one -- but then promptly got swamped with real-life stuff and forgot the deadline. Can't catch a break! All have original face decals -- Gold's based on TRU Mr. Fantastic, Tin is Peter Venkman, Mercury is a Guy Gardner face, Lead is Shazam, and Iron is... I forget, but it's the same face I based Geo-Force's on. Platinum is a blend of SM3 Gwen Stacey and the Poison Ivy decal designs, and Doc Magnus has a GA Flash head. Gold, Lead and Iron have powerhouse chest-caps, Platinum has a backwards Akuma skirt and a Mary Marvel hairpiece with sculpted hat, and the Doc has a FA Beast hairpiece and an old lab coat. Gold is straight-up Citadel Burnished Gold, Mercury is a Mithril Silver/Khador Red Base blend, Tin is Ice Blue/Mithril Silver, Lead is Chaos Black/Mithril Silver, Iron is Regal Blue/Chaos Black/Mithril Silver, and Platinum is just plain Mithril Silver. Doc Magnus is a human dude, with an original chest decal and Jigsaw's pants. If I had some spare parts -- or, more to the point, time -- I'd paint them up them some arm attachments, but oh well. ANARKY Working on this and getting the shadows 'right' was hell, but damn if I'm not terribly happy with how he turned out. Always one of the background Gotham guys that seemed to have potential for a cool story [bro] or two, Anarky had a nifty design I figured could translate decently into Minimate form. Original chest and face decals were the easy part, but it took a Mole Man cape [and staff] and GA Flash hat to round him out completely. EVIL STAR Starting and ending the DC batch with obscuros this time around. Evil Star! I know next to nothing about him, other than he looks like he's gotten himself permanently Starro'd. Just some Chaos Black and Beaten Purple on a standard body, making him look almost MvC3-Super-Skrully, and his face star [badly] sculpted onto a modified Daredevil mask.

That Metallo is very well done! Thrilled that you included the pipes on his back!

Whew. I still function! I actually worked on these off and on over February and some of March, in between juggling more pressing work and thesis-related concerns. Nope, still haven't managed to dig up the parts or the sculpting knowhow for a Captain Cold [but that IS a great recipe!], but I'm pleased with how some of these guys turned out in the meantime. It's amusing how Spider-Woman II seems to keep showing up in these pictures like that drunken dude at a party who keeps leaning into the background every time someone snaps a pic. TWO-FACE Bit of a blend between his DCUC and BTAS versions. Did the original face decal up with a screencap of his BTAS face for the scarred side, actually. Got the Half-Human Endoskeleton hair reuse idea from hellpop, and embellished it with a bit of epoxy [filled in the hairline on his non-scarred side]. I believe this suit was an extra Tony Stark one, and the coin hand was a hand holding... cards, I think, maybe a BSG piece. EXTANT I think I came up with the motivation to make this surprisingly easy custom when I saw that his cape was essentially a Magneto cape. Repeated the trimmed-Magneto-cape plan I used for one of the earlier Superman customs, made original face and torso decals, and tweaked an Adam Warlock body with some Chaos Black and a Khador Red Base/Mithril Silver mix. JLU OBSIDIAN Another striking but simple design. Original face and torso decals, lots of Regal Blue and Chaos Black paint [it was at this point that I noticed my paint was drying up a bit and getting gummy], some Mithril Silver touch-ups, and a custom gray mix on the slightly-sanded-down Adam Warlock cape. PER DEGATON The other time-traveling baddie in this batch seemed to me to be really easy to put together; the thought came while watching the JSA episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold. I think that's a PALZ skirt piece and First Appearance X-Men Hank's face; original decal for the chest and a custom Khador Red Base/Blazing Orange mix for the hair and Cap gloves. KILLER FROST Like Weather Wizard, this started out as another eBay custom I'd bought a long time ago but was never too happy with. It didn't even come close to the show model, so I made a new one almost from scratch [this one just reuses the basic body parts with new paint]. I took a screencap and made a new face decal, then made a new more on-model chest decal as well, painted a Rachel Grey hairpiece over in Regal Blue, and that was that. JLU FELIX FAUST This was an idea I'd had for some time but was hesitant to experiment on. The body was simple enough: Mephisto belt/sash, Drax boots, Black Panther armbands painted Sunshine Yellow, lots of Regal Blue as well as an original chest decal. The face was an easy original decal as well, but the unique hood/hairpiece thing? Ended up shaving and sanding down a Reborn/Modern Thor helmet for that. The hair works surprisingly well. GENTLEMAN GHOST Another BATB-inspired one [that show made him pretty kickass, although I liked his cameo in JLU as well]. This seemed like an easy idea but actually putting it together would be challenging. At least, until Mattel finally put out a JLU Gentleman Ghost. Got a loose factory-overrun one cheap from a local specialty store, cut the collar/monocle/hat piece off for use, and then superglued/epoxied it to the modified "We're Ready to Believe You" coat. Fit the whole thing onto a gooey-Ghostbuster body with an original chest decal and the neck joint cut off [and epoxied flat], and boom. JLU SHAYERA One of the first applications of my newly-bought pot of Sunburst Yellow [why don't they restock the primaries more often, I wonder] paint. BSG TRU Athena [?] hair was the closest I could get to her distinctive hair shape [maybe I'll try a D'Anna later on if I can find one] without sculpting, but the rest of her was much easier to customize. The Rachel Grey torso gave me a fleshtone base with an exposed belly that meant I just had to make the top half a decal, and an old pair of Giant Size X-Men Wolverine legs gave us a good yellow base for her track pants. Wings are a wing bracket from a spare Angel. JLU LT. KRAGGER AND PARAN DUL These were in the back of my mind when I put together Katar Hol. Then, they were only "those other hawk sidekicks Katar Hol had", but seeing the JLU 6-pack made me want to put them together as well. For Paran Dul, I used a pair of Dagger Legs, BD Wonder Woman arms and a Rachel Grey torso; modding the Bullseye belt and the Angel Wing bracket was kind of dodgy so she looks a bit paunchy in the belt area. Kragger followed basically the same approach I took with Katar Hol. The biggest trick, though, was the distinctive helmet... which came to me in a flash as I was looking at a spare Nova. The results are far from perfect, mostly due to my own tough luck with a marker, but the shape works wonderfully and I may revisit my Justice Lords Hawkgirl as a result. CLASSIC RED HOOD A nod to bobafett, who as usual gave me an excellent path to follow with this one. Spidey slip-on mask and LOTR cape on a body painted Chaos Black and given an original torso decal [based on my Gentleman Ghost one]. SINESTRO CORPS KARU-SIL I am moving painfully slow in filling out my various Corps. The GLs are nice and numerous now, but I don't even have any other colors yet, and this is only the second Sinestro Corps member I even have. Heh. X-Factor Jean Grey arms and legs attached to a C3 Batgirl torso with the symbol painted out; one of those horrible opaque decals applied to a cut-up Alternate Superman shoulder piece, and Ultimate Sabretooth hair on a head with an original face decal.

We should split them. Aside from the core human cast I only really want Slimer and Stay-Puft, although a couple of them monsters look REALLY good [i'll say that they certainly captured the look from the show!].

Likewise, I'm sure. Is there a thread where we can ask for some buying help from people who have clearanced TRU mates in their area?

That Arkillo is brilliantly done. Sign me up for a commission!