Iron-Cow

WHOA! I *DID* miss these! Thanks for reposting! That Zardoz is... mesmerizing. =)

Outstanding work as always!

Love love LOVE these.... seriously, I want 'em all. Outstanding work!

LOVING that Heli-carrier. What a great idea. It works amazingly well for the Minimates, and looks sharp repainted.

Loving the customs, I.C.! I think the elongated arms look great on Wolfsbane. I don't know if the cut is to your liking, but I used Hank Pym (Avengers Box Ant-Man) hair for Cypher -- based on the Battlestar Galactica Classic Starbuck.

Wow.. that's a great suggestion! I even have the Classic Starbuck already (though it feels blasphemous to me to swipe it from Starbuck). Such a perfect piece. I need to re-buy an Apollo anyway, so I can just rebuy the whole set.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I have no idea but I'm probably the most interested amongst those that are interested in what you have in your studio

I definitely have a ton of goodies (prototypes, test shots, etc). One of these days I'll try to catalogue it and get it up on my site. It's fun seeing all the behind-the-scenes pieces.

Thanks, everyone... I appreciate it!

Okay, cool... now I've got to print up all these decals and get them actually applied to the figures. Hopefully I can get to that in the next week or so. Eager to have these finished.

Serge_Havok - I love how you did the braids on yours. I might go back and rework mine now. Your layout feels a lot more accurate.

And, just a note about Mirage's hair: it's not exactly an original sculpt. I took the hairpiece from Classic Battlestar Galactica Apollo, then sliced the braids off an older Gwen Stacy Minimate and glued the two together (it took a lot of whittling down to get a smooth shape, but it wasn't too difficult either). Finally, the braid tips came from the 'Rachel' hairpieces leftover from the New Mutants Wolfsbane figure.

So, if you have an Apollo figure, that's half the work right there... Hope this helps!

There was long LONG ago (2002?) a contest.

In this contest various people (AACC members) got blank 3" mates

They used these mates to do various "custom" designs on

In true old fashioned AA style, no one ever won and the contest fell into the void

A few of these have surfaced since, someone on here got the one Nelson X (AA Staffer) did as a sample for the contest.

(My memory is hazy, but Im sure someone else as old as me can back me up)

Just stumbled across this thread.

I was involved in the Create-a-mates contest, handling create the prototypes based off certain submissions. I honestly don't know why the pieces were never produced, but I did use several 3" white blanks for the pieces.

I think most of the ones I had eventually got primed and painted, but I might have some still in the studio. Are they more rare than your usual blank?

Matt

aka Iron-Cow

Great NMs IC! I love the Mirage and Magma especially. How did you lengthen Cannonball's legs?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I must admit, after reading bilbofett's comments about the Ghostbusters base, I'm tempted to perhaps go that route with Magma (though I have no idea how the decals would look over a clear base, so I'll probably stick with what I've got already)

For Cannonball, I simply added in a bit of Kneadatite (the green sculpting stuff) into the boots and under his belt to add in a bit of height. I might go back and make the legs a smidge shorter, based off Luke's feedback. He'll still be taller than the rest of the group, but not quite so drastically.

Hey guys,

Normally I don't post "work-in-progress" pics, but I wanted to run these New Mutants tweaks/customs by you for feedback before I go too much further.

Kharma is untouched from the NYCC version, but I might give her a "possession" accessory that snaps onto her neck. Something clear purple, but that might be overkill.

Wolfsbane has new hair, arms, and tail. The arms feel a tad long, but she did have long arms in her wolf-form. Is this an improvement over the NYCC version? (I added on hair from Feral, but it was just TOO big)

Mirage is pretty much done, featuring newly reworked hair and boots (with tassles). The belt is taken from Black Widow (from some GREAT suggestions earlier in this thread). I can't tell if I need to redo the skintone to make it a tad redder. Right now she's just reusing the Rahne spare head from the NYCC set.

Sunspot is a repaint, with new face and chest. The face and chest are digitally mocked-up here, as I can't decide if I should go with the chest detail or leave it off ( it's supposed to be all-black, but it looked kind of plain without). Trying to figure out a way to get the spots to float around him. Possibly various circles applied to a clear backdrop

Cannonball has his legs lengthened to make him taller than the rest, and has a new face. Not sure if he looks gawky enough. Suggestions on this one?

Magma - digital mockup. The figure is all-yellow at the moment, and I'm trying to figure out if the lines are working on not. She's sometimes drawn pure-yellow in the comic, but that felt too plain for the minimate version.

Cypher - the hair is parted on the wrong side, but it's not bugging me enough to resculpt the part. He's sometimes drawn with it this way anyway.

I had plans for Warlock and Magik, but those were announced at NYCC.

Anyway, if you have any comments or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Matt

aka Iron-Cow

Has anyone tried making a Magma using Karma's body and the Invisible womans Head and hair?

Working on making a corrected Sunspot and taller Sam, as well as a powered-up Magma...but who knows when I can finish them. Love the New Mutants! Just wish they were a bit more accurate...

Any suggestions on a tail for Wolfsbane?

wow.... Warlock and Magik look great! Now I'm wondering if I should even bother customizing Magma and Mirage.... (though I still want to tweak Sunspot and Wolfsbane)

Thanks for the heads up on the new wave!

wait wait wait.... Where did you hear Magik and Warlock would be available? Where, when?

Hair with bangs - you might wanna look at repainting the BlackWidow hair from the Champions box-set.

Its funny... I just was! Plus, the hair from Ghost Rider might work for Magma?

oh man, I had such mixed emotions when I saw this set. I am a *HUGE* New Mutants fan, but there are so many details that are wrong on these.

...but I don't care. I want 'em! At least 2 sets, like everyone else has mentioned.

Now, can someone post a pic of the 'ghost trap Slimer' accessory that someone suggested on p1?

Any suggestions on 'hair w/ bangs' that might work for Magik?

I think I've figured out recipes for everyone else, other than Warlock. He'll be a toughie.

Can't WAIT to get this set!

Looking at Luke's DC customs is like looking into an alternate universe where DC minimates are still made. They absolutely look as good as if they were made by DST, themselves. I'm sad again. :sad:

Took the words right out of my mouth. I actually worked on the DC Minimates line, and I showed the-powers-that-be Luke's work several times as a guy whom I thought would be an amazing contributor to the line. Not sure where it went from there, but to me Luke's work has been nothing short of breathtaking, spectacular, and inspiring. I am insanely jealous of just how fantastic these are.

As always, OUTSTANDING work, Luke!!!

Geeeeeezus.... I am LOVING the new Doctor Who stuff!

If only I had some more disposable cash, I'd hire you on permanent retainer to crank out some duplicates.

*AMAZING* work!

Here is my custom from my Customizing 101 article in Toyfare #145:

Heya Luke!

I heard some chatter about the ToyFare custom, and I'm glad to see it lived up to the hype. That IG-88 is AMAZING! Such a clean, professional looking piece.

Great work, as always! Loving it!

Matt

aka Iron-Cow

Simply breathtaking!!!! I can't get over how amazing your Doctor Who minimates are. BRILLIANT!!!

OUTSTANDING! The new work on Tom's hair makes SUCH a difference! Great work!

Wow, man.. I'm speechless. Those Doctor Who Minimates are GREAT! Freaking perfect!

I can't wait to see if you keep going with the line. Fun stuff...

Matt

aka Iron-Cow

Can someone please explain what's going on? I'm very confused (even moreso than usual).

um.... ditto! If these are actually seeing the light of day, I would *very* much like to know.'

But, from what I saw of the control art, these are just really nice customs?

I would tend to agree with you, but the address is actually listed on Underground Toys website as well. Robyn is the point of contact for all licensing questions. Here's the link.

Ahhhhhhhhh... um, okay, never mind me. Carry on! =)

(And yes, I'm dying to know the status of these guys....)

As much as I'd love an update myself, I'd strongly advise against publishing someone's work email address like that online. It opens up too many doors for potential harassment.

Just my 2 cents... if anything, maybe just use the general web@ addy?

A friend of mine said the same thing... he flipped through the issue and didn't see anything specific to Doctor Who minimates. He knows what a fan I am, so he probably would have picked up on it had he seen anything, but then again he wasn't looking for them specifically.

I just Googled & here's one straight away:

Sonuva..... well, color me stoopid. That's perfect! Thanks!