elhonez Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 OK, so, Brynocki. Easily one of the most absurd, left-field creations from Marvel in the 1970s, and that's saying something. Firstly: what the f is up with that name? Is it meant to be evocative of something? I don't get it. I don't have to! I'm going to challenge myself to not look any of this up on Google, ComicVine, Wikipedia, marvunapp or any other resource. So here it goes, as I understand it. There was a James Bond-level megomanical villain named Simon Bretnor who self-appointed the mononym Mordillo. He was a mad genius inventor and had his own island called, drumroll, Mordillo Island. Brynocki was his robot assistant, and he had the appearance of an old-timey cartoon character. But he was a walking sight-gag, in that his appearance would change constantly, sometimes from panel-to-panel. A knight. A train conductor. A drill sergeant. In truth, I could have made a whole "Brynocki Wave" with just variants of him, but instead I tried my best to discover an original version of him, think "reset to factory defaults." More on this later, maybe when I'm done with the wave. So, TL,DR: Mordillo got blowed up. But Brynocki, ever the loyal servant, poignantly stayed with his skeletal remains. But then he'd cart those remains around, and pretend to be receiving orders from them. And those orders usually went something like, "Kill Shang-Chi." Because of course they did. And his methods seemed to employ all manner of robotic doom, including a massive "Monstrobot" which inspired a cheeky blog called "Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep." He's so delightfully weird that he has appeared in modern comics, including a very logical pairing with Arcade. So yeah, I love me some Brynocki. Quote
cylonchaney Posted January 3 Posted January 3 45 minutes ago, elhonez said: So, TL,DR: Mordillo got blowed up. But Brynocki, ever the loyal servant, poignantly stayed with his skeletal remains. But then he'd cart those remains around, and pretend to be receiving orders from them. Are you a Red Dwarf fan at all? That sounds amazingly similar to Kryten's origin. They find him on a crashed space ship. The Red Dwarf crew are all excited to meet the space flight attendants he serves. Eventually, he takes them to 3 skeletons in uniform that he pretends are still alive and converses with. Quote
buttheadsmate Posted January 3 Posted January 3 Whilst I look forward to the Brynocki wave, I'm still gutted that we're not getting the Broccoli wave . Quote
Padrino Posted January 3 Posted January 3 23 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said: Whilst I look forward to the Brynocki wave, I'm still gutted that we're not getting the Broccoli wave . Lol! I almost guessed Broccoli Rabe as the answer. That would have been a cool set! Quote
elhonez Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 Brocc Ock is still a winner in my book. Never say never! Quote
buttheadsmate Posted January 3 Posted January 3 3 hours ago, elhonez said: Brocc Ock is still a winner in my book. Never say never! Perhaps a Wall Green's exclusive ? Quote
elhonez Posted January 4 Author Posted January 4 You can actually only get them on Royal Caribbean voyages. Because they're cruiseshipferous vegetables. 🤦♂️ Quote
elhonez Posted January 21 Author Posted January 21 My enthusiasm for completing this wave has not waned in the least, and if anything my resolve has strengthened to carry forward with all of my nefarious MOKF schemes. But time has become challenging, so the pace has slowed a bit. And I'm probably only writing this to keep my head in the game during these down times. It's very much a non-update. "Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?" As an aside, I'm glad I never got into customizing Star Wars MiniMates, because I would probably lose my mind. I have most of the pieces I need for the next wave. It's gonzo. I love how it's coming together. Quote
elhonez Posted January 21 Author Posted January 21 (edited) On 1/3/2025 at 10:01 AM, cylonchaney said: Are you a Red Dwarf fan at all? That sounds amazingly similar to Kryten's origin. They find him on a crashed space ship. The Red Dwarf crew are all excited to meet the space flight attendants he serves. Eventually, he takes them to 3 skeletons in uniform that he pretends are still alive and converses with. I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I've seen the show. I wasn't aware of Kryten's origin, that's amazing, and it tracks. I have since learned that they explain away Brynocki's protean appearance with "nanites," which are one of the modern era's scientific-sounding expositional panaceas, right along with prefacing things with the word "quantum." Back in the day, I was surprised to learn that it was something as quaint as "transistor." Fun drinking game: buy the first Iron Man omnibus, and take a shot every time you read the word "transistor." The natural end to that game will arrive in 15 minutes when you're unable to read any more. [Editing to add: my all-time favorite Marvel hand-wavey macguffin is the now-prosaic "unstable molecules"] Edited January 21 by elhonez Quote
elhonez Posted April 7 Author Posted April 7 (edited) Uuuuggghhh. My personal and work lives have both accelerated in not-unwelcome ways in 2025, however the evolutions in both have left me chronically under-slept and with much less time and energy to work on my customs than I would like. Nevertheless, I have made progress. 3 of the 9 in this wave are done-done. I'm finding all of the painting and color-matching to be heavy lift this go-round, and in some ways this wave may be the most technically complex of any I've worked on. Or at least the most time-consuming. From the decal phase, to parts acquisition, to x-acto-and-glue parts modification and final paints, this one has been painful. But hopefully worth it. And this is still with my shameless repurposing of non-Marvel portraits where applicable, so I saved a modest amount of time during the decal phase. However, there are exactly two brand-new face decals I created for this wave, one of which is the aforementioned and eponymous Brynocki. ETA: This weekend? If the stars align. Edited April 7 by elhonez Quote
elhonez Posted April 10 Author Posted April 10 Oooh there's blood in the water. The sharks are circling. Done-ness is accelerating. 7 of 9 now complete, and I'm not even a Trekkie. I need to mix some purple paint, paint a man-shawl with a green hue, and find a pistol befitting a spy. Quote
elhonez Posted April 11 Author Posted April 11 (edited) Leiko Wu and Skullcrusher: Because I had to do something with all of those GoGo meteor hammers... Leiko is the "heroic anchor" of this wave. Mordillo and Brynocki: Discussed previously Ultra-Men and Monstrobot: An "army builder" of Brynocki's devising, plus a great big robot, also of his devising. If you're sensing a theme, you're on to something. Carlton Velcro and Pavane (and Mara and Bidi): Velcro is another bond villain clone, but he was bad ass enough to retain a panther tamer named Pavane, who was also linked to Mordillo, and others. As an aside, I want a panther tamer. Mara and Bidi are the cats. BAF: Carlton Velcro CYBORG: Yeah he got all blowed up. But he got better enough to be reintroduced with a blender arm and a robot leg. Still addicted to stylish fringes, but trading the ascot for the more savage fur-lined look. Edited April 13 by elhonez Quote
buttheadsmate Posted April 11 Posted April 11 Lovely stuff I'm getting quite attached to Velcro. Quote
cylonchaney Posted April 11 Posted April 11 3 hours ago, buttheadsmate said: Lovely stuff I'm getting quite attached to Velcro. He really stuck this one! Even if some of the characters are Bond rip offs. I'm torn as to which is my favourite. But definitely hooked on elhonez customs. Well done! (I still want someone to make Doc Broc) Quote
Padrino Posted April 11 Posted April 11 6 hours ago, elhonez said: Leiko Wu and Skullcrusher: Because I had to do something with all of those GoGo meteor hammers... Leiko is the "heroic anchor" of this wave. Mordillo and Brynocki: Discussed previously Ultra-Men and Monstrobot: An "army builder" of Brynocki's devising, plus a great big robot, also of his devising. If you're sensing a theme, you're on to something. Carlton Velcro and Pavane (and Mara and Bidi): Velcro is another bond villain clone, but he was bad ass enough to retain a panther tamer named Pavane, who was also linked to Mordillo, and others. As an aside, I want a panther tamer. Mara and Bidi are the cats. BAF: Carlton Velcro CYBORG: Yeah he got all blowed up. But he got better enough to be reintroduced with a blender arm and a robot leg. Still addicted to stylish fringes, but trading the ascot for the more savage fur-lined look. These are fantastic! Great job! Quote
Kotter Comics Posted April 11 Posted April 11 I don't even know what I'm looking at, but I love it! Quote
elhonez Posted April 11 Author Posted April 11 2 hours ago, Kotter Comics said: I don't even know what I'm looking at, but I love it! I love this response -- as I reflect on these I recognize how this group in particular is full of MOKF super-deep cuts. Virtually no crossover strength outside of some passing modern interest in revisiting Brynocki. In the next wave, there's exactly one character who's had some life outside of the series. It's kinda par for the course for these, but it makes it fun to see which designs land for folks in the absence of context. Seems like Velcro has some sticking power? Quote
elhonez Posted April 13 Author Posted April 13 11 hours ago, buttheadsmate said: Velcro ....is he a Klingon ? Well I did have to pull apart Cowboy Marty's McFly to make him. Quote
Kotter Comics Posted April 13 Posted April 13 I feel like buttheadsmate has thrown out two beautifully awful Velcro puns and both the responses have taken his statements literally. Unless I'm missing the acknowledgements in the reply (or people are intentionally ignoring the puns so as not to reward bad behavior 😜). Quote
Kotter Comics Posted April 13 Posted April 13 Rereading cyclochaney's reply and now seeing the punny response there. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.