Happy Holid...wha??

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I gotta say I'm not ready for an update right now. I'm preparing one but it'll be later. The reason I'm writing something now is because I realized my AIM profile mentions the title of my LAST update, which was Halloween. How dated is that? Geez.

Anyway, have a great holiday and expect a proper update soon. In the meantime, enjoy the video above. I sure did.

Happy Hallow...what??

Hey gang. You know I'm a big kid, right?

I love dressing up for Halloween. I don't care what some comedians say, it's still enjoyable, even for adults. This year's costume is relatively simple:



Yes, it's Cyclops. Yes, I'm wearing a jacket similar to one he wore in X3. And yes, the pic is a little bit photoshopped for effect. So sue me. It's my blog, I wanna make sure I look awesome. After Scott's...mistreatment in that dumb movie, I figured I'd remind people that he's still around. Brett Ratner be damned.

I even have a story as to how he could have survived that travesty. Ask me about it sometime.

In a related note, check this guy out!



He's a Batman. Really. Read this.

Oh, and Super Pat Quest is TWO years old this week!!!! And it just so happens one of the first pictures I posted WAS a Cyclops!! Two years and still nerdy as ever.

Later creeps, and trolls, and goblins, ghouls, and Harry Careys. Cubs win!

Welcome Back, Me

I'm back. To celebrate, a new movie:



With the desire to make more movies but not having the resources, I brought some old stuff out and played with it.

It's no "Schindler's List." It's not even "Clueless." But it's loads better than "House of 1,000 Corpses." What a crappy movie.

Expect regular updates from here on out.

Astonishing Cyclops Custom Action Figure

I've recently completed work on my third custom action figure:
Astonishing Cyclops.

"Not another Cyclops!" Yep. This time in his current costume as seen in the pages of Astonishing X-Men written by Joss Whedon and drawn by John Cassady. He can also be seen in Marvel's big summer event, Civil War.

A lot of tedious work went into this one. I decided to make it because I saw an excellent version made from Iron Cow Productions, seen in an issue of Toyfare magazine. Visiting his site I learned the recipe. Figuring (no pun intended) since they already made an Astonishing Wolverine, and Kitty Pride, they could use the company of my favorite character. It all started with a Marvel Legends Bullseye.

I took off the straps and belts and that white dickey on his upper body, then popped off his boots and gloves. I then sanded down the bullseye on his head, and sculpted a visor using plumbers epoxy putty. I also covered his ears. I used the forearms from a Marvel Legends Gambit to replace Bullseye's gloves, but cut off the hands from Bullseye and replaced Gambit's not-as-articulate hands using glue. I took some boots from a Fantastic Four movie figure and popped them on.

After painting the figure in dark blue, I used rubber bands for the belts and straps, then painted them. The smaller lines going up his chest and thighs were very tedious, especially with the articulation to work around. But it worked out quite well. For the visor I cut a thin strip of metallic red gift bow and placed it on, giving it a nice effect. A quick spray of Dull-Cote and it's finished.

 

This is my best custom figure to date, and blows my last one out of the water. It looks clean and polished, like a professionally made figure, and retains all it's articulation. The figure looks swell standing next to Wolverine.

It almost makes up for the fact that Cyclops dies in X3. Almost.

Kerry'd Away

How often do you get to meet a U.S. Senator? How about one that ran for President? And one you voted for?

It was a great honor to meet him. He's a very nice gentleman and...really tall.

O-pening Day

I've managed to avoid the whole month of March. Now that's madness.

Yesterday was MLB's opening day, and the Baltimore Orioles made it a good one. I strongly suggest reading Paul's game recap at the Orioles Hangout.

It's a great and unboring way to see what happened during the game, inning by inning, since I don't usually have the time to watch it on the TV.

I'd consider myself a closet baseball fan. I'm not all gung-ho about it, but I still enjoy a good game once in a while. I used to play little league, you know. I sucked. But it was still fun. I still have the tape where I won my team pizza on a bunt that ended up being a triple. I had mad bunting skills.

New X-Men Cyclops Custom Action Figure

It's been a while since I've worked on an action figure. The only one I've really produced was the one of myself, which was just an experiment. Still, I was hoping to make a few others using the skills I've learned from making SuperPat. One of those figures I've been wanting to make was a Cyclops figure. Now I know Cyke has had a lot of figures made of him but I wanted one of Cyclops in a particular costume: that of which he wore for about 3 years when Grant Morrison was writing the X-Men. Well, I finally had the opportunity, so here he is, Cyclops:

Grant Morrison's X-Men was by far my favorite take of the franchise. More than just heroes and villains fighting each other in fight after fight, his run ended up being a commentary on how the X-Men property has been handled by Marvel Comics throughout the years. Cyclops was pretty much the central character in his run, himself a metaphor of the X-Men, afraid to change in a world that doesn't want him to. He's never been allowed to be anything but a superhero. I found an excellent site that analyses Morrison's run right here. I find it fitting that the main villain of his 40+ issues is based on the editors of Marvel Comics.

When ToyBiz released their new X-Men toy line, I was hoping they would release the Scott Summers I desired. After all, they did release a Wolverine based on New X-Men. But instead, they came out with this:

Yup, that's ruby-quartz armor he's wearing, by the way. I guess he wears it in case he shoots himself with his optic blasts. Or perhaps his optic blasts burst out of his nipples (niplic blasts?). In any case, this just won't do. I figured as time goes on and Morrison's plots keep getting retconned by Buffy the Serenity Slayer, the chances of any more figures from New X-Men being released were slim to none. I noticed that with a little work, this could turn into the figure I want. He's tall and has the slim build that Cyclops has, so I started dreaming up a way to turn this fabulous specimen into a leather and kevlar wearing X-Man.

I started by removing his backpack, missile launcher, shoulder pads and those stupid tubes coming out of his body. Then I cut off the X on his chest and put it aside for later. I cut a collar out of toothpaste tube and fitted it on him. Here's where the plumber's epoxy putty comes in. I sculpted his jacket on him, then filled out his arms to make them look like sleeves, and then the elbowpads. I then sculpted the X's on his calves, dremeled his inner thighs a bit and sculpted pants over them, and filled the hole in the side of his head from that stupid tube. Next I formed the belt and put the X I set aside in the center of it. After a bit of sanding, he was ready to paint. I brought out the old Warhammer paints from a forgotten hobby and went to work. I ended up painting several coats, especially on the yellow parts. When that's done, a couple sprays of Dull-Cote and VOILA!

He's not exactly the way I thought he'd turn out. I realize I made the collar too big and he's not as poseable because the arms on this figure don't move out, and I lost articulation in the torso. But as long as he can stand and as long as his hands can reach his visor, I'm happy. He's in scale with the rest of the X-Men too, which is always good. But the best part is that his light up visor still works! And I can still replace the batteries because I sculpted around the battery cover on his back.

Overall I feel content that my collection finally has the figure I desired, even if it wasn't...er...professionally made. I wouldn't be surprised if I try to improve on it later though.

Sure, he'll die in X-Men 3, but Cyclops will live on in the palm of my hand!

Better to GIF Than to Receive

Sorry for the lack of updates.

I've finally used my knowledge of animated GIFs. Behold! My first animated GIF!!!

Think of the possibilities!!!

I'll be back with something more substantial. Sorry to tease you.