Monday, May 29, 2006

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.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

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.