Custom Ideas 5 - Red Raven

Continuing our series of poor-man's customs, and also our interest in the Marvel Universe's more obscure characters, we present, Red Raven. Like always, the photoshopping is offensively bad, but it's enough to get the idea across.

For those not in the know, Red Raven is one of Marvel's oft-forgotten Golden Age characters, and that means... yup... a convoluted origin that gets worse every time a writer decides they like the design and want to make use of the character. Let's see if we can sum it up: Inhumans with wings broke off from Attilan and eventually encountered a young human, the man that would become the Red Raven, and raised him. Seeing the despair and problems of World War II he joined the Liberty Legion. Eventually, some of his people wanted to conquer the world while it was still reeling from World War II, Red Raven stopped them, but soon enough, a robot double placed everyone into suspended animation. The robot Red Raven encountered the "modern" Marvel U, only to die in battle with Namor. Of course, soon enough Red Raven's artificially created daughter and the Avian (the bird-race that found Red Raven) creation Bi-Beast had their own interactions with the Marvel Universe. Eventually, it's discovered that the Avian race didn't die from the suspended animation, they're awakened, and everyone goes to live in the floating city Aerie where they only periodically waged war against mankind and were conquered by the Defenders who used the Aerie as their base when acting as the Order. Corrections and additions are welcome. With his 70th anniversary coming in 2010, maybe Marvel can try a Red Raven: Rebirth story to simplify and pretty-up his backstory.




Concept: Angel, plus red paint, and possibly some minor sculpting depending on which look you prefer. Classic hairnet style requires giving Warren a haircut and using sculpting material to round off the head and add the ear-bulges. If you're going to go with the full-face version, you would be better off grabbing a head from a Punisher or the Spider-Man figure where Peter is showing his face and be-head Warren altogether. Once finished, you're that much closer to a Golden Age Super Hero Squad.

And just as a reminder, this isn't a real custom, but rather a custom suggestion... I barely have enough SHS to satisfy my addictions, let alone extras to ruin with my shoddy painting. If you take on a custom suggestion like this one, or any of the others, be sure to show it off and let us know so we can appreciate some real skills.

Custom IH Guy Gardner

We were just talking about custom Infinite Heroes a few days ago and Spy Magician of Action Figure Insider went one lateral with a custom kit-bash of Guy Gardner, using a Jakks wrestler body to give Guy some articulation.

He goes on to mention a few complaints we share about the recent Fwoosh interview where Mattel said that 2009 was going to see improvements to the line in terms of articulation and sculpt. There's some healthy discussion going on in the comments, with POV's ranging from perfect-as-is to comparisons with Happy Meals and accusations that the line was poorly handled. While "Happy Meal figures" is a bit extreme and some of the criticisms are valid (yes, the GCPD set only comes with two guns and two nightsticks for three characters. Who says Commissioner Gordon can't use one of the guns while one of the SWAT team uses a nightstick instead of a gun, or vice versa? And yes, lanterns for the Green Lanterns are kind of common sense, but in honesty, the lanterns are rarely seen in action or in the battlefield so it's forgivable that Guy doesn't have one) the line does show promise and a few posters did bring up other popular lines with minimal articulation (DC Animated) and rocky starts (Marvel Legends, the early Toy Biz figures.

Custom Infinite Heroes

Well it was only a matter of time before custom Infinite Heroes started hitting. While we don't generally link to ongoing eBay auctions featuring official products because of the fine line between scalping and your every day auctioning, customs are a one of a kind product that depends a great deal on the customizer's talents and abilities, moreso than their luck at finding a half-dozen un-opened cases at their local Walmart.

Heatwave
Captain Cold
Abra Kadabra
Pied Piper
Trickster

This mini-rogue's gallery, combined with the official Mirror Master, Weather Wizard and Zoom sure give the Flash plenty of enemies. Anyone spot other Infinite Heroes customs out there in the wild?

Customizing Ideas 4 - Golden Age Vision

Since it's been a slow newsday, what the hey, lets throw up another customizing idea. This time the victim is a golden age hero who, like the Flash and Green Lantern before him had his name and look stolen while having his origin thrown out... the golden age Vision.

As an alien cop, he fought crime and Nazis on Earth, and during recent retcons he's become an ally of the Invaders. Powers are a hodgepodge of mind-control, strength, flight, and transportation through smoke. Most recently, he appeared in Avengers/Invaders 4 as Doctor Strange and Echo/Ronin sought possible clues to the Invaders' appearance in modern-day New York City. And while his origin keeps getting more and more complicated, this resident of the Dimension of Smoke also gets redesigned every time he appears. Examples of his various color schemes are seen here, here, and here. This suggestion is based on his Avengers/Invaders look though.

The recipe: Vision (From the Avengers 4-pack, naturally), plus paint. Having seen his previous versions, you can make do with everything from yellow, black, blue, white, green, red. Just pick and choose which scheme you like. And a little bit of some sculpting material to finish off the gauntlets, which usually come to a point. Once finished, you're just a Spitfire, Union Jack, Whizzer, Miss America, Toro, Bucky, Jack Frost, Sun Girl (and about a dozen other golden age heroes) short of being able act out scenes from Roy Thomas's classic Invaders series.

Customizing Ideas 3 - Lady Octopus

After stealing MikeEvil's Red Hulk, we went with the much more obscure Lady Octopus. Originally calling herself Doctor Octopus, this assistant to the original Doctor Octopus aided in his resurrection by the Hand (who get along and have also resurrected Elektra, Wolverine, and Northstar among others) and for the most part disappeared into Marvel obscurity, reappearing briefly during Nick Fury's Secret War where she helped take on Captain America.

The concept: Wasp + Doctor Octopus's Arms + green paint, yellow paint = Carolyn Trainer, the Lady Octopus. The same warnings apply, the photoshopping is laughably poor, someone with real skill could certainly make a much better version, etc., etc.



And to really make your Lady Octopus stand-out, you can trim the claws to more point-like ends, or use thinner claws, like the Movie Doctor Octopus claws for instance. Using the movie claws will probably require slightly more work to make the figure stand however. Also, instead of merely painting on her gauntlets and legs, a little sculpting material can be used to actually sculpt on costume accessories.

And as a final point, the Wasp figure relies on her wings for balance, so if you simply cut the arms off directly from Doc Ock's back where they're glued on, the final figure will NOT need the legs to be angled as they are in the picture.

Customizing Ideas 2

Since we had some positive response to Miss Sinister we figured what they hey, lets throw another one up. And you'll note that just like Miss Sinister, the photoshopping is poor, the changes are mostly in color, the results amateurish, but for those with talent or at least a little creativity, it's a fun exercise.

This figure came about as a result of the disappointment that Red Hulk is apparently not going to be in the new Hulk wave (at least not from the pictures that have turned up online. Although Red Hulk's comic book reception has been lukewarm, he's every bit as notable a continuity development as Grey Hulk/Mr. Fixit or any of the many, many mutates.

The suggested recipe: One of the many Wave 1 Hulks that are out there (from the packs which are still on some store shelves, to the Toys R Us Avengers 5-packs that were clearanced to $3 a few months back, to the Easter Packs, but really, you can probably make due with most other Hulk figures) + some dark red paint, some black paint = Red Hulk

Now, as we have said previously, the really bad photoshopping is for illustrative purposes. To improve on your results, try using some sculpting material to give him hair spikes or some bulging veins. Or you can wait for a possible 4th wave. Your mileage varies.

More customs

Figure Realm is currently the host of 9,027 different customs, including G.I.Joe style Captain Americas and a Taskmaster that look like they'd fit well with Marvel's upcoming Marvel Universe line, a couple dozen customized Super Hero Squad figures (and as a sign of how quick the line moves, 11 of the 26 figures have since had official versions produced), and tons and tons of Marvel Legends style figures (over 3000 total.) Interesting to note that a couple great designs (Tiger Shark, Captain Marvel/Photon/Pulsar, and Jocasta) keep popping up despite being on the b-character lists, while a couple of popular mainstays (Wolverine, Punisher, Hulk) can be seen in almost every permutation. In fact, Deadpool, one of the more popular customs, even has his own Potato Head version to sit next to your Spider-Man, Optimus Prime and Darth Vader.

Customizing Ideas

In the past we've suggested customizing ideas even though we lack the time (as can be seen by the half-converted Captain America to Red Guardian that has been sitting in the closet since he was covered in primer) to actually produce the customs, but inspired by Toycutter, specifically this post we thought it would be interesting to post customizing ideas for Super Hero Squad figures (and whatever else may strike our fancy). We will also be poorly photoshopping our suggestions. Attempt at your own risk!

First up: Miss Sinister! The (likely) clone of Mr. Sinister recently uncovered in X-Men Legacy, she does not appear to know much of her past, and neither does the reader, but Sebastian Shaw has plans for her. After rejecting an offer to be the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club (how come nobody gives Selene any respect?) she dubs herself Miss Sinister, and follows the long, proud trend of female versions of male characters (from Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, to today's Lady Bullseye, Scorpion, Tarantula and White Tiger).

Emma Frost
+ black paint, white paint, red paint, clipped cape
= Miss Sinister!

And to make the figure that much more convincing, Miss Frost needs a bit of a haircut, a little Apoxy to make the hair fall over her shoulder, and of course, the fine details like Miss Sinister's earrings.

We've got other similar ideas, and plenty of bad photoshopping, so if you try this, be sure to let us see your results.

Customizing Assist

Toycutter is filled with ideas, suggestions and assistance for Toy Customizers. The blog covers everything from Super Hero Squad figures to GI Joe type figures, miniatures, and more. Here's some of the more interesting ideas and links for fans of Super Hero Squad and 3.75 inch figures.

This Wargaming Terrain can easily by customized a little larger to be used as a display base for your Super Hero Squad figures.

Customized 3.75 Union Jack and Bishop, although an official Union Jack was shown at SDCC

Deadpool!

Marvel Ape?

And Tons of How Tos

So go, enjoy the sites and scenes, and maybe even make something cool.

If you like Super Hero Squad... (things I forgot to mention)

In the first If You Like Super Hero Squad I forgot to mention two very important miniature Marvels: the Mega Bloks and Lego sets.

Now, Mega Brands construction toys are currently the only official licensed Marvel brand construction toys. Which means Lego purists beware. They have produced a Duplo-like series based on the Super Hero Squad predecessor "Spider-Man & Friends" featuring a chunky Spider-Man and friends like Thor and Hulk with "Super Hero Training Camp" and the like. They have also put out, and continue to put out, sets that appeal to both a more traditional (re: Lego oriented) audience consisting of mini-figures (generally Spider-Man and his foes, but Hulk, Wolverine and the Fantastic Four have also been represented) and playsets/vehicles for the minifigures, as well as the Bionicle style "Super-Tech" figures.

Unfortunately, these sets lack that "pure Lego" marketability that their predecessor the Lego Spider-Man sets had. Unfortunately, the few sets that were made in this short-lived line were movie-centric, so other than Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Mary Jane, most other mini-figures were generic cops, thugs and civilians. Actually, I think J. Jonah Jameson had a figure too. It's a world without Avengers, without Fantastic Four, without X-Men. The recent Lego Batman sets have fixed part of that problem by delving into Batman's diverse roster (Nightwing, Penguin, Bane, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Robin all have figures, as do many other Batman villains) but has yet to tackle the gold-mine that is full DC Universe build-ability that fans have waited for since way back when DC showed off all the Justice League-themed C3 sets years ago.

For those that love the concept of Marvel Legos and are willing to look past the "official" aspect of things, Brickshelf has a huge gallery of Marvel characters from the farthest reaches of the universe, including Guardians of the Galaxy member Aleta (ok, member of ONE of the Guardians of the Galaxy teams), to Mr. Immortal, the White Rabbit, and even the great Ruby Thursday.