Robin, Revisited

I've been dishing out quite a bit of cash over the past year on new Robin figures. First, I bought the Young Justice version, which I reviewed here. Then, in order to complete Bane, I bought the Wave 16 Robin. In both cases, I bought the figures for their accessories.

The thing is, I actually did want another Robin to display: I've got a general DC shelf and a separate Batcave, and I wanted the Boy Wonder represented in each. But the Golden Age-costumed Robin, while having a good head sculpt, just didn't work for me: the outfit just didn't work with either display. The Young Justice Robin, on the other hand, had a great body but an awful head.

The solution, of course, was to swap their heads. I ran into a snag when I tried removing the head of the Wave 16 Robin. I should have immersed him in hot water first, but I skipped that step. As a result, the peg snapped, leaving half in the head and half in the body. Getting it out the body wasn't too hard: I just used a Leatherman to pry open the neck and yank it out. But if I wanted to use the head, that half had to come off as well. That required a Dremel and some assistance from my wife (while I could probably manage myself, she's far more experienced with the tool, and I don't want to take chances with something like this).

She drilled into Robin's head and removed what was left of the peg. In the process, she also wound up increasing the size of the hole. This turned out being quite a boon: Robin's head now functions like an actual ball-joint. There's a gap between the back of his neck and head now, but frankly it's worth it for the added articulation.

At some point, I should probably paint over his arms and neck: the flesh color doesn't quite match up. It's not really essential, though. If I ever want to go the other way and put the Young Justice head on the Wave 16 body, I'll definitely need to break out the paint: a darker face on a pale body works far better than the reverse.

I'm considering doing so, by the way. The Wave 16 Robin body was extremely cartoonish, and actually looks like it could work pretty well with that head. The fact the YJ head is oversized works, too: it actually seems to fit in with the larger Robin body. I'm in no hurry, though: this is the Robin I needed to pose.

Interestingly enough, this wound up similar to the Robin Mattel released back in Wave 3. I still prefer that one, by the way, but this is a close second.

Custom: Sinestro Corps. Skeletor

Sometimes there's a custom idea that burns a hole in your head, that you spend months planning, collecting the right pieces, and building in painstaking detail.

Other times, you think of an idea, grab some junk from your bins, and whip something up in fifteen minutes.

This... isn't the former.

The body's from the Sinestro Corps Batman I reviewed over here. The head's from one of the Skeletor figures I won on eBay and discussed over here. And that small cape is from... ah... well... a plastic bag full of assorted capes we keep in our bin of custom junk. The yellow lightning he has in some of the pictures is from the same Shadowrun Liada figure we bought and tore apart years ago. I don't think Lindsay and I have ever gotten as much mileage out of anything as we got out of that figure.

Okay, the head looks small at some angles. From the side, with the shawl, it looks about right, but head-on it seems tiny. For what it's worth, it was a lot worse before I added that over-cape.

By the way, that thing works incredibly well with his existing hood. It has a small hood at the top that kind of sticks onto the bottom of Skeletor's hood and makes it look like one piece.

The yellow sword originally came with the He-Man Vs. Superman 2-pack I bought at Toys R Us a year and a half ago. I've been trying to think of something to do with that ever since: it's a great piece, but I prefer displaying He-Man with other accessories.

Finally, the Havoc Staff is one of the three I made and discussed here.

Sure. I could have used a painted MotU Classics Skeletor head to correct the scale, and I could have replaced Batman's cape and forearms (or just used a different body as a base). But all of that requires buying more toys. Not to mention work.

For something whipped up in less than an hour, I'm kind of loving the newest recruit to the Sinestro Corps.

Remix: Zatanna Playset

I can't bring myself to call this a custom. All I really did was glue the smoke dragon to a plastic rod, glue the rod to a bunch of cubes, then glue the cubes to JLU figure stand. As such, I'm dubbing this a "Remix." Might as well use the blog's name for something, and this seems appropriate.

I'm of the opinion Zatanna should have come with all this out of the package. Since she didn't, I had to pick up the slack.

Incidentally, the reason those extra cubes are there is that the glue wasn't holding without them. I needed stability, even at the expense of looking a tad silly.

The dragon was an extra from a Shadowrun Liada figure, the very same who donated her cape to this project. The table is from a Kiss figure I bought for this reason. It's actually the "I" in Kiss, but I think it works well here.

Here are some of the pieces "before":

The only thing permanently altered is the smoke dragon and clear stand: everything else is just repurposed.

The rabbit ran me three bucks, which is WAY more than he should have cost. But I was kind of desperate to have this project done.

You know something? He was worth the $3.

Custom: Green Lantern Energy Construct

I made this using what I assume are intended to be bracelets. I picked these up at a party supply store in Queens for 25 cents each.

A little superglue and some patience, and I had a spherical energy construct.

Well, almost spherical. I'd actually intended this to be used with my 13 inch Green Lantern, but it doesn't hold the desired position as well as I'd hoped.

However, this works best in a scale I hadn't thought of:

Okay. He's going on the shelf like that. Not bad for a dollar and a few minutes work.

Picture: Desert Stronghold

Custom: DCUC Display Stands

I like my Zatanna and Black Canary DC Universe Classics figures. They're pretty well sculpted, the paint isn't bad, and I respect Mattel's decision to use actual fishnet stockings.

I respect it, but I don't agree with it. Doing so meant losing the extended hip articulation, which means posing options are sorely limited. Actually, they're pretty much limited to their pose in the above picture: without something to lean against, they fall. In fact, with something to lean against, they still fall half the time.

So I decided to do something about it. Here's what I came up with:

The plastic rod, along with the cube on the left, was purchased at a plastic supply store on Canal Street. The black disk started life as a base for a Star Trek 3 3/4 inch figure.

The rods are held in place by the figures' coats: Zatanna's in back and Canary's on her side. Now they stand just fine.

Photos from the Bat-Cave

Here are a few more pictures of the Bat-Computer with a few of my Batmobiles in the background.

I'm not sure why Batman's monitoring a video of someone taking a picture...

The suit display is a custom my wife made a few years ago.

Custom: DCIH Scale Bat-Computer

Here's my interpretation of the famed Bat-Computer scaled for 3 3/4th inch figures, complete with lights, console, chair, and digital Oracle.

The base came from one of the Walmart exclusive Iron Man Hall of Armor figures I bought on clearance. I took it apart, removed the semi-transparent floor and some other obstructions, then pulled the LEDs up through the grating.

The chair and console came from Playmate's line of Star Trek figures made for the Abrams movie. I'm not sure which figure(s) these particular pieces originally came with (they might even have been part of the Bridge playset), though they're all pretty much interchangeable, anyway.

I painted the chair black, along with the top of the console (leaving the decal as-is, of course). I also painted the bottom silver, so it would be closer to the color of the base. The bottom of the chair unscrews, so I detached it, put it beneath the grate, and screwed it back together using a slightly longer screw. Honestly, this aspect's given me nothing but trouble: if I were doing it over again, I'd just glue the chair to the base and save myself the hassle.

Once that was all reassembled, I worked on the monitors. All of those pieces are acrylic squares I found in a couple of stores specializing in plastic parts that I found almost across the street from each other in Chinatown (that's also where I found those clear plastic cubes).

A few of the pieces above didn't make it into the final project. I'm sure I'll find a use for them at some point.

The Oracle picture was traced out of a Birds of Prey graphic novel. For the monitors containing text, I used Martha Stewart brand transfers I found at Michaels (normally, I wouldn't bother to specify the brand, but it just amuses me too much).

I looked everywhere for triangular wedges of clear plastic I could use to get some of the monitors to sit at an angle, but couldn't find anything. Instead, I cut strips of plastic out of the "World's Finest Dog" packages, then folded them into triangular shapes.

I think I used the better part of a tube of super-glue putting everything together. And, as usual, it didn't quite go off without a hitch. The orange "Alert" panel wound up at an angle (superglue doesn't give you second chances), and I wound up smearing some glue on the screen. I thought I got most of it off using nail polish remover, but the pictures are more revealing than my eye alone.

It's got a few imperfections, but - frankly - I love this thing. Those clear cubes do an amazing job refracting the blue light, and some of the screens really seem to glow.

Picture: The Silver Age

Custom: Ace, the Bat-Hound

Remember that German Shepherd from the "World's Famous" packs of dogs I reviewed the other day? Well, here's the updated version.

Most of you probably know Ace from his animated appearances on Krypto, Batman: Brave and the Bold, and (in a highly altered form) on Batman Beyond. Actually, most of probably don't know Ace at all. But the few who do probably know him from those shows.

Ace dates back to the Golden Age of comics. And, like Vicki Vale, Bat-Mite, and Batgirl, he exists because the Superman comics had an analog in Krypto. Yup, throughout the fifties, Batman writers basically just copied whatever was working in Superman.

More recently, Ace had a cameo during a flashback in Batman Inc. Personally, I'm thrilled to see him make an appearance. I want my Batman Comics dark and moody. But I want them dark and moody with super-pets.

One of my new goals in life is to pitch a new Ace: the Bat-Hound series to DC editorial. The time is right. I mean, DC's already reverting the 90's: why not push the envelope and go for the 1950's?

At any rate, this Ace was fairly easy to create. I sculpted the mask using Kneadatite, then painted the whole thing. I left some of the original black paint around the ears, nose, and mouth, and I didn't touch the eyes, but the rest is all new.

I sculpted a bat-symbol, again using Kneadatite, on some black jewelry wire, and hung it around Ace's neck.

I'm actually fairly close to model on this Ace, with the exception of the shape of the bat-symbol (given its size, I decided it wasn't imperative it matched the 50's version, so long as it looked like a bat) and his eyes, which were white in the original design. This time, I wasn't being lazy: that was a deliberate choice. I liked the look of the original toy's eyes, and I didn't want to lose the expression. It seems to me that Ace is confused as to why he's wearing a mask, and that feels right.

Here's a before/after picture showing Ace with one of the "World's Famous" German Shepherds:

And here's one of Ace and his master:

Another picture, for good measure:

To Those Who Have Sired an Heir - We Salute You

Happy Father's Day

Custom: JLU Ra's Al Ghul

I feel weird posting a custom Ra's so soon after the DC Direct head swap. I certainly like the character, but he's getting a little more attention here than he probably should.

This was actually more a custom of opportunity than anything else. I bought a Speed Racer Captain Terror action figure, and he came with that awesome cape. It reminded me of the type Ra's is always wearing, and that got me thinking.

First up, I'm well aware how far off model I am. Ra's cape is traditionally green, his clasp is different, and he's generally depicted in a vest, not a suit. But there's a perfectly good reason for the changes.

I was lazy.

Besides the cape, this was put together using an old Batman: TAS Ra's and a JLU Old Man Bruce figure from the Batman Beyond 3-pack.

I was actually planning on just using Bruce's arms on a Two-Face body until I removed Bruce's overcoat and discovered he was the same figure underneath. Live and learn.

A head swap and some paint later, and he's ready to show off his new cape. Not too shabby, I think.

I'd be remiss not to mention that this isn't the only JLU Ghul custom we own in this scale and style. My wife made an awesome Talia a few years back. You can find pictures here.