Animal Man

This is a later effort, coming in around Fall of 1991. These goggles were a bit different than Blue Beetle's. These are done by mixing transparent RC car paint in with some clear hard drying glue. The jacket comes from Will Scarlet from the Kenner Robin Hood series.

The Atom

A straightforward Flash conversion but this is from 1990 so it was first! :) What you CAN'T see very well is the tiny HO train scale Atom figure complete in his own vacu-formed insert pack, directly to the lower left of the full-size figure. Gee, only took DC 14 years to steal idea. I never liked the card art but went with this design because it was too hard to cut out the molecular atom shape that usually surrounds him. My how times have changed. This is a fix I'm looking forward to doing in EP2005. This pic also is making the blue appear too dark. It wasn't.

Banshee

I only ever did 2 non-DC characters in the Extra Powers style packaging. This was at the insistence of the buyer and while I don't regret it, they are odd to see now. He wanted Banshee, one of the few Marvel characters I actually like. The other figure is Rogue. This was years before Toy Biz's version. Mine has cloth 'wings' that attach at the same places on the arms and legs as theirs ended up with. Look it's the Will Scarlet head again!

Batgirl 01

The one that started it all. Easy to tell I was pretty green at it. This is my first attempt at a custom action figure. It was 1989. I carved a little bat-pouch for her and made a little Sculpey mold and pressed red Friendly Plastic into it to get a nice little bat-purse in red. And I developed my first Shrink Dink belt buckle. Other than those things - I discarded most of how this figure was made and started over for #2. The bat-insignia is yellow electrical tape.

Batgirl 01A

Getting a bit better here. This is still 1990 but we've added Shrinky Dink glove points, and the craft store belt tubes. The big difference is the cowl and hair. My obsession to emulate toy companies and their use of color molded plastic is taking hold. Auburn molded hair and blue molded cowl! The hair was easy to do, but the cowl was a killer. (see section on Friendly Plastic in the Techniques section) I also started using the blue cape from a couple of the Dark Knight Collection figures. They were cheap and had the same Kenner plastic collar as the Super Powers figures.

Batgirl 02

I'm more of a fan of the grey-suited Batgirl so that was the next version. Here, for some reason the WW body makes her look plump. Same figure, different color? Everything else is the same, just a repaint of my own work. And new card art. But this is coming in around 1991 and you can see the #2 interim Scooter's logo.

Batgirl 02A

Basically the same as #2 but Toy Biz had actually released a not-so-terrible female figure in the Invisible Woman so I tried that body once. I didn't like the arms. Nice lower torso though.

Blue Beetle

At the time the Giffen JLA book was hot and I was asked to do many of those characters. I do like this costume on Beetle and their take on the character. The cool technique on this one was his goggles. I took tiny 'googly eyes' made for little baby dolls and sliced the back and pupil away leaving just a clear half round bubble. I dipped it in the amber translucent paint and had gold Beetle goggles. Good trick and I may use it again on the new one. Paint job is a challenge but he has a nice color scheme to work with.

Booster Gold

At the time the Giffen JLA book was hot and I was asked to do many of those characters. I hadn't worked out the goggle thing yet but was unsure of the artist's take on them anyway. Were they opaque or see-through from the outside? I'll need to brush up on that for the new version. The not-so-great part of this one was the collar. It was done as a sculpted piece before I started working with vinyl.

Black Canary

This is one of my least favorite characters so I got around to her later, but still before the logo switch so still before 1991. She has the color molded sculpted hair and a sculpted jacket. Her fishnets were done by hand. I think I will augment them for a new version.

Captain Atom

An easy one right? Well, yes and no. Primarily he is a repainted Superman with some smoothing. But I wanted the chrome look instead of the flat aluminum look. So I must have gone through 11 different paints before I found the one that actually buffed out like chrome. His insignia is red tape . An easy conversion, but I think he will look good redone.

Catwoman 01

The very 2nd figure I ever did. This one I am just embarrassed by. The figure wouldn't be so bad but her cowl was made from tube putty. The cape is thick and doesn't lay at all. The whip is a scrap of piping...It is all pretty bad. This is one I'm particularly looking forward to re-doing better. DC Direct's version is SO nice, I'll cop a couple tricks from them this time.

Catwoman 02

Here's the scandal maker! I'll present the facts - you decide. I made this figure in 1990 based on the Batman:Year One David Mazzucchelli version of Catwoman that was then turned into a short mini-series. Sleek  all-grey bodysuit, short collared boots, tail, ears, whiskers. This is one of the figures I was most most happy with for the time. It truly looked great. I took this figure to over 12 toy shows between 1990 and 1992. I showed this figure to the 2 Kenner guys who befriended me. And this figure's picture was featured in 4 magazines in that period. Now go look at the one that is supposedly a Kenner prototype and do some math of your own. Like my Tim Drake Robin, I smell something in Denmark! At the very least - Kenner was watching my work. (That's what the cease & desist letter from Time Warner told me.)

Deadman

One of my favorite characters! And a great Neal Adams pose for the card. Basically a Flash conversion with a vinyl collar that I had graduated into. It curls nicely after painting. Can't remember whose face that is though. Will have to do more research for the redo.

Golden Age Flash

This was a fun one. And it made a couple magazines and won a couple contests too. All because I tried using an "in action" character. I figured we were all tired of seeing Flash not running, right? He still has more articulation than Batman animated figures and he really captures the spirit of the character. I did the first one for my number one Flash collector customer Joe D. It is taken from a British soccer player by Kenner and the boots, wings, hat and shirt are all sculpted. I made a mold of the hat from a tiny army helmet. Geez, I hope I still have that!

Golden Age Green Lantern

The truth will finally come out - I generally hate the Golden Age JSA characters. Yes. There I've said it. But I must have been asked a dozen times to make them over the years. I don't know why I hate them, but I kind of do. I like old school Batman but that's about it. Anyway - this guy was definitely the most asked-for GA character and after doing one for the JSA set (see the LOOSE figures section) I decided to incorporate him into a carded version. A relatively easy custom.

Guy Gardner 01

Another popular Giffen JLA character from the time. I was more or less pleased with this custom. I had found that great snarling head from some other toy line, molded color hair with his great Moe cut. I took a crack at sculpting his euro-89's biker jacket VEST. and it was OKAY all around. But I think I dramatically improved it with the 2nd version.

Guy Gardner 02

Another popular Giffen JLA character from the time. This one is probably one of my best from 1990, right before the logo change. I used the same head as 31, but used the Tow Biz Kane figure for the base body. Toy Biz used different sculptors then and their scales were all over the board. A few of them fit right into the SP scale. Added a real chain for his writs and belt, Lex Luthor boots.

John Stewart

I don't know why this GL was never so popular. He got so much grief coming into this new JLA animated series. I think it was because fans are always smarter than the network thinks and smelled forced diversity. We've got 2 females and one minority in that group and it's not because Hawkwoman and John Stewart were such popular characters! But I always liked his costume and he was a cool guy too. About a thousand times better than Kyle Raynor. Why must comics writers always make themselves into super heroes? What with Flash, Kyle, Beetle, Booster - how many brain-dead Playstation junkies do we need as secret identities? Anyway - I swapped heads with some sports figure and did a repaint on the regular GL. Easy-Peasy.

Kid Flash

My third-ever custom. I was determined to do the original Titans lineup. And Kid Flash has always been one of my all-time favorite DC costumes. Hacked off the top of his head and sculpted the hair. First with putty and later with molded color plastic. I will improve him a bit with the next go around.