All that didn’t mean there wasn’t promise in what was laid out or done with certain characters so this past spring I went back and took a good look. Primarily at the v4 Snake-Eyes which was a complete 180 from the ninja commando we loved as kids. Now pale blue and black with a bright orange [paintball mask style] visor and matching weapons, it’s no wonder it was easy to loose interest. This was practically an all new GI Joe for a whole new decade of kids. It is also easy see how this and the years previous were left out of the 25th Anniversary line. Simply put, they weren’t the icons we knew 25 years ago.

Updated parts and modern styling made it easy for this figure to look completely new, but it also made it hard to pair together just the right pieces to keep him reminiscent of what he was. Gone are the tactical vest and any hint of orange or neon red. Even my blue is darker. What remained however was essentially the same basic premise. I used the head of City Strike SE to keep the goggles and face mask. I went with a ribbed vest in grey paired with the belt and shoulder gear from the aforementioned City Strike SE to replace the bulky tac vest and give him a lighter more urban feel. One thing that remained a constant across the earlier SEs however that went missing here were arm pouches. Why the original v4 had He-Man biceps instead will always be a mystery so back came the pouches. To finish him off I used the legs from the City Strike SE that were pretty much a gimmie to create this Snake-Eyes.

In the end I was more than pleased with the overall results of this figure and he now stands as one of my favorite customs to date. For those familiar with v4 you can easily see he’s a modern update and for those that aren’t I hope you can see it’s well balanced restyle to a great character. As usual more images can be seen in the Customs gallery.

Like any custom I make it seems to be all about the inspiration. Obviously for Recondo it was just a matter of the right parts to make him the way I wanted him and though one may not think to use the beefy lower legs from a Resolute Roadblock for a shorter character, when paired with the front pocket uppers and knee pads from City Strike Snake eyes I immediately saw what I need. For those familiar with the 25th version it was obvious to stick with the torso he already had. A quick arm swap later to short sleeves and a few custom accessories and I had all that I needed to get this one together.

Small additions I made along the way include a harness style shoulder holster made using City Strike Snake-Eyes web gear and the holster from Zap’s belt (seen on the completed figure above).  I attached a canteen to his belt which was taken from the same belt as the shoulder holster.  His pack was a complete rebuild of the Alice pack that came with Gung-Ho and a few others with an added sleeping bag and carry strap to look more like it’s classic counter part all topped off with some grenades and a flashlight.  A field wrapped rifle courtesy of Broken Arrow Toys, revolver and a machete and he was ready to go.

This was one of the last figures I worked on this spring before taking my summer break along with a new Shipwreck and Resolute style 1986 Roadblock. He also pairs very well with the lovely Danger Girl, Abbey Chase.  Another long-time-in-the-making custom who I featured in an earlier post. I was thrilled to finally finish up both of them and add them to the collection. I doubt any admirers will find these two on ebay as they had others though.  I like them a little too much. More images can be seen in the Customs gallery along with my new take on Shipwreck, 1986 Roadblock and, if I may say so myself, and incredible redux of the 1991 Snake-Eyes.

As always this figure was fully paint by hand using Testors Model Master Acrylic paints and washes.

You essentially start with a base figure. In this case I was inspired by the similarity between RoC Agent Helix and Abbey Chase. Here’s what is referred to as a Frankenjoe. Essentially busted up and pieced back together.  Pretty simple as all the parts except for the arms are from Helix. The limbs came from Lady Jaye.

From there you can move onto paint. I def recommend painting part by part and piece by piece. It’s much cleaner and much easier. As for the paints I like Testors Model Master Acrylics. I don’t have any shot of the small parts propped up with toothpicks, but I started with the legs. Each leg breaks down into 5 parts: Outer thigh, inner thigh, knee, lower leg, and foot. Classic Abbey has green on the outside of her pants and blue on the inner thighs. The leg separation made this extra easy. The green below the knee, above the boot was much harder, but I used a real small pointy brush. I also like the contrast between using flat and gloss blacks that you can see on the knee pads and boots.

When I move onto the upper body I worked a little broader. A base coat of light grey to cover any portion that would be white. A sandy color for the body armor and darker grey for the armor padding. You can see I taped off the arms to keep the fleshtone they were molded in. Others may repaint all the flesh so the color is more consistent, I don’t think it’s necessary for most figures. By this point I had pried the hair from the Helix head to paint as well. It’s a combo of three colors: a medium base of a dark yellow/brown, a wash of a darker yellow/brown to seep into the grooves, and a dry brush of a lighter shade for highlights.

Once those broad coats are laid down it’s all about detail. I explained what went into painting the hair, well those same techniques translate to all parts. I used a brown wash on the body armor for wear and weathering. A dry brush of white over the light grey on her shirt. Then a lot of small brush work with flat black and gloss black for all the straps and buckles as well as to fine up an messes around the armor and shirt. Even a touch or grey on the zipper pull.

She was finished off with a repeat of the body armor paint on the belt pouches with a coat of flat black for the belt itself and a quick coat of green on her gloves.  Reassemble the torso and armors with glue.  Add the legs, head and hands, and a pair of tiny little Desert Eagle pistols and she’s ready for danger. In the end I now have a nice Abbey Chase figure inspired by the cover of Body Shots issue 1 with a few touches of classic Abbey. Click on my Customs link to see more images.

Skull Buster

The Range Viper was in the tail end of my time as a child playing with GI Joe figures, but the leader of the this group of Cobra wilderness troopers didn’t come about until sometime later as Joe and Co. had gone to the sideline of childhood memories.  When I was finally introduced to this character in the DD World War 3 storyline that closed out the mythos that began in 1983 with the original A Real American Hero comic from Marvel he was a lone wolf living off the land overtaken by his own insanity.  Looking back at the action figure released in 2002 he was a garish metallic purple repaint of the original Range Viper. Not overly attractive. As for my modern interpretation of Skull Buster my goal was to keep him in line with the modern Range Viper hinting ever so slightly to the original figure while giving him an edge and distinction that allows him to standout from the rest.

Roadblock

The difference between adding a few minor tweaks to an existing figure as opposed to a full blown custom can still make a huge difference.  One item that is highly anticipated in the new year are Resolute figures.  A few that have already seen some level of production have leaked into market places such as ebay.  One in particular was the Resolute Roadblock.  When will we see these figures at retail still remains to be seen, but this holiday season we were treated to a RoC exclusive Roadblock using the very mold of the Resolute figure minus his accessories.  We also saw the new Cobra security agent Night Adder made with the same mold including the tactical vest we weren’t given with the Roadblock.  Most took advantage of these two releases by customizing their own Resolute Roadblock.  Me, I bought an advance/prototype off ebay months back so I went in a different direction with this mod. Pleased with the camo paint job and not minding the black “under shirt,” I painted the vest from Night Adder with minor color touch-ups to the figures feet and hands to create a new look for a classic character.

Clutch

Who would customize Clutch?  I would.  He was always there when I was younger to drive the VAMP, but I was let down by the modern interpretation.  A solid figure, I felt the updates to be a bit of a let down.  I also really like the desert tan look he had in the Sunbow series which influenced this customs direction beyond a simple Sunbow repaint of the aforementioned modern figure.  Oddly enough this figure wasn’t even intended to be Clutch, but was planned as a desert Outback until I received the vest I needed.  I was torn over the torso and which figure to use it for as it was a great base that needed no paint on the chest or arms.

Cover Girl

One thing most modern era collectors can agree on was the lack of this female teammate.  Scarlett, check.  Lady Jaye, check.  Cover Girl, add a check.  She may also be the most customized female Joe I have seen on the net so I had to take a crack at her as well.  Many struggled for that classic look.  Some even went so far to make her MASS Device series counterpart with long platinum blonde hair.  I was happy to work with what was readily available upon the release of all the female Rise of Cobra figures to make an updated CG for the double zeros.  I stuck with the classic colors and chose the reddish brown hair to keep her recognizable.

Repeater

This fall saw the release of a Rise of Cobra off-screen collectors set featuring characters from the ARAH line that weren’t given to us for the 25th Anniversary.  Unfortunately they were in a horrendous desert camo pattern with no real likeness to their classic counterpart.  Using roughly 75% of parts from the Repeater, sorry Zartan in disguise, I was able to customize a classic look that I think is spot on to how accurate he could have been.  When this set hit this was one of those characters who started to show up left and right as either a redress of the desert camo base he came in or made to look like his 1988 release.  I looked at the ‘88 and the ‘89 Nightforce version and decided to go with the later as I had neither when I was younger to influence the final version.

Law & Order

Another “off-screen” team member of the above set was Law with Order.  I may have used even less parts from the set to create this custom, but the dog, helmet, night stick and left arm were key.  He also needed a vest and of all available the Pit Commando tac vest was best.  I used a belt buckle as the badge : )  I was incredibly happy with how this turned out, esp when one of my very first cutoms was intended to be Law.  I had the basic build up until this one, then trashed it so the crappiness could not be compared.

Snake-Eyes

After the disappointment of the majority of the Rise of Cobra action figures I found that I had what I needed to throw together a Snake-Eyes that was more accurate of his movie appearance with one major change, a lipless mask.  For whatever reason he had open bottom BDUs on is byeond me, but that was completely over looked for the figure.  I just had to add the cargo pockets to the legs I used.  I kept the Oakley SI boots of course and changed the torso and gloves for aesthetic reason.

Shipwreck

I was pleased to see an “off-screen” Shipwreck in the RoC line.  I didn’t even mind the Reactive Armor torso as it looks like a plated dive suit or something Snake would be seen in in the Metal Gear games.  I couldn’t stand the blue camo of his lower half, nor the bone thin legs.  One quick swap and a little paint and I ended up with a Shipwreck that I think is freakin’ sweet.  Also kept me from needing to make a DD Shipwreck in the beanie hat and blue sweater as it look essentially the same.  Looks great with my modern Cover Girl too.

Cobra Commander

It hit me that Cobra Commander could be more of a field leader and a bad ass than the behind the lines sissy that he was in the cartoon.  Even less bumbling than he was in the comics.  Maybe more like he was in DDs World War 3.  Whatever the influence was I had a lot of fun putting this modern CC together that fits in well the Resolute line due to the base figure used for him.  Little paint was needed on the torso, but the cape and gear are fully painted as well as the addition of a few washes for detail.  This is also one of the first figures I used a wash on.

Knowing the Rise of Cobra figures hit shelves in mid July one might ask why only 6 months worth of customs in a year in review post?  Well… 1) I see customizing as a cool weather activity, 2) earlier summer months had more minor mods than straight up customs, and 3) it was my first full year and some of the earlier works aren’t up to par with these or were sold on ebay and not photographed in line with all the above.  However, I do plan on writing a post to cover the “Lost” Customs soon.  I promise.

On the other hand though, the base figure was a total bitch to work with.  I ruined one complete torso, broke the peg on the right lower arm and on the right foot as well as snapped a shoulder joint.  And, not just on this one, but a previous use of the same figure I broke a right foot.  To my fellow customizers: take caution when working with this figure.

In the end, as my comments above state, I was very pleased with the work that went into creating this throwback.  A lot of thought went into getting the paints just right.  Except for the Semi Gloss Light Grey none of the paints were straight from the bottle.  I also feel that the scheme fits the figure very well.  The base figure was well crafted with a great design playing off of the classic commando with a hint of the v2 ninja.  The only change I did make was the torso I used, and not because I destroyed the original.  I felt the original was too sculpted and overly muscular.

This custom figure also marks my first to be featured in the front page news section of the HissTank!  You can visit the article here. More photos of each can be found in my Customs Gallery above.  They are def worth checking out.