Kwinn_Lives' customs

1984 is probably my favourite year for Joes. That year Cobra got the Baroness, Copperhead, Zartan, Scrap-Iron, Firefly and Storm Shadow, all in the same year for crying out loud. And with the Joes were Recondo (still my favourite single figure after all these years), and Mutt and Spirit and Roadblock. I love Roadblock as a character, but his original figure leaves a little something to be desired. Specifically, muscle. He's supposed to be a human roadblock, but his arms are thinner than the Baroness' and his legs are pretty slim too. So this custom is intended to fix that. It takes the base of his 1984 figure and bulks him up appropriately.



The torso and head are original Roadblock, the arms are Heavy Duty, the legs are Chuckles and the waist is Shockwave. I decided to go with a more military colour for his pants as well.



The skins tones of Roadblock and Heavy Duty don't match, so there was quite a lot of painting with this one. Hope you enjoy it!

I enjoy it! Thx for sharing. Definetely the old 84 RB needs to be bulked.
Only crit is you should paint the eyes.

Rambo wrote:Only crit is you should paint the eyes.

Yeah, I'll consider that, thanks.

In the 80s, Hasbro basically used "Navy SEAL" as a synonym for "combat diver" when releasing figures. But of course SEALs are far more than just divers, so our vintage divers Torpedo and Wet-Suit need land versions as well. Larry Hama understood what SEALs are capable of, and in issue #49 of the comic (the invasion of Springfield), Torpedo was included in the Assault Team along with the likes of Stalker, Snake-Eyes and Beachhead because they were "the fastest, the sneakiest and fight the dirtiest!" Torpedo was shown in generic battle dress. Wet-Suit missed out on the invasion, he must have been on leave after the events on Cobra Island. (Yes, I'm a giant GI Joe comics nerd.)



Torpedo uses Airborne's head, Ripcord's upper half and Sgt. Slaughter's lower half. The colours and camo patterns match extremely well, so the only painting I did was the gloves and boots. The boonie hat is from Crosshair (2003), and is so identifiable with SEALs that I used the same thing for Wet-Suit as well.



Wet-Suit has his own 1992/93 head, Muskrat torso and Beachhead arms (colours match, no painting needed, though I did paint some details), and Mutt lower half.

Pure win!
I like SEALs in combat uniform rather than in diver suit.

Rambo wrote:Pure win!
I like SEALs in combat uniform rather than in diver suit.

Thanks man. Yes I like to make more generalized customs of figures designed for very specialized environments. One of my favourites is a deckhand version of Deep Six that I did, which I will show here once I get a new camera.

Nice additions, sir! The set up is definitely cool.

Great customs. The wet suit hair cut is less than expected for a seal operator..

the right of might wrote:The wet suit hair cut is less than expected for a seal operator..

Oh I agree. But that haircut is canon!

Here's an original character I created, Frontline, an Air Force Forward Air Controller. I used Nunchuk parts for the Snake-Eyes I posted earlier in the thread, so I had a head left over and figured it could be used for someone equipped for the desert.



Besides the Nunchuk head, the upper half is Bullet-Proof and the lower half is Crankcase. You can probably see I've got a bit of a paint issue on the lower neck. Sometimes you don't even notice these things until you take a picture, the camera isn't as forgiving as the naked eye I guess.



I also did up a filecard on Joecustoms.

I like him better than Bombstrike. Pretty simple, and he looks great! Nunchuk is a figure I've never been crazy about, but I like when his parts are used in customs.

cyko wrote:I like him better than Bombstrike. Pretty simple, and he looks great! Nunchuk is a figure I've never been crazy about, but I like when his parts are used in customs.

The main issue I have with Bombstrike is that she's not ARAH style, and therefore sucks by default. I have some plans to do an ARAH version of her when I figure out a couple of more parts to use.

Like this custom. What head would you use for Bombstrike?

Rambo wrote:Like this custom. What head would you use for Bombstrike?

Not sure yet. I'm actually considering trying a Meg Bennett head from Bionic Six. It might work.

Which one is that?

Rambo wrote:Which one is that?

Sorry, here you go.

That Bionic 6 head could work with a good paint job. And it's kindofa cop-out, but the 2005 comic pack Lady Jaye sorta looks like Bombstrike. My real beef with that figure isn't so much the head as the bulky new sculpt shoulders. She looks like a linebacker, and my '83 Gung Ho isn't that built!

cyko wrote:That Bionic 6 head could work with a good paint job. And it's kindofa cop-out, but the 2005 comic pack Lady Jaye sorta looks like Bombstrike. My real beef with that figure isn't so much the head as the bulky new sculpt shoulders. She looks like a linebacker, and my '83 Gung Ho isn't that built!

Yeah I'm thinking of using that Lady Jaye head for a Daina custom actually.

I have a new camera now (well, new to me), so I wanted to share one of my favourite customs I've done to date. It was in fact one of the very first ones I did, and it has special meaning to me. I'm very into the Marvel GI Joe comics, and the first issue I ever read was #36 when I was 8 years old. I still remember that day, buying the issue at the corner store. I must have read it a dozen times that day and I still know every page in detail. This is from the opening splash page:



And that was awesome, because instead of a clunky "action" figure in a big hunk of a plastic suit, there was Deep Six actually being useful! The ship (the Jane) was attacked by two Sea Rattlers and ends up burning pretty bad until Deep Six opens the crate on the deck - revealing the Mobile Missile System which blasts the Cobras out of the air.



So anyway, this is a custom I wanted to do for a long time, so when I finally started customizing this was one of the first I did.



The head is 1993 Bazooka. The camera reveals that the paint around where the hat meets the head is a bit rough, so I might work on that when I get a chance. The torso is Topside, the arms are Skidmark, the legs are Cutter and I don't remember whose waist that is, but I don't think it's Cutter.



I gave him accessories appropriate to issue 36 - a fire extinguisher and an axe.

When viewing the picture and reading your introduction I was guessing what parts would you have used for Deep Six. I guessed the Skidmark arms

Rambo wrote:When viewing the picture and reading your introduction I was guessing what parts would you have used for Deep Six. I guessed the Skidmark arms

Yep, I love those arms, used them for several customs already.

Yep. Those arms are versatile.

Here's a custom I finished not long ago. It's an ARAH "update" of a modern era figure, Deopth Charge. Now, Depth Charge is a pretty good figure for its time, the proportions aren't as wonky as many, but ARAH is still better.



I used the Depth Charge head, and needed one or more divers for the rest. Luckily the 1985 Eel works really well here, giving me everything I was looking for: a knife strapped to the left shin, things around the wrists, and the shoulder things on the Eel replace the shoulder accessory that came with the original figure. I had to do a small amount of modding on the inside of the torso for the head to fit, but it now fits really well and functions perfectly.



I also used the accessory pack Eel accessories (the dark blue ones) for the fins and pack, and added a bit of colour to them. I kept the original Depth Charge helmet, it fits the head and looks pretty cool.



The gun that came with Depth Charge is listed on yojoe.com as a spear gun, but it's actually based on the Soviet APS underwater rifle. I actually did a custom version of this rifle using some Marauder Inc. parts, but I'm not going to give a Soviet rifle to a Joe, so I'm saving that for a Cobra or October Guard custom. So I just gave Depth Charge a fodder rifle that had something of the same look, and a combat knife as well.



I'm actually quite proud of the waist on this figure. The Eel legs are very bulky, so it really wasn't an option to use another waist piece. But the Eel waist has some business on the front that I didn't want. So I skimmed that off with a knife, and then used just a knife and some sandpaper to create some new creases along the front of the waist to match the ones on the sides. It's a bit hard to see in these pics, but I was really happy with how it turned out, you can't tell it's been customized at all.

Excellent job on all of them. Also on a side note Kwinn Krexx is sculpting your jungle shirted namesake as we speak and should be done in a few weeks

copperbob wrote:Excellent job on all of them. Also on a side note Kwinn Krexx is sculpting your jungle shirted namesake as we speak and should be done in a few weeks

Thanks and glad to hear it.