So, I had a very busy weekend customizing and learned quite a bit. It'll be a few more weeks before I have anything good to show off, but maybe after the thanksgiving weekend.
My plan to make a NF Lady Jaye was a colossal bust. I got the head, neck, and arms swapped, only to learn that Shooter's calf swivel is in a completely different place than LJ's, making LJ's boots far too short. Thus LJ was going to be a disproportionate shrimp, and I wasn't leaving her with the weird sneakers. It made me mad, and I swapped all the parts back. I guess I'll just have a Shooter figure that will never leave my bins.
My initial focus was getting a grey buck ready for a Mainframe custom. Not my favorite Joe, but the Gridiron character loadout looked really good, so I ordered one. I learned that the Viper 3-pack officer torso is a grey Duke torso with a collar and pockets, and the grey isn't too far from the lower half of a PP BAT. Donate some boots from a spare Breaker, and you've got a solid Mainframe.
But my main focus was working on The Plague. I was kinda all over the place, spent half the weekend looking for stuff I already owned, like heads, webgear, weapons, etc. in the multitude of Joe, Valaverse, SW, and ML bins. I did a lot of disassembly/assembly, priming, painting, carving, sculpting. On the surface, most of the plague members seem very much the same with just different heads. Thus my use of a bunch of WM Retro SE figures. But on close inspection, they each have quite a few details that differentiate them from one another. Like the snow serpent... his webgear is nothing special, but it's full of weird throwing knives, and he has a bunch of extra hoses attached to him, supposedly some kind of contraption to keep him alive after nearly dying in battle. Thank goodness for cheap SWB figures, half of which come with some hoses attached to this or that.
Overall, I got eight of the 13 to the 80%+ done stage. My Munitia looks awesome, but she's not 100% faithful to the artwork... just not sure how much I care. Rivet counters might complain, but getting her exact is going to take a ton of work I don't know that I want to do.
I need more bodies too. I need three more retro SEs that I've ordered from a place I've never heard of...
, and I'm making two members on larger bucks, and I haven't quite decided what bodies to use. And there are a couple that I don't have suitable heads for. A couple of them I have to make custom weapons for them, etc. As with most projects, the final 20% will take the most amount of time.
But all that said, it was a lot of fun watching them slowly materialize, and I think I'll be thrilled when they're finished. Fingers crossed.
. Seems like the same person is making JoeCS decisions lately as does Marvel Legends (millions of Eternals, Wakanda and obscure comic characters) and SW (lots of sequel trilogy and other unpopular characters). All the Ollie’s’ I’ve been to are infested with those.
). I don't see bothering with either of them. IG is pretty much only useful with a proper IG Destro. I may revisit him if we get that. As for Raptor, not for $5 at Ollie's. Not even if they paid me $5 to take him. I really question the intelligence of the brand reps for JoeCS when he and Big Boa are getting made before at least a half dozen major characters. Who's next, Crystal Ball?
. I need a polar battle bear, an AWE Striker, a Moccasin... and save the big stuff for special projects. I expect the next haslab to be a WHALE (no knowledge, just a wild guess), but I'd take a MOBAT or Mauler. MOBAT is more iconic, but it's also REALLY dated looking. I think they'd have to modernize the shit out of it without alienating the purists, a tough line to walk.
Walmart is so weird with exclusive Joe CS stuff.
... good lord that would be so chaotic, I'd go insane.
