Howdy, all;
I scrounged up a second MegaBloks Thor figure from a few years back and thought I'd make a duplicate of my Throg custom for my buddy Liftoff since I owe him a few things, and show all you guys how as well.
You'll need a few items and tools before beginning:
MegaBloks Series Two Thor released several years ago but still fairly easy to obtain on eBay for about $10 total, based on recent searches.
New-style MegaBloks HALO figures with upgraded articulation, namely a green UNSC Marine and a Covenant Elite. The Marine will donate Throg's arms and being green will help to minimize paint scrapage issues. The Elite will donate the legs to achieve a nice long-legged look with both knee and ankle joints. I used the Marines from the Anniversary Battleground set a couple years back, but they can be found in several sets still in production: https://collectors.megabloks.com/en-us/halo/playsets/anniversary-collection-battleground-97519. Your cheapest way to get a modern Elite is in the Charlie single-bag series: https://collectors.megabloks.com/en-us/halo/playsets/micro-action-figures-charlie-series-cnc84. You'll need to look up the baggie codes to be sure you're getting the Elite: http://www.halotoynews.com/2015/06/09/code-number-list-halo-mega-bloks-charlie-series-figures/
A Safari, Ltd Toob containing a frog of your choice. I used the frog found in the River Toob set for both Throgs I've done, although I believe this particular one comes in multiple sets. The frog will donate Throg's head and webbed feet. I used the rear feet for my Throg but experimented with the front feet for Liftoff's and think it came out better due to having four toes instead of three. I liked the River set because it gave me a few more cool options for li'l critter bashin', like the Otter to make Rocket Raccoon's girlfriend Lyja, and a cool snapping turtle I want to bash onto another Elite.
River Toob contents:
Life Cycle of a Frog: http://www.michaels.com/safari-ltd-life-cycle-of-a-frog/10214342.html
There are a number of choices in the Frogs Toob, but not the specific model I used, so your Throg will come out looking a bit differently and you'll likely have to accommodate a few tweaks to the procedure: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Safari-Ltd-Frogs-Turtles-TOOB/dp/B000BNB0OG"]Amazon.com: Safari Ltd Frogs and Turtles TOOB: Toys & Games@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VGHxQgTQL.@@AMEPARAM@@41VGHxQgTQL[/ame].
Lastly you'll need a source for the helmet's feathered wings. For my Throg I used the pair off the Armored Thor Mini-Mate; where I also obtained the head for my Mjolnir. Here, I didn't have access to a second Armored Thor/Beta Ray Bill 2pack so I used the wings off an MU Beta Ray Bill figure. Lacking the second Mjolnir I had to fab one up from scratch. The MegaBloks Thor will come with his own, but its not that impressive.
Tools you'll need are the standard set for heavy customization surgery: Dremel with a 1mm diamond-coated head to drill out Thor's shoulders, an X-acto knife and files for trimming, superglue, some means to fab up the helmet (papercraft or sculpting putty), and your paint kit with your choices of greens, silver and gold, and black or Gunmetal for the bodysuit.
As these MegaBloks figures are quite small, all modifications to it - filing, cutting, drilling - should be done in very small incremental steps to prevent doing too much and ruining the effort. There are very fine tolerances for mistakes with figures this small.
To begin, pop the legs off the Marine and Elite. Pull them all apart at the knees and add the Elite's lower half onto the Marines thighs. File them smooth to eliminate the armor/pants details, ensuring to file down the upper part of the Elite's foot so it matches the smooth calf. Leave the portion of the boot below the hinge alone as that will be Throg's Asgardian boot.
Snip the Marine's neckball off and cut down his median line through to the bottom of his back-hole, and across his ribcage under his armpits. You'll be left with his arms still plugged into the meat of his shoulders. The shoulder meat will need to be filed down quite a bit, but hold off on that until after the next step. File the arms smooth above the forearm details. They'll become his gauntlets once painted.
Snip the shoulder balls off the Thor torso, and drill out a hole to accommodate the shoulder meat.
Test fit the shoulder meat into the drilled-out shoulder sockets often, until you're left with the fringes of the filed-down shoulder meat hanging out about 1millimeter. This will move the arms out from the body enough to allow him to swing his arms in front of his body so he can hold Mjolnir two-handedly. If you've pulled the arms out of the shoulder meat, re-insert them before gluing the meat in place; and then remove them to file the fringes away.
Now for the head. Cut the head from the frog body behind the front legs, then cut the legs off close to the body and save them for later. Frogs have big-ass heads for their bodies and you'll need a lot of room to work with when building his neck socket. Since it already forms a perfect fit to the neckball, file Thor's head down to a featureless nub, and drill out the frog head in his throat/upper chest area enough to accommodate Thor's nub. Test-fit it and make sure the frog head looks properly-placed before gluing, then glue Thor's nub in the frogs neck once you're happy.
Flip the frog's head over and build the helmet. Here I've used some papercraft, but FixIt or GreenStuff putty should be perfectly fine. All that's really necessary is for the helmet to come to a point between the eyes, and to wrap around the back to cover the necksocket surgery. Once the helmet's complete, file the backside of the helmet wings smooth and glue them in place. I like the windswept look and chose it for both Throgs, but you're welcome to go for a more upright position if you prefer.
Last come the flipper feet. Trim the front bottom of the Elite's feet from where the stud socket on bottom reaches around. This is seen better in the completed Throg than the WIP one. This will allow him more room for the flipper width. In the completed Throg I used the frog's rear feet, but in the WIP I experimented and used the front feet, which allowed him to have four toes instead of just three and so looks better; so I recommend you do the same. Trim the flippers so they'll fit height-wise in the Elite's boot, doing a lot of test-fitting to ensure the bottom of the boot edge left remaining and the bottom of the flipper feet are both touching the ground to ensure good stability when he stands. Once happy, glue them in place, and maybe drill some peg-holes so he fits on a Joe or MU figure stand.
And then he's ready to paint. The filing you've done should allow him to move fully without any paint scrapes, but simply file away some more if that happens.
I used Testor's Model Masters Gunmetal for the bodysuit, Zinc Oxide Green for the fleshtone, Aluminum for the silver, and some Michael's brand for the gold. I've not come across any new-style MB figures with green hands, and so am using some random black and gray hands as stand-ins until I eventually do find them. The new-style MBs have wider wrist pegs than the original-style. I prefer to say they're wearing gloves than try to paint them green when I know the palm paint will get scraped every time the hammer is used and removed.
With 18th-scale figures Throg will be just under hip height; which is much bigger than his comics-canon height; but who really cares? He's a super-powered frog so he gets to be bigger than normal if he really wants to. With 12th scale figures he comes up to knee-height, which is much closer. He'd probably be perfectly-scaled with 6th-scale figures; but what kind of lunatic uses those as his playing-around collection?
I scrounged up a second MegaBloks Thor figure from a few years back and thought I'd make a duplicate of my Throg custom for my buddy Liftoff since I owe him a few things, and show all you guys how as well.
You'll need a few items and tools before beginning:
MegaBloks Series Two Thor released several years ago but still fairly easy to obtain on eBay for about $10 total, based on recent searches.
New-style MegaBloks HALO figures with upgraded articulation, namely a green UNSC Marine and a Covenant Elite. The Marine will donate Throg's arms and being green will help to minimize paint scrapage issues. The Elite will donate the legs to achieve a nice long-legged look with both knee and ankle joints. I used the Marines from the Anniversary Battleground set a couple years back, but they can be found in several sets still in production: https://collectors.megabloks.com/en-us/halo/playsets/anniversary-collection-battleground-97519. Your cheapest way to get a modern Elite is in the Charlie single-bag series: https://collectors.megabloks.com/en-us/halo/playsets/micro-action-figures-charlie-series-cnc84. You'll need to look up the baggie codes to be sure you're getting the Elite: http://www.halotoynews.com/2015/06/09/code-number-list-halo-mega-bloks-charlie-series-figures/
A Safari, Ltd Toob containing a frog of your choice. I used the frog found in the River Toob set for both Throgs I've done, although I believe this particular one comes in multiple sets. The frog will donate Throg's head and webbed feet. I used the rear feet for my Throg but experimented with the front feet for Liftoff's and think it came out better due to having four toes instead of three. I liked the River set because it gave me a few more cool options for li'l critter bashin', like the Otter to make Rocket Raccoon's girlfriend Lyja, and a cool snapping turtle I want to bash onto another Elite.
River Toob contents:
Life Cycle of a Frog: http://www.michaels.com/safari-ltd-life-cycle-of-a-frog/10214342.html
There are a number of choices in the Frogs Toob, but not the specific model I used, so your Throg will come out looking a bit differently and you'll likely have to accommodate a few tweaks to the procedure: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Safari-Ltd-Frogs-Turtles-TOOB/dp/B000BNB0OG"]Amazon.com: Safari Ltd Frogs and Turtles TOOB: Toys & Games@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VGHxQgTQL.@@AMEPARAM@@41VGHxQgTQL[/ame].
Lastly you'll need a source for the helmet's feathered wings. For my Throg I used the pair off the Armored Thor Mini-Mate; where I also obtained the head for my Mjolnir. Here, I didn't have access to a second Armored Thor/Beta Ray Bill 2pack so I used the wings off an MU Beta Ray Bill figure. Lacking the second Mjolnir I had to fab one up from scratch. The MegaBloks Thor will come with his own, but its not that impressive.
Tools you'll need are the standard set for heavy customization surgery: Dremel with a 1mm diamond-coated head to drill out Thor's shoulders, an X-acto knife and files for trimming, superglue, some means to fab up the helmet (papercraft or sculpting putty), and your paint kit with your choices of greens, silver and gold, and black or Gunmetal for the bodysuit.
As these MegaBloks figures are quite small, all modifications to it - filing, cutting, drilling - should be done in very small incremental steps to prevent doing too much and ruining the effort. There are very fine tolerances for mistakes with figures this small.
To begin, pop the legs off the Marine and Elite. Pull them all apart at the knees and add the Elite's lower half onto the Marines thighs. File them smooth to eliminate the armor/pants details, ensuring to file down the upper part of the Elite's foot so it matches the smooth calf. Leave the portion of the boot below the hinge alone as that will be Throg's Asgardian boot.
Snip the Marine's neckball off and cut down his median line through to the bottom of his back-hole, and across his ribcage under his armpits. You'll be left with his arms still plugged into the meat of his shoulders. The shoulder meat will need to be filed down quite a bit, but hold off on that until after the next step. File the arms smooth above the forearm details. They'll become his gauntlets once painted.
Snip the shoulder balls off the Thor torso, and drill out a hole to accommodate the shoulder meat.
Test fit the shoulder meat into the drilled-out shoulder sockets often, until you're left with the fringes of the filed-down shoulder meat hanging out about 1millimeter. This will move the arms out from the body enough to allow him to swing his arms in front of his body so he can hold Mjolnir two-handedly. If you've pulled the arms out of the shoulder meat, re-insert them before gluing the meat in place; and then remove them to file the fringes away.
Now for the head. Cut the head from the frog body behind the front legs, then cut the legs off close to the body and save them for later. Frogs have big-ass heads for their bodies and you'll need a lot of room to work with when building his neck socket. Since it already forms a perfect fit to the neckball, file Thor's head down to a featureless nub, and drill out the frog head in his throat/upper chest area enough to accommodate Thor's nub. Test-fit it and make sure the frog head looks properly-placed before gluing, then glue Thor's nub in the frogs neck once you're happy.
Flip the frog's head over and build the helmet. Here I've used some papercraft, but FixIt or GreenStuff putty should be perfectly fine. All that's really necessary is for the helmet to come to a point between the eyes, and to wrap around the back to cover the necksocket surgery. Once the helmet's complete, file the backside of the helmet wings smooth and glue them in place. I like the windswept look and chose it for both Throgs, but you're welcome to go for a more upright position if you prefer.
Last come the flipper feet. Trim the front bottom of the Elite's feet from where the stud socket on bottom reaches around. This is seen better in the completed Throg than the WIP one. This will allow him more room for the flipper width. In the completed Throg I used the frog's rear feet, but in the WIP I experimented and used the front feet, which allowed him to have four toes instead of just three and so looks better; so I recommend you do the same. Trim the flippers so they'll fit height-wise in the Elite's boot, doing a lot of test-fitting to ensure the bottom of the boot edge left remaining and the bottom of the flipper feet are both touching the ground to ensure good stability when he stands. Once happy, glue them in place, and maybe drill some peg-holes so he fits on a Joe or MU figure stand.
And then he's ready to paint. The filing you've done should allow him to move fully without any paint scrapes, but simply file away some more if that happens.
I used Testor's Model Masters Gunmetal for the bodysuit, Zinc Oxide Green for the fleshtone, Aluminum for the silver, and some Michael's brand for the gold. I've not come across any new-style MB figures with green hands, and so am using some random black and gray hands as stand-ins until I eventually do find them. The new-style MBs have wider wrist pegs than the original-style. I prefer to say they're wearing gloves than try to paint them green when I know the palm paint will get scraped every time the hammer is used and removed.
With 18th-scale figures Throg will be just under hip height; which is much bigger than his comics-canon height; but who really cares? He's a super-powered frog so he gets to be bigger than normal if he really wants to. With 12th scale figures he comes up to knee-height, which is much closer. He'd probably be perfectly-scaled with 6th-scale figures; but what kind of lunatic uses those as his playing-around collection?
