O.G. Trilogy's Custom Comics Action Figures and Accessories

[O.G.Trilogy]

Custom Black Widow & Donna Troy by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

A while back a friend gave me an extra Donna Troy (Wonder Girl) figure (minus the head) to use for custom fodder and I finally got around to using it. I decided to make a custom figure of Black Widow in a costume she wore during the 80's and early 90's. Black Widow's head came from a DC Direct Tomorrow Woman figure. I picked that figure because it had short hair and it was cheap. Tomorrow Woman had a swivel neck joint, so I had to dremel out her head to fit this Donna Troy body. She had some big earrings and a star sculpted on he face too so I had to scrape those off with an exacto knife and I repainted the head with acrylic paints. The Donna Troy figure was completely repainted as well. The high collar is a cut out strip of vinyl that I glued into place and painted. I don't think Black Widow ever actually wore her belt with this costume in the comics, but since Wonder Girl had a belt already I thought it would be a good excuse to help break the monotony of this all-grey suit. I trimmed the existing belt down to be thinner with an exacto knife to serve as a base for the yellow circles. I used a hole punch on some heavy card stock to get the little dots and I painted and glued them on one at a time. I'm pretty happy with the way she turned out.


Black Widow & Hawkeye by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr


Black Widow Vs. Ultron by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr


The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

[O.G.Trilogy]

Batman: Custom Alfred Pennyworth by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

This is the DC Direct Alfred figure from the "Hush" series. I hated the paint job he came with originally, and tried to make him look a little more like the Animated Series version. I added a small amount of sculpty to the back of his head to make it look like he has a little bit of hair and repainted his entire head and neck (except for the eyes) with acrylic paints.

[O.G.Trilogy]

Custom Year Two Batman by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

Batman carried a pistol during one of his earlier cases in which he fought a deadly vigilante called the Reaper. The Reaper used his trademark sickles to slash an "X" across Batman's chest during their first encounter. Batman: Year Two helps explain why the Batman does not carry a gun.

This Batman figure came in a two-pack with a repainted Azrael Batman and I bought him really cheap on evilbay. This "Battle Damaged" Batman originally came with one slash painted across his bat-emblem, so I just painted on another to make an "X". I used an exact-o knife to cut in between the index and middle fingers to get a separate Trigger Finger for the pistol. I also tried to touch up a few spots on the belt with acrylic paints and painted the belt buckle gold.

[O.G.Trilogy]

Batman: Custom Animated Series Style Mr. Freeze by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

I've been a Batman fan since I can remember, but I was never really aware of Mr. Freeze until his appearance on "Batman: The Animated Series". The show's creators transformed Mr. Freeze from a lame, D-list villain into a well-rounded character who is as sympathetic and compelling as Two-Face.

This figure is a kitbash that has been rereleased many times. The older, comic accurate versions are hard to find and very expensive on the secondary market. The latest version is readily available but sports a horrible Super Powers inspired color scheme. I bought one of these latest versions and decided to repaint him to match the way he looked in the Animated Series.

This figure originally had a play feature in which you could twist his waist to rotate his head. First I removed his pink-tinted dome and removed some parts in his torso to deactivate this play feature. Then I took off the boots and gloves and dyed the body with Black Rit Dye on the stove top. I repainted him with acrylic paints and reassembled him.

The backpack was originally a separate piece with the gun permanently attached by soft plastic tubes. I didn't like the gun he came with so I cut the tubes off and customized a new Ice Canon out of a spring loaded missile launcher that came with my old Star Wars Hoth Playset. The Ice Blast Effect is a projectile that came with a 6 inch Iron Man figure that I painted blue and white and glued into the barrel of Freeze's Ice Gun.

The New Clear plastic dome came from a quarter machine at the front of a grocery store. It fit perfecty into the hole after I removed the part that held the original pink dome in place. I painted a gray band around the base using masking tape to get a nice clean line.

[O.G.Trilogy]

Custom Comic Style Bat-Signal w/ Light-Up Feature! by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

Last summer Mattel produced a line of Dark Knight Rises figures that each came with a part to build a working Bat-Signal. I have mixed feelings about TDKR and I definately didn't want to buy a $20 figure of the dumb kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun. Besides, I would have rather had a Universal, Comic-Book Style Bat-Signal.

One of the movie figures that I did like enough to buy was the Anne Hathaway Catwoman and she came with the Bat-Signal Base and Control Box. It originally came with a recessed area in the middle to plug the Signal into, so I cut out a piece of cardstock to make the floor even and consistant.


Custom Comic Style Bat-Signal w/ Light-Up Feature! by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

The Spotlight part came as an accessory to a Wrestler figure that I found at Big Lots. It was originally white and red with a removable lens. I took out the lens, painted the spotlight black and gave it a few good drybrushed coats of Grey and Silver Acrylics.


Custom Comic Style Bat-Signal w/ Light-Up Feature! by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

The new lens is a piece of thin plexiglass from a cheapie poster frame and the Bat-shaped cut out is heavy cardstock that I painted with Acrylic Paints. The rim around the front edge of the signal is a plastic lid from a 22 oz cup that I carefully cut out and painted to match the rest of the signal.


Custom Comic Style Bat-Signal w/ Light-Up Feature! by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

I bought a really inexpensive LED Lantern at Big Lots also and took it apart just to use the light and switch from it. I drilled holes into the back of the Signal and down through the base with a dremel tool and made a small battery compartment underneath the base. I drilled a large hole on one side of the base for the on/off button so you don't have to lift it up or turn it around to use the light-up feature.

I think that a Comic-Style Bat-Signal packaged with a New Batman figure would have been a great seller at retail. It would have been easier and less expensive for collector types and parents to get thier kids a really fun toy.


"I'll look into it." Batman Rooftop Diorama by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

Finished a rooftop diorama to display my Custom Batsignal on a while back. I made it using scrap styrofaom, sticky-back foam sheets and acrylic paints. I plan on doing a few more of these to display all my other Batman figures eventually.

[O.G.Trilogy]

Batman: Custom Bane Action Figure by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

As with most of my custom figures, Bane here was born out of necessity and cheapness. There have been a few comic style Bane figures produced by DC Direct and Mattel. The DC Direct Knightfall version and the DC Superheroes version are usually pretty expensive on the secondary market and are not exactly sculpted to my liking. The DCUC Build-a-Figure version is out of the question because I'd have to buy a few figures that I don't want to collect each peice and even then he'd be ridiculously out of scale.

Since I did buy the DCUC Robin & Riddler figures (which came with Bane's head, lower torso & left arm) I decided to start looking for another figure that I could use for Bane's body. This was orginally a WWE Undertaker figure that I chose because of his tank top, boots and gloves.

The Undertaker came with a bunch of tattoos up and down each arm and on his neck. At first I tried to remove these with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser which works but was taking a long time. My girlfriend suggested Acetone to remove the tattoos. The nail polish remover worked on the softer plastic arms, but completely ruined the finish of the figure's neck and chest which is made of a different kind of plastic. Unfortunately, this forced me to completely repaint the figure's arms and exposed chest because I couldn't find a paint to match the original flesh color. I carefully painted around the shoulder and elbow joints and was able to retain all of the figure's articulation except for the swivel bicep.

After the painting was done, I put the figure together. The DC Universe B-A-F Bane head is a perfect fit for this Undertaker body. I removed the Venom Hose frome the B-A-F arm and glued it to the Undertaker arm. The strap around Bane's bicep was cut from the Undertaker's removeable elbow pad. I had to trim the hose down a bit because it was a little too long for this figure's smaller frame.

The belt is from the DC Universe B-A-F too. It was kinda like a skirt that fit over the pelvis of the B-A-F, so I cut out the center and superglued the belt onto the new figure just under the swivel waist joint. I had to trim a few sections off the belt to fit this smaller figure.

I repainted the exposed fingers and made small dots for the knuckle holes in Bane's gloves. Finally I carefully went over the light gray parts of Bane's mask with a brighter white acrylic paint to make the eyes stand out more. Thanks for looking!


Batman: Custom Bane Action Figure by O.G.Trilogy Strikes Back, on Flickr

[AcidDragon]

Awesome Bane. Even though I'm quite happy with the DCUC CnC, at the very least, that'd be a fantastic "unjuiced" Bane! Also, that Black Widow leaps right off my 1991 Marvel Comics cards!

[Doc]

Great, great work. Your paint aps are inspiring.

Doc

[O.G.Trilogy]

Awesome Bane. Even though I'm quite happy with the DCUC CnC, at the very least, that'd be a fantastic "unjuiced" Bane! Also, that Black Widow leaps right off my 1991 Marvel Comics cards!

Great, great work. Your paint aps are inspiring.

Thank you both.

I have never completed a Build-A-Figure or a Collect And Connect figure EVER. I really dislike the whole concept and I refuse to buy figures that I don't actually want. Oftentimes I think the Build-A-Figures are way out of scale anyway. I know that different artist draw characters at different sizes, but in the Death of Superman, Doomsday wasn't 3 times Big Blue's height. Bane wasn't twice Batman's size in Vengence of Bane or Knightfall. I'd much rather buy a large figure flat out than have to hunt for figures I don't really want or need to build one. I loved how Hasbro released the Marvel Universe Sentinel and Galactus figures as an alternative to the B-A-F concept and I don't understand why Mattel won't try to sell oversized figures as retailer or internet exclusvies. Uh, sorry to go on a rant there.

[tonyrome]

Wow, Lois and the batmobile really kick ass.