TMNT & OTHER STRANGENESS

The Unknown Ninja

2011-12-10T03:21:00.010-05:00

Well here are are again and what's this? An old school cartoon custom!
I've not done very many as I was trying to focus on the Mirage cast first but when the latest old toon dvd was released I got inspired.
So here we have one of the most hated characters in the history of TMNT, Carter.
I'm not quite sure why he was/ is so hated but it seems as years pass and new fans come across the later episodes, the hate for Carter seems to fade just a bit.
While he's not one of my favorite characters, I always felt he needed to be represented in toy form.

He stars in seasons 9 & 10 which you can read about by clicking the numbers.
Season 9 is available for purchase HERE
To make this figure a reality I took 2 figures.

The first being Modern Starman from the DC Universe Classics line, I use his body as it's pretty much exactly like Carters.(A bit of sanding was done on the coat, sculpted the shirt to a longer length, and lots of paint.)
I had the idea the moment the toy was shown at toyfair some time ago, I sadly couldn't think of a head though until recently.

Dc Direct released the new Aqualad action figure from the Brightest Day series.
When I saw the prototype of this figure I just knew it would be the closest I'd ever get to a match for Carter without me sculpting a new head myself.
Mind you I did have to re-sculpt the hair which turned out to be quite a challenge.
So here he is and I hope you like him even if you hate him. ;)

Carter a work in progress

2011-11-03T20:34:00.002-04:00

I thought I'd do some more old toon characters.
I know not many people like Carter but he's someone I've always wanted a toy of.

Pestilence

2011-07-29T13:09:00.007-04:00

Hey everyone! A new custom finally!
This time round it's Pestilence of the four horsemen from the Archie TMNT Adventures series.
As you may recall I did a figure of Death a few years back.
Pestilence has always been my favorite of the bunch as his design is just so cool!(We can thank Peter Laird for that)
I do plan to make the other two horsemen in time, but I'm sad to say I'm going to be taking a bit of a break as of this post.
I won't be gone for to long though you can count on that. :)
I made Pestilence by completely sanding down a McFarlane Toys Total Chaos Quartz figure and sculpting over the entire body.
I got the idea for the texture of the figure from an old Toy Biz Spider-Man Swarm figure.
Though I did all of the texturing for this by hand.
I did try to leave as much articulation as possible but it wasn't easy with this one.
And while he isn't my largest custom he is by far the heaviest of the bunch.

I'm really happy with how he turned out and I hope you are as well.

You can catch Pestilence in TMNT Adventures issues #38, #39, & Mighty Mutanimals #6

"Bloodsucker is hungry for Turtles!"

2011-05-24T20:35:00.001-04:00

This one took a bit to paint as I had to do more research than usual.

Bloodsucker is from Volume 1 of the Mirage Black & White comic books.
He never even got a cover from the issues he was in so figuring out how to color him was a bit of a challenge.

I decided to go with the color of a real leach instead of the wild yellow color given to the Archie TMNT series character Wyrm.

I went in this direction because most if not all Mirage characters use real life or earth tone colors for the characters.
The figure was made using a Marvel Legends Venom figure that I sanded down.

I replaced his hands and the front of the feet with those from DC Universe Classics Parasite.

The head is completely sculpted besides the mouth tendrils, those are made using little fishing lures.

Thanks for checking this out and up next is Pestilence!

Cha Ocho

2011-03-19T20:59:00.010-04:00

Well It's been awhile again..work and life get in the way of fun stuff like TMNT customs.

But here is Cha Ocho of Mirage TMNT Volume 4 & Tales of the TMNT Volume 2.

This was a character that I thought would be easy to make at first but ran into many road blocks when working on it.

The biggest problem was consistency which tends to be a problem when basing a toy off of a character that has been drawn by quite a few people.

Not to mention we don't see him in color very often, as the Mirage comics are black & white (besides the covers).
I had to take a bit from other images of volume 4 Foot Soldiers to bring it all together into something I was happy with.

This figure was made using a DC Universe Classics John Stewart figure and lost os sculpting (New hair, straps, katana sheath, leg armor, Arm armor, shoulder armor, foot and hand armor)

I hope you folks out there enjoy him as well.

More to come soon and I hope this time it won't be another 4 months.

Stump Wrestling Donatello

2010-12-21T15:14:00.003-05:00

This custom was made for Technodrome forum member Spitfire and is based on Donatello's outfit as seen in Archie Adventures #7, #8, & #37.

Nobody's Fool

2010-11-13T22:49:00.011-05:00

Hey folks! It's been quite some time since my last custom figure.
Life sort of gets in the way of doing fun things like this some times.
I'm going to try and do these more often again though.

Todays custom is Nobody from the Mirage Comics series Tales of the TMNT.
This custom is based mostly on Nobodys first apearance inside Tales of the TMNT Vol. 1 #2.
Check it out here

I used a few figures to make this figure.

The body is that of DCUC Batman & Superman Public Enemies "Major Force" figure.

The Head is that of Marvel Legends Moon Knight figure.

The cape comes from a McFarlene Toys Deluxe Burnt Spawn figure.
I hope you enjoy this figure as much as I enjoyed making it!

Warrior Dragon Part 2

2010-05-22T04:44:00.008-04:00

Well here it is the final painted sculpt of my Archie TMNT Adventures Warrior Dragon custom action figure!

This guy took me about a month to do from start to finish and is by far the largest custom I've done thus far.

The base is a marvel legends Fin Fang Foom figure.

I sanded down the entire body, sculpted over the entire body (nails, armor, hair, nose, face hair, back fins, chest, wraps, & collar), & painted the body from head to tail.

This character was rather difficult to pin down design wise, as he was drawn a number of ways over the span of the comics.

I'm dedicating this figure to 2 of my biggest inspirations from my teenage years Ryan Brown & Steve Murphy aka Dean Clarrain.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed making it!

Bishop's Gambit

2010-05-21T00:01:00.008-04:00

I wasn't very happy with Playmates Toys Bishop figure so I've decided to make my own.
I used a Dc Universe Classics The Question & an Agent Smith head from the Matrix toy line.
I sanded down The Questions neck and placed the Agent Smith head in.
I also sanded down the collar on The Questions coat, sander back Agent Smiths hairline, & sideburns.
I repainted The Questions shirt, coat, pants, & hands.
On Agent Smiths head I repainted the entire head, eyebrows and all.

The Making Of A Warrior

2010-05-07T05:28:00.011-04:00

This is the first look at a custom I've been working on for quite some time.

I used a Marvel Legends Fin Fang Foom build a figure to create this custom.

I sanded down the entire body, cut the fins off his face and tail, and sculpted a lot of parts from head to toe!

This is my largest custom to date dwarfing even my Titanus custom.

So without further waiting here are the prepainted Warrior Dragon photos.

Go! Lani! Go!

2010-05-07T05:19:00.004-04:00

This custom was made for myself and is of Golani from the Archie TMNT Adventure comics #53 - #54.

Stump Wrestling Leonardo

2010-05-07T05:13:00.004-04:00

This custom was made for Technodrome forum member Spitfire and is based on Archie TMNT Adventures #7, #8, & #37.

Stump Wreslting Michelangelo

2010-05-07T04:50:00.004-04:00

This custom was made for Technodrome member Spitfire and is based on the Archie Comics TMNT Adventures issues #7, #8, & #37.

A Raph Of A Different Color!

2010-05-07T04:01:00.008-04:00

This custom was recently done for Technodrome member Master Splinter and is based on the Archie TMNT Adventures Covers #7, #8, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, & #37

For whatever reason the covers always had him with purple highlights instead of blue that we saw inside the comics.

Progress

2009-08-01T19:33:00.004-04:00

What you see is the prepainted Black Costume Raphael's I'm making for the great folks @ Mirage and select TMNT fans who paid for these commissions.
I'll be posting more progress shots as I go along.
Thanks everyone!
-Vaughn M.
P.S. if anyone is interested in having one of these made please contact me @ suicidegodpill@aol.com

This Aint No Spider Man!

2009-06-27T06:25:00.004-04:00

This is my last post before I pack up my computer and ready myself for my big move back to California.
The last 3 years have been crazy, fun, full of learning, and growing.
I spent allot of time in pain which has taken a serious toll on my life let alone making customs.
This and what will be the other 3 Wrestling TMNT are commissioned by great TMNT fan Spitfire.
I must appologise for taking so long with this all but I hope you can understand.
I'll post the other Turtles as a finish them.
And if anyone else orderd one of these from me expect to get them at San Diego Comic-Con.
This has been a long time coming baby!
Thanks So Much for everything guys.
-Vaughn

"(DON'T FEAR) THE REAPER"

2009-04-28T02:23:00.015-04:00

This custom took me awhile because I wanted to have a cloak for him before I showed the final piece.
I looked for a long time to see if I could just buy one or use one from another action figure line like star Wars.
I then got the idea to have one made via my good friend Heather but as she was making one for me I came across a used toy shop that had the perfect cloak already made on a 12 inch size Star Wars Jawa figure.
I was also looking for the perfect Scythe for Death also and that came from a NECA Resident Evil 4 - Monk figure.
The base figure is a Playmates Skeleton Warriors Shriek, and what I did to change it into Death was:
Break off her crown, pull out the hair, fill in the holes left by pulling both out, sculpt new details into the skull, take out the gold eyes, cut off Arm bracelets, cut off her cape, cut off plastic dress around waist, broke off knife holder, sanded down bands around legs, sanded down breasts, & sculpted a new rib cage on the chest area.
For painting I first painted the entire figure white then second I did a yellow draw wash coat on the figure, then I repeated the process with black paint detailing the sculpting from the original figure more along with my new additions to the toy, I also went over the figure a few times touching up the black lines in the skulls cracks, face, eye holes, and around the ribs.
I based the look of the figure on his appearances in both the Archie TMNT Adventures & Mutanimals series trying to mix the 2 the best I could.
This was a very fun figure to make as it was an idea I've had for a very long time and did one back in my teenage years but it doesn't even come close to this version.
It's always fun to see how far you've grown as an artist by looking back at your past work and comparing it to the things you're currently doing.
I do have more planned for Death so keep an eye out for some customs that will go along with him.

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD!

2009-04-23T18:45:00.008-04:00

This I think is one of my best customs, mostly because I've put allot of time into it as it's not for myself.
This figure is for my friend and creator of this character Steve Murphy so I wanted to make sure everything was to exact detail for him.
Sadly this shouldn't have taken me as long as it did but I had a few paint problems along the way.
I used a WWE Armando Estrada figure as the base incase anyone wanted to know.
The Gun comes from a Movie Spawn figure & The Cigar comes from a Don Moncinni Gangsters Inc figure which will be used for another upcoming custom.
I based his look on various appearances through the comics but his outfit is based on the United We Stand Divided We Fall storyline from TMNT Adventures & Mighty Mutanimals.
If you're not familiar with these comics you should be so check them out over at
http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/archie/archie.htm
http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/archie/mutanimals.htm

VACUUM-METALIZED FUGITOID!

2009-04-03T08:01:00.004-04:00

Today Peter Laird shared some images on his blog of a Vac-Metal Fugitoid that Playmates may be producing.Just Like Peter I've been waiting years for this to happen.So please if you feel the same way share your excitement on his blog about just how cool this is.Sadly it's not articulated but perhaps we can change their minds to give the figure just a little bit.

Please check out Peters Blog HERE and let him know what you think.

Complete Carnage

2008-12-03T10:29:00.018-05:00

So this one I worked on for about 2 weeks as my schedule is very busy right now.
I used a DC Universe Etrigan the Demon figure for the base as it's been made known to me that this is the character Kevin Eastman was inspired by when creating Complete Carnage.
What I did to the figure was: sanded it down from head to toe, took off his bracelets, then went at the head sanding down the horns and nose, I pretty much sculpted a new face over the head extending the jaw so it hangs more like Carnage's does, added the little blocks on top of his head as advised by Ryan Brown (The Spiked head look came later and is sacrilegious according to him), I sliced part of the fin ear things off the side of his head as well to match the number Carnage had on his design, & I also added nipples to his chest as every time we see the character he's had them.
The paint was done using both glossy and flat acrylic paints and several washes of different shades of gray.
This was a very fun character to make and I hope I can make Radical some point down the road as well.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.
Oh and if you want to view the images in full size just click them.

Attack Of The Neutrinos (part 2 in 3 part series)

2008-11-19T02:44:00.002-05:00

Well this damn figure (Kala) and her little Pet the Grybyx have taken me forever to finish what with starting a job and trying to get them as perfect as I can so I don't have to hear to much of "I'd have done it this or that way" and then having the Grybyx's arm's break off and having to resculpt him.
I've also been working on a set of 4 custom TMNT for Spitfire, Finishing a painting for a client, and just started working a cd design for a local band. So there hasn't been much time for me to do my own projects and trust me there are allot of TMNT customs I've got lined up.
I was never happy with how Kala was painted and the things she came with, that's why I did this.
One of the hardest parts was trying to do the cartoonish black outlines around the figures as I had to keep going back over and repainting color parts as the paint would get on a little to much.
The other thing that made this so difficult was the fact that the shade of green that they used on Kala's outfit in the show isn't sold in stores so I had to mix quite a few shades together for that and some other things like the Grybyx's eyes.
I really tried as hard as I could though to get these things to look as close to the show, so I hope you enjoy them.

Teenagers From Dimension X

2008-06-28T15:04:00.000-04:00

Last time I showed the start of my custom corrected Zak the Neutrino figure.
Now it's time to share the final piece with an extra photo of Zak with the 4 NECA TMNT to show the height of the figure matches pretty closely to how it should in conjunction to the turtles and the style trying to closely match that of the new NECA figures.

Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X

2008-06-26T04:57:00.000-04:00

I thought I would start sharing some of the things I'm working on and the first of them is a figure I've always really never been to happy with because of how it didn't look as it did on the show.
These are all the first photos of my custom Zak the Neutrino, I will be posting photos of the finished figure soon so please keep that in mind.
What I've changed so far on the figure is that I've cut off allot of the extra unneeded detail, sculpted a new nose on his face to match how it looks on the show, and the biggest things where his hair and shoulder pads.
I will also be fixing Dask, Kala, making Kala's Grybyx, as well as making the Star Mobile.
So keep an eye out for all of that as well as a General Traag figure to go along with this set also made completely from another figure.

TMNT RETRO

2008-06-11T02:58:00.000-04:00

Steve Murphy Asked Me what I think TMNT Retro should be so here it goes:
What I think a Retro line should be is a small list of the original cast of the old cartoon the TMNT, Splinter, April, Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, a Foot Soldier, and Perhaps General Traag just to even things out a bit in the exact looks they had in either the very first episodes they had been in or during the later season of the show in the first season 8 episode "Get Shredder", I think the characters look top Notch around this time or a little before in the end of season 7.
I'd say give it a chance if it's successful try with a few more characters such as Leatherhead or Slash as they had been in the old toon style for 2 more series.
The title Retro is given because it is marketed towards older fans who grew up with the series and the casual viewer who goes wow krang or bebop I remember them from when I was a kid I want that it looks just like the show and is better than the one I had as a kid, which will happen as let's face it adults want quality items.We're talking retro for everyone but when it comes down to it, it's the adults who would buy these even on a whim.

But you really never know who's going to buy things and I mean no one does not even people who think they know, They want to make TMNT variants make ones like these ideas and not only will you have your variants but you'll be making allot of older fans happy as well and not only that but they will be much better updated versions hopefully done by Neca or by Playmates if they realize that today's action figure market is allot different than it used to be.

By that I mean that figures are very articulated for the most part or have very detailed sculpts and 9 times out of 10 look exactly like the characters they are based on and are in the correct height/ Scale with every other character in the series they come from.

I really can't stress that there is no better time than now to do this with the turtles anniversary around the corner, I feel if this is passed up now it may never happen.

The images are official style guides used for the 80's-90's cartoon series as well as some screen caps as examples of what I'm talking about.

Mama say have fun? aka Tokka pt. 2!

2008-03-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

Moving along with my art for Tokka, painting has now begun.

Click for a larger detailed view.

Titanus's Last Stand

2008-02-08T14:39:00.000-05:00

I entered Titanus in the Fan Art Contest over @ Ninjaturtles.com and won this week.

Just thought I would share with all of you.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Tokka for Tokka Part 1

2008-01-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

This drawing of Tokka is for my good friend Tokka/Dave many of you know him.
He collects different artists renditions of his name sake and has been going through rough times as of late so as a gift I thought I'd take a stab at the character.
My Drawing is based off of the Jim Henson Companies animatronic costume.

Titanus Part 3

2008-01-22T05:03:00.000-05:00

Just like the characters Story line, all good things must come to an end.
It took a very long time to paint this guy with finding just the right colors, brushes fraying, etc.
But here he is and I hope you like him, I tried to get him as close to how he looks on the show as possible with adding some extra detail.
I thought I'd toss in some images of Titanus vs. the TMNT & with Krang's Android Body from 1994 just for fun.

Titanus Part 2

2008-01-20T12:10:00.000-05:00

THE FINAL BAKED SCULPT OF TITANUS.

Titanus Part 1

2008-01-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

Titanus was a character that didn't last to long in the red sky seasons of the old cartoon but I still like how he looks and have always wanted a figure of him along with many others this is just the first in many figures I plan to make.
If you have no idea who Titanus is you can read more about him HERE, HERE, & HERE.
I'd like to give a bit of information on what I'm sculpting on top of to make Titanus.
I'm using a Dark Ages Spawn Ogre figure, he's pretty large and when a turtle is standing next to him it's a pretty good height for a figure of Titanus who is a really large character.

Here we have the start of the sculpt.