RAW POWER!

Belly Bomb is my newest Archie TMNT Adventures custom figure and I couldn't be more excited!

I've wanted a toy of this guy ever since he graced the pages of the comics!

What you see here is the unpainted sculpt of the figure I've been working on.

The painted version will be posted very soon.

He was made using a Marvel Legends Unleashed Doctor Octopus figure and lots of Super Sculpey.

I started out by sanding him down and hallowing out his gut and sculpting his boots.

Next I sculpted the inside of his mouth, tongue, & belt buckle.

Then I sculpted his bottom set of teeth.

Next I made his upper mouth and part of his eye-stalk that I hoped could be articulated.

Next the upper set of teeth are added.

Sadly the eye-stalk could not be articulated so I had to go back and sand down what I had sculpted and remove the neck peg and re-sculpt everything.

Back to sculpting the eye-stalk here, realizing I had to do it in parts.

Next came the eye and eye socket and lots and lots of detail.

Next I sculpt the bumps on the top of his head and the eyes in the palms of his hands.

Now I add the horns.

I did a lot for this last bit as I added the cuffs to his jacket, his jacket, and collar.

Here a front view of this last step.

I hope you enjoyed this step by step look at Belly Bomb as much as I did making him!

I've not done this sort of thing before so please do let me know if you enjoyed it and would to see me do this with more figures.

Next week the fully painted figure!

The Unknown Ninja

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. ;)

Bishop's Gambit

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.

"(DON'T FEAR) THE REAPER"

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.