During a recent cleaning of the Iron-Cow Prod. studios, several long-lost works-in-progress action figures were unearthed. Work on these pieces had been started years back, but for a variety of reasons they were never seen through to completion. Some of the figures were simply waiting to join other half-finished pieces for some potential Custom Con entry while others felt more like creative mis-fires and never made it into the public for viewing. One figure in particular felt too simple too even include in the gallery, and yet it was the subject of numerous emails from people wishing to get a better look.

Rather than let these pieces sit in storage for years more, it was decided these particular figures should be removed from the Iron-Cow Prod vaults, finished off to a degree of completion, and to give you a glimpse into what may have been (and more importantly serve as a teaser to what may yet still be in the works).

RECIPES:

Trenchcoat Joker

The Trenchoat Joker is reworked from a DC Direct Jim Lee-styled Hush Joker. The clown shoes were sanded down and reworked, and the headsculpt was swapped with one from the First Appearance Red Hood figure. The trenchcoat is taken from an X2: X-Men United Cyclops figure and is reworked to fit the frame of the Joker.

In hindsight, I probably should have done something different with the sleeves of the jacket. While I was trying to maintain the "skinny as a rail" look for the Joker, the arms on this custom might be a bit too skinny and not quite ruffled enough to really capture a "trenchcoat" effect. Still, it's decent enough for the display shelf.

Ed McGuinness Batman

The basic on the DC Cirect McGuinness Batman is really quite nice, though. The sculpt captures the very specific proportions Ed is known for drawing. I wasn't happy with how the arms stuck out, though, so I hollowed out the sides of the figure to allow the arms to lie closer to sides. I then removed the original cape the figure had come with and replaced it with a combination of 2 capes taken from the Batman Forever movie line. It's a bit messy on the backside of the figure, but from the front it looks pretty rockin'.

This project barely qualifies as a custom, and yet I'm really happy with the results. If you want to see a guy who has taken the art of Ed McGuinness to a whole new level, though, you've gotta check out Swass!Design. That guy has come up with an army of the most amazing McG-styled customs. Brilliant stuff.

Professor Zoom

I blame Anubis8 for this piece. His love for all things Flash is infectious!

Anyway, the Professor Zoom custom began a few years back. I had taken a liking to the DC Direct "Rebirth" Hal Jordon figure and saw this as a potentially great generic base figure for several projects. I removed the Hal Jordon headsculpt (which found its way onto my Earth-2 Robin piece), and then began sanding down the surface details on the figure. Magic Sculpt was used to fill in the seams of the original costume while I used red vinyl to form the bands of red lightning. The headsculpt is taken from a Marvel Legends Scorpion figure. It needed some reworking, but I love the intensity of the expression.

Ideally, the Professor Zoom should have been a super-articulated figure, but I like the lean, taut musculature of the Hal Jordon sculpt. It creates a nice tension of the character right before he zooms into action.

Cyclops (Neal Adams Era)

This Cyclops piece was originally created to be part of an overall line of Neal Adams-era X-Men custom figures. Unfortunately, I found myself distracted with other projects and never finished the series.

The figure itself is reworked from a Marvel Legends Bullseye. I removed the various belts and pouches from the figure and added in forearms and boots from a Marvel Legends Angel figure, I believe. Truth be told, it's been such a long time I've since forgotten. Anyway, the visor comes from the old 5" ToyBiz First Appearance X-Men boxed set, while any bits of touching up was handled using Magic Sculpt.

In hindsight, I think this is a decent enough custom, although I would certainly try a different approach if I were to reattempt the project today. Still, it was a fun experiment and I still toy with the idea of completeing the rest of the Neal Adams-era X-Men at some point.

Flash 1990 (John Wesley Shipp)

This Flash custom has been half-completed for years now. I started him awhile back as part of an overall larger "Live Action DC Heroes" line, but I kept getting distracted by other projects.

Anyway, the base figure is a Marvel Legends Black Panther figure. The forearms and boots were removed and replaced with those from a Marvel Legends Bullseye. These had the surface details sanded down to better match the TV Flash costume. Finally, the headsculpt is a reworked version of a Kingdom Come Red Robin figure. After some prodding from Swass! Gene Lantern, Anubis8, and Airmax, I decided to go back and revisit the sculpt, reworking the torso to better match the look of the tv outfit. As an added bonus, this also helps mask the base figure a bit.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the Flash turned out. I can't believe this guy sat in storage for 2 years. For some reason, I just had a hard time getting motivated to finish him, but oddly enough it only took 5 hours to polish him off. In fact, I'm so excited now that he's done, can a Mark Hamill Trickster be far behind?

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