It’s always interesting to see people go back and reimagine the vintage MOTU figures from a more modern perspective.  What GAR has done in the case of this vintage Snout Spout custom is to not only rethink the character, but he has also stayed true to the aesthetic of the original series from the 80’s.  You really don’t see people appropriate the body from the Extendar figure in customs that often, but in this case, it’s a perfect fit.  Nice use of that Optimus Prime axe from the new Animated figures, too!

From GAR Custom:

I’ve been working on it for a long time and I never was satisfied with the colors I gave him (metallic, bronze, gold, black etc). Tried every combination, until it sunk in that the orange/red/blue from the original actually suit him best.

The idea behind this custom was that I’ve always felt that Snout Spout was too skinny. For an elephant his body was laughable and I’ve always imagined what he would be like if he was more bulky. When I found a head- and handless Extendar at a flea market, I figured I’d put the two together. That was definitely more like it.

More pics/links after the jump! (more…)

Continuing what is becoming an unintentionally arachnid-centric week of MOTU customs at Nerd City is this sweet Black Widower MOTUC custom by Masterenglish.  It’s cool to see such a simple, yet effective repaint done by someone who has mad sculpting/ customizing skills.  The moral of the story?  Sometimes a well executed repaint color scheme can be every bit as impressive as complexly resculpted custom figure.  Also, stuff like this should show Mattel that there is still great potential for more original characters that are repaints of existing figures (much like Stinkor and Moss Man back in the 80’s).

And, his eyes freaking glow in the dark!

What? What?

More pics/links after the jump! (more…)

Glass Hat is the new show opening at the always awesome Gallery 1988 Los Angeles that will feature artists from the “Grass Hut” collective. It opened last night, but will run until Feb. 26th. It will feature artwork and customs from Grass Hut artists like Nerd City favorite Le Merde, Bwana Spoons, Martin Ontiveros, Apak, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison and Arbito, and also feature friends of Grass Hut Shanggs, Shawn Wolfe, Gargamel, David Horvath, Kiyoshi Nakazawa and John Black.

Sorry that I totally missed giving the “heads up” on last night’s opening.  But I really think this one is going to be worth checking out.

For more info, go to the official G1988 site here.

For more info on all things Grass Hut, check out their official blog here.

This Friday evening promises to be a really good time (despite the cold!!) in Chicago, because of the latest opening at the Rotofugi gallery, entitled “I’ve Been to Europe, New Factual Paintings by Jay Ryan”.

From Rotofugi:

Renowned Chicago gigposter artist and all-around good guy Jay Ryan will be showing all new paintings based loosely on his travels to Europe over the years.

In Jay’s words: “It’s time for something different. As you know, I’ve been traveling a lot recently, and I wanted to share some of what I’ve learned about such strange and foreign places as Belgium and southwestern England. I’ve been working on a whole pile of paintings which accurately depict some of the remarkable customs and interesting inhabitants of these alien lands.”

Opening Reception Friday, January 29, 7-10PM with music by DJ Carrie Weston

For more info on Jay Ryan’s work, check out his official site here.

For more info on this and upcoming shows at the Rotofugi gallery, go here.

Once again, MadTinker76 has taken a character from the MOTU, erm, universe, and re-envisioned him in a new and amazing way.  This interpretation maintains most of the original design elements of the character, in terms of color and shape, but really brings the idea of the flying hero into a decidedly steam punk realm.  It’s a look that not only stands on its own as a great custom, but also oddly could have fit in with the aesthetic/feel  of some of the early MOTU mini comics.

From MadTinker76:

This was one character I have been going back and forth on designs for awhile. Crisco and I talked about it more than a year ago.. I had started one and ended up scrapping it. Wanted something different, was really leaning towards a Prince Vultan/Hawkman design from the Flash Gordon comic so I gravitated to the DC Universe Hawkman.
The Head is a DC Direct Else Worlds Green Lantern.. He had those really cool goggles and that leather cap, perfect for what I wanted to do.
I tried to keep the original character’s color scheme but updating it with a metallic/ Silverhawk shine.
I used the straps and loin clothe from the 2002 Stratos figure. I inverted the colors on the loin clothe so that the feathers matched the wings.
Thought a bird-man needed some talons so, Raven Spawn donated those. The wings are from a Zoids figure I got many years ago and that had broken during one of my moves. I removed the wings from the HOM Wolverine’s flight pack and attached the folding wings from the Zoids toy.

The Wings do open and fold..When the Wings are spread the measure close to 12 inches wide from tip to tip. The main purpose of using the HOM flight pack was to use the spring loaded action feature so that the wings could tuck further behind him and then pop out.. well it worked for first dozen times and then the locking mechanism wouldn’t catch..So, I took it apart and fixed it, just to have it not catch after the next dozen times.. at that point I decided to make the wings/flight pack removable. The Wings/Flight Pack on the back are attached with a magnet and when worn, held in place by a piece that I took off of a Rocketeer bendy toys rocket pack..

More pics after the jump. (more…)

Attention New York Nerds! Our good buddies over @ My Plastic Heart are hosting the opening of their new Hell Freezes Over art show this Friday.

Featuring customs of the rad Cranston Fellows Jr. toy by Lou Pimental, this is guaranteed to be a “hell” of a show (Get it?). For all the details, go to My Plastic Heart’s website here.

Our friends over at Mugglab.com are doing a fundraiser this week with some sweet, one of a kind, Mighty Mugg customs on ebay.

From Dr. Mugg:

I’m going to be putting eight customs up for sale on eBay this week (tba), each created by one of the artists who have been featured on Mugglab. All work has been donated, and 100% of the proceeds will go towards paying for Mugglab’s future site costs (with any luck it will pay for at least one or two more years of service). This is the first series, and each piece is unique. Each mugg will come in a Custom box, which features all of the other figures in the series on the back, and the classic green/black theme of Mugglab. This a great opportunity to grab some stocking stuffers, or to grab a great collectible.

So yeah.  Get your hands on some sweet custom Muggs and help out a great site.

For more details, check out this thread at the Mugglab forums.

Check out this sweet custom MOTUC Horde Trooper from He-Man.org member, Faceless One.  I seriously can’t wait to see what the actual MOTUC Horde Trooper from Mattel will look like.  Probably quite a bit like this one!

From Faceless One:

After two weeks of hard work, here is the result. It’s the first time I make a MOTUC custom with blister.

The base figure was a Zodac, with lots of sculpting. He has two heads, a normal one and another like in the failed eternian invasion seen in the filmation cartoon. The weapon is built from scratch, and is the filmation one. Hope you like him, he will be soon on eBay.

More pics after the jump.

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It’s fascinating to see the idea of custom action figures taken into the abstractly artistic realm.  This sort of pursuit has become a bit more common in the customization of designer vinyl pieces, but, in truth, what better to use as a canvas for expression than the toys of your youth?

HexEvo in an insanely talented customizer.  You probably know him better as Galaxy Warrior of COTU fame.  Suffice to say, if you’re not familiar with the work of HexEvo/Galaxy Warrior or COTU, it’s certainly something that you should check out.

For these particular customs, he’s chosen to go with a greffiti-inspired motif that utilizes the entirity of the figures as a canvas.  Therefore, not only the base figure and designs contribute to the theme of the given piece, but so do the text.  The Stratos piece is entitled “What Dreams May Come” and the Blaster is entitled “Beat of my Heart”.  They deal with the themes of “dreaming beyond the clouds” and “being in love with the beat of one’s heart”, respectively.

Lots more pics after the jump.

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When it comes to vintage-style MOTU customs, Galaxy Warrior is the the best. For years, now, he’s been setting the standard of quality and creativity in that particular arena, whether it be his own innovative ideas or the work that he did as one of the masterminds behind the groundbreaking COTU artistic collective.  He still continues to push things forward with his recent creations, the Cosmic Enforcers Zodak and Xenoz, and the heroic Eternian Yeti, Snowguard.  This Zodak is particularly cool  because of the sweet removable helmet, He-Ro based boots, and the custom staff.  I’m told that Zodak’s trademark tattoos will soon be added.

There’s something so cool about the color choice/paint pattern on Xenoz that is so bright and cleanly done that it looks like something that Mattel should have done back in the 80’s.  His use of the Tung Lashor arms and legs really evokes the alien/space imagery of the Cosmic Enforcers.

You’ve got to love Snowguard’s color scheme, the way that the blue “pops” against the white flocking.  Plus, it’s really cool how the flocking came out looking a bit longer than Mossman.

For more of Galaxy Warrior’s work, head over to the “customs” area of the He-Man.org message boards.

Also, check out all of his work with COTU at their blog here.

Of all of the fan-made characters from the He-Man.org message boards, Ink-Shot is my favorite.  I voted for him in Royalt1us’s contest last year, and have always thought it would be cool to attempt my own custom of him.

I’ve always dug the under sea characters for some reason.  Mer-Man is certainly a favorite of mine, but the reason that I really love Ink-Shot is that he reminds me of this dude from Battle Beasts brought into the MOTU universe.

But I digress.  Our friend, Madtinker76, has done it again with his amazing Ink-Shot custom based upon a recent Manga Spawn figure.

From Madtinker76:

I have seen several interpretations of this character in the Fan Art section, but a friend in UK, Dave came up with a more Mecha look for our Squidy Villian.
Um recipe: Mange Spawn Series 34 was the base figure, used ML Banshee’s legs as the arms to allow posing and articulation that Spawn just doesnt have.
The fingers are tendril from a Spawn Creech figure and went well with the squidy look.
The Two larger tentacles on the back are from a Marvel Select Doc Ock.
The base of the head is a Xmen Classics Juggernaut with epoxy and tentacles from a toy octopus.
Painted the armor a blueish green, and tried to paint the arms and the head with a white pearl to give a wet slimy look..

For more of Madtinker76’s work, check out his page at Figure Realm here.

I know that I’ve said this a million times before, but I really love the Camobot figure released by Mr. Jago a few years ago.  The design/sculpt combines the idea of mecha/robot toys with graffiti aesthetics.  It combines the literal with the totally abstract.  Thus, I’m sure that doing a custom with the figure must be an incredibly daunting proposition.  Chris Rose, the brilliant artist/customizer from England, is just the man for the job.

Chris applied his signiture craft/steampunk aesthetic with a painting style that is actually quite similar to what Mr. Jago does in his 2-D work to create what has to be one of the coolest customs that I’ve seen this year.  Rose has also pulled in the nature theme which shows up in a lot of his pieces by applying bits of moss all over the ‘bot. More pics and links after the jump. (more…)

Our friends from Argentina, Toyboys Inc are truly masters of the art of making great looking vintage-style MOTU customs.  Their latest batch features a few characters from the original Filmation cartoon that never made it into toy form, including one of the best Icer customs that I’ve ever seen.  Also included are Rago, Kittrina, Cringer, and, as a special bonus- Jem!  Truly outrageous!

Pics after the jump

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Whether it’s his original creations or his dedication to producing unfinished COTU designs, Chrisbryan is always filling the He-Man.org message board with amazing vintage-style MOTU customs.  Cact-Eye,  for example, is a really cool original creation left over from the COTU days that was intended to be a wild west villain for Rio Blast to go up against.

Hound of Hordak is another design that was originally conceived by the guys at COTU to flesh out The Evil Horde a bit more with a werewolf-type character. (Yep, that’s a Sungold Galaxy Warriors Anubi head)

And this Keldor custom is the exact figure that Mattel should have produced back in the 80’s for King Randor’s Brother’s pre-Skeletor incarnation. (Yep, that’s a Remco Lost World of the Warlord Deimos head)

Check out all of Chrisbryan’s creations over at the He-MAn.org Customs section here.

When it comes to MOTUC-style customs, you can’t get much better than the work of Masterenglish. His Spikor is no exception, blending in incredibly well with the existing figures in the line, but taking awesome creative liberties that go above and beyond what the actual MOTUC figure will probably look like.

From Masterenglish:

Been on my to-do list for too long. Now I can scratch it off!
Faker base, Despero head. ALL spikes have been sculpted, as well as trident, forearm, and armor. Trident has free spinning range of motion, basically I sculpted the trident over Fakers hand and popped it back on when finished

More spiky goodness after the jump! (more…)