Minimate Customs: Best of 2010

So some of the guys over at the Minimate Multiverse are holding a Best Customs of 2010 contest, and I've decided to enter my wares.  Some of my entries will be guys I've already shown here, but some are not, and seeing as how I needed to host my photos somewhere in order to send them in... here are my entries in the Best Customs of 2010 contest!


First off, here's the ones I've previously shown that I'm nominating:

Best Marvel Comics custom: Quasar
Best other comics custom: Grendel
Best movies/tv/video game custom: Strong Bad

Okay, here's the new guys.

Best DC Comics custom: The Sandman

 
This guy came about rather serendipitously.   I'd wanted to make him for ages, but was stymied by the lack of a gas mask in the right style.  Then came the announcement of the MAX line, which features Minimates of policemen and firemen and the like, and includes a very nice gas mask.  There's step one.  I also had sitting around in my parts box the hat from the female Question, which I'd mutilated in an attempt to remove the hair.  The problem was that the hat was so freaking big that it looked ridiculous on top of a Minimate head without all that hair.  So it had been useless to me... but proved to be just the right size for the gas mask after I lopped it off the fireman helmet.  I ended up using a black Sharpie to darken in the lenses of the mask.  Here's a closer look:

The rest went off without a hitch.  His coat, arms and legs are from a Back to the Future Doc Brown, his chest is from a Western Minimate, and his gas gun is a repurposed Star Trek phaser rifle (which I'd like to replace if I ever get a better idea.  I'm really happy with how he turned out (obviously, or I wouldn't be nominating him for such a prestigious award).  Oh, here's a look at what I was going for, from the great Matt Wagner:

Best box set/series of four: the Challengers of the Unknown

I honestly don't have a lot to say about these guys, as they are pretty simple, but I made 'em, and they fit the category, so might as well nominate 'em.  The Challs- from left to right, Red, Ace, Rocky, and Prof, respectively- are a Jack Kirby creation that a lot of historians consider a precursor to the Fantastic Four. They are basically a team of adventurers in purple jumpsuits, and I was happy to make them.  The heads and hair come from various Minimates, and I'm not about to try and figure out which exactly.  The bodies were made by using the chest and crotch of the original Green Goblin, and the arms and legs come from Sentinels.  And believe me, it was a pain to get four Sentinels. 




Best Quick Custom: Shanna the She-Devil

 

A quick custom is a Minimate that's put together using all existing parts, without modification.  Now, most of my customs probably fall into that category (though that's changing more and more), but this is one I particularly like.  Shanna the She-Devil is Marvel's jungle girl (a archetype that has a long and somewhat dubious history).  For the past several years, she's mostly been associated with Ka-Zar (for simplicity's sake, Marvel's Tarzan) but she actually appeared as the star of her own short-lived series.  Here's a cover by the legendary Jim Steranko (who sadly did not do the interiors):

  

She's become even more bimboized in recent years, but I still like her original (slightly) more modest fur bathing suit.  Anyway, I was almost immediately inspired to make her when this Iron Man 2 Black Widow figure was announced.  Her face comes from BSG Captivity Six, her hair from the awful 90's Jean Grey, and she was rounded out with a little knife and this necklace thingie from one of the Street Fighters which I just happened to have laying around.

So that's it... I'll be sure to update y'all on how this thing goes.  I'm sure you can't wait.