Minimate Customs: Bring on the Bad Guys

Fallin' behind on the ol' Minimate custom showcase again, so it's time to start blowing through them with some big theme posts.  Today will feature some of the bad guys of the Marvel Universe, an area that our friends at Art Asylum have left sadly underexplored.  A shame, because the House of Ideas has turned out some great, colorful villains.  It's up to us, I guess, to fill in the holes.
Constrictor

 I'm not ashamed to say that I love the Constrictor; he may be my favorite villain in the entire Marvel Universe.  I first saw him not in a comic, but as an action figure from the third wave of Secret Wars figures in the early '80s, a wave that never saw domestic release.  Constrictor was a bizarre choice for the toy line, in that he was a very low-profile villain, and (as with wave-mates Electro and Iceman) wasn't even a part of the Secret Wars comic from which the toy line shared its' name.  But, I guess, you can't blame them.  Constrictor's just a cool lookin' dude.

As I began to fool around more and more with decals, it just made sense to make my own Constrictor (even though I did finally get my Constrictor figure as part of the Marvel Universe 3 3/4" action figure line).  I used a design sheet Art Asylum had release for the Hydra Agent (which I can't seem to find now, or I'd link to it) for his mask, then added lots of little lines to one of the Minimate Factory's many templates.  While time consuming, creating the decals was actually relatively easy.

Much tougher was figuring out how to create his arm tentacles, and how to attach them.  During the time between my creation of the decals and my printing them, DST was kind enough to release Omega Red; this solved the tentacles question nicely.  Now, all that was left was putting them on his wrists.  After trying out various unsatisfying possibilities, I discovered that the perfect solution had been sitting in front of me the whole time, on the wrists of a Halo Minimate I'd bought as a lark.  A little orange and blue paint, some superglue, and one of my favorite characters had turned into one of my favorite customs.

And here's those decals, for all the other members of the Constrictor fan club out there:

Blacklash

 Another favorite character, this guy just kind of came together one day.  His chest comes from Namor, with the gold belt around his waste scraped off (it looks better in person), and his mask has been used several times, most notably with the Silver Age X-Men.  I clipped off the pony tail from Loki, painted it green and glued it to the top of his mask, where it has fallen off several times.  His cape and feet come from several different Magneto Minimates (both Magneto and Blacklash apparently like to mix up their purples), and his gloves were donated by a Sentinel.  Finally, rounding out the ensemble is a purse borrowed from the Marvel Universe's maven of fashion, the Green Goblin, painted the appropriate shade of purple.  Blacklash is unfortunately missing his, well, lash, as I've yet to find one I like.  They can't all be Constrictors!

Dread Dormamu

I've had an amazing streak of never having a custom replaced by an official version that's about to be broken by, of all people, this guy.  At least DST is going for his contemporary armored look and not the classic Ditko version I've attempted to capture here.  Just a simple quick custom, based mostly on the visual similarities between Dr. Strange's nemesis and the Human Torch: head, hands, feet, and flame accessories from the Torch; body from a Skrull; rounded out by a belt from Ocean Master.

Mad Thinker

 
Another quick custom, using the otherwise uninspiring body of the first Red Skull Minimate.  His head can be found under the Swordsman's mask, and his hair comes from BSG's Sharon Valerii.  A horrible hairpiece on her, I think it works quite nicely here.  I quite like him, because he uses some 'mate I wasn't all that happy with to make something pretty good.  The sum outweighing the parts and all that.

The Hood

Someone else came up with the idea of painting Cloak's... er... cloak red to make current Marvel crime boss Parker Robbins' alter ego; I just stole borrowed the idea.  He's literally just Cloaks cape and hood on this video game guy's body.  The end.  Fun fact: the Hood is actually possessed by the Dread Dormammu, as seen above. 

Radioactive Man

 
 This guy barely counts as a custom, as half his body comes from the official Radioactive Man release.  But there's paint here, so more work went into him than about 75% of my other customs, so go figure.  I had to buy a translucent green blank for his legs, which took ages to find, then saw them everywhere once DST released a new Gamma Hulk.  Sigh.  His boots come from Guy Gardner, and his skirt's from Elektra or Deathstrike or one of the hundred other women that wear these little skirts, painted green.  You here that, Radioactive Man?  You're wearing a women's skirt!  Anyway, I've since acquired green paint that closer matches the rest of his outfit, so maybe someday I'll touch him up.  But probably not.

Black Tom Cassidy

 Can you believe this is the first X-Men related custom I've ever made?  Really not a fan.  Anyway, Black Tom came about basically because I came across a decal of him made for a Lego that was easy to adapt.  His head comes from an Iron Man/Tony Stark figure (you're welcome to dig through the endless Iron Men to find the exact one), and his collar's from Star Sapphire.  Hated to paint over it, but what can you do?  Accuracy's a must.  He's got 90's Storm's irritating puffy sleeves, and, one day, he'll have the walking stick I spotted coming with the upcoming Kirby Thor.  Let's end this farce with what you're really here for, the decal.