[Itchweed]

These are great and deserve to stay on the top of threads.

I don’t see nothin wrong, with a little BUMP and grind.

[Steel Brigade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Itchweed

These are great and deserve to stay on the top of threads.
I don?t see nothin wrong, with a little BUMP and grind.

NICE! Flattery will get you everywhere!

[jlw515]

SB,

Super cool customs again!

What are your thoughts on the new Christina head sculpt? How does the face compare with the Athena sculpt?

Jason

[Steel Brigade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlw515

SB,
Super cool customs again!
What are your thoughts on the new Christina head sculpt? How does the face compare with the Athena sculpt?
Jason

Hey thanks Jason! I like the Christina head sculpt, the removable hair feature works really well & gives some freshness to the kind of stagnant & overused head sculpts offered for years on the Valks. The original test shots for that head made it look like the Christina & Kathy-Jo were pretty much the same with different hair sculpts, but they are quite different in person... With the Christina having a wider face & more prominent cheekbones... The similarities they do have though is a slight smirk & vibrant red lipstick. The 2 new head sculpts for the ladies definitely feel more detailed than the prior ones like Athena, but in turn, the Athena head sculpt looks more natural & neutral. That's my worth lol.

[jlw515]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steel Brigade

Hey thanks Jason! I like the Christina head sculpt, the removable hair feature works really well & gives some freshness to the kind of stagnant & overused head sculpts offered for years on the Valks. The original test shots for that head made it look like the Christina & Kathy-Jo were pretty much the same with different hair sculpts, but they are quite different in person... With the Christina having a wider face & more prominent cheekbones... The similarities they do have though is a slight smirk & vibrant red lipstick. The 2 new head sculpts for the ladies definitely feel more detailed than the prior ones like Athena, but in turn, the Athena head sculpt looks more natural & neutral. That's my worth lol.

Awesome! Thanks for the comments. With the Athena head, as you said with a "more natural & neutral" look, I've found that a simple hair piece swap makes a difference where a Athena head with long black hair doesn't necessarily look the same has one with long blonde hair. That's why I love the diversity of the neutral look of that face.

I'm hoping the Christina head will make a nice Baroness once I get some glasses on her!

Jason

[Steel Brigade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlw515

Awesome! Thanks for the comments. With the Athena head, as you said with a "more natural & neutral" look, I've found that a simple hair piece swap makes a difference where a Athena head with long black hair doesn't necessarily look the same has one with long blonde hair. That's why I love the diversity of the neutral look of that face.
I'm hoping the Christina head will make a nice Baroness once I get some glasses on her!
Jason

Sure thing! I also have a Baroness in the works using the Christina head... She'll be in an upcoming wave... and I already have the glasses. ;-)

[Steel Brigade]

NEW RECRUITS!!!!! NEW STORY! INTRODUCING DINO-HUNTERS!

When revisiting ideas from the past for new ideas for this very thread, I was inspired by the cancelled "Jurassic Joe" line that first manifested in 2011. I had one of the test-shots (the Mercenary) & a couple of exclusive toys (Dinosaurs + Trooper combos) made it out to Toys R Us (Jurassic Park 3D line from 2013), but many were cancelled. Using this as a starting point, I began to create my roster... Combining ideas from the unreleased figures, the original G.I. Joe Dino-Hunters from 1993, & other ideas from the history of G.I. Joe & Jurassic Park that I thought would fit. I came up with a roster of 15 (& more) figures for this new story line... Here are the first 5 builds for my latest MTF story... based off the classic & cancelled "Dino-Hunters!"

*The naming convention for the code names/last names in this series is based after the Jurassic Park 3D 2013 line, so all of the names have a similar style to that line eg: "Gunner Gordon" ... "Ambush McMahon."

SEASON 1: MARAUDER TASK FORCE
SEASON 2: MTF - TOKYO DARK
SEASON 3: MTF - SQUAD 87Z
SEASON 4: MTF - OCTOBER STORM
SEASON 5: MTF - PHANTOM FORCE
SEASON 6: MTF - ROC REMIX
SEASON 7: MTF - WILD STRIKE!
SEASON 8: MARAUDERGEDDON
WAR MACHINE TRIBUTE (from the 2009 G.I. Joe mockbuster!)
SEASON 9: FUTURE WAR
SIDE STORY: SHINJUKU DEMON PARADE
SEASON 10: WET WORLD
'NAM 19XX:
-EXPANDED UNIVERSE-
SUNRUNNER MIDORI
SKY COMMANDERS 2087
VOR-TECH: UNDERCOVER
LORD OF INSECTS

DINO-HUNTERS: Under the guise of developing an amusement park resort on a little known island, Cobra scientists are using DNA from a long dormant volcano discovery to recreate fantastical creatures from the past .... extinct prehistoric Dinosaurs are being reborn!

WAVE 91: DINO HUNTERS (Wave 1)
451. AMBUSH MCMAHON (based on 1993 G.I. Joe Dino-Hunters '"Ambush")
G.I. Joe
Origin: USA
Dino-Hunters

Although one of the leading men in our series (& one of two original Dino-Hunters back in 1993,) Ambush was one of the last of my first seven that I've have already finished creating for this series (out of the currently planned fifteen.) I remember seeing this set at my local TRU growing up, but never owned either version of Ambush from ARAH back then despite his prominence in the DIC series. The challenge with him here was finding the right head, & mostly honoring the color palette... I think I came up with a happy medium for homaging the original Dino-Hunter with a buid that I like with MTF for him. Recipe: CFT head, modified belt, bandolier that is more accurate (despite using the realistic color,) & a bandana-ed helmet!

BIO: Reports came in from Kerguelen island fisherman to the US military that strange creatures were being seen on Amsterdam Isle, a dormant volcanic island since the 1990's, that is known to house underground Cobra scientific labs under various fake names. G.I. Joe was called in & an adventure team was created, starting with AMBUSH MCMAHON, & LOW-LIGHT MACBRIDE. Both members known for their super stealth techniques that could come in handy for a top secret mission & hand selected by the Team's commander... FLINT FAIREBORN. AMBUSH was always fascinated by dinosaurs growing up & even took some paleontology courses in college...now in his twilight years with G.I. Joe, he thought he'd seen it all, but still jumped at the chance of seeing a living dinosaur with his own eyes... even a Cobra created one.

[Steel Brigade]

452. ELECTRON FONTANA (based on the cancelled Jurassic Park 2011/Dino-Hunters Adventure Team line)
G.I. Joe (affiliate)
Origin: Brazil
Dino-Hunters

This guy was supposed to come with an Allosaurus in the planned JP Dino-Hunters line, there was even packaging done but no name for him was discovered before cancellation. He used the body that was created for the 25th version of Flash/Tripwire/Major Bludd & a head that was unique to him, but later used by the Club for Muskrat. I wanted to have one cool, mysterious character for the good guys, & not make all the unique characters on the bad guys side. I named him "Electron," which was on of Flash's alternate code names in Brazil. The stickers on his helmet are from the MTF helmet sticker sheet. He was the first figure specifically made by me for this series, & created several months ago long before the others.

BIO: ELECTRON FONTANA was called in from Brazil as a G.I. Joe affiliate to be the "exotics" expert. Having a reputation for rescuing & tracking hundreds of creatures in the wild over the last decade. The Joes don't have a lot of practice with what should be long extinct, so ELECTRON'S know-how & state of the art equipment is their best bet here to help. His helmet is filled with super sensory equipment & his armored legs are filled with strength amplifiers to keep him excelling, even on this dangerous & unpredictable island.

[Steel Brigade]

453. DINO-VIPER(S) (based on the cancelled Jurassic Park 2011/Dino-Hunters Adventure Team line)
Cobra
Origin: various
Dino-Hunters

There was three of these unreleased JP A.W.E. Striker drivers planned for the "Jurassic Joe" line. Where starting here with the green one. The original was built with a Resolute Cobra Trooper base, they had a neat inclusion of a Tekagi-Shuko (Ninja claw) to (I'm guessing ) fight off the Dinos. This one was getting back to MTF basics for me with this build, so I thought the choice of using the "fang" balaclava spoke to the dinosaur theme!

BIO: DINO-VIPERS are the grunts of the Cobra Secret Dinosaur project, meant to be security for the island, wranglers of the prehistoric livestock, & active in both day & night within the island's greenery & cliffs. Their patrols are frequent & detailed... It's said their large Tekagi-Shuko claw that they carry is not just for their possessed martial arts combat skills when fighting off intruders in hand-to hand combat, but also to engage the smaller dinosaurs on their own terms... the DINO-VIPERS call them "Raptor Feet!"

[Steel Brigade]

454. OUTBACK SELKIRK (based on the 1993 G.I. Joe Battle Corps Outback)
G.I. Joe
Origin: USA
Dino-Hunters
(2020~2023 Lost Waves Figure #13)

So Outback here has a different history than the rest of the Dino-Hunters. Being one of the "Lost Figures" from 2020, I originally intended him to be an undercover survivalist for the Season 6 (ROC Remix) story line, aboard the MTF Mobile Command Center if things went south... But now his timing seemed well suited for the Dino-Hunters! This version also being released the same year as the original Dino-Hunters in the Battle Corps line (& I guess originally planned for Eco-Force.) Funny that back in 2013, a website that did custom O-Ring figures (Chad & Matthew's custom G.I. Joes) also included this Outback in their own homage to the Dino-Hunters line. Of course he (like all the other 2020 lost figures I created) was delayed back then due to the unreleased MGR 2020 head sculpts, but in his case, it may have been a blessing, as I get to showcase him among the Dino-Hunters line now in 2023. The only change from my original build back in 2020 is I added a drop-down belt for his Dino-Hunters debut.

BIO: You don't have an Adventure Team mission without OUTBACK SELKIRK. He's the guy that's going to get you in, & even more importantly, get you out when things get wild. He's respectful, a part of the environment, knows what to eat, knows where to climb, & knows exactly what to do when Cobra makes that same environment hostile. No one ever asks on a mission like this about OUTBACK'S attendance, it's just assumed he's on the roster. Like you, OUTBACK'S never dealt with dinosaurs, but can you think of any other Joe you'd want by your side if you did?