[Hit & Run]

That is a perfect version of Doc! Great job on him. Hard to find any flaws because the part selection & paint job all came together beautifully. He looks like he should be put on a card & released in stores.

[shakka85]

Wowsers! That Doc is amazing! The details pop, thanks to your exceptional paint job. The parts are perfection for an updated Doc. No critiques from me, only a healthy helping of praises on a job well done!

-Todd
Shakka85

[Yeet]

Doc looks swell!

[Goin' Commando]

Great figures and great photos!

[kuh_rupht]

Best version of Doc!!! Absolutely knocked this out of the park.

[HissHissFangFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlw515

Awesome work on Doc! And thanks for the shout out. Before I get to Doc, I'd like to comment on Beachhead. I think that this custom illustrates one of the examples of where Hasbro has really gotten a character right. Your Beachhead is a simply parts swap with some painting and it looks very close to the original card art and action figure. While I prefer the 25th Beachhead head sculpt with the ribbed balaclava, I think the Retaliation Firefly head is a great second(?) choice and kind of gives a negative effect with the original figure in that the original figure had a ribbed balaclava and smooth shirt, and your custom has the ribbed shirt and smooth balaclava.

The negative ribbed detailing did come to mind once I made the head switch. I never noticed that his shirt and mask didn't have matching ribbing (on vintage figure and card art) until Pugsley pointed it out--the 25th figure was my first Beachhead. I figured that if at least one of the two was left ribbed on my figure, it'd be okay in the long run.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlw515

Now, moving to Doc. Doc has always been one of my favorite action figures. I think it has to do with the uniqueness of his uniform and that, as a toy, he came with so many cool accessories....

My only critique here, and it just goes with looking more like the ARAH figure, is not having the rolled sleeves. I can't wait to see more pics, especially of the back of the figure. It looks like you added some paint details to the patches on the arms.

Jason.

The rolled vs non-rolled sleeves was one of four things I thought owners of the original figure would critique. With all figures, there are some little hot points that can bother those original owners--enough to keep them from fully enjoying a custom of their favorite figure, especially when it's something that can be fixed relatively easy. I'm usually in that situation with other figures, so it's nice to get that kind of feedback from you for Doc.

Design-wise, I went with the unrolled Firefly sleeves because he Flint arm seemed too rolled up (2 or 3 cuffs). On the original the sleeves appeared more non-rolled than rolled, or rolled only one cuff. But that was based on google image searching, not having the figure in hand. Also, the Flint arm is a little longer than I wanted. When working on this Doc, I made a collage of various customs for research and comparison, and below is a snippet of various arms:



Also (and more honestly) I'm holding off on the rolled up sleeves as an option for upgrading Recondo. But that one's ways away, and I'm seeing that the vintage figure has sleeves rolled up much higher than the 25th. Recondo is another example of a vintage figure I don't have, with the 25th version being my first. Actually, though I picked up a bunch of my T13 in vintage form in the last few years, the only vintage Joes I had (beyond 4 OG13), were Airborne and Wild Bill. So I'm going to be missing a bunch of hot points on a bunch of figures in this thread going forward.

The other 3 items were (1) kneepads; (2) red cross on opposite chest side; (3) turtleneck--probably would have been a lot more distracting if I left it at full height like I originally wanted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yeet

Doc looks swell!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goin' Commando

Great figures and great photos!

Quote:

Originally Posted by shakka85

Wowsers! That Doc is amazing! The details pop, thanks to your exceptional paint job. The parts are perfection for an updated Doc. No critiques from me, only a healthy helping of praises on a job well done!

-Todd
Shakka85

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit & Run

That is a perfect version of Doc! Great job on him. Hard to find any flaws because the part selection & paint job all came together beautifully. He looks like he should be put on a card & released in stores.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kuh_rupht

Best version of Doc!!! Absolutely knocked this out of the park.

Thanks for the comments guys. I have to say that all of you are putting out amazing and inspiring stuff these last few months, and I kick myself for not commenting in other threads more--especially when I thought this year (w/ 6" only a few weeks away) that Joe customizing at 3.75" would have been severely reduced. Keep it going!

[francis2064]

Bro, you have some of the best customs I've seen, I am trying to move away from 25th parts and updating my figures but you make those parts shine with your paint and picture talents, I really like to put figures together with parts and heads that are proportionate to the whole figure and you also do a great job there. Your pictures are inspiring me to take better ones of my collection.

[turner]

This rocks man, where do you get all these flint/firefly type torsos? I dig those.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HissHissFangFan

DOC

This is a quick 1983 interlude. jlw515 convinced my that 25th Hasbro version of Doc really could use an update, and that using the original vintage Doc helmet wasn't too out of proportion with the modern figure. Though tempted to buy MTF parts for this guy, I had spare 50th Firefly and Flint parts that needed a good home. That, and I ordered a Marvel Falcon head cast from StarWarsGeek and wasn't expecting to have delivered for weeks, but he sent it real quick.

This build is not much different from those of customizers here. I'd say it was a hybrid of builds by elmobfaelnar15 and Oreobuilder, with some other small alterations:


PhotoGrid_1591234708929~2 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

I don't have the vintage version, so my only references were the interwebs and the 25th figure (loose no carback). I was trying to stay faithful to the original, but made some tweaks on purpose that sort of deviate. Feel free to point them out, and I can explain the whys.

More pics later down the road, when I've got more time and energy, and when I jump back to some 1983 updates (currently on slow fixatation with 1986)...

[HissHissFangFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turner

This rocks man, where do you get all these flint/firefly type torsos? I dig those.

After years ago a Chinese ebay seller was selling incomplete 50th Steeler bodies, and some 50th Flint upper torsos (no lower torso, but with full arms and hands). but that stock ran out. Since then I've got ebay saved searches for flint, firefly, hitNrun and steeler which I buy immediately if $15 or lower.

There's also a toy store in st Louis MO (Time Warp Toy Store), and this spring he got his hands on a nice stock of 50th and POc figures. He gives frequent customers a discount, so I stocked up on a few HnR, DG blue cobra troopers and some others for some fodder, $10-$12 apiece. This year has been about getting that fodder and other fodder to shelf use.

[AxonRey]

Surprise, surprise. You killed it again!

Always love your work, bud. You really get into the weeds in these designs and I love it because I try to do the same. Not as successfully, of course, but I try.