How I Made My First Marvel Legends Custom Figure

Something different for today! I’ve had a recent desire to get back into a childhood hobby of mine: Marvel Legends! With the march of time, the toy line of Marvel figures has changed hands from Toy Biz to Hasbro and there’s been many improvements in how these toys are made. With that said, I found a bunch of heavily discounted Marvel Legends figures, many of them X-Men related, and on a whim, I snapped them up with one goal: make custom MC2 Marvel Legends figures!  Here’s my first attempt, making the leader of the Uncanny X-People; Jubilee as she appears in the MC2.

 

To start off with, I had purchased the X-Men ’97 series Jubilee figure which has a great head sculpt and detailing. Normally Jubilee figures portray her rocking her iconic 90’s clothing with the blue gloves, rolled up yellow jacket, pink shirt and blue shorts, but the figure here reflects her costume change from seen at the end of X-Men ‘97’s first season. Fortunately, I also picked up the Husk figure from the Nemesis Build-A-Figure series, which has the now-classic Generation X red body suit I needed. I learned as a kid that hot water and Marvel Legends don’t mix, and thus with a ‘boil and pop’ I hit what I thought was my first stumbling block.

 

Oh no! Are the heads not interchangeable? Turns out the pegs are designed the same, and with a little adjustment I was able to swap them over. Some blue tack was required as one head socket was bigger than the other. The boil and pop let me take Jubilee’s coat and arms out and re-place them on the Husk figure’s torso.

 

The second problem, and again it was very minor, was the hands. Jubilee in the MC2 wears yellow gloves, the 90’s version had blue gloves and neither of these figures had either. Enter the Age of Apocalypse Rogue figure which was part of the Colossus Build-A-Figure series. Marked down a ridiculous 80%, I got this and several others in a bundle very cheap. And she has yellow gloves. Everything came together and all is right with the world, folks!

 

Anyway, I’m extremely happy with how this turned out and how easily the parts came together. I’m looking forward to making more in the (MC2) future so stay tuned!

 

Until I figure out how to paint figures, manufacture my own accessories and make my own dollies, I remain

 

frogoat

Spider-Symmetry: Tombstone

 

Certain recent leaked images from the set of Sony and Marvel Studios upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film production Spider-Man: Brand New Day -purported to be real- featuring the original wallcrawler Spider-Man (as portrayed by Tom Holland) and notorious crime boss and hardman Tombstone (Marvin Jones III) in a very familiar scene.

 

And by familiar, I mean a direct homage to beloved and sorely missed comic book legend Sal Buscema’s work as seen on the cover of Spectacular Spider-Man #142, which depicts Lonnie Lincoln aka Tombstone dangling Spider-Man by one hand over the edge of a towering construction site.

 

Fittingly, long-time collaborator Ron Frenz pays homage to this iconic image in the pages of the digital-first Spectacular Spider-Girl (vol. 1) #2 which saw physical release in Amazing Spider-Man Family #6, featuring Tombstone dangling Spider-Girl aka May ‘Mayday’ Parker by one leg-in-hand over the edge of a towering construction site.

 

I love the craft and the respect paid to Mr. Buscema, who contributed directly to the Spider-Girl homage, having performed inking duties over Ron Frenz’s pencils. If the leaked image proves authentic, it will be bittersweet and for me melancholic joy to see a piece of Sal’s extensive iconography make it to the big screen.

 

Until I run out of praise for Mr Silvio ‘Sal’ Buscema (which will NEVER happen), I remain

 

frogoat