Captain Antichrist

Satanism, the Antichrist, demonic imagery…you know the most shocking thing on this cover? A twenty-cent price tag. Nowadays you can’t even get a CrossGen back issue for that.*

So yeah, the ’70s Marvel landscape was nuts. “Son of Satan…?” And in case his name was too subtle, that’s a giant silver pentagram on his chest. How does this guy NOT have a ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure?

Anyway, Daimon Hellstrom…

Hmmm, well, he looks nice and moody/shadowy, but for the sake of inspecting this mod let’s get the flash on the camera cranked up to an eleven…

…there we go.

Ingredients: All parts are swiped from Heroclix figures unless otherwise noted. Base body is Bullseye (Sinister), Quicksilver head (Armor Wars), Dr. Fate cape (unleashed) and a trident from…Black Manta? Namor? It’s gotta be one of those underwater guys. I get the whole Poseidon thing, but enough with giving every Aquaman and Namor toy a trident already. When was the last time Aquaman showed up to a fight with a trident? RANT! RANT! RANT! Y’know, that trident might actually be from a Mage Knight or D&D mini…it’s been a few years since I built this guy, I’m blanking.

The pentagram on Son of Satan’s chest was one of the bigger hurdles to clear. To keep the lines straight, I x-acto’d a small circle from a piece of an index card then gave it a razor-thin edge in the form of a second layer of index card (held in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s). I then laid thin strips of index card in the shape of the pentagram (more Elmer’s) and positioned it on his chest (Elmer’s again). Using sculpting tools, I gently pressed down on the symbol, trying the best I could to get it to follow the contours of his chest. When I was happy with it, a small drip of Krazy Glue locked that sucker in place and hardened the paper. Acrlic paint, some matte spray and TA-DA!, Disney presents the Son of Satan! Custom Son of Satan dial here.

Eh, I’d give myself like a B-, maybe a C on this figure. I built this guy a few years ago and back then I‘d whip up a bunch of customs in one shot to surprise my group. That’s the case with the Son of Satan here…I modded him along with a bunch of other Defender D-listers and–racing the clock–had to cut some corners to have ‘im ready in time. Booo, me. He’s missing the strap for his cloak (or maybe he doesn’t need one: since he’s shirtless, it just sticks to his sweat! ew), plus I should have given him his “horns,’ the wavy cowlicks in his hair. I don’t mod much anymore, but when I do I take my time, no more rush jobs, no more cowlick-less customs outta me. Honest.

Some other Hellstrom stuff from around the web: first up, a custom Mego Son of Satan, then there’s a neat piece of stylized Daimon Hellstrom art and finally, a Son of Satan cover gallery (scroll down, his adventures start with #12…they should have waited one issue!).

*yes you can

…i have no idea

I make that same face whenever I take a shot to the yambag.

So anyway, Earth-2 Grimace here is the worst McDonald’s mascot ever. The good news is that if he ever goes on a rampage you could just shine a laser pointer at his see-through skull and fry his brain. Or at least make him forget math. So who is this guy and does he look any less ridiculous when shown in the proper context…?

…nope, he still looks like a wad of Hubba Bubba crossed with an evil Muppet. So here’s the deal: A fellow Heroclix player asked me to make him a custom “Gene-Grafted Brain” figure, I agreed (even though I had never heard of the character) and poked around online to see who he was. Turns out he’s the Brain, that DCU brain-in-a-jar villain that usually hangs out with Monsieur Mallah. See, in JLA: Year One the Brain gets tired of life in a fish bowl and steals body parts from a bunch of the Justice League. Sucks for all superheroes involved BUT the Flash got it especially bad…the Brain swiped his junk along with his legs. Ten bucks says Green Lantern is hoping the Brain is a lefty.

Ingredients: All parts are scavenged Heroclix figures unless otherwise noted. Base body is a Hydra agent (Sinister), right arm is Count Neferia (Mutant Mayhem), the brain/fishbowl is a Psimon (Crisis), left hand comes courtesy King Shark (Justice League) and that little “GL energy glow” is a piece of plastic whittled off a Fire figure (Collateral Damage). For his open maw I had to go digging through some non-Heroclix figures until I found the perfect screaming mouth: a Mage Knight Rattle Tail figure (Pyramid)…

The lumpy, gooey effect on the purple portion of his body is made by tearing small bits of toilet paper (like, quarter the size of a postage stamp) and sticking them to the body with a pinprick of Elmer’s. Tinier pieces were used for smaller areas of the body (jaw, hand, etc.). When that was all done I added some BB-sized lumps of TP to his body, held ‘em in place with a small dot of Elmer’s and then shaped them into tubers, tumors and veins with a modeling tool. Fun! Some drops of Krazy Glue hardened that mess, then a few coats of acrylic paint, some matte sealer (avoid any translucent parts!) and this sucker was in the books…

That random piece of debris sticking up on the base was added because I mounted this figure on an old school Heroclix dial, the kind where you have to grip the figure to spin it (which NECA brought back with HoT…why, WHY?!?). That way you can grip the debris when spinning the dial and not mess up the figure. The debris was swiped from a Ragman ‘Clix (Collateral Damage). And that’s that. Custom Gene-grafted Brain dial
here.

This is normally where I post some links to other fan-made things based on the blog’s subject, but not much in the way of Gene-grafted Brain stuff out there. Go figure.

NOT the Atari Game

Though, in all fairness, Vanguard for the Atari 2600 was six kinds of awesome. Bonus points for being an Atari game that actually had an ending. Unlike River Raid. That river gets MIGH-T thin after awhile. But let’s get to the point of this post: the moon. Specifically, Marvel Comics’ moon. That place is hoppin’…there’s Iron Man and his Soviet buddies up top, the Inhumans own lunar real estate, every now and then the X-Men visit and kill Phoenix PLUS there’s stuff like this goin’ down every Labor Day. Screw the Savage Land, the moon is the place to be. BYOB!

Anyway, on to Heroclix nonsense. First, let’s get a better look at this Vanguard fella…

A hammer & sickle for a chest emblem AND he carries a hammer and sickle…? Odds are he might be Russian. Or a Super Mario villain.

Vanguard’s one of the Soviet Super Soldiers along with his sister Darkstar, the Crimson Dynamo (or the Titanium Man on alternate Thursdays) and mutant bear Ursa Major. They’re kinda like an X-Men/Avengers amalgam team but BETTER: they’ve got a ginger.

While I like the SSS well enough, I hadn’t planned on making custom figures for the team. It was only when I stumbled across a D&D Werebear miniature that made for an easy Ursa Major custom that I felt the urge to flesh out the group’s roster.

Ingredients: It’s been forever since I built this guy and I didn’t keep notes, so I gotta spitball ingredients. That head looks like a Hal Jordan (Unleashed), upper body seems to be a Namor (Fantastic Forces), the legs are…too heavily modded for me to tell, sorry. The cape is Red Tornado (Collateral Damage) and the sickle is courtesy Kabuki (Indy HeroClix). His hammer is a random piece of plastic whittled down, costume trimmings—skirt, shoulder thingies and boots—are all index card paper hardened by Krazy Glue. Acrylic paint, a quick spray of matte and my army of obscure Heroclix customs  gets another member. Custom Vanguard dial here.

Hello Dolly

Ragdoll, the creepy, ‘Raggedy Andy’ contortionist of the DCU. A cold blooded murderer, a treacherous teammate, his body a patchwork of surgical scars…how could this little scamp NOT be a fan favorite? He’s like the little engine that could, but with MURDER! And a better costume.

This is actually the second time I’ve cobbled together a Ragdoll custom. The first (along with a Secret Six style Parademon) ended up in the collection of a ‘Six fan after she spotted ‘em here on my blog. Woof, talk about no good deed going unpunished…you should have seen the looks on the faces of some in my gaming group when I broke the news. Turns out Secret Six-themed teams were popular, I teased them with the ability to go full-roster and then took it away. Yeah, comic fans can be a reasonable bunch when you mess with their plans. Anyway, I promised to make new customs for my gaming group and now, six months later (irony!) I finally got around to it. You can check out my second stab at a Parademon here.

Ingredients: I dug around for a thin, spindly body and came up with Ragman (Collateral Damage). His head came from…hmm, some bald dude. I’m guessing Ultimate Electro (Ultimates). His hands came courtesy of Dove (Crisis), and to—hopefully—convey the broken, loose feel of the character, the pose I went with required some figure support. The pillar from the Question (Origin) delivered the goods.

Lots of little detailing went into this bugger. Each strand of hair is a thin strip of index card paper twirled for that “perm” look, a pinpoint of Elmer’s used to hold it in place. Repeat until he had a full head of hair, shape the final style with tweezers and then PLOP, a drop of Krazy Glue hardened the whole mess. The same trick went into making his scarves. All the assorted stripes on his costume will make you want to push your expensive, fine-tip paintbrush through your eye and into your brain. Enjoy!

Custom Ragdoll Heroclix dial here.

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