Darkstar

I love the above art like it was made of candy. I found it here.

Anyway, Darkstar. No, no…not the Donna Troy character no one remembers, the blond Russian no one knows. I hadn’t planned on making her, but after finding a D&D miniature that would take exactly two seconds to mod into an Ursa Major–plus the fact that there was already a Crimson Dynamo ‘Clix–I thought eh, might as well flesh out the Soviet Super Soldier roster. The mod of her twin brother Vanguard was covered here, Darkstar info below…

Ingredients: Base body is Firestar (Mutant Mayhem). That’s such a great figure to use as a base mod since her body is so smooth. That sounds vaguely creepy. Moving along, Darkstar’s noggin came courtesy Wonder Woman (Icons)…

Chest emblem, headband and costume trimmings are all strips of index card held in place with a small smear of Elmer’s and hardened with Krazy Glue. Acrylic paint, some matte finish and that’s all she wrote. Custom Darkstar dial here.

She came out okay, but c’mon, it’s a black jogging suit. How hard can the mod be? Looking back at this custom (I built it years ago), I think it would have benefited from some translucent plastic “energy glow” effects around her hands. Those always add a some…I wanna use the word “pizazz,” but that’s the kind of thing that would get me beat up and stuffed in a locker. I’ll go with “neat.” Those clear plastic energy effects look neat.

Some Darkstar and Soviet Super Soldiers stuff from around the web:

Custom Marvel Legends-style Darkstar here, here and here.

Custom ML Vanguard here.

Vanguard

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. Darkstar custom here.

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.

Ursa Major

I wonder how that above scene ranks on the Hulk’s “weird day” scale? What is it, maybe a six out of ten? Seven…? It’s a bear holding his arms behind his back while a guy in armor gives him the business. FUN FACT: It would only rank a four on my weird scale.

Anyway, the Soviet Super Soldiers. They’re like a Russian Avengers/X-Men hybrid team, but instead of a Norse God of Thunder or adamantium-laced killing machine they have a bear. A mutant bear. I love Marvel.

There’s Vanguard, who can pull a Unus and repel any object with his mutant power. His sister Darkstar can do Green Lantern-like stuff with black “dark force” energy. Crimson Dynamo, who likes vodka more than Iron Man and finally, Ursa Major, who drew the short stick of mutant powers by being able to transform into a bear. While that would kick ass in the real world, his phone probably doesn’t ring whenever Galactus invades the Marvel U. “The Devourer of Worlds is coming! Quick, someone get a bear!”

Impressive sculpt, right…? Thanks, I had next to nothing to do with it. Ursa here is just a D&D Miniatures Werebear. The extent of my painting was doing his nails. Forget that, though, check this out: live-action Ursa Major vs. the Hulk. Prepare for crazy!

This might actually beat out Conan for least-modded custom I ever tried to take credit for. I wasn’t even looking to make an Ursa Major figure (no one is), but when searching D&D miniatures for a gorilla to make a custom Grodd, I stumbled across the werebear. I ordered one, chopped off his ax (what kind of pussy werewolf bear needs an ax?) and voila, mutant Russian bear superhero. It was like Christmas.

Ingredients: Laziness.

And that’s that. Some Random Soviet Super Soldiers stuff below, custom Ursa Major Heroclix dial here.

More Soviet Super Soldiers here (Vanguard) and here (Darkstar).

Old school Titanium Man cartoon.

Cool stylized Soviet Super Soldier fan art.

Russian MiniMates.

Neat SSS avatar guys.

And finally, you know that creepy little dude inside the Titanium Man armor, the Gremlin? Here’s a custom Marvel Legend. It’s super disturbing and will live inside your eyes forever. Don’t click the link.

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