BILLIUM's Customs Vol. 2 Iron Maiden, Solo, Blood Spider, Bride of Venom, The Burglar pg1

[BILLIUM]

Shame I lost everything in the Blip of 2020, but life moves on. Anywho, I recently picked up a few Man-Thing and Howard the Duck TPB's; what can I say? I'm a huge Steve Gerber fan. And one character of Steve's that I don't see Hasbro ever getting to is Howard's girlfriend, Beverly Switzler. This was an easy, but effective one.

Recipe:

Hair: Gwen Stacy
Head: Mary Jane Watson (from the Retro Gwen figure)
Body: Moira MacTaggert

I used a hair dryer to heat up the MJ and Gwen heads until the hair peeled nicely off of them both. I then painted Gwen's hair red, followed by a reddish-brown wash. The red paint didn't really want to stick too well for some reason, so once I was done doing touchups on the hair and headband, I painted some Modpodge on to make sure the paint stayed on there. After that, it was a simple matter of Super Gluing the hair onto the MJ head, and voila, we have Beverly Switzler. For a nice added touch, I gave the 2019 comic Loki sword to Howard to mimic the cover to Howard's first ongoing comic issue, which also happened to be Bev's first appearance.

[BILLIUM]

I've been wanting an MCU Dr. Hank Pym for a good three years now, Imagine my surprise when I found this kit on eBay!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324571887789

I immediately grabbed one (grab yours today!) and set to work.

I painted the hair a medium grey and then dry brushed some white onto it; same for the facial hair and eyebrows. I mixed a lighter skin tone up for him before going over his wrinkles and lips in a darker skin tone to really show his age a bit. I removed all of the lettering and symbols from his Loki jacket with some paint brush restorer. I couldn't get the TVA symbol off of his belt so I had to paint some brown over that.

For the Hot Wheels Rally Case, I cut out the decals, brushed some Krazy Glue on the case, and placed the decals on. Easy peasy. Then I popped the glasses on, and voila! Now I own one of my biggest MCU figure wants, and I'm thrilled to add him to the shelf.






"Here, let me hold onto that for you, Dr. Pym!"
"No! Let go, you wombat!"

[BILLIUM]

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not an Ultimate Marvel fan... at all. I never was, even when it was fresh and coming out. I tried to get into it several times (Wizard Magazine used to talk it up big time), but it was never for me. However, I am a big Black Widow fan, and I thought Ultimate Black Widow would make for a really cool figure. I'd been planning to make her for a while, but, two years ago, my best option for the boots were the Gamerverse Ms. Marvel figure, which, of course, wasn't proportionate to the regular female figure body, given that it was made for the teen female body. So I put the idea for her on the back burner and worked on other things. And then Hasbro revealed the Sylvie figure, and I know what I had to do!

Recipe:
Head: Retro Wasp
Upper torso: Female SHIELD Agent cast
Arms: Walgreens Emma Frost
Vest: MCU Infinity War Black Widow
Belt: Domino (2018 Sasquatch wave)
Lower torso, legs, hands: Sylvie
Thigh Pouches: Lady Deadpool
Guns and effects: Target Exclusive White Costume Black Widow

For the head, I used a Retro Wasp head. I ordered a new dry brushing brush and applied some red to the hair. I used the Dremel to ground away the MCU sculpt on her lower torso and used Milliput to resculpt it. I used a flat black on her outfit with silver for the trim (buttons, zippers, etc.) and I mixed up a flesh tone for the neck. I had left over Emma Frost arms from a Madelyne Pryor, and they were perfect, complete with their glove cuffs; I didn't need to paint a thing on them. I also had to slice open the trigger fingers so she could properly fire her guns, but that X-acto knife made that an easy task.

Ultimate Black Widow was a lot of fun to make, and I'm thrilled to finally add her to the collection!

[BILLIUM]

As a Black Widow fan, I was glad to see her get her own Build-a-Figure series to to into her movie, but, alas, we didn't really get any villains unique to her from the comics. I wanted to make Iron Maiden, but at the time (early 2021), there wasn't a good base body for her. Fast forward to the Age of Apocalypse Kitty Pryde figure's reveal and inspiration struck!

Head: Madame Masque head cast
Scarf: Jyn Erso
Body: AoA Kitty Pryde

I used a Dremel to shave down the joints on the body's upper torso and shoulders. I used Miliput to fill in the head a little. I then painted the upper arms and head silver. I then painted the eyes black with white pupils. For the scarf, I used a great Vallejo purple before coating it in Modpodge to prevent paint rubbing and flaking. To remove the flesh tone from the fingers, I used a paint brush restorer. I finally used a black Gundam Marker to fill in the segments of her costume to add detail to the sculpt. This was an easy, but incredibly fun custom to make. The figure isn't 100% accurate to the source material, but I have to say, it works for me, and I love how she looks.

Finally, I'd like to dedicate this figure to Iron Maiden's co-creator, George Perez; there will never be another creator like him, and I can't express what a joy it's been to read and see his work over the years. He's also one helluva nice guy. Thank you George, you're the best!

[BILLIUM]

I love making obscure characters, especially when I don't think they, or a particular costume of theirs, has a chance of being made by Hasbro. If Solo ever gets a figure, it'll probably be something more modern, and I would much prefer his classic look.

A few years ago, I replaced my Hydra troops with the figures Hasbro Pulse was offering (I much preferred the Hydra symbol being present on the arm). When I did that, it allowed me to use the old Hydra Soldiers from 2014 as fodder. I'd been considering making Solo for a while, and then I recalled seeing Camarodude1967's head cast for him on eBay; it would end up saving me a lot of time and work, so I bought one.

Recipe:
Head: Mar-Vell head cast (thanks Camarodude1967!)
Body, hands: Hydra Soldier (2014)
Shoulder straps, bandolier, thigh holster: AIM Soldier 2-pack
Thigh pouches: Shatterstar
Belt, wrist cuffs, revolver, and knife: Union Jack
Handgun (in thigh holster): White suit Deadpool
Calf straps: X-Men costume Deadpool (Sauron wave/2018)
Boots and feet: Machine Man
Semi-automatic pistol: Old ToyBiz Punisher (Marvel Super Heroes, I believe)

I didn't want to use the yellow boots, so I heated and popped those off in case I thought of someone I could use them for later (A lot of characters seem to wear yellow boots). I Dremelled down some Machine Man boots, as well as the Hydra Soldier wrists to minimize paint rub. I painted the thigh holster, thigh pouches, wrist cuffs, hands, calf straps, and boots a flat Vallejo brown. Then I added all of his guns, straps, pouches, and holster. Easy peasy. And now I own a brand new character with little chance of being made for the Spider-Man display.

[BILLIUM]

So, after making Solo, I had the itch to make another character from David Michelinie's Spider-Man run (check it out, it's one of my favorites!): Blood Spider! He's an obscure character, I had all of the parts, and I do enjoy a good Spider-Man variant. How could I resist? Basically, the guy was trained by Taskmaster to become a hired goon with spider-powers (along with Death-Shield and Jagged Bow, Captain America and Hawkeye copycats, respectively).

Recipe:
Head: Retro Pizza Spider-Man (2017)
Body: Symbiote Spider-Man (Kingpin Series, 2019)
Thwipping hand: Back in Black Deadpool
Fist: Sunspot
Backpack: Pyro (vs Rogue 2-pack)
Feet: Black Costume Spider-Man (Sandman Series, 2017)

I decided to mix a few of his looks together, both from the cover of "The Amazing Spider-Man" #367 and his appearance in Flash Thompson's solo Venom book. I painted the eye frames a bright green, and the lower portion of his mask a flat black. For the backpack, I heated it, removed the collar piece, and painted it silver. I swapped in the new hands, and drilled a wider, deeper hole for the backpack to better fit him. Finally, I heated and swapped the feet from a 2017 Black Costume Spider-Man for accuracy. And that was it! Very simple, yet effective. And now I have an obscure Spider-Man variant that I just don't see Hasbro making anytime soon, and a new villain for the shelf at that!

[BILLIUM]

I was on Figure Realm and saw aaronchase's She Venom custom and said to myself, "Wow, I need one of those!"

Head: Bride of Venom (ToyBiz)
Body: Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter; Molten Man Series; 2019)
Arms and legs: Shriek
Hands: Back in Black Deadpool

I didn't want to copy aaronchase's recipe, so I changed up a few things. I heated and popped the limbs off of the Spider-Woman figure, as well as from Shriek. I used some paint brush restorer to remove the white paint from Shriek's arms. I reheated the torso and legs and popped the limbs on the Spider-Woman body. With that done, I then heated the forearms and popped the Back in Black Deadpool hands in.

For the head, I used a drill bit on my Dremel to crack open the old ToyBiz "Bride of Venom" figure from when I was a kid, and removed the head. I then shaved and grinded the neck away before hollowing out the head to fit on the modern neck ball peg. Next, I repainted the skin tone, lipstick, and hair (complete with a wash to bring out the hair's details). I finally gave her an eyebrow, which she never had prior to making this custom. I also painted the symbiote eye and teeth white (the colors underneath and around them had bled through back when ToyBiz first made her).

Finally, after about 24-25 years, I have a Bride of Venom figure that's not awkwardly pre-posed. Simple, yet very effective; it's always great when I can add an all-new character to the shelf.

[BILLIUM]

So, over a year ago I got the idea to make a Burglar figure. I don't see Hasbro giving such an obscure choice to us, and I thought he'd make a really unique figure to have on the Spider-Man shelf. A year ago, however, I had no good options for the head, and with the thought of having to sculpt him a hat, I ended up putting him off to the side to finish at another time. Flashforward to this year, and I found this great new head cast by jokabofe on eBay...

Recipe:
Head: Cast
Body, legs: The Hood
Arms, jacket overlay: Retro Peter Parker
Hands: Can't remember, but they are the common open hand and trigger hand a lot of the suit bodies have
Gun: MCU Nick Fury (2019)

I boiled, and cracked open the torsos of a Peter Parker and Hood figure to swap the arms/jacket. I Dremeled down the front of the shirt and the shirt collar and resculpted it into a turtle neck with Milliput. Then I gave it a nice, white paint job. I painted the hat and pants a matching green. I hand painted the face, complete with slightly darker lips, blue eyes, eyebrows, pupils, and a set of white does for reflection and detail. I painted the hair yellow and gave it a dark wash to bring out those details. For the cigar, I simply painted it brown. I gave the hands a paint job to match the head and neck. Finally, I wrapped some black electrical tape around the neck ball so the head would better stay on and not fall off. To make sure the green or white paint didn't flake or rub off, I gave him a nice coat of matte Modpodge. I topped him off with Fury's gun, and voila, we have Uncle Ben's killer!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate 60 years of Spider-Man than by making the guy who led to his creation. I can't wait to have him face-off with the upcoming new Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man figure!