Post by Henchmen4Hire on Jan 13, 2016 15:24:05 GMT -5
Having browsed the custom topics, I'm dropkicking myself for not getting into wrestling customs sooner. Ive worked on superhero stuff for a few years, and I have to say creating the umpteenth batman custom isnt as creatively fulfilling as giving a figure like RVD a whole new design for the singlet. Theres wild stuff here! Figured I'd share something that will let you tweak figs further.
I don't have a lot of wrestling figures, think I stopped watching wrestling around early 2000s when I was mega depressed about…things. Anyway, I recently picked up a few of Mattel's Elite stuff and it looks good. The prices are horrible, but thats why we have online stores, to score cheap loose figs right?
The first fig to arrive was Heritage Kane, and hes an impressive beast. I thought the Animal and Bret Hart I already have were big, but Kane dwarfs them! I wanted the inverted color version, but im not paying 100 bucks for any fig.
As I do with any new figure, I immediately try to disassemble it to see how it works. The figure's torso wasnt glued or welded together, so it popped apart with some force, without damaging anything. (Mattel, please do this for all figures! It makes customizing so much easier.)
To disassemble figures, I like to remove the head and start by prying in the neck cavity. This usually quickly splits the whole seam across the shoulders. However, the way the neck peg is anchored in these wrestling figures makes it harder to do that, I may have to start splitting in some other place.
I was hoping Mattel had standardized their figures' joints by now, to make them easily interchangeable, and sure enough they have! Well, sort of. At least the shoulders lol. I removed Kane's entire arms and replaced them with arms from a generic DCUC fig, they fit well, even the pegs that go in the torso are different sizes, fitting into their respective left/right compartments. It also works backwards, Kane's arms fit well in the DCUC torso. However, because the shoulders are smaller, the arms cant rest all the way down at the sides.
The bigger DCUC shoulders let Kane's arms swing farther forward.
Going further, I removed the shoulders from a Marvel Legends Radioactive Man to test them on Kane, and they fit too! If you slot them in the normal way theyre really loose, but if you slot them in backwards (bicep peg into the torso) theyre a perfect fit. I really like the wider shoulders, makes Kane look even more powerful, and even opens the possibility to give him ML-style double hinge elbows. I may use them when I inevitably repaint this fig to the Big Red Machine's original colors.
I don't have a lot of wrestling figures, think I stopped watching wrestling around early 2000s when I was mega depressed about…things. Anyway, I recently picked up a few of Mattel's Elite stuff and it looks good. The prices are horrible, but thats why we have online stores, to score cheap loose figs right?
The first fig to arrive was Heritage Kane, and hes an impressive beast. I thought the Animal and Bret Hart I already have were big, but Kane dwarfs them! I wanted the inverted color version, but im not paying 100 bucks for any fig.
As I do with any new figure, I immediately try to disassemble it to see how it works. The figure's torso wasnt glued or welded together, so it popped apart with some force, without damaging anything. (Mattel, please do this for all figures! It makes customizing so much easier.)
To disassemble figures, I like to remove the head and start by prying in the neck cavity. This usually quickly splits the whole seam across the shoulders. However, the way the neck peg is anchored in these wrestling figures makes it harder to do that, I may have to start splitting in some other place.
I was hoping Mattel had standardized their figures' joints by now, to make them easily interchangeable, and sure enough they have! Well, sort of. At least the shoulders lol. I removed Kane's entire arms and replaced them with arms from a generic DCUC fig, they fit well, even the pegs that go in the torso are different sizes, fitting into their respective left/right compartments. It also works backwards, Kane's arms fit well in the DCUC torso. However, because the shoulders are smaller, the arms cant rest all the way down at the sides.
The bigger DCUC shoulders let Kane's arms swing farther forward.
Going further, I removed the shoulders from a Marvel Legends Radioactive Man to test them on Kane, and they fit too! If you slot them in the normal way theyre really loose, but if you slot them in backwards (bicep peg into the torso) theyre a perfect fit. I really like the wider shoulders, makes Kane look even more powerful, and even opens the possibility to give him ML-style double hinge elbows. I may use them when I inevitably repaint this fig to the Big Red Machine's original colors.