AFB Custom Contest Deadline extended by One Week!

The deadline for our current Custom Competition, "Kirby Your Enthusiasm", has been pushed back by one week to the 17th of November! We hope this gives everyone who was planning to enter a bit more time to produce some Jack Kirby inspired custom greatness!


You can read all about the contest here - anyone is welcome to enter!


Looking forward to some great results!

AFB Custom Spotlight: DangerDrVenture perfects Professor Pyg!

It's been awhile since we had a Custom Spotlight feature here at AFB, but it has nothing to do with a lack of great customs appearing at the AFB Forum - there are a fantastic group of customisers hard at work there! Happily, the Custom Spotlight for tonight is a truly spectacular effort!

DangerDrVenture is a very well-known customiser who has some of the best skills I've ever come across, and we're very fortunate to have him sharing his work at the AFB Forum. You'd be hard pressed to tell DDV's efforts apart from most commercial efforts. His sculpting and paint work are both exquisite. When I saw his amazing effort on the newest addition to Batman's extensive rogues gallery, the Grant Morrison creation Professor Pyg, I knew it was something that needed to be shared with the AFB audience.

DangerDrVenture was kind enough to provide us with some pics and an interview to go along with his fantastic creation:

Q: How did you begin customising action figures?

A: I think my first custom figure consisted of some He-Man insect toy legs glued onto one of those fly toys from Insectoids(remember those?). It was a 'Ninja Turtles Mutant Fly' custom. That was probably in my 3rd grade year. My parents let me use a hot glue gun at 7 years old!

Q: What inspired you to customise this particular character?

A: I love Morrison's Batman, and I've been collecting the recent DC Direct 4-figure waves from Batman Reborn, Batman Inc, etc. I felt those waves were lacking in some key characters, so I made up my own custom wave. I LOVE Pyg because he honestly disgusts me. He's irredeemable and reprehensible. An absolute TRUE villain, in a world of softy anti-hero bad guys. He's influenced by Dr. Harry Harlow's ape isolation experiments. If you haven't heard of him, you should check it out. Disturbing stuff.

Q: What parts and processes did you use?

A: The base figure is a DC Direct Perry White figure from that old Silver Age Superman line. I took the apron from a Medicom Hostel toy, and the mask is sculpted. I had to sand a big pouch of tools from the apron to make it character-accurate. The intention was to make him look frightening and faithful to his printed counterpart. I honestly think Frazier Irving's depictions of him are still way more frightening than I was able to capture in this figure. The 'mommy' is just hobby sticks and tooth pics with a sculpted mask on top.

Q: Did everything go to plan or did you have to make changes along the way?

A: The sticks from his 'mommy' went to plan. I actually sketched it out first, so those sticks aren't just randomly glued together. I made Pyg up as I went along. He originally had really detailed grasping hands from a Neca Jigsaw figure, but I found a set of doll tools at a hobby store, so I opted to give him hands that could hold them. I think the ears broke off 14 times.

Q: How do you feel about the finished product?

A: I'm about 50% happy with it. I think i could have done a better job on the mask's sculpt (the expression looks too human). I plan to make another in his 'pimp suit' from Batman and Robin. I'm more proud of the 'mommy' than anything. It took hours to glue those sticks.

Q: What’s next on your custom table?

A: Finishing commissions! I got behind these last few months. As soon as I get some free time, I plan to augment a few of my Mattel DC teams now that we know what Mattel is releasing in the club. I still need a good functional Elongated Man.

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Many thanks to DangerDrVenture for bring back our Custom Spotlight feature with a very impressive bang! Custom Spotlight will be back next month with the winner of our current AFB Custom Competition, "Kirby Your Enthusiasm!". It's going to be a good one!

You can see DDV's custom thread at the AFB Forum and discuss this here, or comment here to enter the October AFB Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!

AFB Custom Spotlight: "That '70s Custom!" Contest Winners

This month's Custom Spotlight is a little bit different, as we're looking at the winner and runner-up from the most recent custom competition at the AFB Forum. We have a small but committed group of customizers who tackled our "That '70s Custom!" Contest with gusto.

Once the customs were submitted, members of the forum were given the opportunity to vote for their two favourites, giving two points to their first preference and one point to their second. Many voters commented on the quality of the field and how difficult it was to choose. You can have a look at all of the entries here at the forum, and I'm sure you'll agree.

In the end, there were two customs that rose above the pack in terms of the number of votes gained, and in fact in the end there were only three votes that separated them.

Without further ado, I am pleased to present the winner and runner up:

The "That '70s Custom!" Custom Contest Winner - "Fastbak" by dozymuppet

The "That '70s Custom!" Custom Contest Runner-Up - "Tiger Man" by Nite Owl

I'm sure you'll agree that these are both very deserving winners!


Are you a customizer or keen to try your hand? Check out the AFB Forum, share your work, and stay tuned for our next contest!


You can discuss this at the AFB Forum and comment on this post to enter the May AFB Comment of the Month Contest!


Until next time!

AFB Custom Spotlight: Gladiator!

One of the things I have most enjoyed since I started interacting with other collectors online is seeing the amazing custom work so many people produce. I was not blessed with the skills to do such amazing things - in fact I wasn't blessed with good fine motor skills at all! Instead of trying to customise my own figures, I've bee very contest to see the great results other people have been able to achieve, and have been very fortunate to be able to get many much-wanted characters done as commissions over the years, as this blog can attest!

Over at the AFB Forum, we have a very clever group of customisers who post their work in our customs board, called "The Originals". As a new monthly feature at AFB, I'm going to spotlight one of these great pieces of work. There's a bit of twist though: I'm going to choose the custom this month, but from here on in it will be the responsibility of the chosen customiser to choose the next custom (not their own work) to be featured.

For the first run of this new feature, I thought it was fitting to choose the winner of our first custom contest, which was an amazing Gladiator figure completed by fishmilkshake to win the "What the Buck?!?" contest held last year. I've invited fishmilkshake to share his inspiration, recipe and process with you! Over to you, FMS!

fishmilkshake writes:

A long time fave of mine, Gladiator was always high on my list of "must do" Marvel characters when I started customising. When I got started, the first thing I noticed were the inconsistencies in his appearance. Not just his costume, but even his skin colour. For a long time I even thought his mohawk was head gear and not actual hair. So anyway, I decided to base my figure on one of my favourite comics, John Byrne's "Fantastic Four #249". (Cover is upper left)

Recipe:
Buck: DCUC - Ocean pyjama Aquaman body and Red Tornado head and cape.

Paint: Games Workshop "Skull White" aerosol undercoat, Tamiya 'Italian Red', Gunge Sangyo Blue & Yellow, Games Workshop 'Liche Purple', custom colour for the mohawk.

Build:

- I had to sand off the 'arrow' logo from Red Tornado's head.

- The mohawk was made from two sheets of plasticard glued together then shaped to fit. I used Tamiya modelling putty to fill the gaps where it joins the head. I used a scalpel to score lines in the mohawk to give the appearance of hair strands

- The pointed ears are made from 'green stuff' and then shaped.

- The belt buckle is a small Batlogo from a DCD figure.

- Gold cord from the fodder bin.

The chest logo started off as a waterslide transfer and quickly became a disaster. I ended up using some vinyl and glued it in place.

I made a specific effort to keep the gloss of the paint used for the costume as a contrast to the matte colour used for his skin. The face is a basecoat of a Games Workshop colour, with 3 shades of drybrushing, each with a bit more white. The effect is to try and separate the high and low areas.

The cape was the biggest nightmare. The rubber they're made from doesn't take the paint application as well as the plastic figure. I had to use some Testors 'Dullcote' to try and seal the paint on the cape.

The sharp lines where colours meet are achieved by masking off areas with Tamiya "low tack" tape.

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Many thanks to fishmilkshake for taking the time to put together that great description for us. I am sure you'll agree with me that this is truly a great piece.

It's now up to FMS to select the custom from the AFB Forum that will be featured in next month's Custom Spotlight!

Check out "The Originals" Custom board here, discuss this post at the AFB Forum, and comment on this post to enter the February AFB Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!

Lastest and Greatest Bronze Age Legion Customs!

Quite some time ago now, the rather amazing customiser and my good friend Dr Terrific and I started on a journey to create a complete line of Bronze Age Legion of Superheroes Customs. It began as a gift of a Wildfire custom, then a Dawnstar to go with Wildfire, and then somehow turned into a quest to complete the whole gang. Alongside Wildfire and Dawnstar, I received the first "wave" of the three Legion founders at the end of last year, and from now on Dr T will be completing the heroes in waves of four in the order of joining.

That means that the next "wave" is Duo Damsel (formerly Triplicate Girl), Phantom Girl, Superboy and Chameleon Boy. The gang arrived a week ago and to say I'm rapt is a major understatement. I'm WAY rapt!

If there was one figure in the whole Bronze Age Legion project that had to work to make the whole thing work, it's Phantom Girl. For some reason I really can't explain, Phantom Girl has always been my favourite member of my favourite super team, and her iconic white bell bottoms and pigtails look very much sums up the Bronze Age Legion style. I was very confident in Dr T to deliver, especially since he knew how important she was to me, but I am totally blown away by the result. The base is a JLA Vixen with swapped hands, and there's major sculpting work in those bell bottoms! All white could look horrible in the hands of the wrong painter, but not so here - the shiny spraypaint-work of Dr T comes through here in a big way. I am in absolute love with this figure.

Superboy might look like a simple JLA Superman repaint, but looks can be deceptive! Dr T went to great lengths through sculpting, sanding and paint to cut down the size and muscle definition of the base figure to make sure this looks like the teenage Clark and not the beefed up adult version. The "S" symbol is also redone, and the hairstyle modified to reflect Superboy's 70's "do". A great piece!

Duo Damsel had an interesting look in the Bronze Age, and Dr T worked very hard with us to find source pics and nail the colours and the hair to transform a Watchmen Silk Spectre I into this futuristic beauty. Chameleon Boy started his life as a JLA Black Lightning, but turned out 100% Durlan. The colours are spot-on, and the sculpted vest, ears and antennae make this custom work fantastically.

So once again, I am in great debt to Dr Terrific and his amazing skills. While I'm obviously helping out with costs and Dr T's time, I know this is also a labour of love for him and I am incredibly grateful. The next "wave" Colossal Boy, Star Boy, Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid is already taking shape and progress shots can be seen on the AFB Forum. Can't wait!

You can see more pics at Facebook, discuss this at the AFB Forum (the discussion thread is here, the whole BA Legion Customs in progress thread is here) and comment on this post to enter the April AFB Comment of the Month Contest.

Until next time!

Second rate heroes, first rate Customs!

The fantastic Jackknight has come through again with some great additions to my SA Legion Collection!

We’ve finished off all of the actual Legionnaires from that era and have started on the Subs. I now have Color Kid and Chlorophyll Kid to add to Polar Boy, Night Girl and Fire Lad. They look great!

I had always said I would stop the SA collection at the Subs, which means there’s still Stone Boy to do, but now that we’re coming to the end I am thinking about SA Legion villains – Fatal Five anyone? I’ll have to see what Jack has in mind, but a nice Emerald Empress would look great on my Legion shelf! If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Next up in the custom department: a new customizer kicks off my Bronze Age Legion! Great ready for more Legion awesomeness!!

You can comment on this at the AFB Forum, and don’t forget you can enter the September AFB Comment of the Month Contest by commenting on this post.

Until next time!

More JSA Magic from the Golden to the Modern Age

It’s always too long in between chances to show off my new customs from Lars, one of the true masters of the custom world. Over the last couple of years Lars has been helping me round out the ranks of both the Golden Age and Modern Age Justice Society of America, and it’s always exciting to get the latest instalments.

Technically, Stripesy is working more towards a Seven Soldiers of Victory collection than JSA, but he’s still from that Golden Agey JSA world, and looks great next to the custom Star Spangled Kid Lars did for me awhile back. This is just an amazing piece of work, so exciting and captures Pat Dugan as Stripesy perfectly.

From one of the oldest heroes to one of the newest, we have Mr America to further fill out the Modern Age JSA collection. While he’s been one of if not the most underutilised new characters in the team, I love his look, and what Lars has done here is amazing. My photo doesn’t do the work on the white section justice – is has a light blue wash and the buttoned-down look to give it depth and strength. The detail on his cape is equally incredible.  He even comes with his own little custom whip! Amazing job Lars!

There’s a glimpse here of how each fits in to the GA and MA JSA displays, and you can see more pics of this at Facebook. You can also discuss this at the AFB Forum, and don’t forget you can enter the July AFB Comment of the Month Contest by commenting on this post.

Many thanks to Lars for another great effort!

Until next time!

Arise, Colossal Boy!

It’s well documented here that Jackknight has been doing an amazing job of helping me complete my Silver Age Legion, and when I saw that he’d made himself a SA Colossal Boy in “upsized” form, I knew I had to have one too!

Isn’t he amazing? I doubt you’d ever guess that the base is a Marvel Icons Human Torch!

We have a few Subs and assorted baddies to go before the collection will be complete in my mind, but having Gim there towering over the team makes it feel like The Legion is really in my toy room!

And here they are: the Andy Legion collection as they currently stand. I need some levels to make  everyone visible, but I hope you’ll agree they are an impressive collection, and I have Jack to thank for most of them.

You can can search “Legion” or “Jackknight” for more of Jack’s great work on AFB.

Until next time!

Wild About The Boy

As you know, due to my total lack of fine motor skills, as much as I would like to customise figures myself, I am stuck with commissioning the works of others. Thankfully I know some really talented people!

A while ago I made mention of a custom Bronze Age Wildfire that was was being made for me by the very kind Dr Terrific. I’m pleased to report that our favourite Legionnaire in a containment suit arrived in Oz this week, and I couldn’t be more excited or amazed with the results.

The base is the Crisis Earth Two Superman, not that you’d ever guess unless you saw them side by side. The effort, time and craftsmanship the Doc has put in to this one is unbelievable, right down to his little but very detailed Legion Flight Ring, which is on the correct finger and everything.

In the same way that the amazing Jackknight has been working on finishing off my Silver Age Legion, Doc is going to be working on the Bronze Age. Next up is Dawnstar, and the WIP can be seen here at the AFB Forum. 

Enjoy!

Long Live the Legion!

Since the start of AFB, I’ve been chronicling the development of my custom Silver Age Legion of Superheroes by Jackknight (with a guest appearance from Rod Keith for Elastic Lad).

At the end of last year, we had finished all of the Silver Age roster (including Nemesis Kid) and had started on the Subs, when a cat-tastrophe happened – our dearest family feline hopped up on the Legion shelf, and very sadly some of the team hopped off. Needless to say, kitty’s standing in the family dropped considerably. The only positive to come out of it was it helped me convince Mrs AFB that we needed display cabinets for better protection. That and the dust. She hates dust.

As for my poor Legionnaires, c asualties included broken heads for Light Lass, a broken tummy for Bouncing Boy and a de-caping for Princess Projectra. Not the Legion, anyone wants, especially this mad Legion fan.

Being ever the gentleman, Jack very kindly agreed to give them a fix up, while working on the latest addition to the Subs – Fire Lad. I’m pleased to report that the team has now been reunited – so we have the full roster plus the first three subs and assorted others.

Here’s a full shot of the team. I need to add some levels in to make everyone more visible, but I’m so excited to see the group reunited, and Fire Lad is an excellent addition.

Next up, we need to finish off the Silver Age Subs, and then I’m thinking we’ll at least need the classic Fatal Five before we move on to another project.

Many thanks to the amazing Jack! One of the things I love the most about these figures is that they remind me of the Legionnaire statuettes that the Legion used to summon Superboy when they needed him. Good times.

You can see a fuller round of photos at Facebook, and also discuss this in the ongoing thread in “The Originals” – the AFB Custom Board.

Until next time!

More Custom JSA Glory

Over the last year a bevy of customisers led by the wonderful Lars have been helping me out with filling out the rosters of both my GA and MA Justice Society of America. I’ve acquired the figures through a combination of eBay auctions and commissions.

Recently I saw a post from Lars about the some figures he was making on spec which included the current Judomaster. While she wasn’t on the top of my list for my next addition to the roster, his version was just too good to pass up, and I quickly contacted him and made a deal for her to be mine. 

On a funny note,  I can now officially say I am a customiser, because she arrived with her lovely ponytail snapped off (thank you Australia Post!) and I had to glue it back on – the first time I have ever repaired a figure! Anyone who knows my fine motor skills will tell you I am best kept away from things like glue and snapped off plastic, but the operation was a success.

And I’m very glad about that, because this is an excellent figure. The base is an All-Star Super Lois.  Lars’ paintwork is always impeccable. Many thanks to him for another great effort!

Also, here’s a glimpse of how the new display is panning out. I’m not ready for the “big reveal”, but here are my JSA shelves as they presently stand.

Enjoy!

AFB’s 2008 Round-Up

The year is coming to an end, and that calls for a round-up of the best and the rest in the superhero action figure world for 2008. I’m sticking to the figures that have been featured in the pages of AFB this year, so you may not agree with my takes in all of these categories, but hey – it’s my blog! Let’s get started:

Custom of the Year: Choosing between my customs is like having a favourite child, but the one that I acquired this year that my collection absolutely couldn’t live without would have to be the MA JSA Liberty Belle done by the  amazing Lars. My custom MA JSA is well on the way, and Liberty Belle is the gem of the roster and one of the absolute gems of my whole collection. Best custom I featured that I don’t own (unfortunately) would have to be the custom MA Bulleteer from the Doosh Custom Con. Love it and want it.

Best 6” Scale Figure: Mattel DC Universe Classics Aquaman (Series 2) The flesh tone is a bit off, but this is by far and away the best ever plastic representation of the King of the Seas, and one of the strongest efforts in the DCUC line to date. Great to see Aquaman getting such respect in plastic – now if only the same could be said about the comics! Runners Up: DC Direct New Teen Titans Jericho, Mattel DC Universe Classics Wonder Woman, Marvel Legends Ronin (great figure of a not that great character), DC Direct Justice Captain Cold. Also am a big fan of the Marvel Legends Union Jack that I picked up this year but who never made it up onto the site.

Best 6” Wave: Mattel DC Universe Classics Series 2: A diverse line-up, solid sculpts, good QC and a kick-ass Collect & Connect figure, DCUC Wave 2 had it all, even if some of the variants didn’t come until the end of the year. This wave is where DCUC really began to show what it was capable of. Only a blue-faced, slightly wonky Harley Quinn kept it from absolute perfection. Gorilla Grodd, Superman Red & Blue and an amazing Aquaman more than made up for it. Runners Up:  DC Direct New Gods Series 1: In all their Kirby goodness, who could go past Orion, Mr Miracle, Darkseid and Lightray for the one of most enjoyable 6” wave of the year? DST Battlestar Galactica Series 2 gave us Starbuck, Kat, Helo and an amazing Cylon for some great, non-superhero fun. Mattel DC Universe Classics Series 3 could have taken the prize if not for scale issues: a less tall than intended Sinestro and a worryingly small Robin, but this was still an excellent set of figures.

Best 1:6 Scale Figure: Sticking with what I’ve collected, I’m going to have to give this to the recent DC Direct 1:6 Scale Black Canary, a favourite character and by far the best female in the DCD 1:6 Scale line. The extra screamy head was a huge bonus. If the headsculpts just looked a bit more like Dinah and bit less like Michelle Pfieffer, it would have been near perfect (still would have had those pesky thigh cuts though). Naturally, the clear overall winners are the amazing 1:6 scale figures that Hot Toys is putting out at the moment, like the Batman range and their Iron Man. Oh to have the funds. Runner Up: DC Direct 1:6 Scale Joker.

Best Roster Completion: DC Direct New Teen Titans Series 2: We love having complete teams on our shelves, and few sights could be sweeter than seeing the Wolfman / Perez New Teen Titans all together in one place. The addition of Robin, Terra and Jericho made that possible, and DCD has to get some thanks for that. Not only were these much wanted characters almost perfectly sculpted, they were also in scale with the original NTT series from DCD’s much smaller years. A job well done.

    Announcement of the Year: Mattel DC Universe Classics Series 8: Any questions that I had about just how far the DCUC line could go were answered when Series 8 was announced. Gentleman Ghost? Adrian Chase Vigilante? The sky is no doubt the limit here. Now it’s going to take a Legionnaire or ten to make me totally happy of course, but the announcement of Series 8 actually made me believe that just might happen. Runner up: the Mattel Justice League Unlimited Legends of League 6-packs announcement: Vibe, Steel, Crimson Fox and B’wana Beast?? Hello!!

Line of the Year: DC Universe Classics. Like I said earlier, the sky really does appear to be the limit with this line. Distribution and a few pesky QC issues aside, this line carries the hopes and dreams of a great many DCU fanboys and girls on its plastic little shoulders.

Company of the Year: Mattel. DCUC, JLU, Infinite Heroes, Brave & the Bold. Mattel has taken the DC license and given us DC fans more loving than we could ask for, with some honey thrown in for Masters of the Universe collectors as well. The level of fan interaction and the launch of mattycollector.com all just add to justification, if any more was needed. Long may these halcyon days last!

An epic post for what really has been an epic year. Thanks for sharing it with me, and I look forward to bringing you more fun in 2009!

Is this Wild enough for you?

I mentioned a few posts back that someone was making a custom Bronze Age Wildfire from the Legion of Superheroes for me. My custom Silver Age Legion is almost complete – I should have some group shots as soon as I get some minor repairs done on a couple of figures – so it’s time to start on the Bronze Age, and I can’t think of a better first entry than this.

Normally I don’t blog on customs until I have them in hand, but this is just too good to hold on to! Huge kudos to Dr. Terrific from Critical Mess for what I am sure you will agree is an outstanding effort. You can track the development of the figure by looking at the whole thread here.

We’re thinking of doing Dawnstar next – I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Santa visits AFB!

Well, a Secret Santa that is.

The DOOSH (which to some stands for Domain Of Online Social Hooligans) has a very active customiser community, and they have a great tradition of a Secret Santa Project where members post their top 5 custom wish list, and then another customiser is assigned to choose one of the characters from the list and make a Christmas Custom wish come true! The whole project is coordinated by Doosh Mod Jackknight92 who is responsible for all of the Silver Age Legion customs featured in these pages.

I am already on record as confessing to having pretty dodgy fine motor skills, so I know I couldn’t customise anything to save my life! I am, however, a great patron of the custom arts, so I get Jack to make my custom “gift” so that I can take part.

You can look at the 2008 Secret Santa Project thread here, but beware – if you travel outside that thread, not all regions of the DOOSH are work safe, or normal human being safe for that matter. You have been warned. Seriously.

Here’s a sneak peak of my Secret Santa gift, which arrived yesterday and will be up at the DOOSH tomorrow. It’s Amazing Man III from the current JSA. I’ll have to wait til its been posted at the DOOSH to find out the recipe, but it’s very cleverly done. I imagine that cape must have given the customiser a few fits! Once it’s all been revealed at the DOOSH I’ll be sure to give the customiser credit here.

I was especially pleased to see that Amazing Man fits in perfectly with my MA JSA display, which also features customs of Liberty Belle, Stargirl, Maxine Hunkle, Danger and Wildcat by the amazing Lars.

Oh, and speaking of customs, you might like to check this thread out at my other online home, Critical Mess. A dude is making me a BA Wildfire to make up for making fun of my mum. Really. All in (mostly) good humour of course!

Hope your Christmas stocking has similarly yummy things in it this year!

JSA and Legion Custom Glory

It's been awhile since I've had any new customs grace my shelves, but when I saw the amazing job that my friend rodkeith did with customs for Elastic Lad and Johnny Thunder, I knew I had to have my own, and was thrilled that he was nice enough to oblige!

These fantastic looking pieces are actually a simple but clever headswap between the DCD Jimmy Olsen and JLA Elongated Man figures. It's really very effective - puts a Jimmy head on a stretchy dude, and with a bit of shaving the Ralph head makes a very respectful Johnny Thunder.

From the outstanding standard of the paint job on these figures, you'd never guess that they are from someone who has only recently started customising. They look just as smooth and clean in person as they do on screen. The lettering for Elastic Lad's chest emblem is unbelievable!

If you travel over to one of my favourite online hangouts, Critical Mess, you can see how these developed, and you can also check out rodkeiths utterly amazing Black Orchid custom as well!

Until next time!

Which Bulleteer is better? Doosh Custom Con 5

AFB is a lucky judge of the current Custom Con taking place over at the crazy and anarchic message board known as the Doosh. As you know if you've read much here, I'm a great lover and consumer (as in buying and displaying, not eating) of custom figures and I don't know many better customisers than the dudes that hang out at that site.

The way these Cons work is that folks from the amazing crew of customisers over there match up on set characters and then a panel of judges decides a winner for each character without knowing whose custom is whose.

Little did I know how challenging this job was going to be! We've done our first four match-ups today and they were all close calls in my book. Check out these two Bulleteer customs as an example of the amazing talent that is over there.

If you want to find out which Bulleteer I voted for and see the rest of the customs, have a look here:

As I've mentioned before, if you decide to venture outside of the linked thread on the Doosh, send the kiddies out of the room first and keep an emergency eye washing kit handy, just in case! And it goes without saying that AFB takes no responsibility for any psychological damage or therapy you might need after.

Oh, and if you see anything you want to buy or commission another version of for yourself, you'll probably have to get in line - I've started my list already!

Latest and Greatest Customs

I don't know how I did it, but I managed to miss March completely! The start of the year is always crazy for me - hopefully things will settle down now. Anyway, the purchases and posts are backing up so I'll get straight to business:

My Legion and JSA Collections have marched further forward with the latest efforts from my favourite customisers.

On the Legion front, Jackknight92 has finished off the Silver Age Legion proper with Shadow Lass and Nemesis Kid, and helped me start on the Subs with Polar Boy and Night Girl. Here they are, along with a fairly pathetic attempt at a group shot. Once I get some stands that allow me to put some levels in, I should be able to do better.

I am so thankful to Jack for all the care he has put in to creating these for me.

Moving from the Modern Age JSA Customs that the amazing Lars has been doing for me, I thought I should really try to get the original JSA sorted out, so I commissioned these two amazing guys: Mr Terrific and the Star Spangled Kid. Here they are, along with the Hawkman from the latest Reactivated Wave.

I hope you agree they are pretty amazing!

Great New JSA Additions!

In the same way that JackKnight has been helping me with the SA Legion, the amazing Lars has been helping me build up the MA Justice Society - we've already added Stargirl, Wildcat and Damage, and he has just completed two comissions for me: Liberty Belle and Cyclone.

I love these, and have to say I think Liberty Belle is one of the finest customs I have ever seen. I hope you agree.

I am going to have him do some GA JSAers for me next, and would love to one day be able to afford to have him right some of DCD's wrongs by doing me a proper MA Hourman and Mr Terrific as well.

In additon to these two comissions I also won a Lars auction on eBay: a MA Jericho. I really like his new costume and thought it was a real shame they brought him back onto the team only to shuffle him off so quickly. Maybe we'll see him again!

Yours in collecting!