Thursday, April 8, 2010

Golden Age Heroes - Eagle and Buddy


Today's custom figure offerings are The Eagle and his kid side-kick Buddy from the Fox Features Syndicate. The Eagle's first appearances in 1940 were in a less patriotic outfit and without the side-kick, but as war loomed for America the character joined the military (as Bill Powers, military intelligence officer) and donned a more red/white/blue look, and took on a ward in the form of Buddy in the tradition of Batman/Robin and Green Arrow/Speedy. I like the patriotic look so that's how I did the figures. They wore identical costumes although they weren't always quite the same. The ones on the figures were perhaps the more elaborate. The Eagle - at least in some stories - was able to fly but seemed to carry Buddy on his back so it doesn't look like the side-kick had any powers. The character appeared in about 36 stories between 1940-42, even having a 4-issue run of his own title. Both figures were made using Captain American figures. The larger is from a Toy Biz figure from the early 1990s, while Buddy was modified from a Mattel Secret Wars figure from 1984. I've found the Secret Wars line very useful as the basis for kid side-kick figures. For capes I generally use pieces of old T-shirts, which have the right texture and "hang" better than some other materials I've tried. The capes for Eagle and Buddy came from a little kid's T-shirt I purchased especially for this project.

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