Supreme Villain - Basilisk

The Basilisk was actually an enemy of The Allies, but Supreme was tagging along at the time I think. Anyway, his real name was Digby Drew, an eccentric inventor (are there any other kinds?) and art collector who invented goggles that would turn people to stone. Maybe he should have named himself Mr. Medusa - after all, that was her shtick in ancient Greek myth. He wanted a collection of superhero statues with the Allies as his centerpiece. But then Mighty Man (sort of a Captain Marvel/Shazam clone) transformed into his unaffected human identity and freed the rest of the Allies. Basilisk really seems to be enjoying himself in the picture so that was nice for him - for a while. I decided to use a Dr. Octopus figure, which required a little sculpting and then painting.

Supreme Villains

Three more villains who gave Supreme a hard time. On the left is Emerpus, who comes from a part of our universe called the backward zone, where time runs in reverse. People in that zone come into existence dug up from their graves and slowly dwindle into babies. Emerpus spent his career taking criminals from prison and helping them undo their crimes and devolve them into innocent babies. On the right is the Shadow Supreme, who was created by Darius Dax using a device he called the Negatizer. This created a vastly powerful physical and moral negative duplicate of Supreme, who was as cruel and savage as Supreme was kindly and wise. Both Emerpus and Shadow Supreme were created using Superpowers Collection Supermen figures. As for the guy in the center, he's the Televillian. TV repairman Reuben Tube (remember, I don't make these names up) spent his spare time tinkering with electronics until he created a device that allowed him to enter the virtual reality of television shows and jump from one TV to another, robbing as he went. Televillain was created using a Flash body and the head from a little figure that looked like the TV set, to which I added the antennae.

A Few More Dax's

OK, this is the last of Dax for now. When touring the Malignancy Dax saw a number of alternate versions of himself, only one of which on this page was actually named. The Dax on left reminded me of the battlesuit Lex Luthor used to wear so I took a Toy Biz Morph head and combined it with a Superpowers Collection Luthor battlesuit and repainted for armored Dax. On the right is a stretchy Dax with an E.D. on his chest which I assume does not stand for Ed but for Elongated Dax - easy enough using a Toy Biz Reed Richards figure which I repainted. At center is a rootin tootin character identified in the text as "Imaginary western variant, Dead-Eye-Dax," who was made using the body from a James West from the movie Wild, Wild West, the head from a Bruce Banner and the hat from a Dukes of Hazard Boss Hogg. A terrible threesome if ever there was one.

Original Dax

Continuing the story of Darius Dax and the Malignancy, today we present Original Dax. The first thing he can remember was being a crime boss in Omega City in 1939. His hideout was in the Omega Chemical Company Works where he made bombs, until he was on his biggest job and "... this palooka named Supreme," shows up and foils the crime. At that point Supreme had a magic belt buckle that gave him the strength of Hercules and made him impervious to bullets. Original Dax thought he'd been knocked off and sent to purgatory because all that was there was him and the remnants of the Omega Chemical Works. His continuity had been crossed out of existence and it wasn't until the 1960s when more Dax's began showing up, including an entire planet of male and female Dax's that one of the Dax's had created, that anyone joined him. Got all that?? I made Original Dax from a Spy Kids McDonough and the head from a GI Joe. As some of you may have come to realize I really love those GI Joe heads and bodies - they give you a lot of room for conversions.

Grim 80's Tittering Transvestite Serial Killer Dax

Continuing my tour of the Darius Dax Malignancy I present probably one of the characters with the longest name in the history of comics - Grim 80's Tittering Transvestite Serial Killer Dax. Dax meets this guy on his tour of the Malignancy. He doesn't say much but what he does say sort of sums up his outlook on life. He comments, "Hee, hee, hee! If I was a woman, first I'd molest and humiliate myself, then I'd strangle myself with electrical flex... slowly!" Now wouldn't you want to invite this guy to your next Halloween party?? He'd certainly be on the top of my guest list. Yeah, right. Anyway, the name alone sort of attracted me to this project but I was challenged by which body parts and such I could use. I ended up using an animated Tarzan figure because he's depicted barefooted, coupled to the head from a Toy Biz Morph, the demented version. The dress I got from a female figure I think was a wrestler or something. If you can read the word on the front of the dress it says MADNESS, which seemed like something Grim 80's Tittering Transvestite Serial Killer Dax might wear.

Darius Dax and the Malignancy

Today a couple more samples from the world of Supreme and his arch villain, Darius Dax. Where Supreme had the Supremacy when he was revised, Dax had the Malignancy. The ruler of the Malignancy was King Darius VI of the 1960s Silver Dynasty, also called the Maxi-Dax, the figure on left in the top picture. I picked up the figure in the discount isle, threw a crown on his head and gave him a cape. The brass attachments for the cape are actually brass nails. On right in the same picture is Nazi Mad Scientist Dax, actually the Final Fantasy figure of General Hein unmodified. Then there's Tremendax, a giant who towers over the Malignancy. I'm trying to remember what I did with this - I think I swapped heads with another figure (sorta Barbie Doll sized), but I actually don't remember. He looks pretty good though, right???

Villain Supreme - Darius Dax

I think I've mentioned Dax in a couple of my Supreme-related posts so now here he is. Dax first came into conflict with Kid Supreme during childhood in Littlehaven, when his scientific achievements were overshadowed by the power and brilliance of the super-powered kid. A seething hatred developed that would last for decades. At one point Dax even transferred his psyche into the body of Judy Jordan in an attempt to get at Supreme - now that's a dedicated enemy!! Based on Lex Luthor, Dax, also known as the Marconi of Monstrosity, was one of the ubiquitous villains Supreme faced over the years. As it turns out Dax had his own revision universe just like Supreme did. I'll feature a few of those persona's in future posts. As for this Dax, I used the body from a Seaquest figure and the head from Star Trek Voyager's LT Carey.

Storybook Smith

Yesterday I talked about Sam "Storybook" Smith as part of the Allied Superheroes of America. I mentioned that he could call up historical and fictional characters to aid him in his crime-fighting ventures, which also earned him the moniker of the "Literary Lawman." Today I'm featuring him with some of the characters he called up and his girlfriend. In the top picture he's called up the big bad wolf from the story of the three little pigs, for which I found a cartoony wolf; then there's the Frankenstein Monster, for which I used a Remco Universal Monsters monster; then there's Sherlock Holmes, for which I used a Superior Models metal Sherlock figure. In the bottom picture Storybook is standing next to his girlfriend Miranda Creel, for which I used another Superior models figure from their range of nude figures. Miranda later catches Sam in bed with Scarlet O'Hara, on the left in dressing gown from the Franklin Mint, and Madame Bovary, on the right, an anonymous nude figure I found at a flea market. I mean, if I had Storybook's fantasy book I'd probably be conjuring up some ladies from history for a little romantic fun too. Now let's see, who could I conjure up today?????

Allied Supermen of America

The Allied Supermen of America, or as they were later known, the Allies, were a super group in the Supreme universe. When he was Kid Supreme he joined them for a time in the late 1940s but they disbanded in 1949. There was a revival in the 1970s with some different members but this is the group from the 1940s, which I thought was the more interesting of the two. From left to right we have: Black Hand, who has a light on his chest with which he can make shadow puppets that can affect tangible objects. He was made from a Spider-Man figure and the object on his chest was the wheel from a plastic model kit that I had to sculpt a bit to get to fit on his chest all right. Next is Jack O'Lantern, who's sort of a Spectre-like character, a cosmic entity who can adapt various human hosts and has magical abilities, including summoning various objects. I made him from a Toy Biz Captain America figure with a Halloween pumpkin head I got from somewhere and actually sewed the robes from T-shirt cloth. The lantern was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle accessory. Next we have Alley Cat, a Catwoman/Black Canary type character who carried a whip so I used a Batman Returns Catwoman figure to make her. Next right is Waxy Doyle or Waxman, sort of modeled after Sandman, he fights crime with a wax gun (didn't Marvel have a lame villain who used a similar gun?? Oh that's right, it was Paste Pot Pete. It's a shame I've never done a figure of him.) Anyway, Waxy is made using an Indiana Jones Toht figure in suit, a head from a GI Joe and various accessories and bits of tubing to round out the figure. Then we have Doc Rocket, an obvious Flash clone, made from a Superpowers Collection Flash figure with a rocket on top of his head from a plastic model kit. Finally on the right we have Storybook Smith, who has a magical book that he can write in and conjure various characters from history as well as fiction to help him fight crime. He reminds me a little of Kid Eternity who could summon various historical characters to help him out of jams. Storybook was made using a Toht body and the head from a happy meal prince charming or some such, with a book thrown in for good measure. You might actually see Storybook again, but with some more interesting companions. Stay tuned.

The League of Infinity

Continuing with the Supreme universe today I present the League. Sort of like the Supreme version of the Legion of Superheroes, but without as many members and based in many time periods. The leader of the group is the young lady in yellow and green named Zayla Zarn, or Futuregirl, from the 25th century. The big guy is Giganthro from the stone age while the cowboy is young Bill Hickok from the 19th century. The witch is a 17th century enchantress name Witch Wench and the ancient Greek guy is Achilles. They have banded together to fight crime across time. Now I confess there's a ringer in the crowd because I used an unmodified Perseus figure from Clash of the Titans (the original one from the 1980s) for Achilles, but sometimes I do that. In one particularly interesting adventure Bill Hickok decided to help the Confederacy win the Civil War by stealing an atomic bomb and blowing up Washington, DC. This is a rather interesting twist on history because in reality Bill Hickok fought for the union during the Civil War. As for the other figures, Futuregirl is made using parts from the Black Hole Kate figure and the GI Joe Scarlet head, on which I sculpted additional hair. The witch has parts from the GI Joe villainess Zatara and the Street Fighter Sonya Blade with a cloth skirt. Giganthro is a repainted Sasquatch figure from Marvel's Alpha Flight and young Bill Hickok has the body and hat of the Lone Ranger and the head from Bo Duke of the Dukes of Hazard. Parts and pieces - just love them parts and pieces.

Professor Night

Continuing with my Supreme-related posts I present the Supreme universe version of Batman called Professor Night. As a result he's really a rich guy named Taylor Kendall (instead of Bruce Wayne) and he lives in a mansion with his Sikh butler Pratrap (instead of English Alfred) and the obligatory sidekick. In this case it's a girl named Linda Kendall, actually his niece but now adopted daughter, who partners with him in crime fighting as Twilight, the Girl Marvel. Beneath the mansion is the obligatory "Batcave" called the Halls of Night with his advanced crime computer system, trophies of past cases and the obligatory hot car, in this case called the Night-Wagon. He also has the obligatory rogues gallery of sociopathic criminals. My use of the term obligatory may lead you to believe I don't like this guy but I actually do. I haven't yet done Twilight but she's on my list of future projects. As for Professor Night, I used a Toy Biz Silver Surfer body and the head from a Daredevil to make the figure. Then it was just a matter of painting and once again we have stars. A number of stars. I do my best with stars. Then the cape is T-shirt material.

Supreme's Friend Glory

Glory started out as part of the Image Comics Youngblood universe and later moved to Awesome Comics. Her full name is apparently Gloriana Demeter and she was the product of an "alliance" between the Lady Demeter of the Amazonians and the demon Lord Silverfall, so she sort of has a light and dark side. Not really fitting in with either world she decided to join the world of mankind where she struck up a friendship with Supreme, among others. I haven't read the entire range of comics so I'm not sure if they had an "alliance" too, but Glory seemed to light up whenever Supreme was around. (Alliance - never heard it called that before.) As for the figure, I used a WILDCATS Zealot figure and repainted her accordingly. I thought she came out looking pretty hot for an Amazonian.

The Dazzling HMS Argus

I just finished painting the Argus and was pleased enough with the outcome to share it on the blog. Argus was unique, being the first flush-decked aircraft carrier. She had been laid down as the liner Conte Rosso but was taken over at the start of the World War I and when a large hull was needed for conversion to a carrier she was selected. With a large hull she could be provided with a very large hanger deck. Wind tunnel testing suggested a strait deck was best so that's how she ended up. I didn't even know they had wind tunnels in 1916. Anyway, Argus was completed in 1918 and given a dazzle paint job, which was the fashion late in the war. She also served throughout World War II in secondary roles, although she was certainly in war zones. I don't do many dazzle paint jobs because I don't always have the reference material I need, but in this case I had good shots of the port and starboard sides and a couple color pics, which made me decide to go ahead. The model is from Panzerschiffe, who produce epoxy models rather than metal. They are not as detailed as the metal models but they can paint up pretty nice. The aircraft on deck are Sopwith Camels I think, which are GHQ and I got from the HMS Furious kit. As an aside, if you look closely at the picture in the upper left hand corner there's a blimp in the background. Pretty neat.

Supreme's Girlfriend Judy Jordan

Oh, woe is me, poor Judy Jordan. Technically she was Kid Supreme's girlfriend in the days of his youth and then later when he grew to adulthood - sort of the Superme universe version of Lana Lang. Then Supreme abandoned earth for a number of years and Judy pined away for him until a book arrived in the mail one day. When she opened it dust flew up in her face and her entire persona was usurped by Darius Dax, who took over Judy's middle aged body for his own nefarious schemes (sounds like a life-long closet cross-dresser to me, not that I have anything against them). Upon his return to earth Supreme discovers what has happened and transfers her essence into a Suprematon (that's a robot) body. When she awakes she's not a happy camper and goes back into her oh, woe is me routine, until it comes to light that a Supreme robot (sorry, Suprematon), who is the essence of Supreme himself, is really in love with her. They decide to marry and go off to another planet, there to raise a lot of little Suprematons to populate the place. Sounds romantic to me - how about you?? Anyway, I used an Invisible Girl (clear plastic) for the figure, which I painted appropriately. A nice touch, although its hard to see, is the heart shaped belt buckle. How romantic.

Supreme's Alter Ego - Ethan Crane

Continuing with my Supreme posts I thought I would feature his alter ego and secret identity, Ethan Crane. When he was first exposed to Supremium in his youth and his hair turned white he would dye his hair black when he was performing his super feats as Kid Supreme but would go back to white when he was just Ethan Crane. By adulthood he seems to have given that up and he was white haired all the time. As an adult Ethan went into the comic book business as an artist on the Omniman comic book - Omniman actually comes to life in one comic - which is probably every comic artists fantasy - to be the super powered person who is drawing the super powered heroes. The figure I used was from a series of figures called Steel Men, who are road workers, firemen and that sort of thing. I attached a Clark Kent head, which had a ponytail I had to remove and then painted the hair white. The parts actually worked together pretty well.

Sirius the Stallion Supreme

As I said, I do actually customize critters. This is Sirius the Stallion Supreme, about whom I know very little else. He pulled the chariot at the festivities in the Supremacy for the new revised Supreme. I gather he's telepathic, which is implied by having him talk with the balloon with little dots instead of the normal pointy lines for dialog. Either that or nobody hears him thinking - not sure which. I used a horse figure from an old stagecoach set I had when I was a kid which was originally the color of the mane and tail. The cape is from T-shirt material.

Supremes White & Gold

Continuing with my Supreme posts let me say that one thing I liked about Supreme was some of the satirical touches. For example we have a Supreme who sort of pops into existence and is wondering what's going on when he's ushered to the Supremacy. The Supremacy is where "revised" Supremes go - the implication being that when the comic is reimagined they blink out of existence to make room for the next "universe" of characters. They then show up in this place called the Supremacy, which is populated by all the Supremes that ever were and their friends, loved ones and associates. It's sort of like a Heaven Supreme. I've done a few of these characters and thought I'd present some, starting with Supremes White and Gold. According to them, White and Gold were imaginary versions of Supreme who were no less real than any of the others following their revision. They say, "We hope you'll make your earth a utopia like we did ours." This is clearly a reference to a DC Comics "imaginary" story where Superman split himself into Superman Red and Superman Blue and turned the world into a utopia. I used two Hercules figures for these conversions, sanding off the belt detail and painting them appropriately. I was forced to use some material from a fabric store for the gold cape since I haven't found a gold T-shirt, but the white cape is T-shirt material.

Radar - The Hound Supreme

OK, I do pets. I think that's a good thing. In this case I did Radar, the Hound Supreme and obedient canine to his master Supreme. I made the comparison yesterday to Radar being like Superboy's pet dog Krypto, but Radar could talk, using speakers on either side of his collar, and I'm not sure Krypto ever did that. I also liked some of the dialog they gave Radar. For example, in one story when Supreme and Radar are exploring a black hole they discover a planet and Radar observes, "It does not smell like a true world. It smells (untranslatable), like the moon shining in water." It makes you ponder what the "untranslatable" part might represent and gives an interesting perspective of what the moon shining in water smell might be like. I enjoy writing that makes me think and ponder new possibilities. Anyway, I'm not sure where I got the dog figure but it made a nice Radar. If you look closely you can see the speaker alongside the figure's collar, which I found in my plastic parts box.

Supreme

I discovered Supreme in the midst of Alan Moore's term on the title and really liked it, going back and filling in the issues I missed. It is, in the final analysis, either an homage or a semi-satirical salute to Superman. He comes complete with nicknames but instead of the man of steel, Supreme is called the Ivory Icon or the gilded Goliath. Instead of a pet dog with super powers called Krypto he had one named Radar. Instead of a girl friend named Lois Lane, supreme has one named Judy Jordan. In the Alan Moore version young Ethan Crane is out in the woods with his dog Radar when he comes upon a strange glowing white meteor. Exposure to the meteor's radiation endows both Ethan and the dog with amazing powers. He adopts the secret identity of Kid Supreme and sallies forth to right the wrongs committed in the town of Littlehaven (instead of Smallville). He even gets himself a rest-of-your-life villain named Darius Dax (instead of Lex Luthor), a scientific genius who just can't walk the straight and narrow and who hates Supreme with every fibre of his being. As an adult Ethan becomes a cartoonist on a comic book (instead of a newspaper reporter) and continues his Supreme career. I really took a liking to this character as he was played out throughout the life of Supreme and his friends. More in future posts. The figure I used was a Superpowers Collection Superman (naturally), that I cleaned the belt and boot details off of and repainted. Later versions of Supreme have him with strange metal gauntlets on his hands but I haven't done that version yet.

My Base Instincts

One of my blog followers - followers sounds kind of like a religious thing, doesn't it? And its not subscriber because you don't have to pay. Anyway, someone who looks at my blog expressed their empathy over my earthquake experience and all the cleanup afterwards. They live in California, where they have more than their share of earthquakes so they really can empathize with me. At any rate I thought I'd comment on my setup a little, which might prove useful to some of you. When I originally started collecting I determined that all the figures needed to go on bases. Initially my approach was to cut one inch wide strips of balsa wood, which was cheap, and glue the figures to those (see Batman figure on left). If the figure was really big I would cut two inch thick strips of balsa for those. Over time I learned that some figures which were rather heavy would sometimes bend at the joints and fall over, taking part of the shelf with them. I also found that over time the balsa wood would distort slightly, probably due to moisture, and would sometimes just fall over, usually taking other figures with them. So over time I started getting away from the strips of balsa wood and have gone over to shaped pieces of wood that I procure at the craft store (see Superman figure on right). The larger the figure generally the larger the base. A lot of figures got new bases after the earthquake as I was cleaning up the mess. There are still many that have not been changed but slowly but surely I'll probably work through the collection as time passes. Actually I'm glad I got them back on the shelves as quickly as I did because after the earthquake on Tuesday I lost power in hurricane Irene on Saturday and didn't get it back on until Tuesday evening so the basement was really wet and the figures wouldn't have fared very well, especially the ones with cloth capes. Oh well, that was the strongest earthquake we have had in this area in over a hundred years so I'm hoping it doesn't happen like that again in my lifetime.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Villain - Phoenicia

This is the belly dancer agent who started out as a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent but later turned to the darkside. Yeah, hot belly dancer chick on the darkside - almost sounds axiomatic. At any rate, she started as a protege to Raven, a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. agent I haven't done an action figure of yet, but later switched to the bad guys. But there was clearly a little hanky panky going on between mentor and mentoree so there's some sexual tension when he "goes after her" just to spice up the chase. As for the figure - I used a Superior Models Jameela belly dancer to bring Phoenicia to life. I think they compliment one another quite nicely.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Villain - Iron Maiden

Sometimes characters in comics are very difficult to translate to a three-dimensional medium. So what do you do? Well, you look around and you keep an eye out for good prospects. I liked the character of Iron Maiden in the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. comics - she was always trying to beg, borrow, steal or seduce what she wanted away from the rest of the world, but mostly from Dynamo, who seemed to be the regular target of her larceny. I just didn't know what sort of figure I could use for her. Then I discovered an English company called Denizen Miniatures, who had a nice little range of 90mm figures, among which was the Lady Karlin. I thought she'd make a nice Iron Maiden and I think she looks pretty good in the part. I even finished her off with a cloth cape. You never know where you'll find something that will work for you.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Villains - Spider

The last few posts I've been featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and I thought this time around I'd show one of their villain groups. This is Spider, collectively, with their leader wearing the cape (naturally) and four of his soldiers. In the story in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents No. 11, Spider tries to capture the Dynamo belt for their own nefarious purposes. They fail of course but the uniforms were kinda neat so I customized five of them using five different figures. The Spider Leader was a Toy Biz Daredevil, while one of the soldiers was a later Daredevil and another one is a Mattel Secret Wars Daredevil. The other two are DC Comics Atom figures, including a JLA Atom. All in all they look rather intimidating I thought.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent - Menthor

I've been absent for a while due to that Bitch Hurricane Irene. I last posted Saturday, 27 August, then lost power about 9:30 that night and didn't get it back until Tuesday evening after 69 hours - a friend has tried to attach some cosmic significance to that number but I'll refrain from doing so. So now that I'm back up and operating I wanted to get another post up and finish my Thunder Agents, at least for the time being. John Janus is a newly caught Thunder Agent who is secretly working for an enemy of Thunder named the Warlord (Janus - get it? - two-faced). However, when Janus is given an invention of Professor Jenning's called the Menthor helmet he has a change of heart - or maybe more accurately a change of mind. The Menthor helmet enhances Janus' mental abilities to read minds, manipulate physical objects but more importantly alter his mental attitude, making him help Thunder instead of betraying them. Janus seems to have trouble hanging onto the helmet and has to keep tracking down helmet thieves. Finally he's killed and the helmet changes hands again, eventually ending up in the hands - or shall we say on the head of - a woman. I haven't done a figure of her yet but will probably pick up this narrative again if I ever do. As for the figure, I used a Toy Biz Silver Surfer and painted him like the Menthor uniform. Doesn't sound very hard now does it. Cheers, and it's good to be back.