Head: Chap Mei skull wizard, with Testor's putty mods to the lips and eyebrows
Torso/pelvis/thighs: Wave 7 Gung-Ho
Arms: Funk Destro with swivel-wrist mods
Boots: Wave 2 Snake Eyes
The shields are casts/mods of the SS Captain America shield
The Sword is some Japanese model of a bug mecha
The Spear is model sprue and 1mm plexi
The Red Skull was born Johann Schmidt in a southern German village, the son of an illiterate, drunken peasant named Hermann, and his long-suffering wife Martha. Martha died in childbirth, and Hermann tried to drown the newborn Johann, blaming him for the death of his mother, and committed suicide the next morning. The infant was rescued by a local doctor, who delivered the infant to an orphanage.
Schmidt ran away at age seven, and grew up in and out of prison for petty crimes ranging from vagrancy to theft, constantly beaten and victimized by other thugs. His smoldering anger was given an outlet when he first encountered Hitler; Schmidt was working as a bellboy in a hotel in which Hitler was staying. Hitler was in the middle of berating his general staff, and boasted that he could make "this bell-boy" into a more effective Nazi.
Schmidt was given military training, and made into the perfect S.S. soldier. Upon his presentation to Hitler, however, Hitler grew enraged, screaming, "Anyone can make a soldier!" Hitler took Schmidt in hand for personal training as a special operative, giving him the identity and mask of the "Red Skull".
When it became obvious that the Nazis were losing the war, the Skull hatched a desperate plan, along with his cohort the Ultra-Humanite. They were going to capture Captain America and replace his brain with Schmidt's brain. Luring Cap to Berlin with a planted leak about the Spear of Destiny being out of Hitler's hands on its way to a secret bunker, Cap was ambushed and taken prisoner.
Unfortunately, Cap awoke from his stupor just as the Humanite's bone saw was cutting into his flesh. Struggling free, the lab caught fire and both the Skull and Humanite were buried in the rubble as Cap fled. Due to the experimental nature of the chemicals and gasses the Humanite used in his brain-swapping surgeries, they were both locked in a pocket in the rubble and they slumbered in stasis for decades.
A construction crew were astonished to find the two criminals when digging out the site for an office building; but unable to prevent their escape. Taking the sample of tissue left on the bone saw, they fled into the night...
