Hammerdown is a character that appeared in IDW issue #18 (May 2010), one of the many “we need a Joe to die so let's make up a new one just to kill him off” that we've had over the years. He's portrayed as a huge guy, presumably close to the Army maximum of 6'8”. As you can see in the comparison pic with Downtown and Cover Girl (who featured heavily in that issue), he's got a substantial height advantage. His only ARAH-era parts are the torso from Roag Pig and waist from Sgt. Slaughter. The legs are Major Barrage, and the arms and head are Sgt. Savage. The cap and HK416 are both Marauder Inc. Their caps are really versatile – they're designed for smaller heads but fit this big noggin very well.

_________________

This is a paint update of a rather bland figure released in 1992. There's nothing wrong with his colouring per se, but he really only had paint details in a single colour. So I added a bunch of accents in black and grey, and painted his accessories as well to give a bit of variety in his look. I replaced his original mic with one from Marauder Inc.

One interesting thing about Bullet-Proof is that his filecard lists his SMOS as a Federal Marshall [sic]. This suggests that rather than any branch of the military, he was actually trained in the US Marshal Service, which would make sense for a DEA operative. It also makes him unique among the Joes.

_________________

This custom updates a Black Major Cobra de Aco figure to 1.5 standard. The head, torso, legs and accessories are “original”, while the arms and waist are from Flash v1.5.

_________________

Issue #72 of the Marvel comics introduced three new characters from the 1988 series of vehicle drivers: Skidmark, Windmill and Wild Card. All three of them had coloring that was much more muted than the actual figures featured (especially Windmill). If it were just one of them, you might think maybe the creative was working with earlier versions of the figures, before the colours were finalized. But with three of them, it seems unlikely that the colours would have changed that much for all of them. So maybe Bob Sharen (who did the colours for this issue, any about half of all Marvel G.I. Joe comics) many others) just had too much self-respect to use what Hasbro was giving him?

Wild Card was the least bad of these three, it was really only his maroon trousers that created an eyesore. So this custom just gives him some nice subdued blue pants, and adds more painted details as well, including on his helmet.

_________________

Golobulus is up there with v1 of Deep Six as the original ARAH figures with the least play value. His snake portion is technically posable, but it's so limited that you can't really do anything with it. But here I've taken the lower half of a Vitruvian HACKS Berzerker to give Golobulus some real posability. The rest of the figure is also painted, to add detail and tone down the neon green of his left arm. The sword is also from the Berzerker.

_________________

I had a second Golobulus figure available, so while I was doing up the custom with the Vitruvian HACKS body, I also did this one, using the waist and legs from the Cobra-La Royal Guard to give the leader a humanoid form. I figure Cobra-La nobles are shapreshifters, so he can assume this form when he wishes. Using these parts is not an original idea, there's a Golobulus on Joecustoms.com that does the same, but the paint scheme is original. Again the sword is from the Vitruvian HACKS figure.

_________________

It turns out I have a lot to say about Stalker. This custom is just a repaint of the original, the swivel-arm version (although you'll notice it has a v1 waist, I've found v1.5 waists really hard to find for him.) I painted his beret black, since he's not Special Forces and therefore should not be wearing a green beret. Rangers have been allowed to wear black berets at times, so it's a more appropriate colour.

I also repainted his eyes. This was the first time I've tried using a Pigma Micron pen instead of paint for the eyes. I think it works really well, because it's a lot easier to control than a paint brush when painting tiny details like that. If you're going to try it, you'll want to only use it over plat/matte paint. I experimented with various paints and it doesn't like to sit on glossy paint. Also I normally use a brush-on clear coat over my paint, but with the ink I had to use a spray-on one, because even on flat paint the ink doesn't necessarily dry completely.

Stalker was actually the first Joe I bought with my own money. It would have been v1.5, since it had swivel arms. I had received Grunt and the RAM as gifts already, and saved up my allowance after that. I was 6 years old, so even thought the figure cost only $2.75 (IIRC) at the local K-Mart, at $0.25 a week it took some time to have enough.

For accessories I gave him a pack appropriate for an airborne ranger, the Accessory Pack version of Airborne's ruck, with some painted details. He also has his M-32 “Pulverizer” submachine gun, which you probably know it not a real gun. However, in doing research on the real-life basis for some Joe weapons, it seems pretty clear to me that it's a modified version of a Heckler & Koch MP5. Have a look at this image of an early version of that gun, the MP54:

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/7c/ ... HK_MP5.JPG

This has what they call the “waffle” style magazine, before the more familiar curved ones were introduced for the MP5. A lot of the details on the body of the gun bear remarkable similarities to the Pulverizer, but the stock is different and the barrel is shorter. So in my Joe world, the Pulverizer is a modified MP5, with a longer barrel and adding the stock of an M76/Swedish K. Since Grunt is a small arms armorer, and would go on to get an engineering degree, we can say it's a modification of his that was adopted by Stalker, and also later by Duke when he joined the unit.

_________________

Very nice set of repaints. I especially like the Hammerhead character. I'm not into the comics, so I'm not familiar with him, but if Hasbro put out new characters like that, I'd be all over them.

Golobulus is great! I hated Cobra-La as a kid, but as an adult, I think they are a lot of fun. The fully poseable snake figure is a great addition to the Joe rogues gallery.

I'm a HUGE Stalker fan... he is probably neck in neck with Breaker for my favorite Joes, I'm enjoying what you did here. In fact, I've been on the fence for what to do for another Stalker custom based more closely on the original swivel arm sculpt, and I think you have inspired me to finish it off.

One nitpick... the beret... you are correct in that if Stalker isn't special forces, he shouldn't be wearing a green beret. For the last 15 years or so, Rangers have switched to tan berets to distinguish them from the average grunt who now all wear black berets. However, look at Stalker's filecard... sure, his specialty is Ranger, but there is no mention of him going to Ranger school. In fact, his secondary specialty behind Infantry is Medic and Interpreter. Further, he went to intelligence school. That is a pretty solid track to special forces... it's the same path my dad went down when he was in the army and was selected for special forces.

That being said, and the matter overcomplicated, Stalker's beret doesn't have a flash (patch.) It is quite likely that his beret isn't even worn to denote the unit he serves/has served in and is just something he wears for fun. In which case, it can be whatever color looks good.

_________________

This is Stalker in 1982/83, so I went with a black beret instead of tan. As for the Special Forces thing...it's true that Ranger School isn't listed on his file card, but neither is the Special Forces Qualification Course. So given that he's called a ranger, and he's certainly written as a ranger in the comics, I went with ranger.

There's also the fact that Special Forces have their own MOS, while rangers do not, so an infantryman MOS fits a ranger better as well.

I've thought about these things way too much...

_________________

More on berets...there are only five Joes who wore berets in the 1982-1994 run: Stalker, Flint, Dial-Tone, Falcon and Dusty. Additionally, Beach Head has what appears to be a beret carried on his shoulder.

Stalker's 1982 beret is discussed above. His 1991 beret is black, which is in line with what a ranger would wear.

Flint's 1985 beret is black. His file card specifies he qualified as both a ranger and Special Forces. So he could wear a green beret, but I understand that SF would sometimes wear black berets anyway to reduce the chances of them being sniped at. His 1988 (Tiger Force) beret is brown, which of course is not a beret of the US Army. You could say it was a beret authorized for use exclusively by Tiger Force if you like, or you could paint it green or black.

Beach Head's 1986 beret is maroon. Maroon was worn by airborne at the time, but Beach Head is also ranger qualified. I would think a ranger would prefer a ranger beret to an airborne one, but if he wants to wear the maroon one, I'm not going to tell him any different.

Dial-Tone's 1986 (and 1990) beret is black. His training is not specified on his file card, but if we assume he's ranger-qualified, then this colour makes sense.

Falcon's 1987 (and 1991) beret is green. He's explicitly a Green Beret, so this is fine. His 1988 (Night Force) beret is black. As noted above, SF sometimes wore black berets, so this is fine as well.

Dusty's 1991 beret is tan, which no one in the US Army wore at the time. The best solution here would be to paint it maroon of airborne, or perhaps black if you want to say he's ranger-qualified.

Did I miss anybody?

_________________

both of those globulus are amazing!

_________________

Fun isn't it

_________________

Just catching up on these customs - tons of great work! Crazy Legs was always one of my fav. characters and you did a great job on both versions.

And I agree about his original rifle - not sure what it was supposed to be and that stock never stayed on anyhow. And the Marauder one you gave him is the longer-barreled G36.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G36

You're quite right, thank you.

_________________

Even more on the berets, I've just noticed that Dusty v1 has what looks like it can be a Parachutist Badge on his uniform, so that justifies giving him a maroon Beret for v3. Which I'm actually doing right now.

_________________