Head: The Black Hole- Dan Holland cast
Helmeted head: ARAH Mega Viper cast
Neck post: 25A Destro (Iron Grenadiers uniform) cast
Torso, upper belt: Star Wars- Doda Bodonawieedo
Hose: 25A Para-Viper
Upper arms: 25A Dusty
Lower arms, hands: Indiana Jones- Colonel Dovchenko
Waist, legs: Star Wars- Han Solo
Backpack: ARAH Barbecue
Large Weapon: Unknown Knock-off
Pistol: 25A Iron Grenadier???
Dog: 25A Junkyard


Design:

Repulsor was one of the 2014 GI Joe Collectors' Club exclusive figures. With the prices being astronomical, Repulsor was a character destined to be filled in my collection with a custom. This is a custom that could have been made to look like the actual figure, as none of its parts were original. To me, directly duplicating factory figures feels like making "imitation" figures more than customs. I usually stray from the original designs somewhat and use non-modern era parts for my customs inspired by the GIJCC. That said, I did use the same backpack and sidearm.

I went for a less kitted-out look for Repulsor. The baggy chest of Doda Bodonawieedo and the equally saggy lower arms of Colonel Dovchenko paired together to create a chemical suit look. The Han Solo legs are slimmer and more streamlined, but the molded holster and gunbelt work well to mimic the feel of the GIJCC figure. I usually don't care if my customs have limited articulation, but here posable knees would have been a plus.

Mego's 3.75 figure lineup included Star Trek The Motion Picture and The Black Hole... even the heads for its CHIPS figures were masterfully sculpted. The sculptors at Mego were amazing, no matter which line. The Black Hole Dan Holland head is a good stand-in for the "John Wayne as Red Star" head, which the GIJCC club used with black hair for Repulsor. The Mega-Viper head, a gem from the ARAH era that I only recently discovered for customizing, is a good fit for the helmet.

Colors & Paint:

Roughly based on the GIJCC figure. A metallic wash was added to the base uniform to create the appearance that it's not a standard cloth uniform. The powder blue the GIJCC club used on the backpack canisters works nicely, so it was expanded to both weapons. I had to use thin brown lines to "draw" back in details lost on the yellow areas because the paint is so gloppy. To disguise the iconic Han Solo gunbelt, the buckles are painted black instead of silver or metallic grey.

The Cobra biohazard logo is a bit fuzzy, but it's the best quality I could print. Instead of applying in on the chest, the Dusty arm already had a sculpted flat area for logo placement.

Sculpting & Modifying:

The heads are cast. To nudge the Mega-Viper head a bit closer to the GIJCC helmet, a bit of material was added to the top of the faceplate. The torso was reworked to accept the arms, which were set just a tad wide to offset the slightly large head. The upper torso was modified to accept the waist. The bunched-up material just above the boots is sculpted and added to balance out the upper body. The backpack harness is sculpted.

About Dawg:

Design:

To create the zombified canine, Dawg, I used a 25A Junkyard. I don't care for the 25A Junkyard, especially as Junkyard. The '84 Junkyard figure looks like a dutiful lab/Doberman mix and it's just perfect. The bulkier 25A one looks like some kind of caricature crazed pit bull/rottweiler mix. I scoured through my animal fodder to find a different kind of dog. Zombifiying a more "lovable" breed would have added some character. But I couldn't find a suitable dog, so the 25A Junkyard was used.

Despite all of the wounds and blood (even though it's blue), the GIJCC Dawg doesn't really accomplish what it's supposed to. The saucer eyes make it looks kind of cutesy, with a not-so-great sculpt that resembles an oversized pug more than the intended pit bull. The biggest mistake of the GIJCC Dawg is its lively posture (pun intended). The club sculpted Dawg into a static pose that could have been used for a regular dog. It's a reanimated dog, after all.

Colors & Paint:

The sky blue of the GIJCC figure is used to sell it as being a zombified creature. I used this color on all of the exposed areas of Dawg, including its wounds, eyes, and mouth. These areas are also metallic and glow-in-the-dark. Metallic blue also diminishes the outright gore, lending to a more sci-fi themed techno-virus.

Sculpting & Modifying:

I tried to do more with less on my custom. Instead of damage and wounds all over Dawg, I focused on a few key points to sell it as a zombie animal. A dropped and twisted head was really needed. Here the head was repositioned and twisted sideways just past how a living animal could probably hold its head. To show gravity, a new tongue was added falling out of the mouth. The lower jaw was repositioned to droop, too. Past the neck there are only two gory bits. The first is the leaking entrails on the side, made of hot glue sculpt. The second is the exposed bone in one of the hind legs.

I wasn't able to match the hair sculpting on the Junkyard figure when covering the reworked neck area. To make the difference in hair texture less obvious, I added several additional areas on the Junkyard figure that matched the reworked neck.

Thanks for looking.

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