Head: ROC Zartan
Torso, arms, hands, feet: Resolute Stalker
Legs: 25A Shipwreck


Ali Bombay is one of the easily forgotten MASK characters. I'm taking an "in for a penny, in for a pound" approach to making customs of MASK and Eagle Force characters, making third tier characters like this a challenge to embrace. The design of the source figure, the Kenner Ali Bombay figure, is a red/white/blue body suit. That's not exactly correct... "body suit" implies it might have some wrinkles or bunching of material, as a wetsuit would. Ali Bombay's design was more of a spandex superhero costume- probably the most out-of-place of any MASK or VENOM figure.

This is the most drastic uniform/costume change I've made to any of my custom MASK figures so far. To make the figure work as a "Now a Joe" figure, I kept the super-tight red/white/blue concept, but limited it to just being from the waist up. To make Ali Bombay look like he might be part of the Joe team's research and development arm, MASK, I replaced the tights on the lower half of the body with trousers. The Resolute upper body looks buff enough to work for Ali Bombay, mostly as the kind of tight shirt that those who spend too much time in the gym like to wear. The Shipwreck legs help let the design ditch its full superhero look.

For that one Ali Bombay fan out there who really liked the superhero look, you can imagine that the rest of the spandex is still under the trousers.

I wasn't motivated to make this figure, but it's turned out to be my favorite MASK interpretation so far.

Colors & Paint:

Red/white/blue design from the source figure was embraced/downplayed, but locked in place with lots of olive drab green. Framing the red/white/blue with green also conveys a sense of military patriotism. Let's be honest... I pretty much swiped this look from the great put-together uniform worn in the rescue scene in Captain America: The First Avenger. I also changed the turban color from white to green to match the trousers. I also painted the facial hair as a full beard instead of just a mustache/goatee.

Sculpting & Modifying:

The Zartan head was a good neutral starting point. Sculpting the turban and facial hair helped it look closer to the MASK figure, though I made the turban a different style than the one the source figure had. On the source figure, Ali Bombay wears some kind of ridiculous insect-like padded tubing around his shoulders. I substituted a sculpted scarf.

Thanks for looking.

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