Head: The Black Hole Dan Holland cast
Torso & arms: Resolute Flint
Hands: 25A TF Flint
Legs, feet: ROC Storm Shadow
Armor prop: 90's Toy Biz Iron Man


Concept & Design:

My inclusion of the Centurions toy line (that's where this is going) is a blatant steal from Hembles Creations' fantastic customs.

I don't have a "universe" for my customs as many customizers do. However, I like having a loose framework that could link characters from other toy lines to the world of GI Joe. MASK is easy because Hasbro did it first with Matt Trakker. Eagle Force, cut from the same cloth as GI Joe, is even easier. But Centurions? That takes some stretching. The real world exo-suits being developed for the military and health industries, as often shown on The Military Channel and The Science Channel, makes it almost plausible. Imagine these fancy contraptions to where they'll be in the near future and that's pretty much Centurions.

The best figures to use as a starter base are obviously Iron Man figures, which begs for the inclusion of Tony Stark in some manner. Tony "Iron Man" Stark has developed several Centurion systems. These state of the art platforms are sometimes utilized at the request of the GI Joe Mobile Strike Force. My favorite GI Joe continuity is that of Marvel Comics, which set the GI Joe Universe by itself (I refuse to acknowledge those Transformers crossovers, of course). Inside this non-Marvel continuity, we did get to see an "alternate" version of J. Jonah Jamieson. This leaves the door open to bring in other Marvel characters, though perhaps not their superpowers...

I chose the head because it doesn't look like Robert Downey, Jr. He plays a great Tony Stark, but I wanted this figure to not channel the movies. If anything, I wanted to capture the feel of the Marvel Comics from around late 70's or early 80's. The Dan Holland head, with its wide flat plains, stood out as a great Tony Stark head. Very reminiscent of Mark "Doc" Bright's artwork from the 80's. The very detailed head was sculpted by Mego over 30 years ago. It's a bit larger than the ones sculpted today for 1:18 scale figures. To downplay this, I set it as high as possible on the neck. The Resolute torso, a favorite of customizers for Tony Stark, works well as a t-shirt and the Storm Shadow legs make good khakis.

Colors & Paint:

The shirt had to be red with yellow highlights. Toss in some blue jeans and you've got Tony Stark. No glowing arc reactor under the t-shirt... a bit too showy for my likes. To place more yellow on the shirt, I created a logo for Stark Industries and printed it out. And a big gold belt buckle to remind us that this guy is Iron Man, at least in another continuity.

Sculpting & Modifying:

The head is a custom cast of Dan Holland from the Mego Black Hole line.

To teach, improve, share, entertain and showcase the work of the customizing community.