~Thor Odinson
So, I was never the biggest fan of Thor or Captain America. When I was growin up in the 80's I was very big into Punisher, Spiderman, The Ghost Rider and Iron Man. Mortal men with flaws. Ok, Ghost Rider was immortal but, Johnny blaze was not. But Cap was always to lame and jingoistic in a leave it to beaver way? A soldier who didn't use a gun? His stories were outdated and his enemys made me more concerned about the future of villans then what they might attempt to do in any menacing way. And Thor was always to convoluted and messy. He was a god, he wasn't a god. He was an alien? He was a crazy guy? He had an accent, he didn't have one? Not till Walt Simonson did I really have Thor stories I could follow and get into, like REALLY INTO.
I got his univers. I got his reasons. I got his relationship with Loki. I just really liked siminsons work with Thor. And about 5 months ago a co-worker of mine named John or more affectionately know as "Boots" due to his awesome German style biker boots, reminded me of this.
(photo from local comic shop "Comic Book West" on "Cosplay day" from local blog "fourhman" )
He is also known as "Thor" due to his insane cosplay outfits of Thor Inspired by Walt Simonson. He has met Walt on multipul occasions. And Simonson has commented on the hand craftsmanship of his costumes. Oh, did I mention he hand smiths. Yes, he is a smithy. That hammer on his belt is 52 LBS! He loves when people ask if they can hold the hammer. Cause it gives him a reason to say " If you can pick up Majron, you may." just so he can set it on the ground and watch the unworthies strife as the comedy ensues.
A long time ago I started a Thor custom. I was disillusioned with the many re-envisioning of him ( All of this was before fear itself and the run up to it which I loved. I wanted my own Thor.
I loved Simonsons, for his ruggedness.
I love this Old world Thor he did. Thats were it all started..future figure.
But I also liked thunder strike, look wise. It was a good look for modernizing thor and still keeping him like Thor.
And I loved the Ultimate Thor! It was like Thunderstrike on steroids! But still i didn't want these guys for my custom. I wanted my own thor...
I found Wiccan, formerly known as Asgardian for obvious yet to be mentioned reasons. I always thought Thor should be more celtic? Redish hair? Dark hair. Not that the fair haired nord Thor doesn't work. I just imagened him with red or black hair. I also wanted a young modern Thor. And asgardian was a cool character. Especially when Marvel took a chance and made him homosexual. And not like a big coming out party way. His coming out was more organic like " oh, the reason I want to sit next to hulking well we all watch this movie is he's my BF. Is that an issue? cause if it is thats a problem." it was not a big deal that he and Hulkling were in love. And normally when comic companies do things like that they pick low cader pawns or characters that aren't already established, or haven't been around for say 40 years? ( cough DC Cough!) SO them taking a chance on a new character that was supposed to be a big book was cool.
I really like their relationship. And the idea of might and magick. ( yes, Magick)
With that I found my base and my concept took shape. A young Thor from an alternate time line. Keeping in his role as arrogent and pompous. Mjölnir had also been capped , but in this world it was that he could only summon it for limited periods of time. more on this later. I wanted him to be hot to trot and snide. And the look of the figure with that smirk worked. I also decided my Thor would be more magick based then the 616 thor. I wanted him to be like Son Goku Insanely powerful but lackadaisical and immature.
And so, I began...
The first thing I noticed about the base figure that I liked was something I didn't like so much. His shins pads! Which had no rotation? Which was unacceptable. So I went about looking for a good set of shins to swap in. I settled on a ML S4 Gambit who I had turned into a Storm Shadow. I had swapped in some ML S14 longshot shins so these were just waitin' around to get used up.
I started by sculpting ruffles in the tights. Then dremleing away the legs till they were basically stilts. I then coated them with crazy glue to add rigidity and then sculpted over them. I then measured out some foamy and glued it around the part where the shin rotator is. I wanted to keep his boots looking similar but not exactly. I really liked his boots. I just didn't like the lack of articulation. I cut a gap for a seam line as a detail when its all done.
I then sculpted the front guards. These are just the base and will be built on.
Then final thing I did before moving on to let everything dry was coat it all in crazy glue so it would not snap.
Next was Wiccans staff. ML legends staffs are always made of a rubber mold. Completely lacking shape and form. Gambit and Wiccan looked kinda' silly holding droopy sticks.(Yuck,Yuck,Yuck!) So I made one out of a LOTR Gandolf the gray staff ( hard plastic) by shaving it down and making it very uneven. ( sorry no better way to describe that) Then I took an exacto knife and gouged and nicked it up. I also made two stick from scratch of smaller stature cause I wanted part of his deal to be his
Mjölnir can be the traditional short one, a normal war hammer size or a super long war hammer.I made the additional sticks by rolling sculpey into tubes smoothing letting set then dremeling and the same trick with an exacto knife.
He was coming together nicely. But I needed something else. I loved the ult Thor and Thunder striks sleeveless jackets. Thunderstrike sporting a brown biker jacket without sleeves and ult thor a trench or duster. SO I had this old MGS 2 Mcfarlane Shalashaska
Its a cool figure but bricked to me. ( no articulation really ) But his head sculpt and accessories were amazing! So I went about removing the soft good belt and bullets on the chest strap. The boots, the jacket, guns and hands. I put everything away in my fodder box except the coat.
And it starts to take shape.
The agenda: Interchangeable hammer tops ( Walt Simonson style. Ult style and Celtic lore.)
Two opening and closing books of magick
Secret arcane artifacts ( it's a surprise)
Interchangeable alt action head ( I have two wiccians.)
I started this figure a long time ago but, am finally getting around to getting him under way.
I'm fairly excited about him as he is up for attention after snakeyes and mystique.
NEXT TIME! On another nipple tickling installment of Automatauntaun!
DEATH COMES RIPPING!
So, I was never the biggest fan of Thor or Captain America. When I was growin up in the 80's I was very big into Punisher, Spiderman, The Ghost Rider and Iron Man. Mortal men with flaws. Ok, Ghost Rider was immortal but, Johnny blaze was not. But Cap was always to lame and jingoistic in a leave it to beaver way? A soldier who didn't use a gun? His stories were outdated and his enemys made me more concerned about the future of villans then what they might attempt to do in any menacing way. And Thor was always to convoluted and messy. He was a god, he wasn't a god. He was an alien? He was a crazy guy? He had an accent, he didn't have one? Not till Walt Simonson did I really have Thor stories I could follow and get into, like REALLY INTO.
I got his univers. I got his reasons. I got his relationship with Loki. I just really liked siminsons work with Thor. And about 5 months ago a co-worker of mine named John or more affectionately know as "Boots" due to his awesome German style biker boots, reminded me of this.
He is also known as "Thor" due to his insane cosplay outfits of Thor Inspired by Walt Simonson. He has met Walt on multipul occasions. And Simonson has commented on the hand craftsmanship of his costumes. Oh, did I mention he hand smiths. Yes, he is a smithy. That hammer on his belt is 52 LBS! He loves when people ask if they can hold the hammer. Cause it gives him a reason to say " If you can pick up Majron, you may." just so he can set it on the ground and watch the unworthies strife as the comedy ensues.
A long time ago I started a Thor custom. I was disillusioned with the many re-envisioning of him ( All of this was before fear itself and the run up to it which I loved. I wanted my own Thor.
I loved Simonsons, for his ruggedness.
But I also liked thunder strike, look wise. It was a good look for modernizing thor and still keeping him like Thor.
And I loved the Ultimate Thor! It was like Thunderstrike on steroids! But still i didn't want these guys for my custom. I wanted my own thor...
And so, I began...
The first thing I noticed about the base figure that I liked was something I didn't like so much. His shins pads! Which had no rotation? Which was unacceptable. So I went about looking for a good set of shins to swap in. I settled on a ML S4 Gambit who I had turned into a Storm Shadow. I had swapped in some ML S14 longshot shins so these were just waitin' around to get used up.
I then sculpted the front guards. These are just the base and will be built on.
He was coming together nicely. But I needed something else. I loved the ult Thor and Thunder striks sleeveless jackets. Thunderstrike sporting a brown biker jacket without sleeves and ult thor a trench or duster. SO I had this old MGS 2 Mcfarlane Shalashaska
And it starts to take shape.
The agenda: Interchangeable hammer tops ( Walt Simonson style. Ult style and Celtic lore.)
Two opening and closing books of magick
Secret arcane artifacts ( it's a surprise)
Interchangeable alt action head ( I have two wiccians.)
I started this figure a long time ago but, am finally getting around to getting him under way.
I'm fairly excited about him as he is up for attention after snakeyes and mystique.
NEXT TIME! On another nipple tickling installment of Automatauntaun!
DEATH COMES RIPPING!
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