Here is my custom 12 inch figure of Zartan, based on his first 3 3/4 inch action figure from the 1980s. I stayed as close to the original figure design and card art as possible. To make Zartan, I used a Lanard 12 inch body as a base. Lanard figures are less poseable, but they look better than those skinny bodies from other brands. The head came from a GI JOE vs. COBRA Nun-Chuck figure. I painted on the black facial tattoos around the eyes. I also made the wire-frame hood with microfiber cloth and bendable wire. The pants came from a GI JOE vs. COBRA Destro figure. The hands came from Talking Duke from the same line. The shoulder armor was accessories to a medieval Knight I found online. I painted them black and added some pleather and elastic straps to augment the shoulder armor. At this point, I was stuck. The figure lay dormant for several years as I could not figure out how to make the chest armor. I wanted it to be removable and visualized what I wanted to do, but I didn't know what to use for the front chest plate. All of the chest armor I had access to was soft plastic, a bad choice for painting since the paint won't dry properly and will be easy to damage/crack/chip. Finally, a light bulb flashed over my head. I used the hard plastic chest of a 12 inch body from Dragon. I busted up the figure and used the dremel to cut down and hollow out the chest plate. I ordered the back piece online and connected the two parts with cut down belts with working click-buckles, four total. I painted the front plate a dark metallic gray, just for a little differentiation as a wink to the discolored clear area on the original figure. I added some pleather around the bottom to augment, as well as a snap on back which helped to secure the armor in place. The slats on the shoulder straps were styrene plastic, painted with Aluminum Plate paint. The original Action Man ski boots I first used were replaced by the high tech boots I found on Ebay. The thigh armor was ordered online as well. There you have it, the perfect 12 inch Zartan that no one ever bothered to make for some odd reason. Please check out my other 12 inch custom GI JOE action figures!!