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Booyah! Batman's back, brother! Time for another MOTU Hybrid custom figure! Today's work is one of the most challenging Masters I've made (at least, until I started work on Clawful . . . he's been a B!+(#, let me tell you!). As stated in Teela's description, every good man has a good woman pushing him along. Teela is He-Man's main squeeze, but the ultimate source of his power and purpose is the guardian of Castle Grayskull, the wise, mysterious, shape-changing Sorceress! MOTU Hybrid is my attempt to unify the best of all three MOTU eras. The ideas (i.e. color schemes and concepts) of the original cartoon, the sculpts of the 2002 toys, and the articulation of modern figures, at a far more reasonable cost. As with Evil-Lyn before her, the Sorceress was a resin statue rather than a straight action figure. Also like Evil-Lyn, I painted the Sorceress in a more Filmation-like color scheme. It's not exactly the same (for reasons I'll explain in a moment), but it's significantly closer to a "generation 1" appearance than the 2002 version. As with the last statue, certain components had to be discarded to make way for proper articulation. The Sorceress' legs and arms were replaced with X-23 limbs, and all the necessary costume pieces were transferred to the new appendages. Her skirt, once a solid chunk or rubber resin, was meticulously hollowed out with a Dremel until it was about a 16th of an inch thick, making it fully flexible, allowing for complete poseability. Yes, that's the statue's original skirt, not a replacement. Joints were added in all the necessary places, so that this once immobile figurine now has knees, ball hips, ankles, ball shoulders, double-elbows, and rotation at the biceps, thighs, calves, wrists, waist, and neck. Two versions of this statue were released. One in 2002 colors, and one pre-painted in an '80s motif. I bought the 2002 version (MUCH cheaper), but I wanted her paint to be as close to the original cartoon (and thus, the alt. color statue) as possible. Unfortunately, I was never terribly fond of the original's orange wings. However, the Sorceress statue also came with a neat accessory: a secondary figure of her as Zoar, her bird form. Zoar was painted in a pattern that actually closely resembled the '80s character's human costume, sans orange wings, and with a few other minor color changes (mostly the color patterns on the head). I decided to base my sorceress off the bird figurine rather than directly translating the Filmation incarnation. So, in case anyone was wondering, that's why she has tan, dry-brushed wings with blue wing-tips instead of the traditional orange. As stated, the Sorceress came with her Zoar alternate form, sitting on a rock. Out of the box, the hawk was permanently attached to the stone since it couldn't stand on its own. I removed the bird, hollowed it out, and weighted down the back with fishing sinkers so it was properly balanced and could free-stand on and level surface without being glued down. Well . . . presuming it's an edge, since his tail will get in the way. The Sorceress' final accessory, her magic staff, was a little on the plain side, so I spruced it up with some blue, some metallic red, and mother-of-pearl paint for the wings. A few splashes of color make all the difference. You know how, in the Figure Realm submission form, under Recipe/Description, it says "At minimum, a brief recipe of your custom is required?" That always makes me laugh . . . . By the power of Grayskull!  |
| Maverick |  | Submission Order |  | Indigo Tribe Peb |
| Red Knight | | Masters of the Universe Series | | Orko (MOTU Hybrid) |
| Battle-Cat (MOTU Hybrid) | | Created by Batman1016 | | Orko (MOTU Hybrid) |
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Anyhoo, more great work, the articulation improvements are spot on as usual and the paint job really does tie in with the 80s but with a nice update to it. I hear you on clawful man, that plastic gets everywhere when you introduce it to a dremmel
Yeah, that rubber resin they use for the mini-statues . . . it's CRAZY messy. But at least it's easy to cut/grind/hollow/etc. By contrast, I hear the Randor mini-statue is made of the solid, cold-cast polystone stuff. I am NOT looking forward to working with THAT, but I'll get him done if it's the LAST thing I do!
Seriously, when my friends say, "Dude, you should sell these figures, they're awesome," I point to Jin and Raybot and G Brand and you to show them I'm just amateur hour. To have you compliment my work, it means a LOT! Thanks SO much!
Genius? Nah, the sinker was just a simple question of balance and physics. Bird is front heavy, bird needs counterweight in back. Bird is tiny, ergo bird needs tiny weight. What's small and heavy? A little lead pellet . . . just logical progression, really. I had access to a tacklebox, there was my solution. Always look for answers to your engineering problems in your immediate environment. That's a lesson I learned building my first Metroid (go back and read his description for the story).
Unfortunately, the sinker idea isn't quite working out for Evil-Lyn's bird, Screech. Screech's legs are positioned differently, thus her balance point is further back. For her to balance in her current stance, the weight would have to be in her tail, and that's obviously not possible without casting a whole new tail OUT of lead, and lead casting is just outside my experience and capabilities, I'm afraid. And I can't really reposition Screech's legs without potentially damaging them.
as for the sinker loved the idea, maybe fore screech you could sculpt the tail in apoxie and reattach to counter-balance the weight, just a though or remove some weight from the front to balance. just keep up the awesome work.
by the power of grayskull I love motu so everyone keep em coming.
WAAAOOOWWWW!!