The recent Marvel Select Venom figure seems very popular amongst collectors, but I just couldn’t help but look at it and see room for improvement, so that’s what I did. Before, the Venom figure couldn’t move very much. Almost no ab crunch, very limited head movement, not to mention single knee joints and absolutely no rocker ankles. It was sad, really. So I heated him up and popped him apart. Thankfully, Venom is almost completely soft plastic, so he pops apart pretty easily. I took my dremel and shaved some plastic away around the ball joint in his neck and in his torso, allowing for a much wider range of motion.

Then, I spliced the lower legs (from the knee down) of a Spider-Man Classics Venom (the one with the rubbery head) onto the new figure. It required some work though. Since the Venom figure only had single knees to begin with, that meant his knee was sculpted onto the upper leg, so I had to shave that down, and in fact cut maybe 1/4″ from the lower part of his upper leg, sand it down to prep it, and drill new joint pin holes, and then attach the new lower legs. Then I sculpted over those joint pins to recreate the texture of the figure to blend everything in. I also sanded down the calves of the SMC Venom an resculpted them. I never did like those Rob Liefeld-like giant calves the figure had before, so I toned them down and blended it by sculpting the same texture into it as the rest of the leg. And by cutting a bit from his legs, it shortened him just a bit, making him more in scale with Marvel Legends, while still being in scale with Marvel Select if one prefers. So that technique is definitely not for the novice.

Next, I repainted everything. Head to toe. I couldn’t stand the weird, very inconsistent blue dry brushing the figure had before. Not to mention all the detailing was messed up. I just couldn’t let it go by. So everything was repainted. I cleaned up the Venom insignias, and all the detailing on the eyes, teeth, and gums of all the heads (including all the extra heads on the “Madness backpack”). The tongues of two of the Venom heads have been painted over in a glossy clear coat to give them a slimy, salivating look. Every alternate attachment was repainted as well, to give a uniform look. I also took the hands from that Spider-Man Classics Venom and modded them to fit into the arms of this new Venom, to give this figure yet another set of alternate hands, ones that have hinged wrists and individually hinged fingers. So it took a bit of doing, but now with the added articulation, Venom is ready to take on Spider-Man in pretty much any of the looks he’s had throughout the comics!