That JLU STAS Aquaman figure was absolutely impossible to find due to mattel dropping the ball with the distribution of the JLU figures. I wasn't about to drop $70 for the figure on ebay because that's what he was going for. But it was really important for me to have this character because I I have STAS, BTAS/TNBA figures on display. So I decided to make him myself. It was really one of my early customs after getting back into this. I mean I got my feet wet again with some other stuff but this was the first figure I was working on that required any type of real sculpting. At the time I was just using Water weld putty & I wasn't very good with it. So I tried to make things as easy as possible & I used the Hook hand JLU Aquaman since he already had the belt sculpted. I just dreaded sculpting that " A " on his belt & fins on his calves. Using the existing Aquaman helped me avoid that. I ordered a cast of the head & when it arrived I went to work. I had to sculpt a bit on the upper body to make the head fit & sculpt the gloves. New paint & he was done. You can see that figure in my customs on here

Now fast forward a bit & out of nowhere the Chinese sellers on ebay were listing the Aquaman I needed. This figure was no longer out of reach with a $70 or more price tag. I got one buy it now for $6 with free shipping. My collection would be complete as that was the only figure from the Timmverse that eluded me. You couldn't believe how excited I was to finally get this figure. But when he arrived just like most JLU figures like Firefly, Weather Wizard, Parasite, etc.... I was disappointed. Aquaman was so small all the other figures just towered over him. Once again mattel dropped the ball & screwed this up. So I had a custom that I wasn't happy with because the hook hand Aquaman really was too big & I always hated that he was articulated at the knees & elbows. I'm more of a fan of the 5 points for these figures. I also had a terrible production figure that was way too small. What could I do about this? Well I finally decided to try & make a better Aquaman.

Years have passed since I first made that other Aquaman. I've sculpted complete Timmverse figures. So I wasn't pressed about sculpting some fins & an " A " belt buckle. I kind of decided that the best figure to use would be an Undercover Bruce Wayne from Kenner. Which worked out well because I had one that I just used the head from for another custom. I also decided on using the arms from that Batman that came with the glider since he had similar gloves as Aquaman. I had to cut the hand off since it was holding the controls & replace it with another. The Bruce body had some detail to it, there were cut outs on his stomach, he was wearing boots, he had the underwear lines, & the gloves had some circuitry. Once I fixed all that I sculpted the fins on his legs & the belt. There was one thing & one thing only that I liked about mattel's Aquaman figure. The orange plastic they used to mold him was a metallic orange. It gave his shirt a cool looking effect. So I decided to try & mimic that. I went to my local game shop & picked up a metallic additive that can be mixed with any color to make it a metallic. It may be hard to tell from the pics but it does look really cool in real life.

Let me know what you all think about my new improved Aquaman.