2018
Today's custom is the classic Spider-man villain, The Lizard.
Introduced in Amazing Spider-man #6 in 1963, he is one of Spidey's best known and beloved enemies that were introduced in the first 20 issues like Doctor Octopus, The Vulture, The Sandman, Electro, Kraven, Scorpion, Mysterio and The Green Goblin.

This custom figure was built from two Lizard figures, the first being the Lizard figure from the first series of the Toy Biz Spider-man action figure line from 2002,
the first Spidey series after the first two series of Spider-man Classics that pre-dated the Marvel Legends line.
That figure was actually a re-release of the 1997 “Spider Smash” Lizard from ToyBiz. The Doc Ock in that line was also a re-release of an old pre-ML figure.
As old as that figure is, it has what I think of as the perfect Lizard headsculpt, and with an articulated jaw as well.
This figure also donates his tail, which I liked the overall thickness, length and look of.

The other Lizard figure is from the Fearsome Foes boxset from 2005. This was in a boxset so I never got it, and I didn't like it anyway. Especially the head. Yeah, the Lizard was drawn with a head kinda like that in most of his first bunch of appearances, but it wasn't what I had in mind. Also, I didn't like the tail.

And it wasn't until the new Spidey series with the Lizard BAF came out that I knew I did not want that huge Lizard, he's so big, and there aren't any other good options. Again, yeah, he's been drawn huge, but, not what I was looking for. And I was never going to get another new classic one. I was going to have to make my own.

So the head was just a matter of getting it to fit on the ball joint in the neck of the FF Lizard, which I did with the ball snapping into two positions, so you can pull it out a little bit to get a more extreme bend in the neck, and then the tail, which was one solid, very rigid piece of plastic, so I made two spin joints in it, one near the base made from wrist joint, and the one near the end which was built with a magnet. That's just in case Spidey tries to grab him by the tail, you know he's a lizard, so that tail is goig to detach and Spidey will be left holding that squirming tail while the Lizard is running away yelling "Nyah, nyah, I'll just grow another tail!" Has the Lizard ever displayed that ability in the comics? I dunno, probably, who cares, I want fun toys!
Then a vigorous cleaning of the white jacket from the FF Lizard, (boy, did ToyBiz love their washes!) and a complete repaint of all the other parts.
No exactly a big deal, not really difficult or a lot of work to accomplish, but it makes me very happy to have a nice Lizard, because I have never had one.

One reason I still use the old ToyBiz figures for guys like Sandman and Rhino, is because I don't want the massive and way too tall versions that Hasbro is making. I have a pretty specific idea about scale for Spidey's villains. Lizard is taller and bigger than Spidey by a healthy margin, but not massive, and still lean with humaniod proportions but longer legs and arms.