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The Le: What makes you choose a specific character to mod?
Toychop: I’m a sucker for obscure, grade-Z characters. I think that’s because growing up we didn’t have a lot of cash, so most of my comics were plucked from the cheap bins. 1970’s Defenders, old school Marvel Team-Up, the original Invaders, stuff like that. So—if I’m modding just for me—I’ll tackle one of those guys: Son of Satan, Equinox, Death Adder, etc. It’s fun telling my group we have new customs to choose from, they get excited to see who, I hold up, I dunno, Devil Slayer or whoever and…crickets. They [the players] scrunch up their faces trying to make out who it is, shoot me a look of “WTF?” and go back to assembling a team of characters that people have actually heard of. Poor Devil Slayer…I think I’m the only player to ever use him.
That said, I’ve only modded about a dozen or so customs for myself. Most of the time I’ll build a figure because someone in my gaming group is a fan of the character. I get more enjoyment out of seeing someone’s response to a custom figure than I do playing one. One of the best reactions I ever got was years ago, back when only a handful of sets were out. We were picking teams and one of my friends (a hardcore Flash Rogues fan), was trying to make up his mind. I suggested playing the Rogues and he waved me off; there was only a couple available at the time—Weather Wizard, Grodd, maybe Zoom. I slid him a small box and when he saw what was inside—custom ‘Clix for Captain Cold, Heatwave, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master and Doctor Alchemy—he went bananas. I’m pretty sure he went on to lose the game (my mods are cursed to always lose their debut bout), but it doesn’t matter, his initial reaction was priceless. Hallmark moment, b*tches!
You can find contact information for Toychop on the last page of this feature.
Are there any mods you screwed up on so badly that you had to toss it?
“Oh man, the Skrull Empress wins that prize. I had a buddy who loved playing Skrull teams back in the early days of HeroClix, when there were only two types of Skrulls to choose from. He’d take a squad of seven, eight Skrulls—giving each names like “Carl,” “Pete” and “Repeat”—and round out his “green team” with the Hulk. On his first turn he’d *ZZZT!*, use the Skrulls to zap the Hulkster until he landed on a monster click and then go on a rampage. To help fill out that theme I thought I’d build him a Skrull Empress. So I went to work:
First order of business was finding a spare Skrull head and a regal looking female (IndyClix Yukio) to use as a base body. Off went Yukio’s head, on went the Skrull head and…no, wait, the Skrull’s melon is too big. She looks like a bobble head. I like that Yukio body, tho—and I need to keep that Skrull head OR I’ll have to mod a Skrull chin at HeroClix scale—so how to fit these two puzzle pieces…?
Ah, I got it, I’ll chop the Skrull head off the Yukio body, then carefully, CARE-FULL-LEE, slice the face off the Skrull head…okay, got it. Now to slice the face off the Yuki head and—WHOOP, the pressure from the x-acto just shot the head across the room. Great. Where’d it go…under the entertainment center? No. The couch…? No, but there’s my missing Xbox controller. So where did—AH, got it. In the bookshelf. Must have ricocheted.
So I get Yukio’s head back on the cutting mat, hold it steady and slice off the face. A small dab of Krazy Glue, attach the Skrull face to the faceless Yukio head and now we’re…no, wait. Her kisser is crooked, she’s making the lopsided “confused dog face.” Crap, if the glue hasn’t dried I can maybe—damn, this stuff dries fast—maybe if I *UGH* pry it off and GAH!, just knocked over the cup of paintbrush water.
Dammit, gotta wipe down all the metal tools, and awww, all over the rug. I’ll blot that up in a second, just wanna finish this one thing—careful now—gotta slice off the Skrull face and GAH!, the x-acto slips, cuts through the front of the Skrull’s kisser (ruining it) and nicks my finger. I grab the Skrull Empress in one hand, a pair of pliers in the other and…okay, you know what? Maybe it’s time I call it a night. It’s late, I’m tired and this obviously isn’t going well. A band-aid for my finger, I kill the light and stagger into the bedroom to pass out.
The next morning I get up, wander into my work area and…geez. You ever have a roommate come home drunk while you’re asleep, you hear them make all sorts of racket but don’t see what they were up to until the next day? You wake up to find they’ve turned the kitchen into a crime scene: hot dogs in the toaster, melted ice cream sandwiches in the blender, oversized, milk-sogged Trix overflowing a cereal bowl. THAT’S how my workspace looked to me the next morning. I just shook my head, swept the in-progress mod into the garbage and crossed her off my “to-do” list. Skrull Empress: 1, Me: 0.”
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