Machen's Oldfangled Minis
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ManicMan
Member
wait. just remembered Karas was trapped in Limbo as his body was destroyed during a battle with the Dire Wraiths.. Then, after thinking Rom was an evil Robot that killed a friend, The Dire Wraiths merged human Archie Stryker into the Firefall armour because humans and galadroians were pretty close. Rom ended up convincing him that Dire Wraiths were the evil ones before he sacrificed himself to help save Rom.
Machen
Member
Cool. Nice to know there's another Rom fan here. You have a very good memory for the lore!
I left out all the business with Stryker in my summary because I was painting the Karas version, the one without the human face showing through from under the visor.
Heroclix are a bit like Warzone minis in that there are many terrible sculpts, but also a surprising number of very good ones, and once you strip the sloppy paint off of them the details beneath can actually be pretty good. I find repainting Heroclix also gets to be kind of addicting.
I saw Wizkids' unpainted Heroclix that you mentioned, Manic Man, but the thing is that there are gazillions of Heroclix models of gazillions of characters, but they've only released a relative handful of unpainted versions, and those tend to only cover characters from the more recognizable properties like Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc. If you want to paint Wolverine or Captain America, you're fine, but if you're into more off-the-beaten-path stuff like Rom, many of the characters you'd want to paint will probably never be released unpainted. I've got a Stegron I'm looking forwards to painting sometime, among other weird characters; good luck waiting for Wizkids to ever release an unpainted version of that guy.
Anyhow, I've gotten pretty good at stripping Heroclix for repainting using acetone. It can be tricky though, and sometimes it can ruin the figure. Among other things, it's clear to me that Wizkids must have used different plastic mixtures over the years, most of which can withstand an acetone batch, but some of which absolutely can't. Sometimes even different parts of the same miniature react differently to acetone, probably because the parts were made from different plastic variants. Hero Clix Indy's Johnny Alpha mini (from 2000 A.D.'s "Strontium Dog") is a good example. Most of the figure strips very well with acetone and holds up just fine. One of his arms is a separate piece, though, and that arm piece really can't be stripped with acetone, because it will immediately start to fray the plastic arm as well as remove the paint.
Maybe I'll put up a tutorial some day with tips and lessons learned.
I left out all the business with Stryker in my summary because I was painting the Karas version, the one without the human face showing through from under the visor.
Heroclix are a bit like Warzone minis in that there are many terrible sculpts, but also a surprising number of very good ones, and once you strip the sloppy paint off of them the details beneath can actually be pretty good. I find repainting Heroclix also gets to be kind of addicting.
I saw Wizkids' unpainted Heroclix that you mentioned, Manic Man, but the thing is that there are gazillions of Heroclix models of gazillions of characters, but they've only released a relative handful of unpainted versions, and those tend to only cover characters from the more recognizable properties like Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc. If you want to paint Wolverine or Captain America, you're fine, but if you're into more off-the-beaten-path stuff like Rom, many of the characters you'd want to paint will probably never be released unpainted. I've got a Stegron I'm looking forwards to painting sometime, among other weird characters; good luck waiting for Wizkids to ever release an unpainted version of that guy.
Anyhow, I've gotten pretty good at stripping Heroclix for repainting using acetone. It can be tricky though, and sometimes it can ruin the figure. Among other things, it's clear to me that Wizkids must have used different plastic mixtures over the years, most of which can withstand an acetone batch, but some of which absolutely can't. Sometimes even different parts of the same miniature react differently to acetone, probably because the parts were made from different plastic variants. Hero Clix Indy's Johnny Alpha mini (from 2000 A.D.'s "Strontium Dog") is a good example. Most of the figure strips very well with acetone and holds up just fine. One of his arms is a separate piece, though, and that arm piece really can't be stripped with acetone, because it will immediately start to fray the plastic arm as well as remove the paint.
Maybe I'll put up a tutorial some day with tips and lessons learned.
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ManicMan
Member
I got a few when they first came out, yeah, some crap sculpts.. used to play the game a bit with my fathers collection against him but they seamed to get a bit stupid and the game wasn't fantastic (boy, the 'blind bag's they did (still do?) are pretty crap..) and yeah..
I much prefered a game which kinda sadly failed called 'Attacktix'. I do have a couple of figures I repainted long ago.. It mostly failed cause Hasbro didn't know how to market it (there words and that's kinda right).. at first, it was just 'star wars' figures, then they did some Transformers and Marvel. basically, larger figures, which really shoot. Depending on the character of course.. you have ones which were melee, ones which small missiles which fired and ones with large missiles. The idea was if you knock over the enemy's figure, they one is defeated and it has a chance of activating a special ability. different factions, points costs etc. pretty fun game but you needed to be careful as to not lose missiles when they start flying ^_^ they had a series 2 Marvel and series 2 Transformers all ready to go, series 2 transformers 'starter set' (4 figures) was released. barely, and then they pulled the plug to 'rethink' and nothing happened.. bit of a shame. figures weren't too bad, painting wasn't too bad either.. This was about.. erm.. early to mid 2000s.. whenever that third remake Spider-Man film came out (not the nick Hammond Spider-Man) cause there was a special set with some figures from that.. fun game though.. still got my figures. chunky sculpts (often would have a oversized hand or something to make sense and work as the toy). very fun and interesting.
I much prefered a game which kinda sadly failed called 'Attacktix'. I do have a couple of figures I repainted long ago.. It mostly failed cause Hasbro didn't know how to market it (there words and that's kinda right).. at first, it was just 'star wars' figures, then they did some Transformers and Marvel. basically, larger figures, which really shoot. Depending on the character of course.. you have ones which were melee, ones which small missiles which fired and ones with large missiles. The idea was if you knock over the enemy's figure, they one is defeated and it has a chance of activating a special ability. different factions, points costs etc. pretty fun game but you needed to be careful as to not lose missiles when they start flying ^_^ they had a series 2 Marvel and series 2 Transformers all ready to go, series 2 transformers 'starter set' (4 figures) was released. barely, and then they pulled the plug to 'rethink' and nothing happened.. bit of a shame. figures weren't too bad, painting wasn't too bad either.. This was about.. erm.. early to mid 2000s.. whenever that third remake Spider-Man film came out (not the nick Hammond Spider-Man) cause there was a special set with some figures from that.. fun game though.. still got my figures. chunky sculpts (often would have a oversized hand or something to make sense and work as the toy). very fun and interesting.
symphonicpoet
Moderator
That's a nice way to use a clix-style miniature. Well done! 
Looks much better for your treatment.
Looks much better for your treatment.Machen
Member
One more thing about Clix minis for anyone interested in modding or repainting them:
Do you love mold lines? I know, aren't they just the best thing ever? Well then, you're in luck, because boy, do clix models have mold lines! They look much better once the mold lines have been removed, for those who have the patience for that sort of thing. Removing mold lines from PVC is more trouble than getting them off metal or polystyrene plastic.
Here's my advice on trimming PVC mold lines for anyone interested: first, use an exacto knife to get rid of the bulk of them, then go over those areas with a brass wire brush to clean up and smooth out any lingering traces. Don't skip the exacto blade and try to do it all with the brass wire brush, because over-scrubbing will erase detail, too.
Do you love mold lines? I know, aren't they just the best thing ever? Well then, you're in luck, because boy, do clix models have mold lines! They look much better once the mold lines have been removed, for those who have the patience for that sort of thing. Removing mold lines from PVC is more trouble than getting them off metal or polystyrene plastic.
Here's my advice on trimming PVC mold lines for anyone interested: first, use an exacto knife to get rid of the bulk of them, then go over those areas with a brass wire brush to clean up and smooth out any lingering traces. Don't skip the exacto blade and try to do it all with the brass wire brush, because over-scrubbing will erase detail, too.
Machen
Member
I guess I'm on a bit of a comics kick. Here's my repainted Heroclix mini of one of Spider-Man's silliest villains, Stegron the Dinosaur Man.
Here's a riddle: what's ingenious about this miniature's pose? More specifically, what is Stegron actually doing? I think the sculptor had a tremendous sense of humor. You'll find my answer at the end of this post.
Stegron's writer gave him the laziest possible origin for his villain name: it was his birth name. Yep, before his Stegosaurian transformation, Stegron was a normal human who just happened to be named "Dr. Vincent Stegron," which is so unabashedly stupid that I kind of love it. He became Stegron the Dinosaur Man by dosing himself with a dinosaur version of the Lizard's transformative serum.
Even Marvel's own writers, past and present, couldn't take Stegron - or his last name - seriously.
Stegron from the back:
I like his thagomizer.
(A thagomizer is "the distinctive arrangement of four spikes on the tails of stegosaurian dinosaurs" (Wikipedia.) The word, made official by paleontologists, originated in the Gary Larson "Far Side" cartoon below. Really!)
Ok, now it's time to answer my riddle! What is the Stegron miniature doing, and why is the pose so brilliant?
For those who haven't guessed it already, here's a visual aid:
Villains in Marvel comics strike poses like this for just one purpose: speechifying, grandstanding, and otherwise bloviating the purplest sinister orations known to man. There are plenty of dinosaur man miniatures out there, but Stegron is the only one I've ever seen who's posed in the midst of holding forth.
Which, in my humble opinion, is a stroke of genius. I wish I knew who the sculptor was so I could give them due credit.
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twisted moon
Moderator
very nice.
Machen
Member
We just got our power back after the latest snowstorm took it out for two days, so to celebrate, here are three miniatures I recently finished.
First up is "Batface the Biter" from Eureka Miniatures' Chaos Army Range.
It's a range "inspired by the nightmarish artwork of Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch, sculpted by Mike Darpa" of creatures that look like Medieval marginalia but fit in well with Chaos forces. I've painted this guy blue to fit in with my varied troupe of Blue Horrors.
Next, "Slishian version C" from Hydra Miniatures' Space Aliens range.
I have a weakness for absurdity.
As I was painting this guy I started thinking that the vein-like pattern covering his cone body could be like a neural network carrying electric impulses, so I decided to go with that, having the greatest electric charge emanating from the sparking eyes, possibly as the alien exerts psychic influence or powers up to release electricity. It'd be fun to name him something like "Zogor" and have him mind-controlling the local population, like a "Red Scare" Alien from a 50's sci-fi movie.
Finally we have my first painted Drudge (from the Cephalyx faction of Warmachine from Privateer Press.) I'm not generally into Warmachine, but the Cephalyx and their Drudge servant models grabbed me, so I got a few. Unfortunately, there were only three Drudge body types, which seemed like too few to make a decent unit from, so I decided to kitbash a couple of my own for variety's sake. So this first drudge is a kitbash, using a Plague body from Mantic Games' Dreadball Xtreme line.
Whenever there's a creature with two blades instead of hands, there's a standard question people use to highlight how silly it is.
So "How does it eat?" asked my wife, walking right into my trap, because this particular mini has a built-in answer: it gets all the nutrients it needs from the green tubes on its back, which are replenished by its (yet-to-be-painted) Cephalyx master.
First up is "Batface the Biter" from Eureka Miniatures' Chaos Army Range.
It's a range "inspired by the nightmarish artwork of Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch, sculpted by Mike Darpa" of creatures that look like Medieval marginalia but fit in well with Chaos forces. I've painted this guy blue to fit in with my varied troupe of Blue Horrors.
Next, "Slishian version C" from Hydra Miniatures' Space Aliens range.
I have a weakness for absurdity.
As I was painting this guy I started thinking that the vein-like pattern covering his cone body could be like a neural network carrying electric impulses, so I decided to go with that, having the greatest electric charge emanating from the sparking eyes, possibly as the alien exerts psychic influence or powers up to release electricity. It'd be fun to name him something like "Zogor" and have him mind-controlling the local population, like a "Red Scare" Alien from a 50's sci-fi movie.
Finally we have my first painted Drudge (from the Cephalyx faction of Warmachine from Privateer Press.) I'm not generally into Warmachine, but the Cephalyx and their Drudge servant models grabbed me, so I got a few. Unfortunately, there were only three Drudge body types, which seemed like too few to make a decent unit from, so I decided to kitbash a couple of my own for variety's sake. So this first drudge is a kitbash, using a Plague body from Mantic Games' Dreadball Xtreme line.
Whenever there's a creature with two blades instead of hands, there's a standard question people use to highlight how silly it is.
So "How does it eat?" asked my wife, walking right into my trap, because this particular mini has a built-in answer: it gets all the nutrients it needs from the green tubes on its back, which are replenished by its (yet-to-be-painted) Cephalyx master.
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Fimm McCool
Member
Hooray for painted weirdos! I only recently discovered how extensive the Eureka line of chaos beasts is, had to pick up a bunch for my carnival of chaos. Loving the bright colours on these beasties.
MichaelStockin
Member
Oh wow, so did I, I was beginning to think I had made it up given the lack of other people that know of it.
Machen
Member
Fortunately I didn't, as IDW's version looked pretty bad. I'm still annoyed that Marvel lost the rights to the Dire Wraiths, though. They were great villains to have kicking around the MCU, even without ROM around. I'm just glad Heroclix managed to get a Dire Wraith miniature out (and a Hybrid mini, too) before Marvel lost the rights. The Dire Wraith mini is just OK as is due to a lame pose, but it's ripe for kitbashing.
On the bright side for original ROM fans, Marvel's ROM comics are finally being compiled and re-released in giant Marvel Omnibus editions. So if you're looking to revisit your childhood or fill in the blanks of all the issues you missed without hunting for back issues, you finally can. Same goes for the Marvel Micronauts comics, which I loved back in the day.
ManicMan
Member
ugh.. it's.. tricky.. They KINDA lost the rights to Dire Wraiths, but also didn't ^_^;
wasn't that much into micronauts (father was) cause it was just.... very much "Throw away all the toy story and ideas" and do something more plain and boring.. The Evil Acroyear Robots, including the transforming Acroyear III are now.. erm.. some old prince in a suit as a hero.. most of the robots and characters like the time traveller type were thrown out, most of the pilotable transforming vehicles which were the predaters (and later some became) transformers, weren't included etc.. I knew enough of Micronauts (having a few of the UK.. erm.. knock-offs or licence? not sure, ones and.. not too sure how the hell we learnt about some information in these early days but oh well.. It was a comic when Bill Manto was doing a better job (he has a ... problem of stealing from others alot and making very stupid mistakes.. still.. despite alot of iffy stuff with the guy, he didn't deserve what is still going on with him
wasn't that much into micronauts (father was) cause it was just.... very much "Throw away all the toy story and ideas" and do something more plain and boring.. The Evil Acroyear Robots, including the transforming Acroyear III are now.. erm.. some old prince in a suit as a hero.. most of the robots and characters like the time traveller type were thrown out, most of the pilotable transforming vehicles which were the predaters (and later some became) transformers, weren't included etc.. I knew enough of Micronauts (having a few of the UK.. erm.. knock-offs or licence? not sure, ones and.. not too sure how the hell we learnt about some information in these early days but oh well.. It was a comic when Bill Manto was doing a better job (he has a ... problem of stealing from others alot and making very stupid mistakes.. still.. despite alot of iffy stuff with the guy, he didn't deserve what is still going on with him
Machen
Member
Thanks, and I very much look forward to seeing the new additions to your carnival once you've got them painted! The Eureka Chaos Army line is great, much of it so odd that it makes "Batface the Biter" look tame by comparison. I quite like "Snailhead," for example, and will get around to painting mine someday. I think Darpa did a great job overall and sculpted a lot of instant classics.
Machen
Member
Fascinating. I'm very curious now about the Dire Wraiths situation.
I knew Mantlo changed a lot in the comics, but as a kid who had some Micronauts toys too, I didn't know that the Microman / Micronauts had much lore behind them to begin with. I knew the Acroyears were supposed to be evil, but their full story didn't seem to be there. Did Baron Karza and Lord Meto rule the Acroyears, for example? Was Karza subordinate to Meto (who to my knowledge, never featured in the comics) like Vader was to the Emperor? How did the aliens (Repto, Membros, etc.) fit into the official toy's story? I got the impression there wasn't a whole lot of well defined lore there in the first place - these were fairly early days for toy lines like these - so Mantlo more or less had to innovate and make stuff up to make the story cohesive. The comic wasn't perfect by any means, there were some lame characters and meandering character arcs, and it had its fair share of pandering to kids. But some of the stuff Mantlo made up - Baron Karza's body banks, for example - was really pretty imaginative for the time, and a lot more nightmarish than you'd expect from a toy property comic. (Marvel's Rom got to be pretty grisly, too, come to think of it. Interesting that Parker Brothers / Hasbro allowed them to get away with the whole Dire Wraith brain sucking thing.)
I thought Mantlo had died, actually. I just looked up his bio, and you're right, it's really awful what happened to him. He'd been a practicing public defender as well before the hit-and-run accident. Sounds like a genuinely good guy.
Anyhow, I really appreciate your contributions, Manic Man. You have an encyclopedic knowledge of this stuff.
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Machen
Member
I just discovered that Eureka Miniatures USA is a thing.
But before I could regret having ordered my Chaos Army miniatures from Australia (where all of them are in stock,) I discovered that all of them are sold out on the USA site. The homepage also announces that they're having a "December Holiday Sale," so I don't get the impression that the website is particularly well managed or updated.
So for US customers interested in their Chaos Army line, Eureka Miniatures USA might be worth keeping an eye on if they ever get their act together.
But before I could regret having ordered my Chaos Army miniatures from Australia (where all of them are in stock,) I discovered that all of them are sold out on the USA site. The homepage also announces that they're having a "December Holiday Sale," so I don't get the impression that the website is particularly well managed or updated.
So for US customers interested in their Chaos Army line, Eureka Miniatures USA might be worth keeping an eye on if they ever get their act together.
ManicMan
Member
trying to remember.. originally, they came from Micro Earth, and when they came to earth, they would hid by diguising themselves as 'action figures'. This lead to the Microchange line which most where later added to transformers. There were a series of toys which in the US were called 'penny racers'.. I think you can still get statues like them in the UK.. they are deformed Cars. Some of the Micronaughts robots were disguised as Deformed Cars which could transform.. This is why characters like Bumblebee & Cliffjumper don't look quite right.. (and no.. Cliffjumper shouldn't be a recolour of Bumblebee.. Bumblebee is a VW beetle, Cliffjumper is a Pontiac. To make the line look bigger, in the first year, and maybe the second, they did also issue bumbleebee in red and Cliffjumper in yellow but the toys weren't the same or anything.).. Other ones who scale is FAR out in the transformers universe but great when in the Micronaughts range was Megatron (life scale Walther P-38 (U.N.C.L.E. version.. yes.. he is based on the P-38 from Man from Uncle), Soundwave (a life scale MICRO Cassette player.. transformers claimed he was a scaled down cassette player ¬_¬), Perceptor (who had a third 'cannon' mode which was piloted by a Micronaughts figure..
anyway.. Can't remember Kazza's story line.. Though the magnet balljoints were great play feature idea. I know his toy was cheap as it was infact, a Go Nagai character from Steel Jeeg TV show which was recoloured (into two figures, Kazza who I think was the villian, and the Force Commander, the guy hero version in White.
Mantlo was.. mixed.. He often stole from other writers, and once from Harlan Ellison, when it came to stories.. This annoyed people. When Marvel had a policy that it would help up to about 100% of the costs for artists and writers to go on job related courses, for some reason, Mantlo being a laywer was able to claim 100% of the money (he was good friends with the guy in charge of the money strings) where as one artist could only get the smallest amount for some art class.. The first thing Mantlo did after Marvel paid for him to become a lawyer.. was to sue marvel.. When he was a good writer, he was a good writer.. as a person.. he did annoy ALOT of people with stuff he knew better then to do (stealing a story from Harlan Ellison? stealing from other Marvel staff just annoyed them, but that was a HUGE legal thing). so.. tricky to just how nice a person he is but.. yeah.. hit and run and then huge money problems just to stay alive..
As for Dire Wraiths.. right.. Basically, Hasbro who brought out Parker Brothers so had the ROM rights (so named because of the Sound Chip in him was, of course, as ROM chip) so they claimed they owned the Dire Wraiths.. But Marvel claimed they had created them as the Toy was just a toy.. So marvel got the rights and techinally both Space Knights and Dire Wraiths are in the Marvel Universe still (though ROM isn't).. then it was found out that the original ROM toy mentions the evil Dire Wraiths.. So it ended up, Marvel don't have the rights to the name, but do the design and stuff.. where as Hasbro have the name, but not the design and how they were used in Marvel..
Think of the old Space Crusade video game where they had to change the Genestealers.. while they COULD have kept the name (even though it's a reference to ALIEN), they weren't able to use the design as it was too close, so they created the 'Soulsuckers'... Wonder if I can kit bash a miniature of a soulsucker sometime.. the final genestealer design (aka, Space Hulk), the design as removed enough I think but still a bit iffy.. personally, kinda surprised they haven't taken them out of 40K by now..
Why did they make good video game versions of HeroQuest and Space Crusade but not Space hulk? only ones I know about aren't turn based ¬_¬;
anyway.. Can't remember Kazza's story line.. Though the magnet balljoints were great play feature idea. I know his toy was cheap as it was infact, a Go Nagai character from Steel Jeeg TV show which was recoloured (into two figures, Kazza who I think was the villian, and the Force Commander, the guy hero version in White.
Mantlo was.. mixed.. He often stole from other writers, and once from Harlan Ellison, when it came to stories.. This annoyed people. When Marvel had a policy that it would help up to about 100% of the costs for artists and writers to go on job related courses, for some reason, Mantlo being a laywer was able to claim 100% of the money (he was good friends with the guy in charge of the money strings) where as one artist could only get the smallest amount for some art class.. The first thing Mantlo did after Marvel paid for him to become a lawyer.. was to sue marvel.. When he was a good writer, he was a good writer.. as a person.. he did annoy ALOT of people with stuff he knew better then to do (stealing a story from Harlan Ellison? stealing from other Marvel staff just annoyed them, but that was a HUGE legal thing). so.. tricky to just how nice a person he is but.. yeah.. hit and run and then huge money problems just to stay alive..
As for Dire Wraiths.. right.. Basically, Hasbro who brought out Parker Brothers so had the ROM rights (so named because of the Sound Chip in him was, of course, as ROM chip) so they claimed they owned the Dire Wraiths.. But Marvel claimed they had created them as the Toy was just a toy.. So marvel got the rights and techinally both Space Knights and Dire Wraiths are in the Marvel Universe still (though ROM isn't).. then it was found out that the original ROM toy mentions the evil Dire Wraiths.. So it ended up, Marvel don't have the rights to the name, but do the design and stuff.. where as Hasbro have the name, but not the design and how they were used in Marvel..
Think of the old Space Crusade video game where they had to change the Genestealers.. while they COULD have kept the name (even though it's a reference to ALIEN), they weren't able to use the design as it was too close, so they created the 'Soulsuckers'... Wonder if I can kit bash a miniature of a soulsucker sometime.. the final genestealer design (aka, Space Hulk), the design as removed enough I think but still a bit iffy.. personally, kinda surprised they haven't taken them out of 40K by now..
Why did they make good video game versions of HeroQuest and Space Crusade but not Space hulk? only ones I know about aren't turn based ¬_¬;