JuJuBit Profile: Doll Man

Crazy, crazy, Doll Man.

Crazy from the very start.

Darrel "Doll Man" Dane.

Sure, Darrel. That is the sanest reaction to being six inches tall I can imagine.

Comic's first shrinking hero (I think).  

Whose greatest enemy was an empty Dress Suit.

In choosing a dial, there are a number of other shrinking heroes I could have used (The Atom, Ant-Man, and the Wasp, chief among them).  

I chose...

none of them.

I swear, he's not overcompensating.

Yes, Doll Man is a Tiny hero and needs a dial with the Tiny symbol (it makes a character harder to hit and easier to carry by his friends).  But more figures that just shrinking heroes have the Tiny Symbol.  And I wanted a dial that capture of bit of the CRAZY that is Doll Man. So I chose:

Yes, the Wonder Twins' pesky pet, the horrible and chaotic space monkey Gleek, turns out to have a pretty good dial for Doll Man. Leap-Climb and Flurry for Doll Man's two-fisted bravado, Superstrength and Invulnerability (both of which his stories demonstrate for his tiny form), and, most essentially, PERPLEX to represent Doll Man's erratic nature.

Here's how that looks translated to Doll Man.

Like Doll Man, the dial is short but sweet.

Doll Man will be a great figure on an Atom team, barrelling in opponents ready to clobber them with, um, a pencil, or confounding them with his antics at a distance.  

JuJuBit Profile: The Penny Plunderer

Naturally, I had to make myself a special sculpt of Joe Coyne, the Penny Plunderer, who is the epitome of a one-shot Golden Age thematic villain and source of the Batcave's Giant Penny. Honestly, who DOESN'T love the Penny Plunderer?

Sigh. I really DO deserve to get a better digital camera.

The sculpt was created on JuJuBit using this pic:

As I've said before, it's a crying shame that John Astin played The Riddler on Batman'66, when Joe Coyne is so clearly the part he was born to play.

I already have a previous Joe Coyne custom Heroclix, so I needed a new dial for the new sculpt.  I wanted a dial that would be a useful support piece rather than a strong one that could successfully take on Batman as a team centerpiece.

Because taking on Batman didn't turn out very well for Joe.

I specifically wanted him to be a useful assistant for Two-Face, Batman's (MUCH) more prominent coin-related villain.  So I chose the one dial almost perfectly designed (unintentionally, I assume) as a complement to Two-Face: 

The Gambler has TWO "coin-flipping" mechanics handy, one of which lets Two-Face re-do a coin flip (and Two-Face figures almost always have some sort of mechanic that depends on a coin flip).  Giving Two-Face a second chance whenever he flips a coin to do something in the game can be a very useful ability, indeed!

Once I "rebrand" this dial, it looks like this:

He doesn't naturally have the "Batman Enemy Team Ability" but he does have the "Team Player" Team ability (that's the question mark in the circle) that allows him to copy the Team Abilities of other friendly figures.  That lets him "borrow" the Batman Enemy TA from another figure (such as Two-Face).  His regular powers, without going into detail about them are general about be fast-acting, sneaky, and LUCKY (or unlucky, as the case may be), which is not a bad match with the Penny Plunderer.

His 'coin-re-flipping' power might also come in handy if I play him with the actual Giant Penny.

I'm not sure the Giant Penny would really be helpful, but it sure would feel good thematically.!

JuJuBit: Bull's-Eye

 Our next JuJuBit figure profile is BULL'S-EYE.

or, as he is less actionably known, Leapo the Clown.

As you may remember, Bull's-Eye is the completely original one-of-a-kind clown-like villain who used to battle Green Arrow in the Golden Age.

There's no backstory as to how his face got That Way (or whether he just wears elaborate make-up while lounging around the hideout).  You don't have to be that deep to be Green Arrow's nemesis.

"Battle" is rather a strong word.  

God, I love Bull's-Eye.  Never any elaborate traps or devices; he simply clobbers Green Arrow with whatever happens to be lying around. He's an improv comic.

Mostly Bull's-Eye made a fool out of Green Arrow (no challenge there) until the very end where he would be caught through some turn of bad luck. As if being a Green Arrow villain were not bad luck enough!

Bull's-Eye schtick was that. he was a former acrobatic clown ("Leapo") whose specially was dodging projectiles, making him the perfect living target to confound Green Arrow.

Confounding Green Arrow is fun but not especially difficult.

The JuJubit sculpt was based on this image of B-E:

That signature is George Papp, co-creator of Green Arrow.

Given his schtick, I knew that his Heroclix dial would need to grant him "Leap/Climb" (a mobility power that allows easily change elevations and escape from opponents) and some other powers that might make him difficult to hit.  I also wanted him to be a low-cost figure so that he would be easily added to teams; a "harasser" rather than a "tentpole".

So, I chose this dial:

Some obscure Marvel menace, I believe.

It has two "move and attack" powers (Running Shot and Charge) and three "hit avoidance powers" (Deflection, Combat Reflexes and the Super-senses granted by his team ability), all of which is perfect for his M.O. of attacking on the go and being hard to hit.  The trait that grants leap/climb and a free change of elevation screams "Leapo"!  And he has power Ranged Combat Expert and Close Combat Expert (which shows he's both a crack shot and wicked hand-to-hand opponent).  The Wildcard team ability (that's the Question Mark in a circle) allows him to fit in on any team of villains.  Plus, he's got TWO starting lines, meaning you can play him at a more threatening 50 points or at a still spicy 25 points.

It looks like this on his customized card:

I have a lot of customized Green Arrow villains in Heroclix (e.g., the Red Dart and the Octopus), but Leapo is going to be my favorite!

JuJuBit: Wild Dog!

Our next JuJuBit profile is: Wild Dog (a.k.a. René Ramirez, as portrayed by Rick Gonzalez on The CW's hit show, Arrow)

Or, more accurately, Wild DogS.

On our left, O.G. Wild Dog, Wild Dog in his original homemade outfit.

Which is VERY comic-book-accurate, by the way.

On our right is Wild Dog 2.0; same guy, but with a new, high-tech outfit (courtesy of Green Arrow's team).  I remain extremely impressed at this design and how it echoes the origin costume, while still looking like modern protective gear.

I also remain impressed that Rick Gonzales could make Wild Dog both the funniest AND most believably badass character on the show (despite stiff competition from Green Arrow and Arsenal in both categories!).

So for two versions of Wild Dog, I wanted a Heroclix dial with two different starting lines, one for each figure.  So I got two of these guys:

Like Wild Dog, Moon Knight is rather a loose cannon.

Adapting this dial for the character looks like this:

I will add the appropriate photo in the circle once I print out the card.

Obviously, a change to appropriate keywords was in order. Also, because René Ramirez was a Navy SEAL, I gave him the "Swim" combat symbol (which provides an advantage in water squares).  Speed powers of "running shot" and "charge" (move and make a long-range attack; move and make a short-range attack) capture Wild Dog's "proactive" approach to combat and military experience; so, too, the abilities granted by his special traits.  Triple targeting and improvement movement evoke his 'sleep shooting and keep moving' tactics. Precision Strike attack power lets him do one damage to a hit opponent no matter what damage-reducing powers they might have.  For defense powers, the damage-reducing Toughness and defense-increasing Combat Reflexes represent his armor and military experience.  His damage powers of Perplex and Close Combat Expert similarly evince his unpredictability and combat training.  

Each sculpt will go on one of these dials;  the 2.0 version will go on the 60 point full-dial and the O.G. version will stay set on the 35 point second-starting line version.  That way I have two consistent versions of Wild Dog at different point values, making the character easier to include on various teams (because, in case you didn't notice, I really like Wild Dog).

JuJuBitten!

 Okay, I am very much not a fan of what is currently being called "AI".

My standards for what can legitimately be called "artificial intelligence" are not low.

I saw a video that compared it to polyester, which was also introduced as a new Modern Miracle, then overused in applications for which it was not suited, thus gaining a reputation as crap, until it was eventually used in a more limited fashion or combined with more natural products.  

And of course there are all the not-minor insalubrious effects on the environment, the economy, and society.

That said...

I have fallen under the spell of JuJuBit, a AI-driven website that allows you to create 3D tabletop game pieces better than any other method I've used.  For example:

The camera on my elderly iPhone really doesn't do these figures  (The Penny Plunderer, The Red Bee, Bull's-Eye, Wild Dog 2.0 and 1.0, and Dollman) justice.

All of these were generated by JuJuBit by a combination of image and textual input.  For example, the AI didn't really detect the pennies in the Penny Plunder image, so I added the prompt "holding pennies", and lo, there were pennies.

Anything that produces anything this good, specialized, and reasonably costed must SURELY be deeply evil.

Or perhaps just deeply misunderstood.

You may judge that for yourself.  I know only that I have been pleasantly surprised at this new means of creating Heroclix sculpts that would be otherwise impossible  In forthcoming posts, I'm going to focus on each figure, tell you why I made it, and what dial I'll be using for it.  In the meantime, you may want to experiment with using the site itself.

Before Winslow destroys it.

Heroclix Sunday: Making Customs

Many's the DCU character that's been made into a Heroclix figure, despite obscurity. The Chef at the Themysciran Embassy; Roland Desmond; The Weird; Baby Doll; all made~

Many's the DCU character NOT made, however.  Depending on who it is I may just may (im)patiently, if it seems it's a character there will get around to.  But Heroclix has been around 20 years, so I no longer blindly sit in hope that they are still working on getting to get just the right dial for the Human Flame or Joe Coyne.  

The gods help those who help themselves, it's said, so if a character I covet doesn't have a Heroclix figure yet, I will often make one myself. 

Sometimes, it "backfires" and, right after I've gone to the trouble, effort, and expense of making a custom figure for a character (like Wonder Woman's brother, Jason), Wizkids will surprise me by coming out with their own:

Mine

Theirs.

Ah, well.  Usually, though, I am delighted when I create a custom figure. But how?  It's essentially a three-part process: 

1. finding (and acquiring) an appropriate dial to represent the character and its abilities;
2. creating (somehow) an appropriate sculpt to represent the character visually and putting on the chosen dial; and
3. creating a character card to describe the character (especially any special powers or traits, which are not explicated on the dials).

For example: The Wind Pirate (whom Wizkids will NOT be making any time in the foreseeable future, unless he's the villain in the next Aquaman movie), whom we met so memorably in the "Jean Loring's Brain" storyline.

The Wind Pirate's "powers" are the weather-controlling abilities from his Ditko-class spaceship, so I looked for an appropriate "Storm" dial; whenever possible I choose dials from Marvel figures so that the custom figure's dial doesn't duplicate and existing one in my (DC) Heroclix collection.

Sure enough, one was easy to find:

I won't bore you with all the specifics of what the colors etc. mean, but suffice it to say this Storm figure has some key abilities that I thought made it the best choice for representing the Wind Pirate.  Naturally, all Storm figures are going to have abilities to represent weather control. But this one also has the ability to carry several figures along with her (which captures the fact the Wind Pirate has a spaceship) and has a 'leadership' power (which captures the fact that WP is the captain of that spaceship).

Of course, there's no fun having the Wind Pirate on the game board without BOSUN by his side to take abuse, so I looked for a complementary 25 point dial that would make for a 100 point "Wind Pirate & Co." team (or segment of a larger team).  Oddly, I found it in the form of someone named "Lila Cheney":

She has no really aggressive attack powers, but she is designed to move far and carry a lot of other figures; putting Bosun on this dial basically represents the Wind Pirate's ship and crew.  That's perfect, since the Bosun the character has no powers (other than the ability to put up with abuse from his unrequited beloved).

As for creating a sculpt, I could have looked for some appropriately sized pirate figures, but... this is the Wind Pirate and Bosun we're talking about, here!  I felt they deserved something bespoke,  so I designed and ordered some figures from Heroforge.com. It's better for D&Dish figures than comic book characters, but it was all over "pirates".

I was happy to have been able to capture Bosun's "you do realize what we're doing is stupid right?" attitude with this design.  Since I made this figure, Heroforge added scarfs, so an updated version could actually have that jaunty orange neckerchief he's sporting in that panel.

He could use it to wipe away those tears of rejection.

With the dials and sculpts on the way, I used this site to design character cards for each of them:

Making up "flavorful" titles for their powers is the fun part; I'm fond of using appropriate quotes from the characters, if possible.  Usually, I bundle a whole bunch of such cards and get them printed professionally by the nice folks at Print & Play, but I could also just print them out on cardstock at home.

Some of the customs I've made with this process more recently have included:

Nuidis Vulko of Atlantis

Do NOT call him fat.

Aquaman foe The Eel

So stylish!

The Faceless Hunter

They all look alike to me.

and CW Arrow's Wild Dog

*SWOON*

Heroclix Customs: The Island, Captain Squidd, and the Sea Sleuth

Heroclix doesn't have any maps that have underwater elevations, which are important when you like Aquaman as much as I do, so I have made one:

I labelled the Island because I get easily confused.

It works mostly like a regular map with elevations except that the three lowest elevations (Deep, Mid, and Shallow) are water terrain.  All Heroclix figures can muck about as normal in the Shallows: Walkers have their speed halved and Flyers float above the water.  But the Mid and Deep levels are underwater only so only Swimmers can go there.  And, of course, one can swim in 3D, so no ladder or stairs are needed to get from one elevation to the next.

The topmost level is the Island itself; it's the same elevation as the Shallows, but is not water terrain.  The Island has some vegetative hindering terrain on it.  There's a handful of squares where Aquaman's finny friends can't get to you but... he still can.

Whom might you find in the environs of the Island? Well, perhaps my custom Captain Squidd figure:

You probably don't remember Captain Squidd because he appeared only once, but he made quite an impression.

On Aquaman, at least.

He sits, oddly enough, on the Roland Daggett dial from the BTAS Heroclix set; mostly that's so he can generate pirate crewmembers.

It's all about creative exegesis.

You might also find on this map another character you've never heard of:  Phineas Pike, the Sea Sleuth. 

Phineas Pike, Sherlock of the Sea, was a sort of Alfred-like supporting character for Golden Age Aquaman. His schtick was that he was a consummate expert on everything maritime, but didn't know how to swim.  Comic book irony.

As you can see, I gave him a more reasonable color palette, because, LORDY, old comics are garish.

He sits on the dial of some minor Marvel villain:

A stealthed perplexer with empower and enhance?  Oh, yes, Phineas Pike may be goofy but he'll be a solid support figure for Aquaman & Co.