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.  

Heroclix Customs: Science Square and The Prankster

Not all villains rob banks; more and more, they steal tech.

So I made this map of "The Science District":

The commons area is decorated with a fractal pattern (because that sort of math-y stuff underlies all of science) and a few interactive exhibits of a various vaguely scientific types.  Not a lot of opportunity for terrain-based tactics but that's not really Superman's style and this is definitely for him and those flying people. 

Although I imagine this as being in Metropolis, it could be in any of the DCU's major fictionopolises.  It's flanked by buildings for some of DC's major corporate players in tech: Kord Industries, Mercury Labs, Lexcorp, S.T.A.R. Labs, WayneTech, Queen Consolidated, and PalmerTech.  The flying drone/ship is just for pretty.

Whom might you find on such a map?  Perhaps the Prankster, with a sculpt made on HeroForge:

"It's a gift, Superman, just for you...!"

This sculpt sits on the wildly unpredictable (yet surprisingly affordable) Obnoxio The Clown dial:

Heroclix customs: The Museum and Aegis

Time for some Heroclix!

Here is a new custom map I made for a generic location: The Museum.

They are easier to rob at night, you know.

This map is based on a real place: The Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago.  

Not pictured: museum stuff.

On my map, the display cases serve as indoor blocking terrain.  Walls and displays are not allowed to be destroyed. Because art.

The circles at the northern edge of the map are for placing Loot (an option I have developed for play).  

Whom might you find in the Museum? Perhaps Wonder Woman's brother, Jason, protecting some classical artifact.

They never gave Jason a code name.  

In fact, they never even gave him a surname. 
Very rude.

It's not a perfect match for his comic book costume, but one does what one can:

He looks a little young here, but he's Diana's twin so they are same age. 
Nearly.

Jason's time in comics was short and mostly just an excuse to inflict some pain on Wonder Woman when he betrayed her to some New Gods nonsense.  And then changed his mind as soon as someone pointed out that it was rude.  Very CW.  I hope a writer will bring him back some day; Wonder Woman really needs a broader dynasty and "the only male Amazon" is a great concept.

This sculpt was created on and ordered from HeroForge 2.0.  

I have placed it on this dial, a very good one for protecting others: 

 

They never gave him a surname or a codename, so I had to do that myself.

In the most obvious way possible, I might add.

Given how protection-oriented the dial is, "Aegis" seemed the right choice.

Heroclix Custom of the Week: Illoralan Wingors

This is the fifth in my ongoing series of custom figures I have made or had made to add to my collection of regular Heroclix figures.

In our last installment, we immortalized Green-Hatted Exposition Man, whose transquartomuralistic communications let even the most dense readers follow the otherwise incomprehensible exploits of the Silver Age Martian Manhunter. Despite his extraordinary function, Green-Hatted Exposition Man is the most ordinary-looking of characters.  Not so this week's featured customized character!

In honor of Hawkman's impending return and newfound prominence in the DC "Metal", I give you:

THE ILLORALAN WINGOR!

Or as oi polloi would say "the winged gorilla".

Yeah, back in the Silver Age, all the heroes, even down-to-earth detectives like Batman, dealt with really weird creatures, often from space.  How much weirder, then, it used to get when the hero was an actual space alien himself, particularly on given to dressing like a bird and using tricked-out versions of ancient weapons, for no sensible reason.

And the Silver Age penchant for gorillas is legendary.  So it was quite inevitable that Hawkman would at some point fight a winged alien gorilla.  It's impossible to explain simply, but suffice to say the planet Illoral suffered from some sort of reverse-evolution plague, which turned its winged humanoids into winged apes (called "Wingors").

The Wizkids company has (oddly!) never chosen to make proper Heroclix figures for the Illoralan Wingors.  Fortunately, I found a ready-made sculpt that I changed not at all: the "Derhii" figure from the Pathfinder Battles miniature game. 

Other then being grey instead of brown,
that's spot on I think.  And I let him keep the sword, he seems happier that way.

In since the Illoralan Wingor is technically a generic figure that fights in groups...

...I got myself a posse of them.

There USED to be bananas in that fruit bowl.

Even weirder, the best dial I found for them was Marvel's 75-point Jessica Jones:

Which I have interpreted as follows:

Sure, they take up too much room in my Heroclix storage boxes.  But, hey, it's the Hawks fighting flying gorillas, people; it's worth it.  Beside Hawkman's world is woefully under-represented in Heroclix.  Speaking of which, which Hawkman character would YOU like to see in Heroclix...?

Heroclix Custom of the Week: This One Is For Dean

This is the fourth in my ongoing series about custom figures I make or have made for me for the tabletop game Heroclix.

It's a companion piece for the Giant Robot Bear I shared with you in the second series entry.  This one was made thanks to the special request of commenter "Dean", who asked,

"How about a figure of Green-Hatted Exposition Man, the unsung hero of Apex City? Without him, we'd have no idea what was happening in that sequence!"

An excellent idea, Dean! Why, without functional ancillary characters like Green-Hatted Exposition Man telling us out loud what was happening, blind readers would be completely lost!  Our hats are off to those unnamed men with hats who spend their literary lives wandering around the danger-filled streets of their fictionoplises, waiting for the opportunity to tell us what's going on.  And so I give you:

GREEN-HATTED EXPOSITION MAN

You can imagine him saying whatever you want 
(within the confines of the Comics Code Authority).

For his dial I used the 15-point version of a Jessica Jones clix, mostly because it's cheap, can't do any damage and has a wonderful special power that cancels Stealth on nearby opponents.  And what is Exposition Man for if not for pointing out things like "THERE'S A BAD GUY RIGHT OVER THERE!"?

If you stare too long into the plot, 
the plot stares back into you.

Do you like Green-Hatted Exposition Man? And are there other such nameless characters from standard comic book story tropes that deserve their own custom figures...?

Heroclix Custom of the Week: Snapper Carr

This is latest in my ongoing series featuring custom figures I use in the tabletop miniatures game, Heroclix.  In the last entry, I shared my custom for Apex City's GIANT ROBOT BEAR.  It's not easy to match that for absurdity, unless of course today's figure is...

SNAPPER CARR.

The more you think about the fact that Justice League gave Snapper Carr a flying jalopy,
the more reasonable Lex Luthor seems.

For Snapper Carr I chose a dial that's short (so he can die really quickly) but still annoying (Snapper's defining characteristic).  It's the one-slot dial of some silly concept from Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D., an A.I. monkey named "HENRY".  I'm sure that's an acronym, because Marvel, but I don't care of what (also because Marvel).

This dials gives Snapper 'teleportation', a power he developed after his Justice League days during the "Invasion" crossover.  He has 'super senses', which makes some sense because his hypersensitive observational skills were part of what brought him to the JLA's attention.  

These panels show both his teleportation and his keen awareness of his surroundings <Batman eyeroll>.

The special damage power gives him both 'Empower' and 'Enhancement'; GREAT advantages in any sidekick, that let him help others attack without making him a good attacker himself.

I didn't have enough time to find a panel of Snapper actually being helpful.
But this is a great representation of not-being-a-good-attacker.

He's got the 'Tiny" size symbol which requires some special interpretation, since for all his faults, Snapper is NOT tiny.  

That's a pretty safe assumption.

Since the main effects of "Tiny" size are being harder to hit from afar and being able to be carried by normal size figures, I just re-interpreted those effects with some special traits:

If you are wondering why Green Arrow isn't in that list there are two reasons:
1. Green Arrow isn't an original member of the Justice League and wasn't there when they 'adopted' Snapper; and
2.  Green Arrow pretty consistently couldn't stand Snapper.

And here's his actual sculpt (a repainted Rick Jones):

I thought the fluorescent base might make him an easier target.