COUP D'ETAT GI Joe ARAH Vintage Cobra custom figure

This is Coup D'Etat, a custom I did about 5 or 6 years ago and just made pics lately. Coup D'Etat is a Range Viper that got stranded in a forgotten war in Central America, and guess what, he managed to get "elected" Presidente. His survival skills were so high, that he realised the only way to stay alive was to rise to the top and rule over all the country. Nobody knwos what happened with the rest of his squad, or which Range Viper he was, but he has now forsaken Cobra and he looks to create his own evil empire. His weapons are real gold plated, to have emergency fortune always at hand. In a lot came a damaged Range Viper head, that cried for something cool to do with him. And so it came about.

Dino Hunter GI Joe custom figure

This is Dino Hunter, a figure heavily inspired by Chad and Matthew's Jurassic Park line of customs (if I remember well, this was about 5 years ago). I liked very much the concept hence I did it with a few spare parts I had. The whole dino idea, even if a bit absurd, I dig it quite a bit, and would have loved that all Jurassic Park figures would have had Joe size and articulation.

Looter Cobra custom action figure gi joe arah vintage

 Looter; loosely inspired by Chad & Matthews customs of the possible "Jurassic Park" line in o-ring style. The design was cool, and I was looking for some inspiration, as sometimes is tiring to come up with new concepts :) . However, second versions of characters bores me, so I made him a brand new exciting character, Looter. Specialist in sacking old temples, tombs, any kind of valuable artifact, and also breaking in museums and private mansions. Knows everything there is to know about traps, curses and the like. He enlisted to Cobra to get access to more temples, to do more looting, as Cobra has the best database of lost temples and similar :) .

GRANITE Custom GI Joe Cobra vintage figure arah

Here is Granit, a custom that was inspired by a great custom, I think I saw on Chad/Matthews website (please correct me if I am wrong). I saved the image for years, and then I stumbled onto a "granite spray", a strange and wonderful item, that allows you to actually spray texturized granite onto something. The design is sadly flawed, as it is clogging continuously, but at least allowed me to pull out this custom :) .

The main idea is that he sports a new, experimental armour based in very thick granules that renders him virtually indestructible to small arms fire, and hence, if you have such a suit, the first thing you do is becoming a mercenary :) .

Thunder Ninja ARAH GI Joe custom figure

Thunder Ninja; canonic character, yes ;) . Browsing boredly through YoJoe, I stumbled upon the Micro force figures, and a design struck me as fresh, new, and basically, never seen before, Thunder Ninja. Tried to get more info about him but couldn't, I don't know if he appears on comics, but couldn't find anything. I thought it would be cool to make it into a ARAH figure. You can check his micro force figure here; https://www.yojoe.com/micro-force/13/thunderninja.shtml 

 

 

Cobra Temple Diorama GI Joe ARAH 25th VvV 3.75 1:18 custom Temple of Doom Golden Serpent

 A diorama I did a long time ago :) .

Headhunter Stormtrooper in 25th style GI Joe custom figure modern ROC POC 3.75"

Headhunter Stormtrooper; before this, I had only done 1 custom as a paid commission, for a friend in a forum. I started properly customizing joes, and then made a few customs for sale of Marvel and DC, which brought other commissions, but just last year a collector's who collects MOTUC also asked me for this. So I did them, first modern joe commission. The Headhunter is one of the few vintage Joes I am lacking! I toyed with the idea of buying one just to cast some parts, but saw it's ridiculous prices so I had to pass on the idea (I'll get it someday, damn!). This is one of those characters that changes a lot from blister artwork to figure, I based on the vintage figure as asked, but took some inspiration from the artwork, as some things if not would look plain silly in 25th form. Doing so many small spikes was a challenge! 

 

 

SOS Action Force GI Joe ARAH custom figure

SOS; this is a custom that started as a simply partswap, and decided to improve it and upgrade it with a repainted Corps head, which are really wonderful, by the way. A member of the British Action Force, specialist in rescuing in adverse conditions.

Alas GI Joe 25th Custom Figure Airborne Comic book order of battle Marvel

 Alas; I was always fascinated by the comicbook filecards, showing me Joes I never knew nor saw! with time, I went identifying them, but some simply didn't ring any bell nor matched the figures. I realized later, as my comicbooks were in Spanish, that the filecard for "Alas" (wings in spanish) corresponded to Airborne! I could see no similarity between the figure or cartoon with the illustration! it is so bizarre, that when I came over it again, I decided to do a custom of him in it's honour. In my opinion, the old ARAH figure is nice, but doesn't look at all to have red indian descent, hence in my joeverse, that is left out and is given to Alas, a new Joe.

 I chose a 25th body, even if I don't usually, as was the only one that could give me the thin and tall look of the illustration.

 

Mato Grosso Cobra GI Joe custom figure ARAH vintage mercenary Brazil

Here is Mato-Grosso, mercenary for hire in Brazil, hired alternatively by Cobra Brazil, Shadowloo not excluding other gangs and freelance works :) . He comes with false plant camouflage, automatic cannon, and dna-altered carnivorous plant he uses as trap. Sculpted within him is sound system on his chest, to confuse enemy with various sounds, and hand flamethrower. Inspired by the  early 90s Joe figures that came with all sorts of large accesories, like Incinerator, Firefly, Cobra commander with his plane, etc.

Wolf Stormforce Tarantula henchman GI Joe ARAH custom figure Battle with stormforce UK comics

Wolf; the villainous Wolf is the main henchman of Tarantula, a villain that appeared in Stormforce, a UK comic strip created to substitute Action Force when Hasbro bought the rights to it. As such, is very GI Joe-Cobraesque, and makes for wonderful 80s read. Tarantula rose to such popularity that had it's own personal comic strip inside the Battle with Stormforce magazine.

Battleforce 3000 group GI Joe custom figures

Background; It has passed many years since the government project "Battle Force 2000", where the most advanced weaponry and technology of the time. Now, all this weapons have been already introduced in the regular Gi Joe's, and most of the members have fallen in battle. It has come the time of the Battle Force 3000!

Every member of the group carries a suit of a special alloy that makes them invulnerable to laser fire and low caliber guns. Each member carries the most modern, classified, top-of-the-range weaponry and gadgets that makes them a threat to the enemy and to themselves if something goes wrong. The best way to test them? against the Cobra Legions.

 

Serpentor's Guard Custom Vintage ARAH Cobra Coils

These are Serpentor's Guards, when I learned of Coils and Serpentor's organization in the modern comics I thought it would be cool to create some new soldiers for Serpentor.