Updated 4/13/2004: AoA Morph is back up, with a new photo.  This week, I've added AoA Havok (with 2 new photos) and put up a new photo of AoA Dazzler.  Coming soon: new photos of Atlas, Grey King, AoA Storm; as well as some new figures: Chaos, Mercury, Rapture, Jolt, and Mutant X.  The Links and News sections are not active yet.

Help Me Out!  Want List

Want to help me customize some more figures?  Since the industry wide move to the 6-inch scale, 5-inch base figures have become hard to find.  Here's a list of the figures I am currently trying to acquire for customizing purposes.  Send me an email (trip at thetripfiles.com) if you'd like to sell/trade.

• Incredile Hulk: Abomination (1996)
• Silver Surfer: Drax (x2)
• Spiderman: Spider Force Beetle (x3)
• X-Men: Savage Land Angel (wings, x2)
• X-Men: Super Shooters Colossus (x2)
• X-Men: Monster Armor Mystique
• X-Men: Missile Flyers Bishop
• X-Men: Light-up Nightcrawler (x2)
• X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Sabretooth
• Marvel's Most Wanted: X-Man
• Generation X: Banshee (Cerebro accessory)
• Toy Biz: Zorro (the one with the long bandana tail)

Quick Customizing Tips

Here are some quick tips that can be useful in creating your own custom action figures!

1. Use air-drying epoxies!- Some epoxies require a long drying time (usually no longer than 2 days), but they will dry harder than normal air-drying clays and will give you enough time to finish up even the smallest details. Most importantly, you don't have to worry about melting your figures because there's no baking required.
2. Find Good Reference Pics!- You can't make an accurate figure without knowing what the guy looks like.  Take some time to research the character to plan to make and refer to these pictures as often as needed.
3. Use Multiple Brush Sizes!- It's incredibly difficult to make a good custom action figure with just one paint brush size.  Get at least 3 different size paint brushes, and it should work out well as long as they're not made with plastic bristles.
4. Don't Use Latex Enamels!- Most Testors brands of paint will thoroughly mess up your perfectly wonderful work by NEVER DRYING (without purchase and use of Testors Dull Coat!  Acrylics are the best paints known to the customizer.  They're inexpensive and they get the job done.
5. Finally, Don't Spend Too Much $$$- Most sculpting tools can be simulated with stuff laying around the house (ie. loose screws, buttons, old toothbrushes, etc.).  Cheap paint will get it done. The most expensive part of customizing should be acquiring the right base figures.