Action League Now WIP thread (Stinky Diver Finished!)

Alright Golden Idol, I have posted my project thread in the Custom Help/Questions/Info forum. I have my Stinky Diver and Meltman figure showcases on there already and awaiting for my showcase limit to be lifted to upload The Flesh soon.

SpooferJahk, I'd love to see this.

Hey harveytwoface999, I am a new guy and I hate to bump an old thread but I got some good news. Thanks to you I got inspiration to create my own Action League figures and I not only created Stinky Diver and a Meltman, but I created The Flesh. Not sure if you get on here anymore and read this, but I will post a showcase for The Flesh and my other customs if you want to, and give details on how I made The Flesh as well.

Hey, is anything going on with this project? I'd love to see it finished!

I remeber watching this when I was like 5 or 8 amzing looks just like the originals! great work

Great job! How are the others coming?

Stinky Diver is finished!

Custom Showcase link:

Man I haven't seen that show in damn near forever! I FULLY endorse these customs!

Show us more work!

No news, harvey?

Hey, no new info in a long time. Any progress?

New plans.

Mayor, Chief, Lab Guy - the molding process didn't really pick up a lot of surface detail (edge sharpness, etc.), and I wasn't quite satisfied. So I found the African-American Doctor figure on Ebay, and I plan to get that, crack it open and modify it, then mold the parts in Smooth-On silicone and cast them in Alumilite or something.

Meltman - instead of getting the Cobra Soldier, I'll instead cobble together parts that, when melted, will have the same general shape (head from a GI Joe Duke, upper legs from a Lanard Corps Fox, etc.). Then paint as usual, and use the prototype for the stunt version.

Flesh - crack it open and modify it for the hero version, and maybe get a Hulk figure for the stunt shots.

Thundergirl - find someone who has a few old Barbies to let go of (of course, girls who've outgrown them, as they were huge in the 90's), get some Fixit Sculpt and sculpt on the bodies, and find a Sindy for the hero head.

OK, cool, so you'll be able to copy the figure to have 3 Doctor bodies for the Chief, the Mayor and Bill the Lab Guy, right?



Link PLEASE!!!





As for my Shipwreck, it does have the same mold, but it doesn't have the flippers or the diving mask. Search for 1998 Shipwreck on the Web to see what it looks like. I don't know, it seems like a lot of unnecessary painting when you can get a 1994 one, with all the necessary accesories for just a couple of bucks. Besides, I kinda wanted to use mine for a Meltman protoype.


Also, check your "A little dilemma + paint question" thread for my response to you if you haven't already.

This is actually a temporary mold I used to cast the dental stone. It's alginate, so over time it dehydrates and cracks. I plan to order some Smooth-On silicone and maybe Alumilite plastic in the near future, and when that mold is done I should be able to make both hero and stunt figures. And no, since they've been discontinued since the mid 90's, I really don't want to have to keep buying Doctor figures.

Man, cutting this stuff is hard work. I've noticed that whenever I start to get frustrated on projects, it shows in the final product, so I'm making sure to stop whenever I feel myself getting frustrated. But it'd be a lot easier:
1) if I used a Dremel instead of a generic Craftsman rotary tool
2) if I didn't have to cut through solid dental stone, and
3) if the damn battery didn't keep dying on me.

On the plus side, I found an ALN episode online with the band KISS. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

And Golden Idol - I'll still take the extra Shipwreck figure. I'd have to paint it though, since it has a different paint job, but hey, it uses the same mold right?

Nice work, harvey. Is that a mold for another "hero" figure, such as the Chief or the Mayor, so that you don't have to buy another Doctor figure, or is that for stunt figures?

Hoo boy, productive day today. I got started on molding the Doctor base figure in alginate and casting in dental stone.

The first thing we did was the mold. For starters, we tried making the mold inside an old ketchup bottle - hey, it's all we could find in a pinch.


Then dental stone was poured in...


...and left to cure. Notice anything strange about this mold?


That's right! No mold keys. As a result, the first pull came out pretty bad (and I mean bad).


Round two. This time I made a mold box out of foam core and duct tape. I also put marbles around the sides so that the top half would lock into the bottom half.


Bottom mold all dry:


Top layer curing and drying:


I'll try to get pictures of the results up tomorrow. Stay tuned for the next action-molded installment of... Action League Now!

Ah. Nothing a little paint can't fix, though.

Yeah, I'm thinking they used molds and casts for all the figures. Not sure when everything's gonna be done though. And as for Thundergirl, I know the head was from a Sindy doll, but I can't figure out the body. And yes, if I can find a suitable dog I'll make Justice.

Unfortunately, my extra Shipwreck is NOT a 1994 one. Mine is a 1998 one, and so has a different color scheme. Sorry.

As for the Cobra Soldier, it's very possible that was the figure used in the show, due to the shape of the head and the joints. If they did melt a GI Joe for the show, how did they make Meltman look exactly the same all the time? Did they melt one GI Joe and make multiple molds of it?

So when will you be working on your figures? Any tentative due date for finishing them? I'm REALLY looking forward to your ALN episodes!!


Also, what are you planning to do about Thundergirl's body? I haven't found any info about that. Have you?

Are you planning to make a Justice figure? You know, the Chief's dog?

Hey GoldenIdol, for Meltman you might be better off using a Cobra figure like the Cobra Soldier. It's already got the basic shape to it (especially the head), so all you'd need to do is carefully take a lighter to certain parts of it.



As for the extra Shipwreck figure you mentioned, I may need an extra one for my own ALN episodes - I'm thinking of having "stunt" versions of the characters to knock around in wider shots, and molding and casting this kind of figure with all the articulation and stuff may prove to be a bit difficult. Let me know if it's all right with you, and I'll PM you the address to send it to.

Maybe a red-orange, to be safe.

Thanks for posting my pics, harvey.

Wouldn't you have to use red paint though, and not orange? I used red.

The Golden Idol just sent me these pictures to post here. As it was, the images took a while to load, so to make it easier I combined them and rehosted them on Photobucket.



Nice! Makes me want to run out and get some orange paint. Speaking of which, what kind of paint did you use?

I'd like to post pics of my Stinky Diver figure, but I don't have enough posts to be able to do so. How many posts do I need to have?

Oh, OK. Do you know precisely how to melt it best (lighter? oven?) and for how long?

Also, just thought I'd share a tidbit of info, Thundergirl's head is a 90s Sindy doll's head.

The hot glue method looks good in pictures, but it really doesn't feel too "solid." I plan to get an old GI Joe "Cobra Soldier" figure (maybe get one of the lots on Ebay or something in case I mess up) and take a soldering gun and a lighter to it, then paint and stuff. When you're melting it though (and I really hate to see Stinky Diver go like that xD), do it carefully so it all fits together and the articulation isn't all screwed up.

The Action League Now episodes on the monitor - go to Guba.com and search "Kablam." There's about 16 or so episodes up there, but sadly not even close to all of them. Ah well, it works for me.

This is great, harveytwoface999! I've been wanting to do the same for years! I currently own a (non-modified) Conan figure and two Shipwreck figures, one that I painted with red paint to make a custom Stinky Diver (pics coming soon) and one that I'll use for a Meltman. Is your method of hot-gluing the figure the best method to make a Meltman, or is it better to actually try to melt the figure's parts and then reassemble it?

I'm really looking forward to your modifications so that I can do the same!

BTW, where did you find those Action League Now! episodes that are on your monitor in the pics? A link would be greatly appreciated.

Also, your Meltman is great but I'd make some holes in his face and chest to better match his TV counterpart!

WonderWoman - sadly no, the stethoscope is molded to the torso. I've got a little casting process in mind that should fix it though. And the reason for the different groin pieces is that Bill's coat tails are separate and sculpted on his legs:



Now that I'm looking at it more closely, it actually looks like they modified the Doctor groin piece (notice the two belt loops are closer to the buckle) instead of using the yellow-shirted figure off to the side. Still, I got these figures for cheap - altogether under $15 on Ebay, plus the yellow-shirt is one I already had, so nothing's lost. (BTW, for their molds they cut the waist just above the top of the belt so it could turn at the waist, that's why the groin pieces are separated.)

Astro13zombie - these are Playskool dollhouse figures, but I'm not too sure of the line - either "Play People" or "People In My Neighborhood."

What I especially like is the fact that they used off-the-shelf toys and modified them instead of having them custom-sculpted. This way, I can track down what they used instead of completely starting from scratch. Makes it that much easier, I'm tellin' ya's.

Its so awesome!...what are those called?

Wow you DID do your homework lol. This is gonna be GREAT. One question is the stethiscope removable or will it have to be sanded away for the Chief and Mayor? BTW its odd that they'd use a different groin peice for Bill the Lab guy, is there any big difference? The belts appear to be different sizes but other than that?Shorter maybe?

Left to right - the Mayor's head, the Mayor/Chief/Bill the Lab Guy's body, Bill's arms, Bill's groin piece. (Yes, I've been doing my homework on this one.)

HAHA!...I love it..I always wanted these when I was little..KABLAM!

Here's the '94 GI Joe Shipwreck figure I plan to turn into Stinky Diver.





The flippers allow for a wider variety of poses:

Well, work on The Flesh has just started. I just got the Conan figure in the mail today:



The pull-string feature on the back. I think I'll take out the mechanism, since it basically makes his arm move up and down a lot, and I want to avoid any potentially dirty jokes if his arm happens to be folded across his chest when I pull the string:


Posing with his Nickelodeon counterpart:


As of now, Stinky Diver (Shipwreck) is still in the mail. I think that'll be the easiest conversion by far out of all of them. Just paint a few parts orange, flip his mask around, and bam.

Also, I have been thinking about redoing Meltman's head. Maybe sculpt the basic shape out of clay, then put hot glue on it and stuff.

Good so far!
I loved that show......