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Back in the late 1990’s when I first began customizing 8 inch Gotham City custom action figures, a re-visit of MEGO’s Batman foe THE JOKER was a foregone conclusion.
I remembered the thrill and excitement I felt as a little boy the first time I held MEGO’s 8 inch version of the iconic villain! Finally, my 8 inch Batman and Robin would have their greatest foe to confront during all of my bedroom and backyard adventures! And what an explosively COLORFUL first-impression he made! With lavender trousers, a bright green shirt, and an orange vest silkscreened onto a unitard jumpsuit… topped off by a lavender tuxedo jacket and tails and brown shoes, this little guy felt a lot more colorful and zany to me than Cesar Romero did on afternoon re-runs of the ’66 Batman TV series!
As Charlee Flatt , Scott Arendson and others ushered in the age of 8 inch action figure customizing as ART in the 1990’s, I saw that THE JOKER was the subject of frequent re-interpretations of MEGO’S original Clown Prince. Naturally, I had MY OWN ideas for trying my hand at customizing the villain.
Perhaps as a byproduct of the grimmer 1990’s, and of my more adult regard for the darker, Gothic portrayal of Gotham City (versus the lighter 1970’s view from my childhood), it became my lofty goal to portray The Joker (and my other custom 8 inch figures) with a more detailed, and sophisticated approach.
But truth be told, my limited, woefully inadequate beginner customizing skills at that time put that goal seriously beyond my reach.
At first, my approach to custom Joker was limited to re-painting an original MEGO Joker head sculpt to bring out more detail. It was always one of my all-time favorite MEGO head sculpts. I cobbled together some simple shirt and vest garments (garment VENEERS, really) and glued them directly onto a MEGO silkscreened unitard. I tailored some MEGO Wizard pants (from “Wizard of OZ”) to make The Joker’s trousers. The pants had large, black painted pinstripes, and I dyed the white spaces between them in purple. The purple dye did not perfectly match the color shade of the re-purposed MEGO tuxedo blazer I was using, but I did my best to ignore that. I dressed these garments onto a standard MEGO Type 1 “thin man” body, and called it a day.
As the years passed, and my customizing style evolved, it became necessary for me to make one final attempt at presenting this character in a way that demonstrated my own 9ART brand archetype, while avoiding a straight copy of the vintage MEGO style, as my first attempt had.
When developing the face sculpt for my 9ART custom JOKER figure, I worked to come up with an image that at once suggested menace, and raving, bulging-eyed, homicidal madness. I wanted this figure to provoke the same exhilarated revulsion reaction that many of us had back in 1988 when we first saw Brian Bolland’s Joker artwork for his legendary Batman: The Killing Joke graphic novel.
This inspiration really informed my sculpt choices as I spent the hours and days whittling away at the clay. I think the thing that I held onto MOST in the back of my mind was remembering to make the villain’s face feel demented and borderline inhuman, as if the chemical accident The Joker suffered did MORE than just bleach his skin and turn his hair green. Like the Bolland’s art in “The Killing Joke”, I wanted to suggest that the chemicals also altered and distorted the very bone and muscular face structure itself. In short, I wanted 9ART Joker to be a cleanly-sculpted terrifying, inhuman, grinning monster.
I sculpted for a long while... off and on for about 2 years! And even though my developing sculpt was interesting, it nevertheless lacked the psychotic madness I was looking for. For several years, leading to the creation of this figure, I had collected various Joker toy and non-toy products seeking inspirational direction for the sculpt that I hoped to create. Nothing was really speaking to me.
Then one day in the fall of 2006, while browsing through a local toy store, something on the action figure shelves instantly caught my eye. I became pretty excited by what I saw, because I finally felt inspired in the right direction to achieve the look I wanted for my custom Joker sculpt!
Apparently, our friends at Hasbro decided to re-brand their 9-inch Marvel Famous Covers figures (originally released throughout the mid-1990’s) into a line called Spiderman Origins: Signature Series. The Spiderman villain Green Goblin was released for that line, and it was his DEMONIC face sculpt that stopped me in my tracks that afternoon in the toy aisle.
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I brought the figure home so that I could carefully study the face sculpt. My direction was now clear as day. I knew EXACTLY what to sculpt! With my newfound inspiration, I was able to complete my own sculpt within a week of resuming work.
The classic Joker comic book costume worn by this figure required a LOT of development and fabric tailoring work that pushed my skills to the max. Unlike my first attempt at a custom Joker years before, I knew I was not going to use stock MEGO garments on this custom figure. I had plenty of Royal Purple milliskin fabric left over from my work on Custom Catwoman. The fabric was a gorgeous, rich, primary color shade, and I decided to make the Joker’s Tuxedo jacket, tails, and trousers out of this same stuff. I carefully took apart a damaged vintage MEGO Joker tuxedo jacket and altered the patterns of the various parts (Re: arms, torso, collar, tails, etc.) as needed for a proper fit upon my own custom figure. I patterned and sewed a Kelly green shirt (complete with French collar and wrist cuffs.
Meanwhile, I had sent some of the raw purple miliskin fabric to our good friend in customizing Austin Hough to perform some of his silkscreening / fabric printing magic. I had created a fat black pinstripe pattern that I intended to use for The Joker’s flashy “zoot suit” pants. When I took delivery of the newly pinstriped fabric, I cut it into the patterns I created for the trousers, and sewed them into a wearable garment.
In another nod to customizing legend, mentor, and good friend Charlee Flatt, I dyed the vest of a Flattworld Bela Lugosi Dracula in deep orange. I patterned and fabricated a pair of Kelly green dress socks and white spats, and I finished off the footwear with a pair of snazzy Figures Toy Company pointed toe, black, wingtip shoes.
There are so many signature lethal gadgets and gizmos that the Joker has been known for throughout the years. I wanted to represent as many of them as I possibly could as “accessories” for my custom psycho. I got away with perhaps two of these accessories as “found items” with no alterations required by me. The other accessories had to be designed, patterned and fabricated completely from scratch. Here is the accessory breakdown:
Walking Cane: Inspired by MEGO’S 3-3/4” Comic Action Heroes Joker action figure, I immediately determined that a good basic starting point for custom Joker’s various accessories was going to be a Walking Cane.
But what should this cane look like?
CAH Joker’s cane featured a simple ball as the cane’s handle ornament. And while there were several canes available in the world of 8 inch action figures, I did not regard any of them as suitably appropriate design-wise for this dapper psycho. I imagined The Joker’s enormous vanity would have led him to utilize something far more elaborate and expensive as his walking cane… likely something with a custom-made ornate handle head to reflect his prankster / evil clown gimmick.
I discovered a beautifully sculpted court jester-themed walking cane as part of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics 7” Joker release.
Only the cane’s handle ornament and ball tip base were usable since the rest of the accessory was made of very warped soft plastic and scaled for the smaller 7 inch scale. I was able to fashion the cane shaft easily enough though. I used sandpaper to re-shape a simple wooden dowel into a nice taper. After painting the dowel shaft, I attached the Mattel handle ornament and tip base to complete the prop.
Deck of Trick Playing Cards and Joker Fish: These two accessories were taken right from the aforementioned Mattel DC Universe Classics figure without any alterations.
Crowbar: As a nod to the “Batman: A Death In The Family” 1988 graphic novel , I included a parts bin crowbar prop (who’s origins are unknown to me). I’m of the view that the inclusion of this crowbar accessory adds a further touch of diabolical menace to this figure by recalling The Joker’s gruesome crowbar bludgeoning murder of Jason Todd / Robin The Boy Wonder in the legendary storyline.
TNT Detonator Plunger Box and Blasting Cable Spool: By far, the most elaborate accessory for custom 9ART Joker was the one that most required my direct design, and custom fabrication involvement: Once again, inspired by the 3-3/4” scaled world of MEGO’S Comic Action Heroes, I wanted a nasty-looking TNT Detonator Plunger Box and a Spool of Blasting Cable as part of the Clown Prince of Crime’s arsenal of lethal devices.
It was quite the effort to realize this seemingly simple accessory in the scale and with all the details that I wanted. You can read all about the process of the prop’s build in THIS THREAD.
As always, I created a full complement of packaging, internal inserts, and a file card to accompany this custom figure.
Digital mock up of Action figure Packaging (layout and design by darklord1967)
Character File Card (front and rear) (Art by Matt Haley and Karl Kessel / digital compositing by darklord1967. Written text by darklord1967
I hope you'll enjoy the FINISHED 9ART THE JOKER CUSTOM ACTION FIGURE HERE
.
I remembered the thrill and excitement I felt as a little boy the first time I held MEGO’s 8 inch version of the iconic villain! Finally, my 8 inch Batman and Robin would have their greatest foe to confront during all of my bedroom and backyard adventures! And what an explosively COLORFUL first-impression he made! With lavender trousers, a bright green shirt, and an orange vest silkscreened onto a unitard jumpsuit… topped off by a lavender tuxedo jacket and tails and brown shoes, this little guy felt a lot more colorful and zany to me than Cesar Romero did on afternoon re-runs of the ’66 Batman TV series!
As Charlee Flatt , Scott Arendson and others ushered in the age of 8 inch action figure customizing as ART in the 1990’s, I saw that THE JOKER was the subject of frequent re-interpretations of MEGO’S original Clown Prince. Naturally, I had MY OWN ideas for trying my hand at customizing the villain.
Perhaps as a byproduct of the grimmer 1990’s, and of my more adult regard for the darker, Gothic portrayal of Gotham City (versus the lighter 1970’s view from my childhood), it became my lofty goal to portray The Joker (and my other custom 8 inch figures) with a more detailed, and sophisticated approach.
But truth be told, my limited, woefully inadequate beginner customizing skills at that time put that goal seriously beyond my reach.
At first, my approach to custom Joker was limited to re-painting an original MEGO Joker head sculpt to bring out more detail. It was always one of my all-time favorite MEGO head sculpts. I cobbled together some simple shirt and vest garments (garment VENEERS, really) and glued them directly onto a MEGO silkscreened unitard. I tailored some MEGO Wizard pants (from “Wizard of OZ”) to make The Joker’s trousers. The pants had large, black painted pinstripes, and I dyed the white spaces between them in purple. The purple dye did not perfectly match the color shade of the re-purposed MEGO tuxedo blazer I was using, but I did my best to ignore that. I dressed these garments onto a standard MEGO Type 1 “thin man” body, and called it a day.
As the years passed, and my customizing style evolved, it became necessary for me to make one final attempt at presenting this character in a way that demonstrated my own 9ART brand archetype, while avoiding a straight copy of the vintage MEGO style, as my first attempt had.
When developing the face sculpt for my 9ART custom JOKER figure, I worked to come up with an image that at once suggested menace, and raving, bulging-eyed, homicidal madness. I wanted this figure to provoke the same exhilarated revulsion reaction that many of us had back in 1988 when we first saw Brian Bolland’s Joker artwork for his legendary Batman: The Killing Joke graphic novel.
This inspiration really informed my sculpt choices as I spent the hours and days whittling away at the clay. I think the thing that I held onto MOST in the back of my mind was remembering to make the villain’s face feel demented and borderline inhuman, as if the chemical accident The Joker suffered did MORE than just bleach his skin and turn his hair green. Like the Bolland’s art in “The Killing Joke”, I wanted to suggest that the chemicals also altered and distorted the very bone and muscular face structure itself. In short, I wanted 9ART Joker to be a cleanly-sculpted terrifying, inhuman, grinning monster.
I sculpted for a long while... off and on for about 2 years! And even though my developing sculpt was interesting, it nevertheless lacked the psychotic madness I was looking for. For several years, leading to the creation of this figure, I had collected various Joker toy and non-toy products seeking inspirational direction for the sculpt that I hoped to create. Nothing was really speaking to me.
Then one day in the fall of 2006, while browsing through a local toy store, something on the action figure shelves instantly caught my eye. I became pretty excited by what I saw, because I finally felt inspired in the right direction to achieve the look I wanted for my custom Joker sculpt!
Apparently, our friends at Hasbro decided to re-brand their 9-inch Marvel Famous Covers figures (originally released throughout the mid-1990’s) into a line called Spiderman Origins: Signature Series. The Spiderman villain Green Goblin was released for that line, and it was his DEMONIC face sculpt that stopped me in my tracks that afternoon in the toy aisle.
I brought the figure home so that I could carefully study the face sculpt. My direction was now clear as day. I knew EXACTLY what to sculpt! With my newfound inspiration, I was able to complete my own sculpt within a week of resuming work.
The classic Joker comic book costume worn by this figure required a LOT of development and fabric tailoring work that pushed my skills to the max. Unlike my first attempt at a custom Joker years before, I knew I was not going to use stock MEGO garments on this custom figure. I had plenty of Royal Purple milliskin fabric left over from my work on Custom Catwoman. The fabric was a gorgeous, rich, primary color shade, and I decided to make the Joker’s Tuxedo jacket, tails, and trousers out of this same stuff. I carefully took apart a damaged vintage MEGO Joker tuxedo jacket and altered the patterns of the various parts (Re: arms, torso, collar, tails, etc.) as needed for a proper fit upon my own custom figure. I patterned and sewed a Kelly green shirt (complete with French collar and wrist cuffs.
Meanwhile, I had sent some of the raw purple miliskin fabric to our good friend in customizing Austin Hough to perform some of his silkscreening / fabric printing magic. I had created a fat black pinstripe pattern that I intended to use for The Joker’s flashy “zoot suit” pants. When I took delivery of the newly pinstriped fabric, I cut it into the patterns I created for the trousers, and sewed them into a wearable garment.
In another nod to customizing legend, mentor, and good friend Charlee Flatt, I dyed the vest of a Flattworld Bela Lugosi Dracula in deep orange. I patterned and fabricated a pair of Kelly green dress socks and white spats, and I finished off the footwear with a pair of snazzy Figures Toy Company pointed toe, black, wingtip shoes.
There are so many signature lethal gadgets and gizmos that the Joker has been known for throughout the years. I wanted to represent as many of them as I possibly could as “accessories” for my custom psycho. I got away with perhaps two of these accessories as “found items” with no alterations required by me. The other accessories had to be designed, patterned and fabricated completely from scratch. Here is the accessory breakdown:
Walking Cane: Inspired by MEGO’S 3-3/4” Comic Action Heroes Joker action figure, I immediately determined that a good basic starting point for custom Joker’s various accessories was going to be a Walking Cane.
But what should this cane look like?
CAH Joker’s cane featured a simple ball as the cane’s handle ornament. And while there were several canes available in the world of 8 inch action figures, I did not regard any of them as suitably appropriate design-wise for this dapper psycho. I imagined The Joker’s enormous vanity would have led him to utilize something far more elaborate and expensive as his walking cane… likely something with a custom-made ornate handle head to reflect his prankster / evil clown gimmick.
I discovered a beautifully sculpted court jester-themed walking cane as part of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics 7” Joker release.
Only the cane’s handle ornament and ball tip base were usable since the rest of the accessory was made of very warped soft plastic and scaled for the smaller 7 inch scale. I was able to fashion the cane shaft easily enough though. I used sandpaper to re-shape a simple wooden dowel into a nice taper. After painting the dowel shaft, I attached the Mattel handle ornament and tip base to complete the prop.
Deck of Trick Playing Cards and Joker Fish: These two accessories were taken right from the aforementioned Mattel DC Universe Classics figure without any alterations.
Crowbar: As a nod to the “Batman: A Death In The Family” 1988 graphic novel , I included a parts bin crowbar prop (who’s origins are unknown to me). I’m of the view that the inclusion of this crowbar accessory adds a further touch of diabolical menace to this figure by recalling The Joker’s gruesome crowbar bludgeoning murder of Jason Todd / Robin The Boy Wonder in the legendary storyline.
TNT Detonator Plunger Box and Blasting Cable Spool: By far, the most elaborate accessory for custom 9ART Joker was the one that most required my direct design, and custom fabrication involvement: Once again, inspired by the 3-3/4” scaled world of MEGO’S Comic Action Heroes, I wanted a nasty-looking TNT Detonator Plunger Box and a Spool of Blasting Cable as part of the Clown Prince of Crime’s arsenal of lethal devices.
It was quite the effort to realize this seemingly simple accessory in the scale and with all the details that I wanted. You can read all about the process of the prop’s build in THIS THREAD.
As always, I created a full complement of packaging, internal inserts, and a file card to accompany this custom figure.
Digital mock up of Action figure Packaging (layout and design by darklord1967)
Character File Card (front and rear) (Art by Matt Haley and Karl Kessel / digital compositing by darklord1967. Written text by darklord1967
I hope you'll enjoy the FINISHED 9ART THE JOKER CUSTOM ACTION FIGURE HERE
.