earliest memory of modifiing toys !

[AAAAA]

We all done it, not happy with the color, or we added something with model glue . well back in the 60's my dad, my brother and I would work on model kits.
so we had a good basis of working together.
back in 72 , military equipment for joe's were geting tuff to get. the most hard to get was a Green Army Hemlet, God there was so many whites ones around , they were just tuff to locate .so one day In the summer of 72 , I Had a dollar (big money in those days) I ask dad the next Time he goes to the store I want come along. He sure , you need something, I told him I Yeah green paint, He said I have green paint in basement, but It for metal. I want to get Hobby Paint so i can paint this white helmet. he said well Rich thats Polyelthene no paint will stick to it, I have a better Idea, got any torn old uniforms? I said sure I went got al old Camo shirt, snapes were off and the sleaves were torn. Perfect My dad said , he got scissors , Rubber cement , & sand paper , He cut out the largest circle of fabric on the back of the shirt,sanded the inside of the helmet applied RC, and & applied it to the edge of the circle of fabric , let dry and wrap the fabric on the helmet, and tuck it in the Brim and said here you go , Just Like my Combat helmet!! WOW Looks great!! Now My Joes had , Correct Combat Helmets for backyard warfair and saved me a DOLLAR ! It also started My modifications of other stuff with my Dad.
Any body else?

[toys2cool]

the only time I ever did that was in the 80's when I switched parts on my small Gi joes

[palitoy]

Spock + Robin Shorts- "Submareener"

[palitoy]

Spock + Robin Shorts- "Submareener"

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I used to make new outfits for my Megos when I was a kid. That's why my Grandma taught me how to sew, actually. (Around '81 or so I made Hoth outfits for the 12" Star Wars figures, turned out real good. Wish I still had them.) Tried sculpting new parts too; but that met with limited success. I'd use thin paper and liquid model glue like paper-machie to customize existing figures. (Didn't discover epoxy putty until '86 or so.)

When I was a kid, me and my Grandfather were always trying to make molds, but couldn't get any to work. (Pa loved action figures too.) He would have loved RTV silicone. He had a dream of making actual metal weapons for figures. (He would have loved Mononofu too.)

Don C.

[toys2cool]

I also switched the arms on my He-man figures

[VintageMike]

My Mego Spidey has been the beneficiary of parts from other megos. The only "mod" I really remember was the pretty lame. I wanted a Joker and either my parents couldn't find one of he had been disocntinued at that point. In his place I spray painted Dr. McCoy white and threw a green GI jacket on him. How that was supposed to a Joker I couldn't tell you but I just worked with what I had. Years later I wanted to retore McCoy and I actually had to boil the white paint off of him to get it off!

[Captain]

I dont know if it counts, but when I was around 4 or 5 I had my Mom make a sportcoat for Johnny West so I could play Get Smart with him. She also made a Batman cowl and cape for him...this was a bit earlier, and before Mego came along.

On my own, my first customs that went beyond swapping clothes between Megos and Big jim characters, would probably be about 1977 or 78. I had created an entire line of comic book characters, and made Mego versions of them.

[Tothiro]

Hmm.
I was one of those kids with parents that picked up toys (a lot from flea markets, etc) that never included megos. My older sister somehow happened upon a T1 Superman with broken elastic and I was fascinated with it... probably around 1981. She didn't so much give it to me as had no use for it, so I restrung it poorly with whatever I could get (rubber bands tied together, I think) and played with it as long as I could keep it together.
I also was fond of the Battlestar Galactica Ovion figure, but I had one of those squishy sticky wall walking octopus things, and it was exactly the right size to slip on top of his head as a luchadore mask, and he wore that for every major battle I can recall... I think things took some strange Ultraman meets Cthulu turn there.

My first attempted "customs" were actually wax and clay sculpts of little figures to match the television characters for the Wheeled Warriors cartoons. I made them exactly the size of the figures that came with the toys and had the articulation worked out and they sat on my dresser for six months while I tried to figure out ways to mold and cast them. My dad also made big talk about using brush on latex mold builder to create a SW ROTJ sarlaac pit monster to bury at the beach, and we bought a can of mold material that never actually got opened.
From five or so I started nagging my mom to make stuffed sea creatures for me (octopus, squid, man-o-war with yarn stingers) and she would always complain that whatever project I was pushing was impossible until I presented her with hand drawn patterns I would make, showing how the shapes would fit together and how they'd be sewn, and then she'd make them out of quilting left overs almost exactly to spec... I think I might have been fairly annoying as a kid. My idea of crafts seems to have been "here, make this for me exactly as I shall instruct you..."

I tried to do a few custom figures when I was 13 or so... Darkness from Legend out of colored Friendly Plastic and some robots based on a ruthlessly obscure black and white kung-fu robot magazine called Robo Warriors... I got an arm and a head done of the lead robot but never figured out a way to make the rest of him with moving joints (the plastic would get hot and want to fuse). I finished Darkness ... he only had shoulder and elbow rotation.

I did a DC Demon (jack kirby era) mego head out of clay when I was 15, but didn't realize that you'd need specific clay types to allow brush on latex to cure for making a mold so it never turned out (plus I had nothing to pour into it, that just seemed my MO - make a clay thing and then fail at trying to mold it without a clue how to proceed).

Then I figured out how to mix acrylic paints with rubber cement to shape and paint roughed out foam rubber - which resulted in a Star Trek Mego Horta that I sold here to a list member recently. I think that was a 16 year old custom.

[bleit1701]

Somewhere around 10 I turned Tarzan in to Green Lantern by sewing batman arms and legs on to a Green Arrow suit. Green marker for a mask. whiteout for eyes and white material wrapped around his hands for gloves. He looked like a burn victim he was GL to me.

[DocDrako]

the only time I ever did that was in the 80's when I switched parts on my small Gi joes

The same goes for me. Actually my cousin revealed the secret when he took out a small screwdriver and began taking them apart. I was amazed. I had never even considered taking the screws out and switching stuff around. Since then, I have always modified figures. Even the ones without screws. Just recently I have discovered the joy of using a Dremel tool to help me modify and customize Mego and Mego-like figures. I still suck at it, but it's easier to suck at it now.

[4NDR01D]

A little bit with the 3 3/4 Joes, then later I made masks for the LJN wrestlers, and added "blood" and scars to there foreheads. King Kong Bundy eventually turned into Abdullah the Butcher.

[saildog]

I tried to sew a red costume and mask to turn Supes into the Human Fly.

Epic fail.

Ultimately, all that mattered was I had an Evel Kneivel bike for him to sit on.

(I still love Human Fly. I know why he wasn't included in a Mego Line, but damn, I would have bought one had they made him.)