It's funny how the mind can sometimes work. Case in point: recently I had reason to think over a famous quote attributed to the late geneticist T. Dobszhansky; nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution. I had been working late on a paper and when I get tired, my brain starts making strange connections, and so I started to rearrange the phrase to suit other situations.

Eventually my mind landed upon: nothing in toys makes sense except in light of customizing. I started giggling to myself for several minutes, but when I was done, I suddenly realized how true it was for me. Toys mean so much more to me.. are so much more fun, when I have either made them myself or altered them in some way to suit my own play standards. Few things in this world make me happier than to spend an evening sitting at the sewing machine, or sculpting teeth into a mouth for a head that's but 1" from the tip of the chin to the crown of the skull.

I knew this had to be true for a number of other people, only they lacked the nerve or resources or instruction on where to get started. This is why I wrote the articles.

Except now, looking back a year later, I realize I may not have written these in the best sequence. As with C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles, the order in which these pieces should probably be finally presented is not necessarily the order in which they were published. I think I  may have ommitted too many beginning points... how to get started learning to sew, things like that.

My Mom taught me to sew when I was six because I was always wrecking my pants or knees or whatever. Consequently, I haven't spent as much time on the basics as I should have. But even there, many people are unwilling to start, or don't own a machine.

What I am trying to say is that I have forgotten the single most important dictum in any lesson you are trying to impart: that early successes breed subsequent motivation. And as I took stock of my body of work, I realized I had created very little for beginners to try out as candidates for early successes.

This may have been because inherently I avoid easy projects in favor of bigger ones...nevertheless, that attitude will change here, with this article. An article about "Easy Customs."

Ideally, I wanted to give a list of characters that could be made with all existing Mego parts, virtually no sewing, no sculpting and some painting skills. As I began to put this together in my head, I came to the conclusion that I would be leaving out far too many possibilties if I adhered strictly to these rules.

In addition, in order to write an article of "Easy Customs," I knew I actually needed some to fill it out. As very few in my collection could be termed, "easy," I knew that I would have to find a collaborater, someone who was predisposed to making these types of customs due to lack of sewing skills or any of a number of factors. This would likely be somone who had developed a set of ingenious skills wholly apart from own.

So I contacted Phil Nobile and he agreed to help with some ideas. Together we have amassed a fairly lengthy list of possibilities. Much longer in fact, than I had originally anticipated, and I think you'll be surprised at some of the names that appear below. Now neither Phil nor I (well maybe Phil does) claim to be omnicient, so I am sure there are perfectly brilliant "easy custom" ideas floating around out there that we hadn't thought of. So please, by all means, if you have a recipe, send it to me and I will include it in updates to this article.

Now obviously, I have included some customs that are more difficult than others, so I have arranged the selections into tiers of difficulty whose attributes are described below. I have further divided the list into WGSH and Monsters. Aside from a custom Chekov (made from a painted-over John Boy Walton head), we couldn't come up with any easy Star Trek customs. I have no shortage of Star Trek custom toys, simply none that I would classify as easy. Thus they were excluded from this list.

As I said above, I felt it would be unwise to limit myself solely to mego parts when there are a lot of available materials that could reasonably serve... and among them are things like the Famous Covers heads and LJN bodies. Likewise, I figured that things like Mego-style capes were so unintensive as far as sewing was concerned, that I could include making your own in this list for certain characters. At the end of my introduction here, you will see a pair of links directing you to short articles on converting a Famous Covers head to a Mego-compatible neck, and another short one on hand-sewing something like a cape with Mego-like material.

Anyway, the list is below along with the recipes, and where felt appropriate, some illustrations. Now some of these due to the cost of the materials will be harder to put together than others. We said they were "Easy," not inexpensive. Nevertheless, where possible, I have suggested cost-cutting measures such as which heads are availble in repro form from Dr. Mego etc...

But enough of words. Actions speak louder than. Action now.

Short articles:

To convert a FC head into mego Compatible: Go here.
 

To handsew a Mego-style cape out of nylon: Go here.
 
 

Difficulties:

Tier 1: Almost all existing Mego parts. No sewing (except maybe for snaps) required. Some painting required. Some body part swapping required possibly. (See article on restringing a body).

Tier 2: A number of Non-Mego parts, MINIMAL sculpting required, and more advanced painting skills. Some small sewing may be required.

Tier 3: A mix of Mego and Non-Mego parts, body swapping, beginner level sculpting abilities, some extensive handsewing may be required.
 

Worlds Greatest Super Heroes, Villians and Civilians:
 

1) BIZARRO (tier 1): Take a standard Superman suit and dye it in a dilute mixture of RIT deep purple (or marine blue) dye. Borrow the graphic of the insiginia seen here. Open it up in a graphics program such as Photoshop 5.0. Set the vertical height to no more than 1". Print out on a laser color printer using nice graphics stock. Cover with a layer of see-through packaging tape (this will serve as a laminate to give it a nice glossy look). Cut out and glue to front of suit using thin smear of Elmer's glue. Use Mad Monster Frankenstein head with bolts cut off by an X-acto blade. Use nail polish thinner to remove red scar.Then you're done! (see? I told you these were easy). If you wanna know what you're gonna do with that left-over Frankenstein suit, go down to...

2) SOLOMON GRUNDEY (tier 1): Regular type II body, Mad Monster Frankenstein suit with gold belt removed. Then place a Hulk head on the body and paint the face grey, the eyes black with yellow corneas and white hair. Done!

3) BRUCE BANNER (tier 1):  Galahad head (buy repro),  Yellow Bo Duke shirt, Swat  (LJN) pants dyed purple using RIT dye, Joker shoes (buy repro), Lizard lab coat, glasses (fold from paper clip wire). And, to top it off, a piece of green ribbon for the neck tie. Done!

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/pn02.shtml

4) DAREDEVIL (tier 2): This one is kind of in-between. Get a Famous Covers Daredevil and remove the head. Convert it to a Mego-compatible neck. Take a Shazam suit and use an X-Acto blade to remove the yellow belt and wrist bands. Re-seam the wrists using hand sewing techniques outlined in short article. Spiderman Body with red hands and Superman boots. If you want, you can buy a Famous Covers to Mego concverted head from Paul (Dr. Mego) Clarke. He has a good deal where if you buy a repro body, you get the head of your choice, all for just $25, which if you figure $10 for the head and $15 for the body is not a bad deal. The belt and billy club can be the FC version. "DD" insignia can come from the Famous Covers version (it comes off nicely if you soak the suit in water) or it can be cut out of black vinyl  (PVC) tape (found at your local hardware store). If you're wondering what to do with that left-over FC Daredevil suit, go down to Samaritan (#20).

5) MR. FREEZE (tier 1): WOZ Wizard body and head is the base body. Paint the head blue with white hair and eyebrows. Get your hands on an Action Jackson rescue squad suit and remove the AJ logo. You can use these boots, or, if you prefer, Chips boots reproed in Grey. For the oxygen tanks, get the Scuba-Swim Barbie suit, or the Barbie "Great Getaway Fun" multi pack. I've seen these at Meijer and Wal-Mart. Spray paint the oxygen tank Chrome color. (Don't use Testors! They suck!). Next, get one of those plastic trinket containers you see in every grocery store by the door. They sometimes contain little slimy things or toys or whatever. You want a medium size one. Try to get one with both a clear base and globe. Heat the plastic base under warm water to make the plastic soft, and then, very CAREFULLY, cut a round hole in the base that it just smaller than the width of a Mego neck. Fit the Wizard's head's neck through the hole and then attach it to the body so that the base is caught between the body and the base of the neck. Get it? Pop the globe on top, put on the Oxygen tanks (using, perhaps, self-adhesive velcro) and voila! As for a gun? The gun mine uses is a painted over one from the Batman The Animated Series line. It came with the Detective Batman. But any futuristic looking gun will do provided you paint it.

6) THE CREEPER (tier 1): Type II body repro'd in yellow (now's a good time to get that Daredevil head). Joker head repainted. Robin trunks (can be dyed darker green if you want) and Superman boots. Get a small chunk of Red Shag Faux Fur from your local fabric store and glue it to his back. Done! They don't get much easier than that.

7) DICK GRAYSON (tier 1): PM Robin head with mask removed by acetone and eyes repainted in (see illustration). Type I body. Potsie (Happy Days) clothes (for the letter-jacket, Gotham High look as in Phil's ). OR: Rookies (LJN) jacket, Hutch yellow shirt and blue jeans, white AJ sneakers (or Boss Hog shoes, reproable), and you have a less preppy look, and one that is miles better than Mego's anyway.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/pn02.shtml (Phil's)

8) PETER PARKER (tier 1) (2 kinds): Obviously you are going to use a Shazam head. Paint the hair Burnt Umber and the eyes blue. Phil suggested putting Peter Parker in the Spiderman suit with the mask off. Indeed, this is a time-honored image of old Petey since Toy Biz has made figures of this very look a few times.  My Peter Parker wears Hutch blue jeans and boots, and an LJN Rookies jacket and shirt. His Spider suit can fit beneath this. To make a Rubber Spiderman mask, see my Custom Answer Man column#1.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/mj33.shtml (mine)

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/pn02.shtml (Phil's)

9) CLARK KENT (tier 1): Superman head, Wizard of OZ black Jacket. Action Jackson  Spy pants or Rookies (LJN) pants dyed black. Penguin shoes (reproable), Clark Kent hat (reproable), and eye-glasses folded out of paper clips. An LJN Rookies white shirt and a piece of Red silk ribbon for the neck tie. Note: This same recipe, but using a repro Bruce Wayne head from Paul Clarke would conceivably work for this character as well.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/pn02.shtml

10) DR. DOOM (tier 1): Repro of FC Doom head with Mego neck from Paul Clarke, OR, convert the FC head over yourself using the article at the front of this list. Use the FC Cape and Tunic but with a Tin man body suit, and Boots and some of the armor. Then get Iron Man gloves repro'd in grey from Dr. Mego. Done!

11) BATMAN YEAR ONE (tier 1): Kid Biz Batman head and Cape and boots. Mego Batman body suit minus the logo. Lion Rock Soldiers brown pouched utility belt  with four pouches. Cut a bat symbol out of black adhesive vinyl tape and affix to chest.  Use "CHipS" hands for the Dark Knight. Finally, cut the wrist bands off of the Kid Biz Batman and slip around the wrist of the Mego Batman. Done! A much better Batman. Still has Mego charm but isn't goofy looking.

Kenn Ruel uses an idea similar to this.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/kr09.shtml

12) FLASH TOMPSON (tier 1):  [I included this one of Phil's because we are apparently both partial to civilians]. Galahad head (reproable) with Potsie (Happy Days) clothes. Paint the hair blonde.

13) J. JONAH JAMESON (tier 2):  Toy Biz 10" inch figure of Mr. Sinister. Believe it or not, it is quite in scale with Mego and are fairly plentiful in the bargain bins at Kay-Bee toys. Use an X-Acto knife to gouge out a small area above his upper lip. Make the crevice about 1/2 cm long and 1/2 cm wide. Kneed up a small amount of Miliput and press it into the crevice. Use a sewing needle to scrape some grooves into his moustache. Paint the hair dark black with the grey streaks on the side and the moustache black as well. Clothes: Hutch jeans dyed Grey, Penguin shoes (reproable), LJN white short sleeved shirt. And a chunk of red ribbon for a neck tie. In case I haven't mentioned it, the neck ties can be affixed with a small dab of Sewing glue. Use a fabric marker to draw some black stripes into the tie. Done.

14) DR. STRANGE (tier 3): The head is easy. Just use a Superman head and paint a small moustache above his upper lip and some pointy grey streaks in his hair. Next get Wyatt Earp's blue shirt. Remove the Star insignia. Very CAREFULLY use an exacto knife to slit the light blue thread that is sewn to the front of the shirt to give it that pattern. Remove the thread carefully. Now get some blue vinyl contact paper from the hardware store and cut the Dragon design out of it and affix to the front of the shirt. Get some repro lower arms and hands from Dr. Mego in yellow. Take some elastic thread and weave it around the wrists of the shirt in the manner shown in the illustration below. Tie the two free ends off. This will cause the sleaves to bunch up. To make the pants: Star Trek lower legs with the black boots, and  Klingon pants dyed black using RIT dye. Get some Red nylon fabric like the fabric used on Superman's cape. This should be easy to find at your local fabric store. While there, also pick up some "fray-guard" (this is a product which you squirt along the seams of a garment to prevent the fabric from fraying. It also goes by the names "no-fray," "fray-check," "seam-saver" among others. It dries clear and is quite handy). Cut the pattern of the Dr. Strange cape out of this and place a small amount of no-fray around each of the seams (see article). Get some yellow Ric-Rac (a wavy border piping that is used on the edge of garments or decorative items like pillows). You can glue this in place using fabric glue along the edges of the cape. The eye of amagaddo amulet can just be a fancy button which you sew to the front of Dr. Strange's shirt. Sew on a couple of mego snaps to the cape so that it will close at the neck. Finally paint some spots on Dr. Strange's forearms and voila! A very Mego-looking Dr. Strange.

15) RM ROBIN (tier 3): See article

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/mj02.shtml

In light of much recent evidence, it has become apparent that RM Robin came with both yellow sleeve/trunk versions as well as green sleeve/trunk versions. So the decision here is entirely yours. I still  say that the yellow version looks cooler. An easy source of Mego yellow fabric is the Hutch shirt of Starsky and Hutch or an old beat-up Iron Man suit.

16) SILVER SURFER (tier 1). note: while many of these recipes aren't necessarily the "best" ones for these characters, they are indeed the easiest. Case in point: Silver Surfer. Repro Thor head on type II body. Cut off the ears. Spray paint the whole thing Chrome color using hobby paints for plastic. I reiterate here: DON'T USE TESTORS BRAND. For some reason they suck for this kind of thing. The brand I use is called Hobbycraft and it works quite nicely. What? The surfboard? Oh yeah.... Um, y'know the one Toy Biz put out in the first assortement of the recent Surfer figures is actually quite in scale. You might want to spray your figure with a little sealant as well to keep the paint from flaking off.

17) SCARECROW (tier 2): To make this Batman villian, we are basically altering a WOZ Scarecrow figure in oder to make him scarier. Start by painting the hat dark brown. Next remove those silly green patches and cut off the bright yellow yarn fringes.  Place him on a body with mad monster glow hands. Next get a Hulk head (which we want b/c it is basically a flat, spherical compact head). Paint it entirely black. Get a piece of brown fabric similar to what his pants are made of, and using the intructions at the beginning of this article, sew a small bag to go over Hulk's head. Use a small scissors to cut holes for the mouth and eyes.

18) FLASH (tier 2-3): Get a FC head of Daredevil and convert it to fit a Mego or buy Paul Clarke's converted repro. Also buy a repro head of Kid Flash. Cut off the head wings with an X-acto blade and glue them to the side of the Daredevil head with contact cement. Paint them yellow. To make the suit, remove the belt and arms bands from a Shazam suit in the same fashion as with the custom Daredevil. The lightning bolt designs can be made from yellow contact paper and white contact paper and affixed directly to the fabric. Contact "paper" is, of course, a misnomer because contact paper is actually made of vinyl. Oh well. Cut the points off of the Shazam boots, get some Spidey hands and you're done.

19) THE SHADOW (tier 2): Scotty body and head (nice hook nose), LJN shirt with bowtie cut out of black ribbon and affixed with fabric glue, WOZ wizard jacket and AJ Spy pants dyed black. Ahi Dracula cape or simply make one yourself using black fabric and the article at the beginning of this article as a guide. Long piece of Red Silk Ribbon for the scarf. The hat can come from Michael's Arts and Crafts shop. They sell dollhouse doll hats, some of which can fit on Megos. One of them that does is this black felt-veneer hat that looks like it belongs on a Canadian Mountie. It can, however, be warped under warm water to get the slouched look of the Shadow's hat. The guns ironically enough can come from Kenner's Shadow figure which there are no shortages of at toy shows for cheap.

20) ASTRO CITY'S SAMARITAN (tier 2). FC Daredevil suit minus the underwear and the DD insignia. Spiderman hands. You might want to swap the arms with LJN muscular arms to more properly fill out the suit. The star-like design can come from white PVC tape or contact paper. Cut the cape out of purplish blue jersey from your fabric store. Use "no fray" at the edges. Glue one corner in place on the front of the suit using fabric glue, and the other corner on the edge of the left wrist. To make the medallions: Mine are just thumb tack tops cut off with an X-acto blade and glued in place with Contact Cement. I smoothed them down with sandpaper first. The head is just a repainted Captain Kirk.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/mj34.shtml (scroll to bottom of page)

21) BLACK-SUITED SPIDERMAN (tier 2). FC black suit Spidey. Cut off the gloves and fold in hem of wrists, securing the hem with a small dab of fabric glue. Lose the mask. Instead, get those new parachute flier figures from Toys R' Us that are currently on sale. These are a series of figures with parachutes attached so they can fly. Among the line are the WCW's Sting, Darth Vader and Spidey. The head is soft just like Mego's and is perfectly in scale. Paint it black with white eyes. Flesh out the standard Mego body with some LJN arms to fill out the suit. Get some ChiPs hands, and you're done!

MONSTERS:

1) KARLOFF FRANKENSTEIN (tier 1): Mad Monster Frankenstein suit. Sideshow toys Frankie head, converted to a mego compatible neck. If you want a greener shirt, cut the grey out of the Mad Monster Jacket, get a Hutch yellow shirt and dye it green.

2) PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (tier 2): Get a Phantom of the Opera from one of the Aurora re-issue model kits put out by Monogram or Polar Lights (a division of playing mantis). Or, if you prefer, get the Phantom when Sideshow toys comes out with him in July. Then convert the head to be Mego compatible. AJ black spy pants and Penguin shoes (reproable). Mad Monster body. Mad Monster Dracula cape. The suit top on mine is the EPT Dracula suit with the sleeve length artificially extended with a strip of black cloth secured in place with fabric glue. It is meant to look like an ornamental cuff. Believe it or not, this suit looks better on an 8-inch phantom than a 7" Dracula. (despite what Calvin Weaver says!)

3) KARLOFF MUMMY (tier 2): Mad Monster body. Get the Mummy head from the recent line of Sideshow toys and convert it to be Mego compatible as per article. Get your self about a 1/2 yard of some standard tan cotton jersey. Soak it in a relatively strong mixture of Bleach and water for about an hour. Rinse the fabric, wring out and blow dry it. The Bleach and hot-air drying will help deteriorate the fabric. Now cut it into long strips about 1/4" wide. Start at the left foot and glue one strip in place with contact cement. Now start wrapping the bandages around the figure's left leg, going up toward the pelvis. Every time you make a complete pass around the leg, secure the bandage in place to the previous wrap-around with some fabric glue. Work slowly on this. Once you have finished one leg, cut off the excess, glue the free end in place and save the extra for later. Proceed to the other leg. Then do the pelvis and lower torso. Finally do the arms and upper torso. For the best look, the wrap should be done in that order.  Finally, mix up a dilute sludge or gray water using about a teaspoon of black acrylic paint in about 1/3 water. Test paint it on to the left over fabric to see if it is the desired shade of gray. Paint this onto the fabric generously, allowing it to soak into every crevice. Finally dab the figure with a paper napkin to soak up the extra water. Then turn the hair dryer on low on the figure for about 15-20 minutes. When you are done, you will have a very rockin' Mummy. The best part about these Sideshow kits is that they come with little diorama's and accessories that add to the play. They can be found at TRU, FAO Shwarts, Target (though I think most are sold out), Suncoast Video and Spencer's gifts.
 
4) THE WOLF MAN (LON CHANEY JR.) (tier 2) See image in Customego. To make the shirt and pants, just use Hutch pants. The shirt can be from LJN blue 'Swat' or 'Emergency!' shirt.

http://www.toymania.com/megomuseum/custom/mj33.shtml

Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

5) MICHAEL MYERS (tier 1 and 2): 1st way: Standard type I or II body. POTA astronaut jumpsuit. Captain Kirk Head. Glue some Orange shag fur to the top of the head. Paint the face white and the eyes black. 2nd way: If you want to make the mask removable, follow my short instructional on making latex masks for figures. It appeared in the first Answer Man column back in January. As for the head underneath? I always thought Mego Starskey looked kinda like Michael Myers when he was unmasked at the end of Halloween.
 

6) JASON FROM FRIDAY 13TH, PART II (tier 1). Type II body. POTA astronaut jumpsuit. Make a little bag for his head in much the same way as Scarecrow's and cut out the eyes. The head underneath? Well, that up to you. The weapons can come form the recent McFarlane toys line of Movie monsters.

That's it. I hope this inspires a few people. If so,  send me some pictures of your work, I'd love to see it.

Matt