Black Manta Re-Build... Image Heavy

[Blackkryptonite]

As many of you know ole Black Manta was one of my first original heads and one of my first custom figures ever, and believe it or not I knew from the beginning that I would probably be re-visiting some of my early figures in the future. Call it being a perfectionist, call being anal retentive or just call it not having a life. At any rate I wanted to re-build him and trick him out as much as I could possibly do so a few weeks ago I started making plans in my head and figuring out just what I was going to do. I didn't just want to repaint the head and upgrade the bodysuit with a years worth of sewing behind me so I decided to add a few things to the character from my own imagination and let me just say I couldn't be happier with the results.

Enjoy!

[fallensaviour]

He looks amazing!!!I'm glad you decided to give him another go as your skills have greatly improved.Most impressive.

[Cosmicman]

Dude that is sweet!

[Megospidey]

Fantastic Manta Fred!

Is that your custom body? The legs don't look as "beefy" as the legs you've shown before.

Just a great looking custom bro! Kudos!

[jemboy2004]

Here is a figure I feel I really need a custom of. Yours is really awesome. I never did see it the first time. I really love this Black Manta. My favorite character from the Challenge of the Super Friends show done right.

[batmanmc]

he is done great here. wish mego would have made him. mike

[Meule]

That looks fantastic Fred, I really like those tubes and his staff, friggin awesome

[thunderbolt]

great job, Fred. Care to share where the staff and tubes came from? Now I wanna redo mine.

[Dave Mc]

Simply EXCELLENT!

[EMCE Hammer]

Wow - super clean Fred!!! Recipe?!?!?!?

[Earth 2 Chris]

I can hear Ted Cassidy's electronic voice right now! Awesome detail! Love the new wires to the helmet!

Chris

[mikeoz]

Really nice work. Your Black Manta is very accurate and still Mego-like.

[aquatroy]

That's very nice. Considering how much crap Aquaman & supporting cast take, it amazes me how many people do customs of them.

[Blackkryptonite]

Awww shucks, I tell you what you guys are just about the nicest people on earth when it comes to giving props for the work we all do here. I really had a lot of fun doing this one over and like many of you for some strange reason i really love this character. I planned how i was going to do him for a pretty long time in my head so let's see if i can answer everybody's questions with the recipe below.

-Black Body Suit - Me
-Staff - Black painted paint brush handle with random pointy thing from fodder box.
-LJN resin copies
-custom resin hands - me
-black and silver leather accents
-black paint and silver dry brushing on head and tank
-Type 2 legs with my boot feet
-my heroic pelvis (I know that's a dumb name)
-Remco torso rotocast copy
-Helmet to tank wires are from the fodder box. I think they came off a McFarlane Mange Freak figure, sprayed with black plasti-dip so they could keep flexing and then dry brushed with silver.
-The head is a resin copy of my original Manta head but I recast the head and neck separate and modified so the head sits on top of the neck and can rotate in all directions. The neck is like a half circle on top and the bottom of the head reflects the opposite of that. There is a hole drilled through the neck that allows elastic to run through it and attach to the bottom of the head which holds it all in place. I've thought about this design for a long time and now that I see it works I plan on doing more like that. This way you can still use a standard Mego neck hole and plug but get more articulation from the head.

Well i think that's about it and i hope I've answered all your questions but if not please feel free to PM me or post again and i'd be happy to answer anything you have.

Thanks again for the great word, all!

[DocDrako]

Cool! I don't know much about the character, but I know what I like and this custom RoCkS! Toy companies need to make stuff like this. If I saw this in the store, regardless of my unfamiliarity with the character, I'd buy it on it's coolness factor alone. Great job!