Building a better body for THE PENGUIN!!!

[darklord1967]

As I completed the “arm transplant” operations on this torso, I simultaneously worked to fabricate an acceptable working pelvis for this big boy.

I began (once again) with a resin casting of a MEGO fat-man body, and I cut the bottom half off into a separate pelvis piece.






Of course (as MY luck would have it) the makeshift MEGO pelvis turned out to be too small (not wide enough AND not deep enough) to adequately mate with the Jakks Pacific Umaga torso.




This meant only one thing: More surgery.

I cut the resin MEGO pelvis piece in half (up the middle), and then used thick sheets of styrene as a spacer / separator to give the part an appropriate width.
Modeling filler putty was employed to smooth out the resulting crotch seam.





Now that the pelvis was wide enough, I next had to make it deep enough for the correct anatomical proportion.

Using a second MEGO fat-body resin casting, I cut out the buttocks and grafted them directly onto the modified pelvis assembly.

















Some more modeling putty between the seams, and this pelvis was now properly sized.

[sauce]

Man, you're some kind of wild genius!!!!!!

[darklord1967]

I mated some Colin Delaney arms (complete with inner ball-joint shoulder assembly) to the shoulder sockets of a MEGO fat man torso (resin casting provided by my very good friend Fred Goodspeed). I used a resin casting of a MEGO torso and NOT an original one because I knew there would be a LOT of glue work involved in this operation. And (as I said before) with very few exceptions, original vintage MEGO parts simply do not accept glue, nor bond to other plastics.

I cut a square-shaped section out of the Umaga torso’s shoulder, and then glue attached my specially-prepared MEGO resin-cast shoulder / Colin Delaney arms assemblies.










A bit weird-looking , I know, but I was confident that I could finesse it all into something that looked seamless and correct.


After a LOT of grinding, filing, putty-work and sanding, I finally came up with a pretty decent UMAGA torso that was seamlessly converted for MEGO-scaled compatibility. I spent the next several days shaving down the Colin Delaney arms to an appropriate contour for this body, and then sanded them perfectly smooth.








I purposely wanted The Penguin’s arms to seem a bit stubby so that his enormous tummy would be emphasized. These proportions would make him seem comical and un-threatening… and easily underestimated.

In the end, I adapted MEGO Our Gang hands as a finishing touch to imply the character’s borderline child-like physical proportions.

[darklord1967]

“DR. ROBERTO, PLEASE REPORT TO SURGERY”

I’ll spare everyone, the gruesome details of the arms, legs, and pelvis amputation of the Jakks Paciffic figure. Being the “tough guy” Samoan that he was, Umaga insisted on no anesthesia or knockout gas during the operation. There was a LOT of screaming and thrashing. He finally stopped all the shrieking and cursing when I unceremoniously removed his head. Not for the faint of heart.

Let’s move on.

I knew I wanted smaller non-muscular arms for my custom figure. And they had to be configured for ball-jointed shoulder articulation so that I could have the range of motion I hoped for.

Vintage MEGO arms are NOT ball-jointed. No help there.
Jakks Paciffic Wrestler arms are ALL ball-jointed, and they ALL have a mid-bicep swivel, but they are also ALL steroid-pumped and overly muscular… ALL, that is, except for one wrestler: His name is Colin Delaney.





Even with these reasonably slender ball-jointed arms, there was still too much musculature to work well with a flabby character like The Penguin. But, I quickly recognized that with some re-sculpt finessing, these arms could still be salvaged.
In addition, the character’s wrist bands were actually sculpted as part of his hands. This was a good thing since it meant that once I popped out the hands, the forearm sections would be slightly shorter than usual. This would be perfect for The Penguin’s stubby proportions.

[darklord1967]

Edward Fatu (better known as the professional wrestler “Umaga”) stands 6’ 4” tall. The Jakks Pacific figure bearing his likeness is created with his anatomical (tall man) proportions (long arms and legs)

The Penguin’s height, depending on the source, is listed between 5’ 1” and 5’ 3”, with arms and legs appropriately proportioned for someone of his squat stature.

The Umaga figure (like all JP wrestler characters), featured ball-jointed shoulders that allowed for a much greater range of posing than a standard vintage MEGO. This was something that I really wanted to take advantage of. Unfortunately, he was also sculpted with HUGE, bulging, steroid-pumped arms that were not at all appropriate for the rotund, elf-like villain of Gotham City. I simply could not imagine The Penguin’s biceps bulging through his tuxedo jacket as if he were transforming into the Incredible Hulk or something.






Umaga’s enormous legs and feet were a problem too. They would have to be eliminated and replaced altogether if my custom Penguin were to fit into his new pants, and if he were to wear shoes that were sized in the MEGO scale.








The logical choice for smaller replacement limbs for this figure would likely come from the world of MEGO (or a scale-compatible toy line). This meant that Umaga’s big shoulder sockets would have to be tailored to fit smaller arms, and his swivel pelvis would have to replaced altogether with a new pelvis that could accept custom-sized legs closer to the MEGO scale.

It quickly looked as if Jakks Paciffic Umaga was going to donate his (beautifully sculpted) fat-man torso, and not much else.

Time to get to work.

[darklord1967]

Thanks for the very nice words of encouragement guys!

Evidently, I was not the only one who was really pining for a better MEGO-scaled “fat-man” body.

A few of you have sent Private messages asking about specific details about the construction of this custom Fat-Man body.

Well, like the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Fortunately, I documented most of this project in photos. And I believe they will go a long way in illustrating the answers to some of the questions I have been asked.


THANK GOD FOR JAKKS PACIFIC!

For the last few years now, I’ve seen some really BEAUTFUL custom MEGO action figures made with Jakk’s Pacific wrestling characters’ body parts. I mean some of these figures are GORGEOUS!!! They feature more accurate anatomy, greater poseability, and overall better function and looks.

So as a customizer myself, you’d think that it might actually have occurred to me to search among this rich source of body parts to improve my own custom MEGO characters, right?. Duhhhh!!!! Nope!

For some odd reason, I had a bit of a mental block when it came to Jakks Pacific Wrestling figures, and I pretty much only looked to vintage MEGO body parts to create my customs. I wasn’t intentionally being a MEGO “purist” or anything, you understand. It was just the way I approached customizing. This, of course, was a VERY limiting way to work... especially when you consider that vintage MEGO body parts can’t even really be kit-bashed successfully since the plastic used to make them doesn’t accept glue too well.

Fortunately, I had a major psychological MEGO breakthrough, one day, while browsing through the aisles of my local Toys R Us.

The action figure of the obese Samoan wrestler “Umaga” was of particular interest when I realized the possibilities for creating a much more anatomically correct and poseable fat-man body for the upgrade of my custom MEGO Penguin!

Of course, this operation would not be without some… MAJOR adjustments:

[SUP-Ronin]

Thats a great improvement. Lots of detail. Nice.

[The Bat]

Lookin' good Roberto!!

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

What an entertaining thread...thank you. He looks awesome...well done!

[ctc]

HAW!

THAT is a BEAUTIFUL piece of engineering! Brilliant reworking of the fat guy body! And the head is surprisingly iconic for the character, considering who you used for the base!

Don C.

[Meule]

Oh wow, I'm very impressed. The sculpt and body look excellent

[thunderbolt]

Excellent work on the body and head. I've been thinking the same thing looking at the fat Jakks body.

[BlackKnight]

Nice stuff Roberto.
I love the Boss Hog as Penguin... Good eye Bud.

[bobws]

Wonderful work and a nice tutorial to boot!

[jessica]

Beautifully executed. Can't wait to see how he looks clothed. Wayyyy better than what Mego did.