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My Mostly Castaway Toys Customs
Greetings, I’m Jacob and I’d like to share some of my 1:9 scale customs. 
But first, a little bit about me as it relates to toys. I never owned any Mego toys as a child except for the Eagle Force line. I grew up obsessed with Star Wars figures. When I was a child I remember owning a couple 12” SW figures in the late 70s and early 80s but the smaller scale ones were what I had the most of until G.I. Joe A.R.A.H. came around. Sure I had wrestling toys,
M.U.S.C.L.E., Masters of the Universe, Transformers, but while my folks provided well for me we weren’t rich so I didn’t have everything. I was quite content and I had a lot of playmates who had what I didn’t and then some. I turned most of my attention to G.I. Joe after ALL of my Star Wars figures were stolen at elementary school. 
I still own my childhood GI Joe A Real American Hero toys to this day! Sadly, those are the only toys that made it.
When Todd McFarlane’s toys came onto the scene I appreciated them right away, but it wasn’t until several waves later when I actually bought a couple. Like most hobbyist I used to own more than what I had and I sold off most of my Todd Toys except some of anime and comic book related ones like Sin City and Dawn. Because I was entrenched in the comic book industry I paid close attention to his personality, brand, and quality. I don’t think I bothered with too many other types of toys until Star Wars Episode 1 came around and I picked up a 12” Qui-Gon Jinn at Target when he was on clearance. I collected every Hasbro 12” SW from then on using eBay to buy the older released figures. The toy bug hit me in a big way because suddenly I was buying more toys than ever before: I supported Hasbro’s initial return to GI Joe: A Real American Hero, Tron’s retro release by Neca, Resaurus toys’ Bone and Speed Racer, Mattel’s retro He-Man figures, Hasbro’s DC line (small and large) and 12”
POTA, Mattel’s DCU, Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends, various DC Direct lines, and several Sideshow lines: James Bond, Dark Crystal, and Get Smart.
Fast forward to 2009 and what with the emergence of Star Trek coming back I got into the re-Mego (retro cloth) when I got Emce figures from Blockbuster and Suncoast. This was bound to happen as I had bought EVERY Playmates 12” Star Trek figure old and new. I bought the entire Emce Star Trek and Ape line and then bought my first Phantom from Castaway after that. At this point, I probably own over a half dozen purple Phantoms and one grey one and I’d like to think I’m Castaway Toys number one fan and I got my start somewhat customizing via their brand. I started buying the Mattel retro action figures a bit late. I bought Green Arrow when Matty offered him the second time around and then after that the next time I bought a re-Mego was when the Mattel retro action figures showed up at TJ Maxx during the holiday season.
So long story short I tend to start up on toy lines when they’re on clearance.
My CATs (http://store.castawaytoys.com/) mostly on retro action figures and a couple other custom-types.
Here’s my Superman. When I dressed up Superman he was the first Mego head I ever owned. He’s on a Castaway body. I bought the suit, boots, and belt from CATs too. The costume is Castaway and I got the Superman symbol sticker’s from Paul AKA Lasermego.com (http://megomuseum.com/community/showthread.php?t=54732 .)
The fabric, like always for me, is from my nearby Hancock’s fabric. And I used the cape patterns hosted at the Mego Museum.
My Creature from the Black Lagoon, on a Castaway green body: The bib helps hide how the chest stretched the fabric to the max. I love the design of the CFTBL suit, bib and all!
without camera flash:
I won an eBay auction for 4 Mego figures. This included Batman, Penguin, Captain America, & Shazam (Captain Marvel.) All but Penguin and Captain Marvel needed paint jobs. I found myself really marveling at the sculpture of the Mego heads in their primer state. It’s such a shame, I thought, as I am about to butcher these cool looking statue heads. I found I could appreciate Batman a lot more when he wasn’t in color; same with Captain America—even if the wings on the side of his head are completely different from one another. Here’s the eBay seller’s pic:
Previously, I bought a Mego Batman head with trashed Robin costume parts along with a Captain Marvel head—however I unfortunately discovered the head was gray and I wanted to win the auction mostly for Shazam not Batman. So I got a spare Batman and Shazam head and I figured since my girls love the Megos they could have their own. Here are some examples of what became of those after some oxy cleaning.
Captain America will eventually be on this type 1 body. His head isn’t painted yet and later on I’ll buy the patriot boots and gloves from Castaway. The costume is sewn and will look good after I restring the body and get another wrist to pop into the left arm. Anyone have a spare?
My Penguin just needs a tux and Dr. Mego umbrella:
My children got to pick whatever Mego body they wanted of the 3 types I had: type 1, type 2 and type 3. My 10-year old wanted Batman on a type 3 body so I offered her either the spare Castaway black boots or the CVTV blue boots. She chose the black boots “because the material is better, Dad” and she was pretty adamant about not wanting eyes painted in the white slits of the cowl. So we went with a Dark Knight version and I’ll get her black oven mitts and a real belt as the one shown in the picture is made from Styrofoam. I'll make my Batman Blue and gray at a later date. My other daughter selected a type 2 body for her Shazam and I explained upfront how her toy would squint and look different from mine. The picture of Captain Marvel/Shazam below is mine while the next two pictures are of her Shazam.
(no camera flash)
As I am currently without wave 4 of Mattel’s retro action series I went ahead and put together a Black Adam. All I did was black the hair on a CVTV JJ (Michael Dukakis) head and make the hair line pointed in the center.
Next I made a Bruce Wayne figure, but he looks too much like he belongs to the Rat Pack.
After that, it was high time to give The Phantom a villain—remember Achmed?—so I built mine from parts between CATs and CVTV.
Finally, I wanted to make a Reverse Flash and I had enough parts to make a second Flash so I went ahead and did that. I haven’t decided which Flash is which. Maybe my custom Flash is Barry while the Mattel figure is Wally.
Thanks so much for looking at the pictures of my pseudo-customs. I know whenever I look at threads that have pictures hosted via Photobucket I have to wait to do that at home and or make a note about it because my work blocks Photobucket imagery all together no matter if I’m using a computer in the break room or whatever.
But first, a little bit about me as it relates to toys. I never owned any Mego toys as a child except for the Eagle Force line. I grew up obsessed with Star Wars figures. When I was a child I remember owning a couple 12” SW figures in the late 70s and early 80s but the smaller scale ones were what I had the most of until G.I. Joe A.R.A.H. came around. Sure I had wrestling toys,
M.U.S.C.L.E., Masters of the Universe, Transformers, but while my folks provided well for me we weren’t rich so I didn’t have everything. I was quite content and I had a lot of playmates who had what I didn’t and then some. I turned most of my attention to G.I. Joe after ALL of my Star Wars figures were stolen at elementary school. I still own my childhood GI Joe A Real American Hero toys to this day! Sadly, those are the only toys that made it. When Todd McFarlane’s toys came onto the scene I appreciated them right away, but it wasn’t until several waves later when I actually bought a couple. Like most hobbyist I used to own more than what I had and I sold off most of my Todd Toys except some of anime and comic book related ones like Sin City and Dawn. Because I was entrenched in the comic book industry I paid close attention to his personality, brand, and quality. I don’t think I bothered with too many other types of toys until Star Wars Episode 1 came around and I picked up a 12” Qui-Gon Jinn at Target when he was on clearance. I collected every Hasbro 12” SW from then on using eBay to buy the older released figures. The toy bug hit me in a big way because suddenly I was buying more toys than ever before: I supported Hasbro’s initial return to GI Joe: A Real American Hero, Tron’s retro release by Neca, Resaurus toys’ Bone and Speed Racer, Mattel’s retro He-Man figures, Hasbro’s DC line (small and large) and 12”
POTA, Mattel’s DCU, Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends, various DC Direct lines, and several Sideshow lines: James Bond, Dark Crystal, and Get Smart.Fast forward to 2009 and what with the emergence of Star Trek coming back I got into the re-Mego (retro cloth) when I got Emce figures from Blockbuster and Suncoast. This was bound to happen as I had bought EVERY Playmates 12” Star Trek figure old and new. I bought the entire Emce Star Trek and Ape
line and then bought my first Phantom from Castaway after that. At this point, I probably own over a half dozen purple Phantoms and one grey one and I’d like to think I’m Castaway Toys number one fan and I got my start somewhat customizing via their brand. I started buying the Mattel retro action figures a bit late. I bought Green Arrow when Matty offered him the second time around and then after that the next time I bought a re-Mego was when the Mattel retro action figures showed up at TJ Maxx during the holiday season. So long story short I tend to start up on toy lines when they’re on clearance.
My CATs (http://store.castawaytoys.com/) mostly on retro action figures and a couple other custom-types.
Here’s my Superman. When I dressed up Superman he was the first Mego head I ever owned. He’s on a Castaway body. I bought the suit, boots, and belt from CATs too. The costume is Castaway and I got the Superman symbol sticker’s from Paul AKA Lasermego.com (http://megomuseum.com/community/showthread.php?t=54732 .)
The fabric, like always for me, is from my nearby Hancock’s fabric. And I used the cape patterns hosted at the Mego Museum.
My Creature from the Black Lagoon, on a Castaway green body: The bib helps hide how the chest stretched the fabric to the max. I love the design of the CFTBL suit, bib and all!
without camera flash:
I won an eBay auction for 4 Mego figures. This included Batman, Penguin, Captain America, & Shazam (Captain Marvel.) All but Penguin and Captain Marvel needed paint jobs. I found myself really marveling at the sculpture of the Mego heads in their primer state. It’s such a shame, I thought, as I am about to butcher these cool looking statue heads. I found I could appreciate Batman a lot more when he wasn’t in color; same with Captain America—even if the wings on the side of his head are completely different from one another. Here’s the eBay seller’s pic:
Previously, I bought a Mego Batman head with trashed Robin costume parts along with a Captain Marvel head—however I unfortunately discovered the head was gray and I wanted to win the auction mostly for Shazam not Batman. So I got a spare Batman and Shazam head and I figured since my girls love the Megos they could have their own. Here are some examples of what became of those after some oxy cleaning.
Captain America will eventually be on this type 1 body. His head isn’t painted yet and later on I’ll buy the patriot boots and gloves from Castaway. The costume is sewn and will look good after I restring the body and get another wrist to pop into the left arm. Anyone have a spare?
My Penguin just needs a tux and Dr. Mego umbrella:
My children got to pick whatever Mego body they wanted of the 3 types I had: type 1, type 2 and type 3. My 10-year old wanted Batman on a type 3 body so I offered her either the spare Castaway black boots or the CVTV blue boots. She chose the black boots “because the material is better, Dad” and she was pretty adamant about not wanting eyes painted in the white slits of the cowl. So we went with a Dark Knight version and I’ll get her black oven mitts and a real belt as the one shown in the picture is made from Styrofoam. I'll make my Batman Blue and gray at a later date. My other daughter selected a type 2 body for her Shazam and I explained upfront how her toy would squint and look different from mine. The picture of Captain Marvel/Shazam below is mine while the next two pictures are of her Shazam.
(no camera flash)
As I am currently without wave 4 of Mattel’s retro action series I went ahead and put together a Black Adam. All I did was black the hair on a CVTV JJ (Michael Dukakis) head and make the hair line pointed in the center.
Next I made a Bruce Wayne figure, but he looks too much like he belongs to the Rat Pack.
After that, it was high time to give The Phantom a villain—remember Achmed?—so I built mine from parts between CATs and CVTV.
Finally, I wanted to make a Reverse Flash and I had enough parts to make a second Flash so I went ahead and did that. I haven’t decided which Flash is which. Maybe my custom Flash is Barry while the Mattel figure is Wally.
Thanks so much for looking at the pictures of my pseudo-customs. I know whenever I look at threads that have pictures hosted via Photobucket I have to wait to do that at home and or make a note about it because my work blocks Photobucket imagery all together no matter if I’m using a computer in the break room or whatever.
And a hell of a nice guy, too. 
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