**WWE Mattel Retro Custom & Fix-up Pic Thread**

[hulkjoegan]

Jul 14, 2020 5:58:19 GMT -5 showbizpizzabear81 said:

Jul 13, 2020 15:00:11 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

Thanks for the tips mate, really appreciate you taking the time.

That’s interesting to hear, as I’ve been reluctant to paint any heads for fear of ruining them. But I’ve also been reluctant to paint body’s for fear of them looking terrible - as I’ve seen some awful looking ones.
But yours always look great, so I guess I’m getting help from the right place! 😂

So the key is using primer and adding water to the paint?
I have a white spray primer, I think it might be humbrol - do you think that’ll be ok?

I was looking back through the thread and saw that your artwork for Harley also had the clothesline action - i hadn’t recalled seeing that. So which parts would you have used?

Yeah. I use a brush on primer to avoid drips or spraying errors. Also, make a good amount of your flesh paint mixture and put it in a small container with a cap on it. Then you could reapply coats a day at a time. I like to let the first one totally dry to avoid pulling the layer up with my brush. I want to say I either used the Razor legs like you. Now I'm getting motivated. I'm waiting to spot a cheap Harley on Ebay. Right now, he'd cost me $34. Seems like all of his figures are expensive!

Thanks again for the tips. I feel like it’s always when I get to the painting phase that my customs stall, just difficult to have focused time for it with a toddler!
But yeah, prices for any legends figures seem crazy right now - I’m lucky that I managed to get slot of the guys I wanted from the Jakks classic line when I first found out about retro customs. But to be honest they still weren’t cheap then!
I actually just picked up a singles Barbarian today, so might have to copy your retro version of him 😂
Although I kind of prefer the idea of making him as a hasbro now...since I’ve started playing around with the hasbros I actually feel like there’s far more options using them.

[hulkjoegan]

Hey. Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

So today I finally got time to have a play around with an idea that I’ve had for a custom for quite a while - but had been reluctant to start because of the amount of work involved.
Still a fair bit of work involved, but I’m so pleased with how it’s going so far (and that I’ve managed to keep the mechanism/action working) that I just had to share.

So here’s my WWF Hasbro custom wip of Rugged Ronnie Garvin, with Garvin Stomp:

[showbizpizzabear81]

Jul 19, 2020 10:24:09 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

Hey. Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

So today I finally got time to have a play around with an idea that I’ve had for a custom for quite a while - but had been reluctant to start because of the amount of work involved.
Still a fair bit of work involved, but I’m so pleased with how it’s going so far (and that I’ve managed to keep the mechanism/action working) that I just had to share.

So here’s my WWF Hasbro custom wip of Rugged Ronnie Garvin, with Garvin Stomp:

WOW. Well done so far! I'm glad you went with the leg swap over sanding the Butch ones down. Now, I'd get some very fine sand paper and continue to work on the torso. Then, trust me on this...buff it by hand to smooth it out as much as you can before applying primer. Where did you find the Garvin head?

[hulkjoegan]

Jul 23, 2020 5:45:51 GMT -5 showbizpizzabear81 said:

Jul 19, 2020 10:24:09 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

Hey. Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

So today I finally got time to have a play around with an idea that I’ve had for a custom for quite a while - but had been reluctant to start because of the amount of work involved.
Still a fair bit of work involved, but I’m so pleased with how it’s going so far (and that I’ve managed to keep the mechanism/action working) that I just had to share.

So here’s my WWF Hasbro custom wip of Rugged Ronnie Garvin, with Garvin Stomp:

WOW. Well done so far! I'm glad you went with the leg swap over sanding the Butch ones down. Now, I'd get some very fine sand paper and continue to work on the torso. Then, trust me on this...buff it by hand to smooth it out as much as you can before applying primer. Where did you find the Garvin head?

Cheers mate, it’s down to people like you who have given me inspiration & motivation to get started!
I’m going to mould the joints on the legs a bit better, as I cut one a bit shorter & had to use a washer, and the legs are slightly wider than butch’s. And obviously try to get the body nice & smooth as you said.
And then hopefully not ruin the paint job.
The head is from Warsman. Check him out, and prepare to say goodbye to ALL of your money 😂

[hulkjoegan]

Here’s a few of my latest customs and works in progress.

First up, Jim The Anvil Neidhart.
A very simple/ lazy custom. But does the job.
Still need to do some touch ups though.

[hulkjoegan]

The Dynamite Kid

[hulkjoegan]

Bad News Brown

Still might reshape left hand & add wrist tape. And really need to get rid of the elbow pads too.

[hulkjoegan]

Dangerous Danny Davis

Bought the Matt Hardy elite today solely for this head.
Want to have him as a ref and a wrestler. So will probably go with painting his body & arms white, but just leave his legs all black rather than striped. Then try to make a long sleeved ref shirt.

[hulkjoegan]

Some early WIPs...

[hulkjoegan]

The man who pats himself on the back before each match, Barry Horowitz.
Pretty pleased with how this is coming along 😂

[freaqualizer]

Wow! Can you give any detail on how you reshaped the hands? Great job!

[showbizpizzabear81]

Jul 27, 2020 12:51:45 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

The Dynamite Kid

Wow! That Dynamite looks like a million bucks! Do you have anything beside glue to reinforce the Retro torso to the Hasbro DBS legs?

[showbizpizzabear81]

Jul 27, 2020 12:50:27 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

Here’s a few of my latest customs and works in progress.

First up, Jim The Anvil Neidhart.
A very simple/ lazy custom. But does the job.
Still need to do some touch ups though.

I ALWAYS think of a way to create customs as simply as possible. It helps them look more legit and you avoid giving them that custom paint shop look. The duller pink Anvil matches a Bret I made as a Hart Foundation pair.

[hulkjoegan]

Jul 30, 2020 12:46:27 GMT -5 freaqualizer said:

Wow! Can you give any detail on how you reshaped the hands? Great job!

Thanks!
Just pop them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, reshape them to how you want them & then run them under cold water for a few minutes.
It’s taken a few attempts on some of them, as they can have a tendency to want to warp back to their original place!

[hulkjoegan]

Jul 31, 2020 10:50:35 GMT -5 showbizpizzabear81 said:

Jul 27, 2020 12:50:27 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

Here’s a few of my latest customs and works in progress.

First up, Jim The Anvil Neidhart.
A very simple/ lazy custom. But does the job.
Still need to do some touch ups though.

I ALWAYS think of a way to create customs as simply as possible. It helps them look more legit and you avoid giving them that custom paint shop look. The duller pink Anvil matches a Bret I made as a Hart Foundation pair.

Nice work, love both of your anvils - I think that’s just the kind of paint mods/touch ups I need to do with mine. Looks great.

I had wanted to do one with the clothesline action (like the hasbro drawings), but this was so much easier! Maybe I’ll do it some time later...

[hulkjoegan]

Jul 31, 2020 10:43:55 GMT -5 showbizpizzabear81 said:

Jul 27, 2020 12:51:45 GMT -5 hulkjoegan said:

The Dynamite Kid

Wow! That Dynamite looks like a million bucks! Do you have anything beside glue to reinforce the Retro torso to the Hasbro DBS legs?

Yeah, it was a little bit of work but not too bad.
I had a retro Goldberg that I had taken apart to maybe swap some arms out.
But there is a rim inside the Goldberg torso that can fit around a peg from a retro or hasbro torso.
The only problem was it caused the torso to sit too low on the bulldog legs, so most of the crotch/butt area was covered.
So I put a screw into the centre of the peg in the bulldog legs, with a plastic packer at the head of the screw and them a couple of them at the base, effectively extending the existing peg, with a little gap between them for the torso rim to slip between so that it’s held snuggly in place.
Took a bit of trial & error to get it at just the right height I wanted, as having the whole of the Union Jack on his butt showing caused him to be a bit too tall (as the retros aren’t really to hasbro scale & are a bit bigger) and didn’t want him taller than Davey Boy.
But once it was where I wanted it I glued the torso back together and so now it still has a bit of swivel at the waist.

I hope that makes sense, I wished I’d taken a picture of what I did to have as a reference but too late now.
If it’d help I can do a drawing to show exactly what I did...let me know if that would be helpful.

Have you got anything else on the chopping board?

Also, if anyone is interested, I’ve set up an Instagram page to show my progress as I start out on this fun journey into customs - you can check it out at TektonCustoms if you’re on there.

[hulkjoegan]

This is Dynamite with Davey Boy for comparison:

[jimfriend]

I guess this belongs here.

[freaqualizer]

Holy crap! That’s awesome! Great job.

[cmpunkguy]

I finally got around to doing the tattoos on my Ministry of Darkness Undertaker


And with his Ministry robe