My GI Joe Customs: A Boring Introduction
I first delved into creating custom Joes in the fall of 1995. The toy and comic lines were effectively dead, the resurgence we ultimately saw in Joe fandom during the last years of the 20th century was just a wishful afterthought to those few people who still considered themselves Joe fans. I had just entered college, and found myself with a large amount of extra time on my hands as classes took up far less time than I'd anticipated. Looking to kill some free time, I turned to the pages of the GI Joe comic from Marvel, and soon began work on my first custom: Dragonsky. Why I started with such a difficult figure I'll never know. He turned out pretty well for a first figure, though I ultimately redid him and added some extra features, including a removeable helmet. I did a few more customs, and one day while searching the web I came across Corey Stinson's original site, which had a very small section devoted to custom GI Joes. Soon my early figures were displayed on his site, which later merged with Eugene Son's to create yojoe.com. Ultimately my customs wound up on thebivouac.com, and finally joecustoms.com, where my earlier figures are shown, along with a ton of other good customs from other fans.
From the start, my customs focused on characters from the comic that were never made by Hasbro, including the Oktober Guard, Billy, Dr. Venom, Fred VII, and new looks for produced characters, such as an unmasked Snake Eyes and camo versions of Wet Suit and Torpedo. I delved into the cartoon also, doing such customs as Cobra La Cobra Commander. Eventually, I began doing customs based on unreleased toys from Hasbro, such as the Battle Corps Rangers, and the Ninja Commandos. Hasbro had some cool products that never got released over the years, and something fascinated me enough about them that I began customizing my own. Some fans out there like to swap a couple parts around, paint them up, and create an entirely new character. If that makes them happy, great, but I prefer to challenge myself by making the beloved characters from my childhood as accurate to the comic, cartoon, or unreleased prototypes as possible. I haven't been doing as many Joe customs lately as I did in the past, mostly I think because I'm running out of figures to make. And, if you're thinking of asking, I do not make customs for other people. Try making your own, that's where the fun in customizing is.
Anyhoo, I've babbled enough. On to the customs!
Those figures marked (JC) will take you to www.joecustoms.com, where my earlier works are found. Use your browser's back button to come back here, or stick around there and check out the cool stuff they've got!
Marvel
and Devil's Due Comics
Billy Cobra
Brainwashee (JC)
Billy
Ninja Outfit (JC)
Cobra
Commander Body Armor (JC)
Cobra
Electronics Experts (JC)
Cobra
Soldier Vector Hijacker (JC)
Colonel
Brekhov (JC)
Crispo
(JC)
Daina
(JC)
Damaged B.A.T.
Deep Six
Navy uniform (JC)
Desade
Destro
unmasked (JC)
Dickie
Saperstein LRRP (JC)
Dr
Biggles-Jones (JC)
Dr Venom
(JC)
Dragonsky
(JC)
Firefly The Red Master
Firefly
unmasked (JC)
Fred
(JC)
Fred VII
(JC)
Glenda
Hardball
Horror
Show (JC)
Jinx unmasked /
white outfit (JC)
Kamakura
Lt Gorky
(JC)
Mangler
(JC)
Medi-Viper
(JC)
Ramon
Escobedo LRRP (JC)
Rampart
Rattler Tail Gunner
Red Ninja
(JC)
Red Ninja
Battle Armor (JC)
Rotor-Viper
(JC)
Scar Face
(JC)
Schrage
Sgt Misha
(JC)
Snake
Eyes LRRP (JC)
Snake Eyes
training outfit (JC)
Snake Eyes unmasked (early)
Snake Eyes
unmasked (JC)
Stalker
LRRP (JC)
Storm
Shadow (JC)
Stormavik
(JC)
Torpedo cammo
Torquemada
Wade
Collins LRRP (JC)
Wet Suit cammo
Marvel/Sunbow
and DIC Cartoons
Amber
(JC)
Battle Copter Pilot
Cobra
Commander Cobra-La (JC)
Cobra Pilot
Cobra Trainee
Flint - Cobra Disguise
Flint
Diving Gear (JC)
Mutt - Cobra Disguise
Gristle (cartoon likeness)
Pythona
(JC)
Scoop - Crimson Guard
Hasbro
Unproduced Prototypes and Concepts
1997 Special Section
Alley Viper 1997
Blizzard 1997
Cobra Commander 1997
Duke
Roadblock
Snake Eyes 1997
(Commando Team)
Viper 1997
Stars & Stripes Forever
Breaker
Flash
Grunt
Rock N Roll
Scarlett
Short Fuze
Snake Eyes
Stalker
Zap
Astro Blaster
Black
Female (JC)
Budo Ninja
Commando (JC)
Duke
Battle Corps Rangers (JC)
Flint
Battle Corps Rangers (JC)
Flint Battle Corps Rangers (Project 1995 version)
Flint Ninja
Commando (JC)
Footloose Battle Corps Rangers
Low Light Wal-Mart 2003
Payload Star Brigade
Ripcord
Tiger Force (JC)
Road
Pig Ninja Commando (JC)
Sabretooth
Tiger Force (JC)
Shockwave - The Human Gun
Shooter
Spatula
Stalker
Manimal Encounter (JC)
Storm Shadow Ninja Commando
Striker
Manimal Terminator (JC)
Vendetta (In Progress)
Wild Bill Tiger Force
Other Stuff