Lots of collectors repaint worn
figures to restore them to their original appearance. Some of us have also
added variety to our collections by customizing these repaint jobs; why
stop at red, white, blue, and yellow? Here we see a rainbow array of the
astronauts in my collection (the repaints are in black, green, blue, purple,
and orange).Note: As far as I can tell, once a figure is stripped of its paint and has had the head removed, there is no way of distinguishing them with 100% certainty. The trademark print on the back comes in different variations, but seems to have been non-specific in regard to which figure had what print style.
"Sexy Storm", Mattel's Man in Spice!
I humbly apologize for this one, fellow MMM collectors! I was commissioned to paint a Sgt. Storm figure in a "Spice Girl" scheme. Kinda cute, though.
I purchased a Callisto
in pretty bad shape off eBay. His plastic had become brittle, his head had
become opaque, and he was covered in green paint. You can see his original
condition at John Eaton and Paul Vreede's website here.
Viola! Almost good as new. A major repaint has made this fellow displayable (his head and boots show the most wear; their surfaces are no longer smooth due to deterioration, but copious amounts of paint have helped somewhat) and I actually recently sold him, so he is no longer part of my collection.
My green astronaut is presenting him with a repainted gun (the original was quite faded); all he needs is to recharge it with a new....ummm....yellow string.
So I had this red catrac body with a white console. I decided to give it an "authentic" paint job: white with grey panelling, steel tracks, silver headlights, colored console buttons, etc.
I suppose one could repaint a lot of MMM's vehicles, maybe even repaint insignia instead of decals. Perhaps when I retire I'll have time.
I couldn't suppress the urge to do a Sgt. Storm figure in a camo scheme. This one is based on the woodlands pattern seen on U.S. troops. I allowed myself some artistic license and left the bellows black; an actual camo suit would probably have camo pattern on the bellows. I can just see him hunting down the "Aliens".
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