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Retro Card Invisible Woman with Superior Head and Retro Hair


RyanDaly

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On 11/13/2021 at 9:45 AM, RyanDaly said:

As you can see, I used the Super-Skrull BAF version for the far more attractive head sculpt, removed the hair from both that and the retro card version, and slapped the retro hair onto the better head. You telling me I had to spend an extra $22 for something Hasbro should've done themselves?!!


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Wow...now that Is way better...I'm not really familiar to custom...how did you manage to remove the hair and attached it to the other head? Sorry for a stupid question. Thanks

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On 11/12/2021 at 5:45 PM, RyanDaly said:

As you can see, I used the Super-Skrull BAF version for the far more attractive head sculpt, removed the hair from both that and the retro card version, and slapped the retro hair onto the better head. You telling me I had to spend an extra $22 for something Hasbro should've done themselves?!!

Wow, that looks so much better!  Nicely done.  Yeah, I'm going to find a new head for mine just as soon as she gets here.

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On 11/13/2021 at 5:20 AM, Bluecomet said:

Wow...now that Is way better...I'm not really familiar to custom...how did you manage to remove the hair and attached it to the other head? Sorry for a stupid question. Thanks

I'm not a customizer usually because I lack the manual dexterity and artistic ability to be good at it, but this process is comparatively easy. 

Pop the heads off and put them in hot water. The hot water helps to break down the glue holding the hair piece onto the head and also makes the hair a bit more pliable and flexible. Then it's just bending, pulling, and prying with some small tools. I used a a paperclip and child's safety scissors because I didn't want to slip and scrape the face or anything. 

The new retro Sue's hair came off pretty easily. Took about five minutes of prying after a second dip in the hot water. The modern Sue's hair was fixed much tighter and took about 20 minutes to pry off. I'm sure there are people who do this sort of customization often who are much better at it than me. When I was finished, this is what the heads looked like. 

2e29a3771e9956e826e15ba96aec804525765227

Again, people more sjilled and/or patient than me could probably get the hair off without leaving any of the glue residue, but for my purposes it was fine. And actually, the retro Sue's hair fit pretty snuggly on the modern Sue's head. I didn't glue it back on for any of the pictures I took, but later on last night I did use some simple Gorilla glue to hold the hair in place now. 

If this was the sort of custom job you wanted to try, the whole process took about 30 minutes and didn't require any specialty tools you wouldn't have around your home.

 

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On 11/13/2021 at 9:10 AM, RyanDaly said:

Pop the heads off and put them in hot water.

Pro-tip: you can put your pieces in a little plastic sandwich bag before putting them in the water.  Just don't seal a  bunch of air in there with it so that the piece is rattling around inside of a balloon.  This keeps the piece dry so that you don't have to waste precious seconds drying it (and letting it cool) before you start prying or whatever you're doing.  I feel like it also helps avoid the risk of discoloration to the piece, but I have no non-anecdotal evidence of this.

If your water is so hot that it melts or damages the plastic baggie, your water is too hot.

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On 11/13/2021 at 10:20 AM, MonsterChris said:

Pro-tip: you can put your pieces in a little plastic sandwich bag before putting them in the water.  Just don't seal a  bunch of air in there with it so that the piece is rattling around inside of a balloon.  This keeps the piece dry so that you don't have to waste precious seconds drying it (and letting it cool) before you start prying or whatever you're doing.  I feel like it also helps avoid the risk of discoloration to the piece, but I have no non-anecdotal evidence of this.

If your water is so hot that it melts or damages the plastic baggie, your water is too hot.

Good advice. I was concerned about the hot water causing some discoloration, but figured it would be safe enough since I tried it once before when I fixed the arms on the Alex Ross Iron Man. If I ever need to employ a trick like this again, I'll keep the sandwich bag method in mind. Thanks.

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On 11/13/2021 at 10:52 AM, sentinelofliberty41 said:

This looks fantastic (pun intended.) It does call to attention how pitiful the female buck is though. I don't necessarily need a ton of articulation but the joints and limbs just look so janky still. There has to be something better they can do.

Won't argue with that. I'm not getting Shriek, but I am curious to see how much better the new female mold is. 

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On 11/13/2021 at 6:52 AM, sentinelofliberty41 said:

"This looks fantastic (pun intended.) It does call to attention how pitiful the female buck is though....but the joints and limbs just look so janky still. There has to be something better they can do...."

Pitiful is the correct word, I would also say overused. It seems to be their default buck for females and as I've said a million times before, it makes no sense. They use this same body for Kate Bishop and Kitty Pryde, for example (but they've used it on a whole lot more female characters than them), both teenage girls. Sue Richards is an adult woman who has had children.

Legends team has been doing a fantastic job on the female faces, but as you point out, the bodies aren't matching up. I'm glad they're moving away from that mold, but they need to do it faster and better.

Is the new Shriek buck better? Yeah, I'd say so. Legs aren't near as spindly and there's the bicep swivel, pinless double elbow/knee. Not sure why they don't have a boot cut swivel, but this is a good start.

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On 11/14/2021 at 1:16 PM, Atlantis said:

Pitiful is the correct word, I would also say overused. It seems to be their default buck for females and as I've said a million times before, it makes no sense. They use this same body for Kate Bishop and Kitty Pryde, for example (but they've used it on a whole lot more female characters than them), both teenage girls. Sue Richards is an adult woman who has had children.

Legends team has been doing a fantastic job on the female faces, but as you point out, the bodies aren't matching up. I'm glad they're moving away from that mold, but they need to do it faster and better.

Is the new Shriek buck better? Yeah, I'd say so. Legs aren't near as spindly and there's the bicep swivel, pinless double elbow/knee. Not sure why they don't have a boot cut swivel, but this is a good start.

Saw her at TrU just a few days ago, to my surprise. I passed on it though because I'm not sure I want it (got it on pre-order just in case I change my mind). I'm wishing I did buy it now if only to see how the new body stacks up, but we shall see. What I am digging is the body buck for Tigra, at least the lower torso and leg/hip combo, and random cat fur not withstanding. I love the way that eliminated that awful and enormous thigh gap in the Cat Bishop body. Shriek or Tigra, if they give us the white-suit Elektra and classic Ms Marvel (version 1 and a redo of version 2) on either body, all is forgiven (for the Kat Bishop deluge).

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Nice work - I am going to follow your lead! I love the simple kit bashes like this that don't take a ton of work, yet make a world of difference. I do this all the time with head sculpts I don't like (Shatterstar, and X-Man heads were replaced with Multiple Man unmasked heads with some chopping and gluing, and Quasar's head was replaced with a Cannonball head and Archangel hair. Not a kit bash, but Black Tom Cassidy got a Kraven head from the Spiderman/Kraven two pack (simple head swap, but such an improvement). 

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On 11/14/2021 at 2:20 AM, MonsterChris said:

Pro-tip: you can put your pieces in a little plastic sandwich bag before putting them in the water.  Just don't seal a  bunch of air in there with it so that the piece is rattling around inside of a balloon.  This keeps the piece dry so that you don't have to waste precious seconds drying it (and letting it cool) before you start prying or whatever you're doing.  I feel like it also helps avoid the risk of discoloration to the piece, but I have no non-anecdotal evidence of this.

If your water is so hot that it melts or damages the plastic baggie, your water is too hot.

Thanks 🙂 appreciate the advice. I will give it a go based on your tips.

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On 11/14/2021 at 1:10 AM, RyanDaly said:

I'm not a customizer usually because I lack the manual dexterity and artistic ability to be good at it, but this process is comparatively easy. 

Pop the heads off and put them in hot water. The hot water helps to break down the glue holding the hair piece onto the head and also makes the hair a bit more pliable and flexible. Then it's just bending, pulling, and prying with some small tools. I used a a paperclip and child's safety scissors because I didn't want to slip and scrape the face or anything. 

The new retro Sue's hair came off pretty easily. Took about five minutes of prying after a second dip in the hot water. The modern Sue's hair was fixed much tighter and took about 20 minutes to pry off. I'm sure there are people who do this sort of customization often who are much better at it than me. When I was finished, this is what the heads looked like. 

2e29a3771e9956e826e15ba96aec804525765227

Again, people more sjilled and/or patient than me could probably get the hair off without leaving any of the glue residue, but for my purposes it was fine. And actually, the retro Sue's hair fit pretty snuggly on the modern Sue's head. I didn't glue it back on for any of the pictures I took, but later on last night I did use some simple Gorilla glue to hold the hair in place now. 

If this was the sort of custom job you wanted to try, the whole process took about 30 minutes and didn't require any specialty tools you wouldn't have around your home.

 

Thanks for the very detailed and photo instructions on how it is done 🙂 I will give it a go and hopefully I won't ruin the figure.

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On 11/14/2021 at 9:21 PM, Emnems80 said:

I'm glad someone did this and showed that it looks so much better. Since it's been used for many different female faces I wonder if you can use other female heads as well, not just the previous Sue Storm.

I think either of the Emma Frost heads would look fine with this retro hair. Same with the retro card Gwen Stacy. Other figures, like Black Widows, etc. might look good too, but the eyebrows might throw it off, and they also might have more severe looks that clash with the Sue Storm vibe.

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This looks great @RyanDaly , that's exactly what I was planning to do once my pre-order finally ships and I can dig my 2nd Walgreens Invisible Woman out of storage.

Every time I look at that face sculpt I both laugh and cry. The fact that they would even do something like that at this point in ML evolution is hilarious and heartbreaking. Good thing she can turn invisible cuz that's a face only an invisible mother could love.

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On 11/14/2021 at 1:16 PM, Atlantis said:

Pitiful is the correct word, I would also say overused. It seems to be their default buck for females and as I've said a million times before, it makes no sense. They use this same body for Kate Bishop and Kitty Pryde, for example (but they've used it on a whole lot more female characters than them), both teenage girls. Sue Richards is an adult woman who has had children.

Legends team has been doing a fantastic job on the female faces, but as you point out, the bodies aren't matching up. I'm glad they're moving away from that mold, but they need to do it faster and better.

Is the new Shriek buck better? Yeah, I'd say so. Legs aren't near as spindly and there's the bicep swivel, pinless double elbow/knee. Not sure why they don't have a boot cut swivel, but this is a good start.

Do the pinless elbows help with the shape? To me the arms are one of my biggest complaints on the female buck as it makes the joint look so awkward. Also, it's time for a waist joint. I know it's a lot different due to a lot Marvel ladies having basically a painted body and no gear since it's simulated tights but Lady Jaye from the GI Joe line blows away any Marvel female in my collection except maybe Warbird but that's more a body type thing. Jaye just came out this year, the Legends have been around for a lot longer. That should not be the case.

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Definitely an improvement (and 10 trillion times better than anything I could muster), but it's still a bit lop-sided (that's not your fault: it's the hair sculpt).

I thought the original Walgreens Exclusive headsculpt was fine (hair and head and body). The Super-Skrull BAF version was okay too, but this (the third and fourth versions) has serious HML Silver Centurion Iron Man syndrome.  By this, I mean a basic and established character redo, which should - at least on paper - be hard to screw up, gets another repaint and new head, and it's a big - and  confusing - step backwards. And is universally hated. Contrariwise, Psycho-Man is flat-out perfect. 'Tis jarring, I say.

 

Disappointed, as the quality of the Sue Storm figure in a Fantastic 4 wave usually symbolises the vibe and coolness (or otherwise) of the remaining three characters. Thinking back, there's still only one Sue Storm I think they nailed perfectly - the ancient Ronan the Accuser BAF  (comic) wave version and boy howdy, that does not sit well with 2021 figures.

And what the hell with elbows??? Who cares? The She-Hulk type elbow sculpt works perfectly: keeps smooth contours and maximum poseability and is durable. You start putting teeny weenie double elbow joints (as Hasbro did with the GI Joe Classified Lady Jaye)  you get broken figures. And no swivel. How the hell is that better? It isn't. I don't remember anyone screaming with disappointment either at Moonstone or Rogue (Juggernaut BAF) bodies.

 

20211115_215913.jpg

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On 11/15/2021 at 10:57 AM, sentinelofliberty41 said:

"Do the pinless elbows help with the shape? To me the arms are one of my biggest complaints on the female buck as it makes the joint look so awkward. Also, it's time for a waist joint.... but Lady Jaye from the GI Joe line blows away any Marvel female in my collection except maybe Warbird but that's more a body type thing. Jaye just came out this year, the Legends have been around for a lot longer. That should not be the case..."

I think they do help, yes. And I agree, these are long overdue for a waist joint (and I'll add boot cuff rotator as well). Fans griped for years about the lack of double elbows/bicep swivel for female figs, and it took a while, but its now becoming standard, so at least there's some progress there.

Once the Legends team gets  that its not a one-size-fits-all thing for their female figures, things will really improve. They clearly demonstrate the difference between a Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor buck. So do the same for the  Namorita, Black Widow, Opal Saturnyne, and Thundra types. 

My bottom line for female figures, like male figures, is that articulation wise, they should be able to do anything (within reason for a plastic figure) a normal human body would be able to do. I think they're headed that way.

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On 11/16/2021 at 1:36 PM, Atlantis said:

I think they do help, yes. And I agree, these are long overdue for a waist joint (and I'll add boot cuff rotator as well). Fans griped for years about the lack of double elbows/bicep swivel for female figs, and it took a while, but its now becoming standard, so at least there's some progress there.

Once the Legends team gets  that its not a one-size-fits-all thing for their female figures, things will really improve. They clearly demonstrate the difference between a Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor buck. So do the same for the  Namorita, Black Widow, Opal Saturnyne, and Thundra types. 

My bottom line for female figures, like male figures, is that articulation wise, they should be able to do anything (within reason for a plastic figure) a normal human body would be able to do. I think they're headed that way.

Couldn't agree more on what they should be capable of and they really have made some serious strides in the past few years. That said, that applies mostly to the male characters. The ladies are way behind. And absolutely, they do need to differentiate the different body types. The Moonstone buck had me in high hopes but that seems to be where they stopped advancing.

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