Bender - Bending Unit

Hey, remember that episode of "Futurama" where Bender traded his hands for the blades from the robot in "The Black Hole"?

OK, that didn't actually happen but my Bender miniature kind of looks like it.

Instead of using a figure as the base and building on top of it, for Bender I used the robotic arms from a Doctor Octopus Heroclix and built the body and head from green stuff. I think his antenna might be a piece of wire.

I thought about trying to make his hands look more like normal, but after a while I just kind of got used to it. I bet Bender could make his hands look like that if he wanted to.

If I ever decide to make a human Bender version, there are plenty of Blob Heroclix.

Zuko - Team Avatar Firebender

I'm a sucker for a redemption storyline. And boy does Zuko get a good one. Zuko's redemption is good because he screws it up so many times, makes so many bad choices, and yet you can always see that he's trying to make sense of the world.

If anything, the problem with The Last Airbender is that Zuko's story is *too* good. He kind of over-shadows Aang's plot. It's easy to see why he would get shipped with Katara.

But enough about that, for the reformed Zuko I used the Heroclix Seven Deadly Brothers miniature. The robes aren't quite right, but close enough.

I see I should have angled the picture a bit more to show off his scar better though...

Prince Zuko - Firebender

The problem with doing a miniature of Zuko is deciding which outfit to pick. The guy changes his look several times in the series. He's got his Fire Nation armor, his Team Avatar clothes, his Earth Nation tea shop uniform...

And then there's his Agni Kai look.

I was considering several different minis for Zuko, but using the Heroclix Arashi for his Agni Kai look was a no-brainer.

All I really had to do was remove the sword and paint him.

Well, and give him his scar, which I think came out pretty good.

Katara - Waterbender

Up to now, all my Avatar-related minis have been from The Legend of Korra, but I haven't forgotten the original series.

I've had a harder time finding miniatures that I like for the original series characters due to their ages. In Korra, most of the characters are adults or almost adults, with the exception of the Airbabies.

In the original series, the gang was mostly kids and early teens, so finding minis that aren't too big or too small is surprisingly hard.

For Katara, I found the Dungeons and Dragons Earth Shugenja, which has a good pose for a waterbender. It doesn't quite have the hair loopies, but I doubt any miniature does. I tried to make some but they looked pretty bad, so I decided to skip it.

As a side note, this mini makes the 3rd miniature I've done for a character voiced by Mae Whitman.

Meelo - Airbender

I'll be honest: I didn't like Meelo at first. I didn't need fart jokes in my story.

But I'll admit, he does have some good moments.

I'm getting a lot of use out of these Powerpack Heroclix. I've used almost the whole team to make the Airbabies. This one is Mass Master. I removed most of his cloud stuff, but kept the ones in his hands.

Maybe Meelo is a cloudbender.

Ikki - Airbender

They must not have the word "icky" in the Avatarverse, because no one should name their child something like that.

Poor Ikki. As the middle child, she didn't really get as much character development as the other two airbabies. Her role was mostly to be annoying and say inappropriate things. At least in season 4 she got some spotlight time in the episode when she was captured by those two Earth Kingdom guys.

For Ikki, I used the Energizer Heroclix which kind of works and kind of doesn't. It had pigtails which I could easily mod to her hair..ball..things, and I used green stuff to make her robes. But the pose is kind of weird. Not sure what she's doing.

Singing?

Jinora - Airbender

Airbabies!

When I started watching The Legend of Korra, I wasn't totally on board with Tenzin's kids, but they started to grow on me over the seasons.

Jinora got the most character development of the three and was integral to the plot of Season 2, so  of course I had to make a mini of her.

Speaking of season 2, at the end when Jinora appears before Unavaatu to show where Raava is hidden, I was about 100% sure that Jinora was sacrificing herself to do so. I thought she died.

Spoiler Alert: she didn't. Which is good, because the she wouldn't have got her tattoos.

I used the Heroclix Lightspeed mini and used green stuff for her hair and clothes.

-c

Hi-Tech - Sigma 6 Telecommunications

The real problem with the Sigma 6 cartoon (which also applies to the first live action movie) is that the team is mostly just guys in black jumpsuits.

At least in Sigma 6 though, the Sigma suits have some color to differentiate between members.

Hi-Tech was the Telecommunications specialist for the Sigma 6 team, but in true G.I.Joe fashion, he did double duty as the team scientist and created the Sigma suits. So, I guess you can blame him for their fashion sense.

I used the Tyroc Heroclix for Hi-Tech, mainly because it had something that looked like goggles.

Even if they do nothing...

-c

Lady Jaye - Covert Operations

I've done Lady Jaye before but something was never quite right about that one. The missing hat, maybe?

So, this is attempt #2.

This time, I used the Sharon Carter Heroclix. I trimmed her hair down a bit and used green stuff to make the hat.

I think this one is a little closer to the original figure than my first attempt, and that's all I was going for.

-c

Baroness - Intelligence (Original Uniform)

When you think of Baroness, the first image that comes to mind is probably the black leather outfit. But before that, she had a uniform that was more in line with the rest of Cobra.

In the original Sunbow G.I.Joe mini-series, and in the early issues of the Marvel comic, Baroness wore a blue and yellow uniform similar to other Cobra soldiers. Strangely though, her uniform was devoid of any Cobra logos, unlike most of the other soldiers of the time.

For this version of Baroness, I used the Heroclix Viper and added her glasses with green stuff. This is the second time I've done a version of Baroness using Viper as the base, which kind of makes sense since Cobra was based off Hydra and Baroness was probably influenced by Viper.


-c

Rosetta - Garden Fairy

When I first started watching the Tinker Bell movies, Rosetta was the one fairy that started with a few disadvantages (at least, for me): she speaks with a Southern drawl, doesn't like to get dirty, and is overly concerned with her appearance.

She seemed less like a fairy and more like a character from Designing Women.

(Is that too old a reference?)

But, thanks to some character development and good writing, she turned out to be a better character than I expected.

I happened to have an Atom Eve Heroclix so I used it to make Rosetta. The hair doesn't really match Rosetta's hair, but I wasn't about to try to figure *that* hairstyle out. She was actually the first fairy mini that I started working on so her wings were made a little differently than Tinker Bell's.

I used green stuff for her dress and tried to make it look rose petal-y. Like Silvermist, I tried to add the gradient effect to her dress, but it's subtle.

-c

Silvermist - Water Fairy

If you had asked me a few months ago who my favorite Disney Fairy was, I would have said, "There's more than one?"

After watching the movies though, I'd have to say Silvermist is my favorite. Although she hasn't had as big a role to play as some of the others, she's always there to support the group and she has some of the best lines. Besides, how cool is the water-talent?

I used the Heroclix Dawnstar as the base for making Silvermist. Since Dawnstar already had wings, I trimmed them down to be more fairy-like and then used green stuff to make Silvermist's longer hair and dress.

I tried to make the green-to-blue gradient effect on her dress but it doesn't show up much, especially in the photo. Also, in the back shot you can see some of the yellow from the original paint through the clear plastic. Couldn't be helped.

For some reason, I neglected to give her shoes...

-c

Tinker Bell - Tinker Fairy

Did you know that Tinker Bell has her own spin-off series of movies?

I didn't. Not until recently, that is. To me, Tinker Bell, was always just a minor Peter Pan character who somehow became a Disney mascot. I never really paid much attention beyond that.

Recently though, I saw part of "The Pirate Fairy" movie, specifically the part where the fairies get their talents switched, and was intrigued, so I watched the movie. And it was pretty good.

Since then I've gone back and watched the others and, for the most part, I think they are pretty good. Better in some ways than some of the more high profile Disney movies like Brave or Frozen.

So, since I'm always looking for another theme to paint minis for...

To make a miniature Tink, I started with the Heroclix Arisia and added wings made from thin plastic sheet. I used green stuff to make her hair and her leaf dress. Oh, and the pom poms on her shoes.

I tried a few different ideas for her wings, but they all kind of looked muddled, so I went with a light gold color.

Making fairy wings is surprisingly hard.

-c