[ffolkes75]

Well if I had a "Holy Grail", I suppose this fig would be near the top of that list. As a kid, I was totally inthralled with the entire John Carter of Mars series. I've read and reread them many times over the years. Well I finally have gotten around to creating this fig and adding him to my collection of scifi customs. I had issues with Triads JC...frankly if you read the books you'll realize most of Barsoomian inhabitants are virtually naked except for some footwear, fighting harness and occasionally silken capes. I drew some inspiration from Michael Whelans book cover illustrations as well as gladitorial Rome. His sword is a bit oversized, as often depicted in Whelans work, and is entirely hand made out of styrene, brass and wire. His radium pistol is bashed from a variety of bits in the misc. bits bin. I opted for a very asymmetrical design and organic white metal look for his leather harness. His cape is weathered with the red dust from the Martian surface. Since so much of his body was to be exposed, he needed a nice sculpt for it. I initially went with a Triad Evo which looked good but I had a variety of issues addressing its looseness. So he will await a future project. Instead, I've gone with an ACI Christian body...which is both too stiff and yet too loose for some poses. JCs head is a repainted Jake Gyllenhaal head from Hot Toys.

Steve

 

[Moonbase Alpha Male]

Compliments. I like it much. Not taking anything away from Triad John Carter (which I have and I love and which was a very impressive figure to get made in a mass market) but I completely understand the dissatisfactions you express in strict comparison to the books.

The ACI body works very well here (the other alternative I guess would have been Kaustik Plastik). Looks a bit awkward around his backside but I don't think there's any male body made that expects to be posed quasi-nude and look right in that area. If he's wearing the cape it's a non-issue anyway. The cape does look a little too bright Hooters orange, but I imagine that's probably the photography making it seem that bright.

Take every compliment I have for the figure and triple it for the radium gun, that's truly a thing of beauty.

I think you are obligated to show us a Dejah Thoris now? Triad didn't get around to making her at all, though the announcement prototype was shown long before John Carter and I always wanted them to make it. They wimped out on the red skin tone though, like both Tracy Lords and Lynn Collins, and even the comics tend to do. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ffolkes75]

Thanks Alpha...yeah the color balance is a tad off...the cape and loin covering are more red then orange...comes from working on the photos on two different computers with monitors that aren't calibrated the same. I leave him posed with his cape just to avoid that embarrassing back-side awkwardness.
Dejah Thoris...she'd be a fantastic compliment to JC. The toughest part would be the color. I'll forgive the Tracy Lords version...low budget and had nothing really to do with the books...but the latest Disney version with Lynn Collins...no excuses for not going for the color. The red men of Mars are supposed to be a coppery red....and a distinctive enough difference from the white skin of John Carter so he'd have to dye his to pass as a red man. Whelan did a much better job on his cover art. I do forgive them both though regarding clothing...it would be quite difficult to accurately portray, as written, the inhabitants of Mars without running into rating issues.

 

[Moonbase Alpha Male]

Totally agree with you all around.

I'm an aging geek so for me the images I really remember are those Frazetta covers, but they are in the same spirit as Whelan, and I think Whelan would ackowledge a debt to them. Certainly Burroughs would have appreciated both Frazetta and Whelan being truer to his original descriptions than the first publication magazine covers and dustjackets that the books originally got - charming but very dated.

Again would love to see your Dejah Thoris (or anyone's). The question I guess is whether there is any natural airbrush-y way to paint or stain or dye a <Phicen> body that will not wear off, deteriorate, or limit posability?
__________________
The guidance counselor was surprised: "I didn't even know career aptitude tests had a Super-Villain category."

 

[abake]

Great custom!
Congrats.

 

[Eperitus]

I love this figure. A great tribute to one of my favourite series of books (I also grew up reading John Carter of Mars).

 

[Stryker2011]

Nice custom; excellent version of JC. Love everything Burroghs - too bad Disney had to butcher those books, it'll probably be a very long time before we see (if ever) another attempt at it. Maybe some of the guys in the Mature section would be able to give some tips on coloring a Phicen...

 

[dadrab]

Hot damn...

I'm mightily impressed. That's excellent work and a mighty fine representation of the Burroughs character.

And, while I like the gun and other stuff, the sash blows me away. That's just frickken good.

 

[Raiden]

Pertaining to the Dejah Thoris dilemma, I went the easy route and made my own using a darker skinned Triad Otaku. Picked up a color-matched Barbie head and ran with it. Got the inspiration from Brad Gorby's custom from the old Triad boards.

I won't post the picture, as she is mostly nude, as she should be. Not a coppery read, but Otakus do take a dye bath well from what I've seen. Just be careful and do so slowly.

http://a-j-m-74.deviantart.com/art/John-Carter-and-Dejah-Thoris-July-2012-Update-313386058

If you can't see it because of my Deviantart account, let me know and I'll go post it in the adult section.

 

[ffolkes75]

Shes not a bad color Raiden...at least shes the closest you're going to find stock from a manufacturer. Your Dejah has a reasonable amount of modesty and looks great. I particularly like her neck piece...awesome.

 

[DeltaForceChung]

Nice job on your take of John Carter.

You’re not the only one with issues regarding Triad Toys interpretation of John Carter. Back in the day, Louie Tran (founder & owner of Triad Toys) ultimately went with the appearance & design that we got and it was approved by the license holder(s) of the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ estate.

When the figure first came out, I read how some felt it was not faithful to the character’s description in the original stories. Louie Tran told me the figure was purposely designed not to resemble the character in the stories. Again, the figure was approved by the license holder(s) of the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

As for Dejah, she has a complicated background & history. At one point, Louie considered using the OTAKU body for Dejah, but given the myriad of design & quality issues plaguing the OTAKU body he decided against it even though the initial prototype pictures of the figure clearly showed it was using an OTAKU body in an orange skin tone.

There was talk at one point about using an ALPHA/OTAKU hybrid body, but nothing ever materialized.

Given the current dismal state of Triad Toys, virtually everyone I know who was very loyal & supportive of Triad Toys has given up on them of ever producing Dejah. All we got was John Carter and the statue of Tars Tarkas. From my understanding, the Tar Tarkas statue did not sell well and it took a while to sell out of the John Carter figure. I believe most in the know collectors got the John Carter figure primarily due to the EVO 2.0 body that addressed virtually the majority of the flaws from the first release of the EVO body.

 

[ironman1188]

Amazing! And the sword and pistol are made from scrap parts!?!?! They look better than most manufactured pieces.

You have outdone yourself my friend!

 

[Cowboy76]

I 'm killin' myself because you ended doing exactly what I wanted to do. I have had a custom build sitting around for the last two years or more due to various delaying factors. I took the Jake Gylenhall head and painted the hair as you have with yours. I left the facial hair. For my body choice though, I used the Hot Toys Prince of Persia and then added the legs from the HT Perseus figure. It keeps the musculature with sandaled feet. I'll post something up here in a little while, but my compliments on a great version. Ultimately mine is an amalgam of versions that might have ended up being very close to what the Kerry Conran film version may have looked like.

 

[big boss]

Mighty fine work, always been a fan.

 

[swtimes11]

Awesome custom!!! Give poor John some more cover ... his buns must be freezing.

 

[RJMacReady16]

The work on those weapons is phenomenal.

 

[Maccabee]

Great figure!

 

[phantom11]

Excellent work! The weapons in particular are stunning; I love the work on the harness, too!

 

[Sixth Scale]

Great work! I too, grew up reading John Carter, and you've Nailed It!!!

 

[SSGStank]

Nice job, makes me want to reread that series of books which made me a sifi fan.