Thursday, September 19, 2019

Appreciating HGTV's "A VERY BRADY RENOVATION"



TWO QUESTIONS:

Have you been watching HGTV's "A VERY BRADY RENOVATION" these past two weeks?

ANSWER: I have seen it and I've love the series.

Have you been a lifelong fan of The Brady Bunch?

ANSWER: I have been a lifelong fan since childhood. You betcha!




If you don't know the premise, last year the house that served as the exterior shot of the original Brady Bunch home from the television series that aired from 1969 to 1974 went up for sale. HGTV ended up buying the home for $3.5 million dollars and convinced the surviving cast members of the television series to work with them to renovate the home and restore it to the original look from the classic series. The interesting thing was that the interior of the home looked nothing like the set pieces from the television series. But with some far out and groovy retrofitting, architects and designers from HGTV have remodeled the home to follow the set plans. They've restored the look to how we remember it and they got the original cast to help in the renovation.



In this day and age, it warms the heart and has brought joy to the viewers, the cast, and all who have participated in making this fictional home all so real.

I highly recommend watching it.

You can catch episodes on HGTV.



On a side note, a few days ago I responded to a Tweet by Maureen McCormick (aka Marcia Brady) and she responded to me with a "Thanks". That made my day!




Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Mego Custom Figure - "Yellow" Daredevil (First Appearance)

 


I thought I would share another look at one of my custom action figures. Today, it is the original Matt Murdock "Yellow Daredevil" in his first appearance costume from DAREDEVIL #1-6 circa 1964. I've always loved this "Year One" look of Daredevil outside his more iconic all red outfit. In times past, I always tried to collect his "variant" figure in other toylines, but never got my hands on one. With my return to collecting Mego figures, he was one of my first choices. 



This outfit comes from the Diamond Select limited edition Daredevil Collector's set that I placed on a reproduction Mego figure that I purchased through the ClassicTVToys.com website. The backing card I designed and had printed on a vinyl adhesive "sticker" that I placed on chipboard and cut out. Yesterday, I shared my Speedy figure. I am doing these custom backing cards for the figures that I am collecting and placing them in FTC clam shells. Eventually I will create cards for the classic Daredevil in red as well as the blind Matt Murdock lawyer figure.


PDF Art - Front Side of "Yellow" Daredevil Mego backing card

PDF Art - Back Side of "Yellow" Daredevil Mego backing card

Monday, September 09, 2019

Mego Custom Figure - Speedy


When I was a kid, I collected various action figures that included GI Joe Adventure Team, Star Wars, Mircronauts, The Six Million Dollar Man, Evel Knievel Stunt Motorcycle, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, and Mego action figures. I had a blast as a kid.

I am an avid G.I. Joe collector that still collects vintage and reproduction 12" action figures. I also like to kitbash my Joes. I always loved my Mego figures, but traded most of them around 1995 for some vintage G.I. Joe Adventure Team figures that I didn't have when I was a kid.

In 2010, I picked up a reproduction Green Arrow figure by Mattel. For those that know me, Green Arrow has always been my favorite comic book character. I never picked up his sidekick Speedy, that was released as part of the original Teen Titans figures back in the day. Well, this past month, I picked up a reproduction Speedy figure after all these years. I kitbashed and customized him to be more comic book accurate and I also designed my own Mego-like backing card that uses Nick Cardy artwork.

The original Speedy figure (and the reproduction figure) placed Speedy in a pair of shorty-short speedos like Robin and Aqualad. That was all wrong. I corrected it and gave him custom long red pants and a short sleeve red t-shirt like he had in the comics.

I know that I shouldn't get into any more collecting, but I have recently got the bug and I've been picking up a few reproduction Mego-like figures and I've been doing some customizing. I thought I would share a picture from my hobby. This was my first. I've also picked up a few other figures, but I'll hold those back to showcase at a later time.