Custom Famous Covers

Ever since the early 1990's I have enjoyed the stories told by Marvel and DC Comics.  I have always loved the Merry Band of Marvel Mutants, the X-Men, the most and started collecting comics at a young age, then buying toys.  Toy Biz was the only maker of X-Men and Marvel toys.  So when their line of costumed Marvel Famous Covers hit the shelves in 1997, I became less of a toy player and more of a toy collector.

I was 12, and I decided that these would be my collectible toys, of course, I had to open them and pose them on the shelf, but I thought, "What's the harm? They will still be in great condition when I'm older."  The first two I bought at the Hills store (I still think Hills had the best toy department ever!) in Latrobe, PA were Wolverine and Green Goblin.  Then I had to have the "special edition" mail away Aunt May.  The line ended in 2000 when the 2-Packs of X-Men movie versions and comic book versions of Storm, Wolverine, and the Toad were released.  I purchased as many as I could, then I had to find the rest of the series as I got older, on E-Bay.  Hasbro started a DC line of 9" figures shortly after and I came to find out that they were all being made in the style of an earlier toy line from the 70's called Megos.

Custom Iceman by Jeff Adams
(My first ever custom figure!)

So what was I supposed to do when I was finally done collecting the line of toys? (There were 33 Marvel Famous Covers and 12 Hasbro DC 9" in all.)  I decided to start looking for customized figures in the lines I came to admire so much.  I happened upon an online chatroom, and I cannot for the life of me find it again now, but I talked to a custom figure creator, named Jeff Adams.  I commissioned him to make me a custom 90's version of Iceman, one of my all-time favorite X-Men and I paid $85 for the commission.  But when I received the figure, I thought to myself I really can do this myself.

Other Purchased FC's, Laura Croft, Power Girl & Dazzler

SO I set out on a mission to learn the customizing tools and skills of this small trade.  I started to find spandex fabric, and buy loose Famous Covers action figures to start my own customizing process.  I downloaded costume patterns from other custom FC sights and set to work on my first custom action figure. I joined chat rooms and Yahoo Groups that worked on customizing toys. To start, I decided to make Sauron, one of my all-time favorite X-Men villains.  I designed his costume, painstakingly cut holes into the wrists of my figure, added hinges and set to put in the wings of the dastardly X-Foe.  Most customizers use the heads from other figures to make their customs, so I set out to find a toy pterodactyl with a head big enough to add to my guy.  To my surprise, I could not find one, so I then set out to mold my own head sculpt.  It really wasn't my best but I enjoyed the figure and the end result.  (Sauron has since taken a fall and I want to re-make him with better wings, which I have everything off, but not the time to complete.)

Sauron Vs. Rogue

Classic Cyclops and the "Classic" X-Men

Human Torch and the Fantastic Four

I then created another X-Men favorite Cyclops in his classic 70's suite, to go with my black costume Storm and brown suit Wolverine, it helped that the new custom Dazzler I bought went along with these costumes as well.  I have since made or bought several more figures utilizing many parts from different toys, my favorite being my Juggernaut.  I also started to dabble in my own website creation, way before I took any design courses in college, and came up with an early place to display my own Custom Famous Covers. (Check out my first site, Alex's Custom Famous Covers!).  In 2013 I finished a Silver Samurai that I had the parts for quite some time, he looks pretty cool. I also completed an Elektra FC. I have 2 partials still in the works, the Blob and Hellcat, which to this day are unfinished products... Maybe after finally publishing those piece I will feel more motivated to create like I used to? Or maybe this facet of my life has run it’s course.

Beast, Professor X, Juggernaut, Black Tom,
Silver Samurai, The Spot, Elektra & Venom

Deadman, Batman, Elastic Man,
Mr. Freeze, Manhunter & Spectre

Harrisburg Comic-Con Experience

Comic-Con Book

Me with Chewy

Nick in a
Jurassic Park Jeep

I have been on the verge of writing about this experience for some time now.  Here are the accounts of one of my most favorite Comic-Con experiences.

Once in a while you get to experience events that are so awesome, there are hardly any words for them.  The summer of 2017 I had the privilege of going to the Harrisburg Comic-Con with one of my good friends, Nick.  I participated in my first live panel discussion and got to hear from actors from my favorite show, The Flash.  Both actor's Matt Lescher  (The Reverse Flash) and Michelle Harrison (Nora Allen) were discussing the direction that the TV series was going, along with DC's Legends of Tomorrow as Matt was the main villain in that show for Season 2.  I sat in awe of their understanding of the vast universe I have fanboyed over for years!

Matt & Michelle Actor Panel

A pic with David (Diggle)

Action Pic with Nick and Matt (Reverse Flash)

David's Autograph

Autographed X-Men Comics Purchased

I pre-paid for photos with two of the stars, one from Arrow,  David Ramsey and the second from The Flash, Matt.  They took fan photos as well as signed memorabilia afterward.  The experience was much more interesting than any other Comic-Con that I could have attended because I was doing some things there for the first time that I had not done before.  I found some great comics for my collection, sat in my first Comic-Con Panel and met some great actors all in the same day.   I have each of my autographed photos as well as the stand-in photos with Matt and David hanging in my classroom, and that helps spur some everyday conversations about my favorite shows with students who also have a love of DC's live-action shows.  

Matt's Autograph

Now with the Harrisburg Comic-Con Cancelled for the 2nd year in a row I am looking into how I can re-create this time.  My next reflection will be about the other events I have been a part of, so subscribe and look out for more musings from my adventures in comic-dom!

Smart Home

Since moving into our new home I have found that I enjoy the simple things, like using my cell phone to open the garage doors, turning on and off lights with the tap of my finger, and double checking the number of eggs in the container in the fridge.  Our first housewarming gift was a Honeywell WiFi enabled Thermostat from my father-in-law.  The device had me intrigued as to what else could be purchased for our home.

Honeywell Thermostat - my first new toy.

After purchasing our new house in 2016 the first thing that needed to be fixed was the Garage door opener.  While doing some research on garage door openers I stumbled upon the MyQ Chamberlain automatic door opener, that would work with any installed motors.  So I bought the product and installed both sensors and then plugged in the WiFi-enabled opener.  The set-up seemed simple and worked well, with one exception, both of my garage doors would open any time I would use the app for just one door on my phone.  So after a few months of fidgeting with the doors, I finally got wise and called the support center where they said to unplug one motor while programming the other, that way the door opener would not ping off of both garage doors, genius!  I now have both doors working properly and even made my wife extremely happy by re-programing her original door opener back into the system.

MyQ Chamberlain WiFi Garage Door Openersynced to a Ryanor Navigator. 

After much thought, our bedroom got a WiFi enabled switch, so we didn't have to get up out of bed to flip on the switch which was the whole way across the room from our main door.  I did some research and to try out a simple switch I bought the Wemo Light Switch.   It was easy to install and as soon as I flipped the power on from the breaker I had access to the Wemo Switch.  I then bought another plug and have used a few of the WiFi-enabled plug-in switches for lights that I cannot easily access the outlet for.

All Wemo Switches and Mr. Coffee Maker
(Appropriately Named "Gibson Covfefe")

I purchased the Wink Hub to help centralize the Apps I use into one app and found that GE Light Switches will work with the hub, except once I installed the switches, which took a while because of the electrical wiring was a nightmare to figure out.  I think the previous owners did some of it themselves.  So anyway I now also have Bluetooth enabled GE Dimmers and Switches that do not link to my Wink Hub because I still need to purchase the $100 Avi-On Remote Access Bridge for all of the switches to link to my Wink Hub.

Ring Doorbell- Links to the Wink Hub easily

For Christmas, my wife bought me an Amazon Echo Dot and the Ring Doorbell, which work well with my in-home system of home security and automated applications.  For father's day, my wife also fed my addiction to technology with the Wemo Mr. Coffee Maker. (I really do have the best wife ever!)

Amazon Echo Dot with GE Dimmer and Wall Switch.
(One more to add eventually!)

With the Wink Hub, list of link-able products I bought the GE Quirky Pivot Power electrical outlet, the Quirky Egg Minder, and the Quirky Porkfolio Smart Piggy Bank.  All linking to my Wink Hub and WiFi to have WiFi controlled outlets in our sunroom, count how many eggs are in my refrigerator, and count the coins I place in my bank.

The Wink Hub (Bottom Right)
All thing Quirky (Pivot, Egg Minder & Porkfolio)

I like technology and creating a home full of automation has been an interesting learning experience.  I am still learning more about the whole process and hope to continue to grow the accessibility in my home.

My New Laptop - Used to help
me control my smart home, play games, and
continuing ed