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The Marvel Minimates were one of 2003's best new toy lines, and their modular construction made them great for cutomizing. Rather than provide individual pages for each of these characters, we'll just put them all here.
Jean Grey was one of the five original X-Men, and has been with the team on and off since then. She was replaced for a brief time by the Phoenix Force, a cosmic being that wanted to understand humanity. Putting Cyclops' angry head on Jean's body makes for the perfect Ultimate Pheonix. The parts for this all came from one set.
One of Daredevil's best enemies is the sure-shot assassin known as Bullseye. He's a great character with a tremendously clever "power," and he's got a wonderfully stylized costume. When he was made into Minimate form, however, he was painted the wrong color. Bullseye's costume has always been black, but the toy was blue. As you can see below, even simply choosing a darker blue would have been an improvement.
The variant figure included with Bullseye was an "Unmasked Daredevil," which used the hair from the Peter Parker mini. A few months before that was released, however, I combined Daredevil's head, Parker's hair and Professor X's body to make my own courtroom-ready Matt Murdock.
Take away his cane, and you've got anti-mutant propagandist Henry Peter Gyrich. Two for one!
The release of the Giant-Size X-Men box set offered fans lots of new pieces with which to build new characters. I made three right away: an un-armored Collossus, Ultimate Colossus and Captain America supporting character D-Man.
Reed Richards is a scientist, so he deserves a scientific look. Pop off his arms, give him Bruce Banner's coat and send him off to the lab!
"Patch" Wolverine got Chameleon's legs and Mr. Fantastic's hair to become Marvel's top superspy. The cigar is on loan from Clobberin' Time Thing and the gun from the Punisher.
Norman Osborn and William Baker (Sandman) have always been drawn with the same weird hair, so once Sandy was released, this Unmasked Green Goblin was an obvious choice.
The Namor in the Defenders box set was wearing his black body suit, but whipping up this "classic" version only took a few seconds. That's Namor's entire upper body, Green Arrow's hips and Gollum's legs and feet.
We finally got a Minimate Jigsaw, even if he was from the movie, but that just means it's easy to make a version of him from when everybody thought the Punisher had been killed. Just pop his head (and collar, to simulate the neck brace) on the Classic Punisher body.
At the end of the Bullseye and Moonstone review, we had a picture of the full Thunderbolts team - but there isn't a Songbird Minimate, so she had to be customized. If you want your own, you'll need the torso from a uniformed BSG figure (any will do), Shadowcat's belt, Wasp's chest cap and wings, Juggernaut's gloves, some plain white legs, and Jewel's hair - plus a lot of paint. Still, those are all off-the-shelf pieces.
In addition to inspiring these with the mention of blaxploitation films, Luke Cage lent his head and hands to both versions of the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks; John Shaft.
Patch's legs and Punisher's coat and arms were added, as well. Richard Roundtree used Cage's hair and Punisher's shirt (turned around backwards), while Samuel L. Jackson used the back of Phoenix's sweater.
My first DC Minimate custom - that Punisher hairpiece was just too perfect to pass up making a Superman - check out that spit curl! X-Men box set Cyclops' body provided the perfect red trunks on blue tights for the torso, and Captain America donated his legs.
DC Minimate Catwoman + DC Minimate Robin's hair = Selina Kyle, just getting ready to head out for the night. Robin's hair works perfectly for the new, shorter cut that Catwoman's cramming into her new mask.
Now that we've got the new Batgirl, it just made sense to make the previous version. Oracle is made from Prof. X's legs and chair, Batgirl's chest, Mary Jane's arms and hair and Emma Frost's head.
Someone said that you couldn't make any customs with the Indymates figures, so here's something to prove that wrong: by day, sexy businesswoman; by night, sultry dominatrix!
This was just a result of playing around with pieces. Yes, technically she should have brown shorts and a blue top, not the other way around, but this is what was handy. Recipe's kind of all over the place, too: Battlestar Galactica's variant Gina provided the torso and one of the holsters, Boomer gave her hair and the other holster, Six did the angry face, Peter Parker donated his backpack and hips, and the movie Gwen Stacy anted up the bare legs and boots.
He is a man of action. He is a man of honor. He is a man of duty. Here comes Dr. Tran! This summer, everyone's favorite action hero returns - and his name is Dr. Tran! Want to make your own? Modular Armor IM hair, James Howlett face and feet, Mariko torso and whatever legs you like.
Here's a fun one: you can make Aliens' Ripley quite easily. Start with Dana Barret's face, for the proper Sigourney Weaver likeness; for her shirt, Weapon X Wolverine's torso, turned backwards so she doesn't have chest hair; Sarah Connor donates her bare arms and harness; you can use any light gray legs for her pants, but these come from Rhino; the shoes and hair belonged to the Beyonder. Oh, and you can use any gun you want, but this particular one came from one of the Terminator Endoskeletons.
Take Cheetah's body, Real Ghostbusters Winston's head and hands, and Egon's hair, and you've got yourself a Fifth Element Ruby Rhod (annoying voice not included).
It's simple to turn Morgan Jones into Lee Everett: all you need is Black Panther's hair and Miles Dyson's axe!
What's your best Minimate recipe? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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