Hiya Realm! Been a while since I posted, but good news: I've finally started working on new figures again! My recovery has improved CONSIDERABLY in the last few weeks, and I actually started work on a pretty cool - if relatively simple - continuation of my NECA TMNT line. Baby steps! Anyway, I'll be posting that another day, but for now, here's another piece from before the accident, and not just a custom I did before, but not even my first iteration of the character, someone I've done and posted here before. That boisterous bruiser and uneasy ally of the TMNT, you all know him, you all love him, it's Casey Jones!

In the original Mirage Comics, Arnold "Casey" Jones was a street tough and night club bouncer who turned to vigilantism out of frustration and rage from the death of his father and a subsequent severe beating at the hands of the Purple Dragons, a love interest (and eventual husband) for April O'Neil, and a close ally of the TMNT, who see him as a bit over-the-top and aggressive but still a dear friend and kindred spirit in their fight on crime.

The '87 cartoon ditches almost all of the depth and nuance, and makes him a crazed, justice extremist, dim-witted, muscle-bound oaf who talks like Dirty Harry and threatens jaywalkers with a beating by hockey stick. *LOL*

Surprisingly, beyond the Turtles and Splinter themselves, Casey Jones is one of the LEAST altered characters in the series, and this includes his physical appearance. In fact, unlike even them, Casey is perhaps the only Mirage character to maintain his original color scheme: blue shirt, gray pants, brown golf bag, white hockey mask. Only the addition of green shoes, torn knees, fingerless gloves, and a brown shoulder pad really differentiate him from his first appearance comic design.

Well, that and the fact that comic Casey is muscled but wiry, lanky and agile, and cartoon Casey is built like a cinderblock wall and has been known to THROW ENTIRE ALL-IN-ONE WEIGHT MACHINES at his enemies!

It was with this in mind that I built my NECA-style cartoon Casey to be as buff and physically imposing as possible. Create-A-Superstar John Cena was a fantastic starting place, with both the muscled tank-top shirt upper body and sweatpants hips I needed (the same hip piece I used for my comic version of Casey some years back). I wanted thick, over-muscled legs to go with the Cena torso, but the legs that came with the CAS figure were rather bland and didn't look like cloth. DC Multiverse's "Dark Knight Returns" Mutant Leader figure had just the pants I needed, tight and stretched to absurdity, but still wrinkled and "cloth-like." The hip ball joints came from a gray-suited Jakks Pacific Deluxe Aggression John Bradshaw-Layfield, and the shoes were from a Legendary Comic Book Heroes Ann O'Brien. The head and golf bag and shoulder pad were, of course, all from the original Playmates Casey Jones.

Unlike my comic Casey Jones, I did not make this figure's golf bag removable. Among his many absurd qualities, cartoon Casey NEVER removes his mask or his gloves or his golf bag. EVEN WHEN DRESSED IN A BUSINESS SUIT!! *sigh* Man, I LOVE this guy, he's so ridiculous.... Anyway, in addition to the old faithfuls - two bats and a golf club and a hockey stick - I gave this Casey a billy club ('cuz I had it lying around, and it's definitely a Casey thing to have) and a sledge hammer ('cuz cartoon Casey carries around a @#$%in' SLEDGE HAMMER to threaten minor criminals, 'cuz @#$% logic and reason and measured response!!) to round out his arsenal.

I had a blast putting this figure together, combing through episodes to get an accurate understanding of the character, and in the process, I came to adore the goofy absurdity of the guy. He's a great character in the comics, but in the '87 cartoon, he's just so pure and simple and just good dumb fun! Hope you like him!

TURTLE POWER!!