A few months ago, our very own Stark Resilient sent me his swap figure: A fantastic, classic Melter! He knows I love my classic Marvel Comics, and that includes the original Masters of Evil. Well, this sweet figure got me thinking about putting the Masters of Evil together on my villains shelf.I already have Radioactive Man. Then I got looking at the ToyBiz Baron Heinrich Zemo. When this figure first came out, I loved it. He's a great villain, and at the time, I thought he looked cool; he was one of my favorite ToyBiz figures. Fast forward thirteen years, and looking at him compared to the surrounding recent Hasbro offerings, I noticed he definitely stands out, but not for the right reasons; he's starting to really show his age. It was then that I resolved to redo Helmut's father.

Recipe:
Head, fur collar, belt/skirt, mind-control staff: Baron Zemo (ToyBiz)
Arms, torso: Shatterstar
Legs: Karl Mordo
Death ray: Nick Fury (MCU Giant-Man Series)

I started by heating, separating, and sanding down the joints with a hair dryer and Dremel, respectively. I also removed the legs from the Karl Mordo figure by boiling and splitting the upper thigh joints from the hip balls; I heated the Shatterstar thighs in much the same fashion, only they easily popped off vs the need to be split. I heated and removed the head, belt/skirt piece, and fur collar from the old ToyBiz figure. I used an X-acto knife to remove the gun handle from the holster. I also had to shave down the seams and other designs on his boots.

Before reassembling the parts, I painted them and the joints an appropriate base color (yellow for the gloves and hands, brown for the boots, and purple for the rest). Then I sculpted the fur of the tops of his boots with Milliput and a toothpick. I painted the fur grey when it dried, and gave it a white dry brushing to have it match the color of the collar fur. I then painted black dots on the boots and collar fur. I gave the yellow gloves a light orange wash. I gave the costume a dark purple wash. I resculpted the boots in several spots (complete with wrinkles) before painting them a medium brown, and then giving them a light brown dry brushing (I gave the holster the same color of brown with some silver for the buttons).

After hollowing out a bigger hold for the neckball joint with my Dremel, I repainted the head red, as the gold on the original was painted rather sloppily. I then painted a thinned down black down the sculpted lines of the mask. I finished him by giving everything but the gloves a matte Modpodge finish.

And with that, I now have the perfect leader for my Masters of Evil; I now just need a Nathan Garrett/Black Knight II and Executioner. Well, and maybe a 1st Appearance Wonder Man. This was a really fun character to remake.