For me personally, the awesomeness of any given hero is largely determined by the level of threat that he or she must overcome. This is one of the main contributing factors as to why the Super Joe toy-line rocked so hard; the villains were crazy looking lizard people! This custom is a tribute to one of the favorite toys of my wild and wooly youth, the malevolent Darkon! In a MOTU Faker-ish move Hasbro decided to cut costs on the vintage figures by re-using the mold for The Commander to create his nemesis. The only difference was that Darkon had green skin, red eyes, a mustache like Salvador Dali and eyebrows like Rip Torn (paint apps). Oh yeah, and for some reason he refused to wear pants, instead preferring to wage war on the human race from the comfort of his briefs. None of this ridiculousness phased me as a child however, and I even found a way within my own mind to work through the conundrum of having two different characters that obviously came out of the same mold....you see, Darkon is a shape shifter. The reason he so closely resembles The Commander is because he intentionally mimics him, perhaps because he is trying to get inside The Commander's head and mentally freak him out. Or maybe he derives some kind of other perverse pleasure or satisfaction from it; then again, maybe he does it solely because he's a jerk! Whatever his reasons are for mirroring The Commander, it is safe to say that in his natural state Darkon probably more closely resembles his master Gor, The King Of The Terrons. Darkon is Gor's right hand, and is the guy that you've gotta go through to get to the big boss. He creates a lot of trouble and hardship for our boys The Super Joes.
Darkon was made using a generic CTVT male body that was re-strung to maximize tightness and articulation. I've found that re-stringing CTVT bodies makes a world of difference in the way the bodies hang and perform. If you're into playing with Megos, I highly recommend taking the time and effort to learn how to do this as you will not be disappointed with the results. He was painted with Model Masters Acryl and sealed with Mod Podge. His vest and boots are vintage, and the head is from a CTVT Blackbeard. The helmet comes from CTVT also. His sword, which is way too detailed for a proper mego accessory, comes from a Witchblade figure. It looks so good and fits so well in his hand that I figured what the heck, let's go for it. The original figure had a sword that looked like a chrome lightning bolt.
This concludes my Super Joe experiment for now, but I may come back and re-visit this line in the future, and create the rest of the characters that I didn't get around to in this particular battle. Thanks for checking out my work and good luck to you! Adios