I searched for a muscular figure on Ebay to use for this custom shredder modification and this Incredible Hulk I found was for sale at a really good price. Sure he had some bangs and bruises from being played with but broken and used figures work great for mods.

When planning my custom figure I determined pretty quickly that this was going to mostly be a polymer clay and fabric modification with acrylic paint. Having modified one of these 13″ Hulk figures in the past I knew that I could not sculpt the polymer clay directly on the figure and bake it because the vinyl that these figures are made of has a pretty low melting point. I needed to come up with a different strategy.

The first step I took was sealing up a number of the joints with an air-dry clay. The clay starts to dry really quickly so I used a wet rag to smooth it into areas. This saves a lot of sanding!

Once the clay was dry I sealed the clay and figure with a coat of purple spray paint.

The way I ended up creating Super Shredder’s blades and armored pieces was to sculpt the polymer clay directly onto the figure. Yes, I realize I said I couldn’t do that. The clay was still warm and pliable at this point. I would then take the figure and place it in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes. This caused the polymer clay to become firm and provided the opportunity for me to take a small sculpting tool and carefully pry the pieces off without them losing their shape. Then it was just a matter of putting the clay pieces in the oven for baking.

After Super Shredder’s helmet and armor was cooled I painted the pieces using dry brushing techniques. The next step was to actually go and fine tune the painting details on the figure. Once the colors seem ed Super Shredder-like, I started gluing and applying the various piece of armor onto the figure.

The last elements that I created were Super Shredder’s cape and his loin cloth. I used some spare fabric and sanded the edges after I cut it into the desired shape. Sanding the edges helped give the look of worn, torn clothing. To finish Shredder off I mixed some acrylic paints until I achieve the faded color that I wanted and dipped the cloth in the acrylic paint. After saturating and wringing out some of the paint I draped the cloth pieces into position and applied the final sections of armor.

This Halloween Color Blanks figure had a pumpkin head and I was immediately inspired to see how I could transform it into something different. I took out my plastic clay and started molding pieces to make the face look scary and added spikes to the head. 

To modify the feet I extended some pieces of clay to create sharp toes. The teeth were created by taking some wooden sticks, much like popsicle sticks that you can purchase from a craft store, and cutting them up into little wood squares. I then painted them with acrylics and stuck this directly into the soft, unbaked clay.

I stuck my Halloween Color Blanks figure in the oven at about 250° suspecting that it would need to be baked at a little bit lower temperature because of not knowing how easily the plastic would melt. When I took the figure out of the oven everything looked pretty much intact except the hands got a little bit warped and bubbled from the heat.  In this case it lent itself to the modification and making my figure scarier but I would need to solve this on future custom Color Blanks. From the heat warping of the plastic figure it could also not stand correctly anymore. The solution I found was to mount the figure to a base with glue. I ended up using a base that I had from another figure that had broken a long time ago.

I finish my Color Blanks figure with a mixture of acrylic paints, sharpies and micron pens to achieve the desired look. If you get a chance check out some of my other custom figures too!

Customized Halloween Color Blanks Figure

One afternoon I decided to take my kids to Toys “R” Us and while in the figure section looking at Marvel comics toys  I found this Red Hulk bank. It seemed fairly sturdy as far as Hulk toys go however the mold was kind of cheesy looking and the paint job was really bad; also they used the same mold for the green incredible Hulk and the hair looked nothing like the Red Hulk’s. Another minor issue was that my Incredible Hulk was missing its bottom so you couldn’t store money in the bank.

I took it up to the register as is and was able to get it at a discounted price of only $10. Not to bad considering an actual Incredible Hulk statue will run you $80 – $250 easy!

Red Incredible Hulk statue before modification.

To start making my custom Red Hulk I got out some colored polymer clay, red, orange and little bit of yellow acrylic paint and started to go to work on it.

I tried to color match the skin on the back to cover up the money slot  by mixing clay colors and patching it. Next I made flames on the back inspired by the cover of the first Marvel Red Hulk comic book. I then gave him more of a flattop hair style like he has in the comic book as does his alter ego; which I won’t tell you here if you haven’t ever found out who the Red Hulk really is!

The next thing I did was put the Hulk statue in the oven at a lower degree temperature than the clay recommends in case there was any distortion issues with the actual plastic mold.

After the Hulk was cooled off from being in the oven I used acrylics to paint him and do touch ups to flame work as well as the hair, eyes and teeth and highlight the muscles. Finally I sprayed the new and improved Red Hulk statue with a protective clearcoat.

These modified figures are always great fun to do and I love doing these as commissions!  Check out the finished Red Hulk below!

Finished product, custom Incredible Red Hulk statue

Custom Red Hulk Statue, side view

Wouldn’t be great if they somehow included Red Hulk in an Avengers sequel!