Hero Hacker

Photograph by Jane Burns

As anyone who’s ever perused the action figure Burns now has some 200 custom figures in his aisles at Toys “R” Us or the meticulously appointed collection, including everything from a 70s-era McFarlene Toys at the local comic shop can tell Red Tornado (DC Universe) and the obscure Black you, models of cartoon, movie, and comic book Condor to dozens of DC and Marvel figures done in characters have become big business. But what if the style of the animated Batman and Superman TV your comic love falls to those obscure second- or shows. And then there’s the beloved Jonny Quest, third-string characters never likely to see the inside complete with his dog Bandit. While this remains a of an injection mold? If you’re Bill Burns, or a hobby for him, he does get commissions, some-growing number of other “custom figure” makers, times from the cartoon/comic creators themselves. you go all recombinant plastic on your existing A few years back, he was hired by the Cartoon Net-collection and hack together the heroes (or villains) work to create a Space Ghost figure for use on their that you long to see in 3D. website. Like most hobbyists, any money Burns

The recent explosion of the figure industry, makes he pours right back into his obsession. especially among adult collectors, and the growth For those who want to try their hand at figure of the net alongside it, have led to a rapidly hacking, Burns offers a few tips: “Start out simple, expanding community of figure hackers. Burns maybe just repainting a figure or sculpting a few says: “For years, I looked at the ‘Homemade Heroes’ small details, and then work your way up.” An excel-section in Wizard magazine [a comic enthusiasts’ lent how-to section and tons of figure hacks can be pub] and said to myself, ‘I could do that.’ After get- found at Casimir’s Inanimate Objects ( pilliod.net). ting over the anxiety of cutting up perfectly good —Gareth Branwyn figures, I began to customize characters that I knew toy manufacturers would never produce.”