Do-It-Yourself Hulk
04.22.06 By Collin DavidSo, it’s pretty much generally agreed upon that action figures are awesome, and if you don’t agree, I’ll meet you behind the cafeteria after school and we’ll settle it once and for all. They represent interesting characters, they’re posable, and you can play with them. So, what do you do when you want to bring these same characters into a world where you don’t have to look at unsightly cut-joints and generic factory paint jobs? When you want a finely crafted sculpture of your favorite character? Why, you make your own!
There are a variety of companies who make outstanding full-body statues of heroic characters, but these usually sell for hundreds of dollars. You might not want to put off buying dinner for a few nights just so you can have a sculptural representation of The Thing poised neatly between your Hummel figurines, though I venture there’s nothing that deserves clobbering much more than Hummel figurines. The other option is to purchase a kit to make your own superhero, with your own colors and craftsmanship. If you assemble it well, it will completely defy anything that you can purchase pre-made.
While the world of hobby models is dominated by vehicles and inappropriate anime girls, there’s a small and exciting section of super hero model kits that have been mass-produced primarily by Toy Biz and Horizon. Cast from inexpensive vinyl, they present a much more economical and fun way to display various comic characters. Both companies no longer produce these models, but the Toy Biz models are still fairly easy to find at very cheap prices, and there’s an interesting (and very possibly illegal) overseas market that produces duplicates the Horizon models.
The Toy Biz models focus on Marvel Characters that are in a scale which matches most action figures, about 7 or 8 inches tall. They’re generally regarded as cheap and flimsy, but I’m of the school of thought that if you’re going to get a model kit, you’re going to have to do a LOT of work to make it look good. These models have some great, dynamic poses and come with small dioramas to place them in, and if you assemble them right, you’ll never be able to even tell that they’re made of cheap plastic. There are various ways to make the models feel less hollow, but from a visual standpoint, they’re solid.
Horizon models, on the other hand, are seen as much higher quality materials. They’re made of solid parts, and in a larger 1/6th scale also, meaning that a character who is six or seven feet tall in the comics will be about a foot tall in model form. The poses 
aren’t quite as fluid and exciting as the Toy Biz stuff, but the range of characters is wider, and the larger models are more formidable in appearance and generally easier to assemble. Original Horizon model kits can reach some high prices, but a quick eBay search for ‘vinyl model kits’ will result in hundreds of auctions in Asian countries for startlingly similar models. These are called ‘re-casts’, which an individual or small copyright-be-damned company has taken an original model kit and reproduced it by making their OWN molds from the pieces in the kit. They’re usually not perfect and will have many more flaws than the official kit, and may suffer from warping and bubbling, but there’s no damage that can’t be repaired with some skillful hands, a hair dryer and some putty. They will not come
with instructions, and will probably just be bagged in plastic with a blurry photo of what the final model SHOULD look like, so there’s always a risk of getting an inferior product.
The vinyl model kits will take many hours of assembly and a good variety of equipment, ranging from cyanoacrylate glue to razors, paintbrushes and paints, clamps and an absurd amount of patience, but to transform something from cheap, bright plastic into a smooth work of art is a powerful feeling. There are many online tutorials to guide you through, as well as tricks that you’ll figure out along the way, and in the end, you’ll have a unique piece to add to your collection. You can also occasionally purchase completed model kits, which again reach into the hundred-dollar range if they’re assembled well.
I find them to be exceptionally thrilling, so I recently imported ten Horizon re-casts from Asia for about one hundred bucks plus shipping, all of which appear to be of solid quality. Sure, I don’t exactly have the time or space to set up a foot-tall, hand-painted Iron Man right now, but when I do, he’ll totally kick your butt.
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Article Tags: DIY, Heroes, Horizon, Hulk, re-casts, statues, Toy Biz, vinyl model================
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