NeoKnight Thunderpunch

from X-Men 2099 figure "Metalhead"

No rear view given, since there's really nothing to see.

Thunderpunch was easily the hardest character to find a good basis for. Big hulking strongmen toys tend to be twisted in ways that don't fit Thunderpunch at all. The Hulk toys might work, but they're not on clearance yet, and I'm reluctant to drop $7 on a toy to use in kitbashing. Metalhead came pretty close, though. Unfortunately, Metalhead has only three fingers (and a thumb) and two toes. The toes were easy enough to fix, since he had "mitten feet" that I just filed away at to create extra toes. But the work required to add an extra finger to each hand is beyond me, so Thunderpunch only has three fingers on each hand. Oh well. Also, Metalhead has a tiny little head and no helmet, so I had to make a decision on how to fix that.

Putting off the head issue for a while, I used a triangular file to give the toy toes, then to file his legs down to smoothness after using an X-Acto to cut away most of the detail of his baggy pants. Since his hip joints weren't set up like those of the Spawn females, moving his legs would rip off any paint at the hips. To prevent this, I glued his hips and then filled the cracks with piles and piles of structural paint. Also, between filing down parts of the pants cuffs and building up others, I built up the legbands Thunderpunch wears.

Moving up on the figure, I used structural paint to build up the shoulderpads and wristbands, then made my decision on the helmet. Let's face it, just about every artist to draw this guy gave him a terminally goofy helmet, and I really didn't want to go to a lot of effort to build a goofy helmet. So this Thunderpunch is helmetless. Also, I liked his look better when he had a beard, so I built up a beard and hair on the figure, hoping the final result wouldn't look too bad.

When it came time to paint the figure, I kinda regretted my decision to use the white collar seen on page 6 of Transformers #73. The flat green paint dried so evenly on the torso it looked like factory original...except where it covered the lumpier white. Oh well. The face turned out very well, I think, although the hair's a tiny bit lopsided. I even fixed Metalhead's gum condition (the original gums were red, I made thema healthier pink...might as well get SOME use out of the thousands I've been spending at the dentist's in the past year, yes?). I used light grey to create the appearance of fingernails and toenails, although this isn't visible in the scan above. And while the comic showed Thunderpunch's wristbands, legbands and occasionally his trunks (inconsistent coloring) as flat grey, I decided they really were gunmetal grey, within the limits of the coloring job in the comic. Finally, I decided not to paint the straps on the figure's biceps a different color, instead leaving them white.

The final figure retains full arm motion, including the punching gimmick of the original toy (push a lever in the back and the arms windmill). The torso still twists with effort, I wasn't able to keep that joint fully free of paint. And, of course, the legs no longer move.