Let me start by saying that I normally don’t take action figures outside to take pictures of them. I do love seeing outdoor shots, but it’s just a lot of trouble to get them set up, and I would rue the day that one of my neighbors catches me doing so. But for this custom Marvel Legends Zabu, I was compelled.
You may remember GrownNerd’s entry in CustomCon 22, Savage Land Face-Off Zabu & Ultra-raptor. If you haven’t seen that, you’ve got to check it out. What you may not know is that the Zabu in that CustomCon entry is the *second* Zabu he made. When he posted the recipe for Zabu on his customs thread at TheFwoosh.com, he revealed that he wasn’t happy with the first. I suggested that I take the first one off his hands because it was such a piece of crap, and shortly thereafter, I had this beauty in my hands. Never underestimate the power of sarcasm coupled with suggestion!
I’ll suggest that you read GrownNerd’s recipe for how he constructed this beast of beauty, but let me summarize it here too. It’s constructed out of the Marvel Legends Savage Land boxset Zabu, a Sigma Six Tiger (the predecessor to Zabu), and the torso joint of a Chronicles of Narnia Aslan. I guess karma had a hand in this, as I had traded an Aslan to GN that went into this project, when I realized that I was never going to convert it to a Zabu like I had planned when I originally bought it as fodder.
When GN sent Zabu, he was in the base coat stage of painting. This is yet another indicator of GN’s absolute dedication to perfecting his craft – by the time I’m ready to paint, there’s no criticism that can be levied that would cause me to abandon a custom. In any case, I did complete the painting on Zabu, and while I think I did a serviceable enough job, I still prefer GN’s paint job – it’s a lot more even and smooth.
I really didn’t have a plan for how I was going to paint it. I started with a really wet coat of Apple Barrel Apricot, followed by a heavy wash of Apple Barrel Dark Chocolate. I then drybrushed more Apricot and then shaded using another Dark Chocolate wash.
I have to say, I was pretty impressed that Hasbro made the Savage Land box set to begin with. And while the Zabu from that set didn’t match up stylistically with the detailed sculpts of Shanna and Ka-Zar, I understood the Sigma Six reuse and had come to grips with it. But this custom just blows the original toy away.
The extra articulation really enables Zabu to get in some very expressive poses, and the detailed sculpting (much of which GN did using a soldering iron) makes him fit in perfectly with my Marvel Legends collection. I just cannot express how much appreciation I have to have this piece in my display.
Please check out GrownNerd’s custom thread on TheFwoosh.com. He’s had some of the most memorable CustomCon entries (see: Edgar Rice Burroughs Legends, Classic Justice Society of America, and his 6th Realm Combat Creatures) and his “it’s never too late to start over” dedication to making the best customs possible always results in (surprise!) the best custom action figures out there.
