Yes, I made a Punisher custom, even though Hasbro just released a perfectly good Punisher figure as part of the third wave of (Return of) Marvel Legends. And it’s not that I dislike the figure that’s on shelves now – I love the head sculpt and just wanted to see it on a classic spandex-clad Punisher instead of the trenchcoat version we got.
My initial idea was to swap arms from Hasbro’s previous attempt at Punisher to the new one, and at some point I had aspirations to make the arms swappable, so I’d have one figure that could either have the trench or ditch it. Since the previous Punisher did not have bicep swivels, the plan was to saw off the arms close to the shoulder disk and drill out a socket in the bicep. However, when I popped off the trenchcoat arms from the new Punisher, I saw that the pegs were pretty small. With the ratcheted shoulders, I got concerned that I wouldn’t be able to make a socket tough enough to withstand the torque needed to rotate the shoulders.
At the same time Industrial made the observation that Hasbro could have used the Bucky Cap body instead, so I popped the head onto USAgent and agreed that it was a much better approach. The final custom uses the USAgent body, Bucky Cap arms and belt, and SHIELD Agent boots – so far the only plain-booted fodder on the Bucky Cap body is Archangel, so the SHIELD Agent was a preferable sacrifice, especially since it would avoid paint rub in the ankles. The only paint needed was for the skull on his chest and his gloves.
I still love the Punisher that Toy Biz made way back in series 4 of their Marvel Legends run. This one is a particularly good fit for the Hasbro run, as there has been a little shrinkage for the standard figure size.
Height-wise, he’s still a decent match for TBML series 4 Punisher, but carries a little less mass. While I like the RoML custom, my favorite is still the custom I got from Joshua Izzo – he combined the series 4 Punisher with the Face-Off 2-pack Punisher, with outstanding results.
