As I was piecing together a modern custom, of a version of Shockwave that my step-brother made back in the day, I found that the paint scheme he did back around '91-'92 was actually released later on.
He liked Shockwave, but wanted a more military / Night Force look for the figure, so he painted his BDU's and cap olive green with a black mask and a black vest.
In this case, this color scheme was later released in 2008 as a Club convention exclusive, Shock Blast v1.
I was never aware of this figure previously, and thought it was kind of neat when I saw it.

No doubt many different people have had the same ideas for parts combos and paint decos, so what custom parts combos or paint schemes have you made, that were later used on some form of production figure?

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Hasbro never steals my ideas. now you have me wondering, why doesn't Hasbro ever steal my ideas? :/

Actually, the closest I've come to being Hasbrowned was while working on the GI Jane Custom Con project and creating a working backpack. I explained to my wife how that hadn't been done before at this scale...then POC Firefly came along right before the projects reveal. But I think the goal for everyone at this scale is to bring the level of detail of the 12" stuff down to our level. Doesn't matter who gets their first, as long as we get there.

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Another one I remembered, which is kind of twofold, was that when we were kids, the custom character I created to represent 'me' for our big battles, started as a Night Force Spearhead. I then changed bits and pieces on him and one thing I did was give him a new helmet. I found an old Airborne v1 helmet that fit Spearhead's head really well, and I liked the look of it, so I used it. Since, back then, red goggles meant they were 'infrared', I painted the goggles red so my guy could see in the dark.
Then in 2013 when the club convention set came out, with a modern version of Night Force Spearhead, not only did he come with goggles, but they were red.

The other part is that back when I created my character, I was also obsessed with Colonial Marines from Aliens. So just about all of my guys were given boom mics for their helmets, including the Airborne helmet my character was using. So then when the modern Airborne was released, in 2008, with a boom mic added to his helmet, I thought it was kind of cool.

Now I'm not trying to insinuate that Hasbro or the club 'stole' my ideas, or are copying us, or anything at all like that.
There is really no way anyone working for either would even know about the things we did with our Joes when we were kids. I just think it's a neat coincidence when they come up with some of the same things we did years ago.

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I came up with the name "Shadow-Viper" for some stealth troopers several years before Hasbro used it. Now, admittedly, it's a fairly obvious, and cool-sounding, name, for some Cobra stealth troopers, and I'm probably not the only person even on this board who came up with it at some point -- but it still annoyed me just a bit. And frankly, I think the figure I came up with is cooler than Hasbro's recolored Astro-Viper.

I never really had any designs stolen by Hasbro, but a couple of Hasbro guys had a little fun with me at an early Convention. There was an opportunity to show off one's custom work, and I'd recently completed a special team called "Blacklight Brigade". It was sort of a riff on Night Force as well as the bright colors Hasbro was using in the early 90's. Several Joes with black uniforms, but neon trim.

(It was also an excuse to use a set of neon paints that I'd picked up on clearance at a hobby shop.)

So while waiting for a seminar in the same room where people's customs were on display, I overheard Kirk Bozigian talking to Greg Berndtson, and saying just a little too loudly, "Hey, did you see those Blacklight figures? We oughtta rip those off and make them next year!"

I knew he was kidding, but I decided to play along and rather hastily introduced myself. I also explained that if they did actually want to make them, they could certainly do so. Obviously, that never happened, but it was a good opportunity to befriend Kirk, and we're still on good terms today, which is cool.

The Club does NOT equal Two separate Entities there.. :p So can't say it was released by IF the club released it and not

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I paired up a monkey with my custom Sigma 6 Shipwreck before the actual S6 Shipwreck w/ monkey was released. I know it wasn't based on my idea because I did my custom a few months or so before Hasbro's was revealed, well past when production would have happened. But it was fun to see we were thinking along the same lines.

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Oh don't get me started on the Inferno Bats.

A Hasbro official asked me to halt plans for production of my Project 95 clear castings of the Bat v2..... oh and look what showed up 6 months later....

But then again, for that one favor, I had cart-blanche to make any castings of the 95 proto type figures I wanted to.

John M>

I dunno, that SDCC Avac reminds me of something...

In all fairness, it's a pretty obvious color scheme (the black CG torso with red piping and metallic cobra symbol), but that CC WAS one of my more popular figures. I think if any of my ideas have been officially borrowed, that's probably it.

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I've seen more than one green Snow Cat as a custom.

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Hasbro Club did steal my idea for the Semantics Squad.

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