Ok, I got my Halo figs about 3 hours ago --- this custom/fix took about 90 minutes total. So I can see myself doing it with many, many more Spartans.

The McFarlane Spartan looked cool enough, but he had massive child-bearing hips. Looks like he's wearing Depends under his armor. The first thing I did was swap out his crappy waist with the one from my 25A MC custom (unfortunately, my MC had to die so that this one might live ). His torso & head were perfect for a 1:18 custom, IMO. I wasn't too thrilled with his gorilla arms and long-ass legs & big feet however - so I knew I'd have to fix those or replace them somehow. All his joints are boil-n-poppable, so it made everything extremely easy.

First, my original 25A custom & my JvC custom:


Here's the first test shot with the upper body on my old MC's lower:



Then I went to work on the arms & legs to shorten them but still retain full range of articulation. On the legs I chopped off about 1/8" off the top of the thighs (cut at an angle), then I chopped off close to 1/4" off his ankles, then re-drilled the holes and Dremeled out some recesses in his ankles to allow the joints to sit in more tightly.

Then I did a quick size comparison:



Pop quiz: at 1:18 scale, how tall would a 7' character be? Answer: 4 2/3 inches. Guess how tall my new John 117 is?

For his arms, I didn't want to chop anything if I didn't have to -- so I popped everything out and drilled & Dremeled deeper recesses in the elbows & wrists. That took about 1/4" or so off the total length, which I'm happy with. They're still pretty long, but not so lanky and he'll be holding weapons all the time anyway, so it's not even noticeable.

So anyways - less than 90 minutes later (which includes the time it took for the paint to dry), I present to you my Definitive, Complete Spartan 117-- The Master Chief:

Still fully poseable:


In-scale with the Joes at last!


"Short people got, no reason. Short people got, no reason..."


And paired up with the awesome Pred custom that GIJoey made me:



So anyway, this thing was hella easy to make - all you need is a Dremel, a 25A Roadblock torso (and the upper part of his legs), a pot of hot water, and an X-acto Saw and he's all yours. I'm going to be customizing the other two Spartans above into a Magenta CQB (Lil' Chief's character) and a Brown/Green Mk IV (mine) - both 1:18 scale. The Master Chief was so damn easy there's no hesitation in chopping them up the same way.

One thing to note -- I had originally sculpted the "mesh armor" on my 25A MC's mid-section, so it transferred well to this new version. So I suppose there would be need for a small amount of sculpting to get it to look right, or you could just find a way to use the existing McFarlane lower torso.

Good luck to those of you who want to try it - it's a piece of cake.

Cheers!


Edit: -- added my quickie Cortana -- just a Microlady (forget which one) with some effeminate dude's head (since nearly all Anime-style dudes look like chicks )



I wish the clear spots were a light blue, but I didn't want to jack it up and lose the transparency. So I guess this can just be "dark Cortana" or something. I mean, she's got a ponytail now, so her program's changed a little bit, right? And at least she has elbows & knees, unlike the "light-up" version

_________________

simply amazing

_________________

So wait, how exactly did you merge the Roadblock parts to the Chief's torso?

Okay,
I dig the shorter size. I might have gone a little taller like the size of the pred, but I like him shorter.
Did both sections of the torso pop off the chest and waist and did you just slide them over the new torso?
Did you make the feet smaller?
Do his thighs rub together when you pose him.

Cool

MC has a ball-socket on his upper torso (the two haves are joined by a rod with a ball on each end) -- after I boiled-n-popped him, he sat on the RB torso's connector peg just fine. To secure it in there, I put a few beads of superglue around the top of RB's peg and let it dry - now it pops in there like a ball joint itself and fits fine. If I had the time, I would have sculpted a ball out of green stuff, but I was in a hurry to knock this one out.

I just cracked open my white Spartan, and the crotch piece is molded seperately from the lower torso, so you could easily take the MC lower torso and glue it/mold it to any Joe waistpiece (doesn't even need to be 25A after all) and that way you don't have to sculpt the mesh. Wish I would have noticed that the first time - I wouldn't have had to destroy my 25A MC

Did that answer your question?

_________________

The Joe parts on this one include the lower torso, waist, and about 3/8" of RB's upper legs. I just found out that I could have used the factory lower torso, but I didn't when making this one. So the upper torso is McFarlane's, the lower torso is mine.

Feet are exactly the same - but I Dremeled the ankles (and chopped them down) so they sit deeper in the joints. Feet weren't touched.

Thighs don't rub -- it took a few minutes to fix that part, because they're so big. I ended up Dremeling out the recesses closer to the inside of the thighs so I could glue RB's stubs in there - as long as MC's feet are about shoulder-width apart, there's no contact between his thighs. And he can sit better than every one of the Wave 1 25A figs

Thanks guys!

_________________

Yeah,
I tried to modd one a couple days ago on the Colossus you sent me, but it was to floppy and pissed me off and I gave up.
Plus the hips were to close together. I might make my next attempt on a Visionaries figure.

Here's a shot to show how much I took off the legs (the vast majority of the height difference)

_________________

Dear Uncle Chief: Can you make me one for Christmas?

That is AWESOME! I wish they were like that from the factory.

_________________

lol - thanks VL!

I just hope the Arbiter is as easy to shrink. Anybody see any pics of the McFarlane Arbiter standing next to a Spartan so I can get an idea of it's size?

_________________

That's awesome work. I was just whining to John about the stock metal diaper and child bearing hips that this figure came with.

A perfect update - it looks fantastic! Props!

_________________

now thats a great fix. nice job.

_________________

Very cool, that settles my question on whether to get Spartans or not. Little annoyed that I'll have to find a bunch of Roadblocks, but oh well...

The Elites (and Arbiter) are about 8 ft. tall, so you could probably splice him with some shorter figure to bring the toy's height down.

That being said, I think Master Chief looks a little too bulky now that you shortened him. Nice seamless work though

Updated 1st post with a pic of Cortana.

_________________