A good chunk of these come from the "hey, that works" method of customizing. Meaning that I was just goofing around, slapping parts together and thought they looked good.
First up is "Hoot" - he's based on the Blackhawk Down composite character of Norm "Hoot" Gibson/Hooten (depending on which source you cite) - played by Eric Bana. When I discovered that the 'Bruce Bana' looked pretty good on a 25A body (thanks to T Crow), I went ahead and slapped this together and liked the look of it. Since the character of Hoot was based on at least 3 different real-life soldiers, I thought it was a nice homage without having to tie his back-story to a real person. But I loved Bana's portrayal and that's how I see this Hoot - only he's a Joe now (which is pretty much what he was in the movie anyway

)

Then I've got another guy that I'm still trying to name. I liked the Build-Brawlers (or whatever the hell they're called), despite their small scale. And the Cena head was just asking to be put on a custom, so I took a body I was using for a Daniel Craig/Bond SAS custom and just added Cena's head, which looked way better than the Golden Compass Craig head.

Maybe I'll use him as my unmasked BeachHead, maybe I'll use him for an original character. Thoughts?
Then there's a characer I never thought I'd make. I had no desire to own a Chuckles, and I always thought that while the character had potential, he always seemed kind of lame. But when I got my Fred/Scarface comic-pack yesterday and decided to use Duke heads for my CGs rather than the Fred head (because I have a crapload of Dukes), I decided that Fred would make a good Chuckles. I had a Shippy/SE combo WIP sitting on my desk for a different custom, so I threw this together. I gave him a darker shirt, but tried to stick with the original look (stupid as it is.)


I've been working on an Iceberg since I got my second SnowJob. I still haven't found the right head, though. It's tough finding black heads without facial hair - I tried the BBI head, but it wasn't mean enough. Then I went with CP Hawk's head, but it's not right either. The Dremeled Big Ben hat doesn't fit right on any heads, so I might just either put a watch cap on a Stalker head or glue the BB hat on somebody. What a pain in the ass. Any suggestions on a great Iceberg-y head?


Finally, my 25A Slaughter. I've had this as a WIP for months, but kept ignoring it because I got too busy at work and I really didn't care enough about the character. I'm sure I've mentioned this a dozen times, but after Slaughter's little BS "treason" back in 1990 when he turned Heel/Saddam sympathizer as part of a marketing ploy, I lost all respect for the real-life person along with his "character". I had just joined the Army, so I was an adult and understood that it was a gimmick for ratings & whatnot, but then I started thinking of the kids with their Slaughter figures and how they looked up to him as a role model (something he perpetuated every chance he got) and wondered how they felt knowing their hero was a bad guy and bad-mouthing his country (the two neighbor-kids from back home wrote me while I was in Basic Training about the whole thing - they were wrasslin' fans and Joe fans - ages 14 & 12 - they were both pretty upset.) Had he never shoved the whole role model thing down our throats with constant tv/cartoon appearances and all that, I wouldn't have given a crap, but he (figuratively) wiped his ass with the American Flag in front of all his fans, and (again, figuratively) told the kiddies back home with their GI Joes to go f*#k themselves. So I will always see him as a douche who compromised his fake principles for some slightly higher ratings in a fake sport. Yeah, I know that many of you have met him in real life and that he's probably a nice guy. -- Doesn't change the doucheyness factor for me, however

That said, the comic/Joe Slaughter also turned traitor and became Cobra's Drill Instructor. Now he can have his ass handed to him frequently by the Joes and Brawler can give him the high hard one whenever the mood hits.

I still need to slap a Cobra sigil on his chest - but maybe I'll leave it blank and he can be a merc, since he doesn't know "LASER BLAST" about loyalty anyway

And I hear he has quite the man crush on the twins


Anyway - let me know what you think.
Cheers!