Before we kick 2009 to the curb and replace it with a bright shiny new 2010, there's time to add one more Minimate to the ol' web site. It's another holiday-themed custom, so posting it on the pseudo-holiday week between Christmas and New Years is appropriate. It's the Santa Silver Surfer, a special All-Christmas version of the Marvel character made to be part of a Secret Santa gift. Go check him out.

And Happy New Year everyone. May 2010 be brighter and better for us all.

Ah, December - it feels like you've passed by at lightning speed in a mix of snowstorms, present shopping, colds and the occasional burst of holiday cheer. And now, with Christmas only a few days away, now is the perfect time to reveal one of the holiday-themed customs I've been working on all month - Peppermint Armor Iron Man. He's a festive blend of holiday cheer and high-tech firepower.

And as a little bit of housekeeping, I've added my entries for the latest CustomCon to the site. So if you haven't taken a look at my Jonny Quest Minimates or Mystery Science Theater 3000 Minimates yet, now's the perfect time to do so. And have a safe and joyous holiday season this year.

Christmas is inevitable, so work must continue on the holiday Minimates. Stupid non-negotiable deadlines...

Currently decking my workbench with boughs of Minimate customs - fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

Quick shot from my primer box, as I begin work on making the holiday-themed Minimate plan from earlier this week into a real Minimate custom. Will I have it ready by Christmas? Stay tuned...

CustomCon 24 continues today with my second set of custom Minimates - the characters from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Go check them out, and take a look at the other entries of CustomCon, including a really great set of zombie Minimates.

A quick note that today is the first day of CustomCon 24, and the first of two sets of customs I submitted was posted today. My first set is a tribute to the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon Jonny Quest. Go check them out, and take a look at the other entries for CustomCon - there's some good stuff up there today.

Some of my best ideas happen in meetings at work. And sometimes those ideas are actually for work. The page above is from a recent meeting where I came up with an idea for a new holiday-themed Minimate custom.

Dipping back into "The In-Progress Box" and working on finishing a few of the customs that I have sitting in there. With any luck and concentration they should be ready by the end of the year. Hopefully.

Welcome to the last entry for Lots of Lanterns month, the celebration of the Green Lantern Corps and their enemies. And what look at Green Lanterns would be complete with taking a look at the most famous Green Lantern - Hal Jordan. He's done it all - saved the universe, been possessed by a yellow space bug, destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, recreated the Big Bang, died, came back as the Spectre, and was finally resurrected good as new.

So this week let's take a look at this leading Lantern in some of his different looks. The first is Green Lantern as a Sinestro Corps member which I'm not sure actually appeared in the comics, but it got an action figure and that's good enough for me.

Next up is Green Lantern as a Red Lantern which did appear in the comics and get an action figure.

And finally, I present powered Green Lantern, who is based on an action figure and is all translucenty and cool.

And with those three customs, we end the current Lots of Lanterns month. But rest assured - with 7200 Green Lantern members, there will be more Green Lantern customs coming.

With our lamps still burning strong, we continue on with Lots of Lanterns month, the celebration of the Green Lantern Corps and their enemies. And when you think of Green Lantern enemies, there's one name that stands above the rest - Sinestro, the renegade Green Lantern.

Sinestro recently upped the stakes in his war against the Green Lantern Corps by creating the Sinestro Corps - an army of being that inspire great terror. Each member of the Sinestro Corps has a yellow power ring, which works like the Green Lantern ring, except it uses yellow energy. This ties into a much larger story that's currently going in Green Lantern that I'm not going to try and summarize this week. Maybe next week.

So this week I present Sinestro, in his spiffy new Sinestro Corps outfit. And I'm throwing in one of his Sinestro Corps members, Murr the Melting Man, because a mindless acid zombie with a power ring is a pretty cool concept. So go check these dastardly villains out, and come back next week when we wrap up Lots of Lanterns Month.

An early look at two members of my Top Secret Custom Con set. They'll look better for Custom Con.

More Green Lantern customs next Wednesday. Not Green Lanterns, but Green Lantern villains.

Hold your lantern high because we're still in Lots of Lanterns month, the celebration of the Green Lantern Corps and their enemies. This week we take a closer look at one of the overlooked aspects of the Corps - their dress code.

For many years, the Corps had all their members wear the same uniform - green boots, white gloves, black and green leotard. There were exceptions - some members had to wear something different because of extra appendages or a gem-shaped body or having no solid form. From a customizer's viewpoint, having a dress code is a great thing. It means that if you have a Green Lantern body - like the Hal Jordan Minimate body - then you can make dozens of Lanterns just by changing the heads (see last week's Green Lantern customs for an example). It's easy, and yet DC Direct never took advantage of this when they were still making Minimates. That's #29 of my list of "Why I'm Still Angry They Stopped Making DC Minimates", by the way.

So this week for Lots of Lanterns Month I present a couple more customs using the head swap trick. First up is Abin Sur, who's best known for giving his ring to Hal Jordan and making him a Green Lantern. The second custom is Ti'kee Eyd'll, an original creation of mine, because a Green Lantern with a head that looks like an Easter Island statue is cool, dammit. Finally, I present a member who's one of the exceptions to the dress code rule - Stel, the robot Green Lantern who's just not going to fit his transistorized body into a leotard. So go check them out, and come back next week for more Lantern-related customs.

If you were a bird and flying above my work table, this is what it would currently look like.

More Green Lantern customs on Wednesday.

Welcome to Lots of Lanterns month, celebrating the members of Green Lantern Corps and their enemies. For those who aren't up on their comics - the Green Lanterns Corps is basically an intergalactic police force with 7200 members from all across the universe. But instead of using guns, they use power rings that respond to their will power, letting them manipulate green plasma energy to create shapes or blast the bad guys. Think of it as part cop drama, part science-fiction adventure.

To kick off Lots of Lanterns Month, let's take a look at a few past members of the Corps. First up is Arkkis Chummuck, the beastly yet honorable warrior of the Corps. Our second custom is Tomar-Re, long-time friend to Hal Jordan, one of the Green Lanterns from Earth. Go check them out, won't you?

The signs are there - bags of candy the size of pillows, stores full of ill-fitting kids costumes, and the ritualistic torture of pumpkins through carving. It must be time for Halloween, and therefore time for the annual Halloween update. To celebrate this year, I present two new ghoulish customs from Marvel's 1970's monster comics.

Our first Halloween custom is Simon Garth, the Zombie, who was a very mellow zombie - he never once said, "Brainsss....". The second custom is Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night, who was also very mellow - he never jumped up on the couch, and he loved to be scratched behind the ears.

So check out the new customs and remember to go out this weekend get your haunted Halloween freak on. But come back and visit in November, when I start my next theme custom month celebrating the Green Lantern Corps and their many, many members.

So yeah, it's been a while since an update. Last week was pretty much a sick week for me.

To make up for the lack of content, I present a new custom - the Mimic, the mutant with the power to duplicate any super power he comes near. And he used to come near the original X-Men a lot, so that's why he has the wings of the Angel, and the oversized hands and feet of the Beast.

Now, I like my Mimic. I used the best parts available at the time. But with a new First Appearance Beast with proper oversized hands and feet on the way, and new wings that don't come attached to a bulky chest piece, I kinda feel like my Mimic is already outdated. It's the perils of being a customizer, I guess.

Eh, enough complaining. Come back next week for some new custom Minimates to help celebrate Halloween.

It's the assorted limbs and parts from two members of my Top Secret Custom Con set, getting nice new coats of paint.

I'm kicking off another themed celebration with the focus on mutants. Not good mutants, just the evil mutants. Evil mutants who are European, preferably Irish. And it would be best if they had a cousin who was also a mutant and a member of the X-Men. So welcome to Evil Irish Mutant Cousins Week!

Oddly enough, there's at least one character that fits those ridiculous specific requirements - Black Tom Cassidy. Gifted with one of the worst Irish accents to ever be written in comics, Black Tom is the cousin of the X-Man Banshee. And he's a mutant, with the power to fire power blasts through his wooden staff. And he's evil - he and his criminal partner the Juggernaut have feuded with the X-Men and Spider-Man.

To sum up, Black Tom Cassidy is the perfect character to celebrate during Evil Irish Mutant Cousins Week. Go check him out, won't you?

Working on a custom for Halloween, and to get in the appropriate mood I've ripped the Minimate apart and impaled his body parts on pikes to strike fear into my enemies and to make it easier to paint.

Five years ago, I started this site to showcase my Minimate customs. And every year for the anniversary, I update the design of the site to keep things fresh and to confuse visitors. So I hope you like the new design and/or are confused right now.

I've also made a few small changes to the site here and there. The biggest is there's now an archive of all my posts available from the home page in my nifty new column on the right of this page. So if you want to see what posts I made in September 2006, you can find out. (Answer: I made no posts)

And since this is a customs site, how about I actually post a Minimate custom? This week, I present the Steel Spider, former nerd and super-villain fan turned Spider-Man fan and wannabe super-hero turned obsessive third-rate super-hero. Please, go check him out.

Big stuff still coming this week. In the meantime, enjoy these future customs, fresh from the "primer box".

Quick screen shot of what I'm currently working on in Photoshop. It's Minimate-related - you'll see how next week.

Blurry shot of a head I just finished. I have got to get a new camera with a better zoom. Or I could just stop trying to take extreme close-up shots of a little tiny Minimate head...

Back to painting after a several week break. Too bad I have to return with painting with yellow paint. I'm really beginning to hate yellow paint.

Thanks to the last few weeks, I've got a lot of Iron Man customs who have nothing to do. No cities in peril, no Avengers meetings to attend, not even a kitten stuck in a tree to rescue. Good thing I've got some Iron Man villain customs for them to fight.

And so I present Blacklash, the man with the mechanical whip, and Blizzard, the cold-hearted ice-making villains. While both have fought Iron Man repeatedly over the years, neither one has ever been a major threat. So while they're good villains, they make better punching bags. Go check them out, won't you?

After several weeks of custom Iron Man Minimates, we find ourselves at the end of IronMania. No tears, please, you'll only rust the armors. Let's finish this off with not one, but two Iron Man customs!

The first is Samurai Armor Iron Man. Yup, guy with a jet-equipped suit of armor with a sword. Don't laugh - it would be huge in Japan.

And speaking of the Japanese, that brings us to our second custom made by my wife Sarah - Japanese Schoolgirl Armor Iron Man. She made it as a companion piece for the ridiculousness awesomeness of Samurai Armor Iron Man. Both customs are on the same page for your convenience, so go forth and check them out.

And don't forget - Aladdin and Genie are up on eBay until Sept. 6th!

Three different Minimates - three different head pieces. All for future customs, including my Top Secret Custom Con sets.

Long-time visitors to this site might remember my Aladdin and Genie customs that I made for this year's Charitymates auction, with money raised for Books for Kids. Well, the auction has now started, so if you're interested in checking out the rest of the custom Minimates and maybe making a bid or two, check out the eBay auction page.

Auctions end Sept. 6th, so bid early and bid often.

One of the most appealing aspects of Iron Man is that he built his super-powers. When he needed to fly, Iron Man invented boot jets. When he needed to fly in space, Iron Man invented his space armor. And when he need to blow a lot of stuff up, Iron Man strapped a bunch of guns to his armor and called it "War Machine".

This week's custom is another from my imagination- it's Magnetic Armor Iron Man. I figure that Iron Man would take a look at Magneto and his powers of magnetism and think, "I could do that". Then he'd jet off to his workshop and create a suit of armor that gives him the awesome power of magnetism! This armor can attract metals! It can repel metals! And it can wipe clean computer hard drives and video tapes! Go check it out!

It's the event that comes well after the buzz from the first Iron Man movie has ended, and the excitement for the second Iron Man movie has yet to begin! It's IronMania, the worst-timed custom Iron Man Minimate celebration ever!

This week our custom comes from the comics - it's Stealth Armor Iron Man, but with a twist - a translucent blue body. It was never in the comics and it's not to help him turn invisible - I just think translucent figures are cool. Please check him out and see if you agree.

Part of the reason why it feels like I'm never getting any Minimates done is that I get distracted so easily. Like when I have an idea about combining parts, and so I try it out, and then I do some alterations, and add some pieces, and that leads us to what you see here.

This guy is a combination of Terminator robot parts and movie Iron Man parts, with shoulder fins made from cut plastic and Super Glue. You'll see him in all his completed glory in another theme month coming later this year - assuming I don't get distracted again.

As IronMania enters its second week, we continue our look at Tony Stark and his Iron Man suits of many colors. This week's featured color - black. I present Carbon Armor Iron Man - my original creation and excuse to paint a darker colored Iron Man.

Please enjoy and come back next week for another selection from the computerized closet of Iron Man.

Not really on my workbench this time - more like on my screen. Here's a quick look at some upcoming decal artwork I'm working on in Illustrator.

Tony Stark - he's the cool exec with a heart of steel! But when he dons his fantastic transistorized armor he becomes the Invincible Iron Man! He's been in comics! Cartoons! Toys! Even that blockbuster movie last year! And now he's getting Minimate customs! Welcome to IronMania, a month-long (or so) look at new customs for the various armors of Iron Man - some from the comics, and some original creations.

We start the IronMania celebration with an armor from the comics - Space Armor Iron Man. It's perfect for repairing satellites, fighting aliens, or visiting the Starbucks in the International Space Station. Check it out, won't you?

We're finishing our never-ending look at villains with one of the recent premiere villains from the DC Universe - Black Adam, mystic and temperamental powerhouse. While considered an anti-hero and sometimes acting selflessly, the fact that he killed a small country in the name of revenge label him as "villain" in my book. Feel free to go forth and enjoy.

Come back next week when I kick off another theme customs month - IronMania, featuring the many fantastic armors of the Invincible Iron Man - some from the comics, and some original armors of my own creation.

In May I posted a custom for Red She-Hulk, a concept that I was sure Marvel was going to use sooner or later.

This past weekend Marvel Comics announced at the San Diego Comic Con that they will soon be introducing Red She-Hulk (check out the picture on the right). And while I guessed right that Red She-Hulk would someday exist, I was way off on her appearance - I didn't guess that Marvel would make her a violent cross between Coop's Devil Girl and a contestant from "Rock of Love". Well done, Marvel. But you can bet I'll be producing a new, accurate custom soon.

But while my plot-guessing record is still perfect, here are some more predictions for future Marvel plots:

• Steve Rogers will become Captain America again.
• Wolverine will be overexposed.
• Cap, Iron Man and Thor will team up as the Avengers to defeat a tremendous threat.
• Deadpool will be overexposed.
• Spider-Man will stay unmarried.
• The Red She-Hulk story won't make a lick of sense.

Red She-Hulk update over. Please come back later this week when I get back to Minimate customs, show off the last villain custom for my V List celebration, and announce what the next custom theme month will be.

This week on the V List it's obscure villain Equinox, the Thermodynamic Man. Star of a couple of issues of Marvel Team-Up, Equinox went on to become a villainous footnote in comic book history. So why does he rate a custom?

• Because he uses clear parts. I'm a sucker for any figure that uses clear or translucent parts.
• I'm a big fan of any character that's two things smooshed together (check out Composite Hulk-Thing).
• Because I really wanted to use the words "the Thermodynamic Man".

So that's why. Now go check him out.

Current Status: Sick of painting yellow. Slightly depressed that I have more yellow characters to paint. Considering a ban on doing any more customs with yellow in them...

This week on the V List it's a custom just for me. I present one of my favorite villains, Swarm, the Nazi doctor who's now a big pile of bees who tries to take over the world. Which is one of those great, ridiculous ideas that you can only get in comic books.

You might remember Swarm from his appearances in any of a dozen different Marvel comics. Or if you're like me, you remember Swarm from his appearance on the "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" cartoon from the 80's. Oh, the memories - the meteorite that changed ordinary bees into Swarm, his mutated bee-people drones, Spider-Man driving a car to escape from his mind-controlled friends Iceman and Firestar - good stuff. Especially if you're eight years old.

To sum up: Swarm- cool villain, cool concept, and appeared on a cool 80's cartoon. So go check him out.

Sometimes a villain is just a villain - they commit crimes, then fight the bag guy to fill 22 pages. Such is the case with our custom this week - I present the first Doctor Spectrum, a member of the original Squadron Sinister and punching bag for the Avengers and Iron Man. The power gem that he used for his powers had more character than this guy. But he's got a great costume, so go check him out anyway.