STEP 2: THE BODY
If you're at all into Mego figures -- you HAVE to buy some of those Action Jackson figures from Playing Mantis. These Jackson dolls are very similar to some of the original Mego "Action Jackson" line, and are perfectly to scale (outfits, accessories, etc.) with Mego. Unfortunately, the bodies are somewhat inferior to Mego -- even after 30 years!

I mixed-and-matched the two into what I think is a perfect custom body. There are several good things about Jackson (the way it's strung, the head, and the arms), but the Mego's are better proportioned with the torso, waist and legs. What I did was take apart a Type 2 body and put the arms and rubber bands aside. The only thing you keep is the Torso, Waist, and Legs. Then pull the 'AJ' apart. The head is a ball-type, and the joints come apart really easy with a pin that slips right out of all the major joints. Take the Mego torso and dremel/sand the head opening to accept the larger ball of the 'AJ' head. Re-string the body just as the 'AJ' was and it all comes together perfectly. His shoulders are a little big, but I think he looks good with the suit on. If you don't like his broad shoulders, you can dremel/sand the arm holes to make them fit in more snug. 

What's ALSO cool, is that the head is actually two parts -- a lower "ball" and a rubber head. So you can remove the head, cut the bottom off any Mego head, and pop it back on for a rotating Mego head!. You can also modify the head of any Famous Covers guy to fit on the post, too.

The whole process takes 10 minutes and the result it AWESOME. Also, if you don't like the Action Jackson hands and want to use Mego hands -- they are a direct swap. You will have to heat-up the arms with a hair dryer to get them in, which is what I've done here.

This is the final result:

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STEP 3: PAINTING
This is the modified AJ/Mego body with the suit, shorts, gloves, painted boots and Paul Evan's logo. 

The key thing here is look how closely the sheen on the boots matches the sheen/color of the gloves. it's PERFECT. The trick is to use Krylon Semi-Flat black enamel paint (like you get at the auto parts store). Semi-flat, as the name implies, gives a slight sheen without being super-shiny, and like a flat paint it's easier to handle and doesn't attract fingerprints. Plus, the paint dries in 15 min. I did 2 coats of paint over the blue boots and 30 min later it was on the guy. Click HERE to see what they looked like before. 

Originally I used Paul's Batman logo, but I was looking for something a little more MASSIVE, like he had in the Dark Knight.

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The painted Cowl. Look how smooth the paint is. Also, notice that I did not paint the inside. Since the mask will stay on most of the time, you won't see the blue and I didn't want to risk staining the face with black paint. Again, I used Krylon semi-flat on the mask and it matches perfectly with the gloves and boots.

STEP 4: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER!
Close-up of the final mask on the 'CA' head. I think it looks good and will do for now, but I'm trying to decide if I should stick with this or use another mego head. I wonder what a repainted hulk head would look like...

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The final guy all put together. Man, does he look cool or WHAT!! What I'm really pleased with is how the "blacks" coordinate. The cloth parts (cape and shorts) perfectly match in color and texture. And, the painted boots and mask are perfectly matched to the gloves. I was really afraid that all the blacks would be different and he would look OK under low light but not good in full daylight. The coordination of the blacks really makes the outfit look great. Also, I made up my own Batman logo -- I think it looks good, not as "professional" as the repro ones. The only missing link is to find a good belt. I'm using a repro robin one for now and it's just OK.

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