LoucoPorBonecos’ Battle of the Red Claw
I’ve been expanding my horizons lately when it comes to international GI Joe and related releases. As I’ve learned more about the twelve inch domestic figures, the exclusive overseas product like Action Man and others have proven to be even more interesting. From the UK to Europe to central and South America, Hasbro licensed both its large and small-scaled GI Joe lines. Estrela’s unique figures based on the Real American Hero era have become familiar to fans, and have even been the subject of collectors club offerings. No less fascinating are the large scale Estrela figures released from the 1970s and 1980s. What I can best describe as an eclectic stylistic mix of post Adventure Team Mod and later in the line a Flash Gordon aesthetic, the Falcon series is certainly unique. A bit of searching online turns up blogs dedicated to the series. I discovered LoucoPorBonecos a while back, and have been ardently following via Instagram.
LoucoPorBonecos’ Felipe has been producing some incredible 12 inch scale customs for quite some time. Taking off from the 70s-80s Estrela line based on the twelve inch GI Joe, he’s been creating some amazing new figures. His work includes sculpting as well as cut-and-sew for new and replica outfits. The level of originality and imagination in his work pushes all the right buttons for me. Recently, his items have been offered for sale via Cotswold Collectibles with even more to come. I know I’m setting aside funds for a set of 1/6 scale Super Joe outfits.
Here’s Felipe’s description of his inspiration and creation process of one his recent additions, Red Claw:
“Since I saw Ebay’s youtube promo for the first time, with the battle between Red Claw and Action Man, I was fascinated. As a customizer for a long time, I found this new character, Red Claw, simply brilliant! And it was made with the same head of Action Man, a sculpted goatee, more scars and hair removal. At the same time I thought: Could I make one Red Claw for me? It was all I needed … The crazyness begun and there I was after an Action Man head in my action figures morgue. Making the head was quite easy, I had already made a bald Action Man with the same model. To sculpt the goatee and scars used some epoxi putty.”
Check out Felipe’s site here, and also check out the Facebook and Instagram feeds. Look for more posts featuring LoucoPorBonecos customs, as well as vintage Estrela coverage in the future.
If you haven’t seen the inspiration for this custom yourself, ebay UK’s Battle of the Red Claw advert, check it out below the pics. To say it’s wonderful is an understatement.
Reminds me of Junkman from the Crash dummies
Reminds me of Manny (Bill Bailey) from Black Books.
Realistic? No. Awesome? You’d better believe it!
Nice commercial. But after watching it, I thought about why can’t the Hasbro folks design real jackets, and coats, for the small G.I. Joe figures, like they do for the 12 inch figures, instead of doing those awful rubber vests, that are supposed to be jackets, or coats. And some of them are not easy to remove from some figures. As a matter of fact, I have always wondered why that is. I definitely think that it is time for the Hasbro designers, to start getting more realistic with the small Joes, and start going the extra mile for us the fans. Like how about making some white arctic coats for us fans, to be able to pose some of our favorite non snow Joe figures with the snow Joes, like Snow Job, Frostbite, Iceberg, Blizzard, Windchill, and all of the others. I would love that for my non snow Joe figures. And I wouldn’t hesitate to buy as many of them as possible. Now there is a very good idea for the Hasbro folks, or anyone else who might want to do that, and make a profit on it. But do it, before someone else beats you to the punch.
It’s like Blofeld and a BAT.