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Blastaar


Blastaar is a powerful interdimensional warlord created by Marvel founding fathers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. From his base in the Negative Zone, Blastaar has been a persistent threat to Earth’s heroes for over 50 years. He has definitely earned a spot in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.


Most of Blastaar’s early appearances follow the main lines established in his first appearance in Fantastic Four #62 from May 1967: a portal to the Negative Zone somehow opens (usually due to Reed Richard tinkering around in his lab), Blastaar comes through and begins rampaging on Earth, and a group of heroes must assemble to beat him back. Usually this falls on the Fantastic Four's shoulders, but many other heroes have battled him as well, including the X-Men, Avengers, Inhumans, and even the New Warriors.                      
Blastaar's main characteristics are strength, durability, energy blasts, and announcing his name to everyone.

While defeating Blastaar is never exactly easy—he is a ruthless, tireless powerhouse who can project blasts of explosive energy from his fingertips—thankfully for Earth, his power and arrogance are not backed up by very great intelligence. (On one occasion, Mr. Fantastic was able to trick him into jumping right back into the Negative Zone immediately after he escaped from there into our world.) 

How practically every Blastaar story begins. 

Nevertheless, the opportunistic Blastaar continues to wage war on every planet he stumbles across, often allying himself with other villains such as Annihilus. From his home planet of Baluur he managed to carve out a vast empire within the Negative Zone, bringing countless worlds under his heel. Eventually after the events of the Annihilation crossover and the defeat of Annihilus, Blastaar became sole ruler of the entire Negative Zone. For Blastaar, the conquest of Earth is a closer goal than ever.
In recent years Blastaar has expanded his vocabulary -- but the blasts are just as deadly.

Obviously, to make a custom figurine of the physically imposing Blastaar, I needed a relatively large base figurine. I considered the DC Darkseid figurine, which has a really nice pose and has been used by other customizers to make Blastaar, but ultimately I thought it was too big. Like many characters, Blastaar has undergone size inflation over the years, with some artists depicting him eight or ten feet tall. But officially he is only “supposed” to be 6’6” (though he is a Jack Kirby character, so he was always superhumanly broad-shouldered.)

After further searching, I decided on DC's Blue Devil figurine, which is positively enormous for a “regular”-sized figurine but just right for Blastaar. Since I added a lot of bulk and since he fits better on a larger base, I decided to make him my second oversized Special. After stripping his paint and removing his horns and boot flaps, I used Milliput to increase his overall musculature, shape his resplendent beard, and sculpt the details of his armor. 

Though his look was updated in the 2000s to have more of a "barbarian warlord" feel, I chose his original costume, with its classic Jack Kirby combination of broad, simple outlines and tightly-packed futuristic detailing. His ferocious lion’s mane, red eyes, and fangs worked very well with Blue Devil’s already angry, howling expression.  




Overall it was a relatively straight-forward conversion, and once the final coat of paint was applied, Blastaar the Living Bomb-Burst was ready to burst forth into the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.

Uh oh, looks like Reed left the portal to the Negative Zone open... again
For the Eaglemoss-style cover illustration, I used art from the interior pages of Captain Marvel #24 (Dec 2001), by ChrisCross. The typeface used for his name is called Carver.

* ESSENTIAL READING *

1. Fantastic Four #62 (May 1967). Blastaar, exiled by his home planet and cast adrift in the Negative Zone, follows an unsuspecting Reed Richards through a portal to Earth, and decides to conquer it.

2. Marvel Two-in-One #75 (May 1981). The origin of Blastaar revealed! Plus, the tragic story of his long-lost wife Nyglar, and Blastaar's first encounter with Annihilus.

3. War of Kings: Warriors #1 (Sep 2009). After the events of Annihilation, Blastaar battles his own father and seizes control of the entire Negative Zone. (Digital edition cover.)
Til next time, bub! Keep that hope alive! 

Next up: The fastest gun in the West -- Shooting Star!

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