Superhero Minis

[Flaming Tiki]

 Nice that we can all talk here, I notice that the OP hasn't joined back in though. I just picked up a "blind bag" Marvel 500. Hadn't seen them before. Got a Captain America. Just about the classic pose (shield is held a little lower), variant paint job that I'm unfamiliar with (Red Guardian). No matter, I'm going to repaint him anyway. Not too bad quality wise, no mold lines anyway.

[Ferkill]

I've got a few of the Chronoscope supers and for the most part I'm pretty happy with them. I'll be checking out some of the suggestions in the thread though. You can never have too many options after all.

[YronimosW]

First, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading about all the creative ways that you guys found for improvising superhero minis in the days before dedicated superhero mini lines!  I enjoy that kind of outside-the-box thinking.

 

I'm not really a superhero gamer, but I hope there will be lots of Chronoscope superheroes in Bones in the future, and I'd be happy to back Bones superheroes in future Kickstarters - when I look at the fantastic existing models in metal, I can't help thinking of ways to modify them into characters from other genres.

 

Add swords or other such weapons, and you've got fantasy heroes - in the Old School 1970s and 1980s fantasy RPG, comic, video game, and other art, the fantasy heroes wore the exact same capes, tights, high boots, gauntlets, and such that superheroes do!  With no conversion work at all, "Captain Ersatz" versions of the likes of Wonder Woman, Thor, Namor, Doctor Doom, Green Arrow, Doctor Strange, and Captain America wouldn't look out of place among retro fantasy artwork....  Similarly, Bones Nightslip is only a weapon-swap away from being a generic fantasy ranger or rogue, and Reaper models such as the Silver Marksman, Castarci, Captain Griffon, Zenith, Incredible Woman, Doctor Dread, the catfolk-like Firefox    and Lady Tiger, the half-devil-like character Devil Girl, and the human-elemental characters Twister, Inferno, Torrent, and Sandwoman would all be quite easy to work into a fantasy setting, requiring little or no modification at all to fit in.

 

Or, add ray guns, and you've got Sci-Fi/Space Opera heroes - in the classic Space Opera serials of the early 20th Century like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Commando Cody, you find the exact same superhero aesthetic:  capes, tights, high boots, gauntlets, etc., and it doesn't take much imagination to see that aesthetic being inherited by the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek in later decades.  Add a hypothetical Bones sci-fi weapon sprue, and use them to customize Bones versions of models like Captain Griffon, Incredible Woman, Doctor Dread, and P.B. Pugh, and none of these characters would look very far out of place in retro-science fiction settings similar to Star Wars or Star Trek....

Of course, these genres - fantasy, science fiction, and superheroes - owe some debt to the same basic source:  Edgar Rice Burroughs more or less built the prototypes of the modern forms of these genres with such famous creations as Tarzan and John Carter (it's probably easy to see John Carter's ancestry in the chainmail-bikini aesthetic of D&D, but a little harder to imagine a comparison to Superman, but it's true: Superman was at least partly inspired by John Carter and Tarzan, Star Wars probably wouldn't have existed in the form we know and love without John Carter, and some of the shared influences between these related genres become easier to see by comparing their artwork and evolution, especially though their early years.....)

 

And then, there are some of those great retro-pulp superheroes, like The Fox (definitely-not-Zorro!),  P.B. Pugh (definitely-not-Doc-Savage!), Max Graves (definitely-not-Sam-Spade!), Dan McDermott (definitely-not-Jungle-Jim), The Black Mist (definitely-not-the-Shadow - already in Bones!), Frank Buck (definitely-not-Indiana-Jones!), Grant Dylan, Lord of the Jungle, Jungle Girl, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Captain Nemo, etc.:  I think these classic pulp-style proto-Superheroes are great fun and a fascinating part of superhero, fantasy, and science fiction history.

 

In any event, I love the easy adaptability of Bones miniatures, and especially the Chronoscope Bones minis, and, though I don't normally play Superhero-themed games, I would definitely welcome and happily support a variety of Bones superhero miniatures, both Bones versions of existing metal Chronoscope supers, and new Bones figures!