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Callisto

Sunday, 11 September 2005

Back when I first started reading comics, the powers-that-be at Marvel hadn't yet come up with the notion that every mutant female's secondary mutation was to be super-model hot - not just the heroic ones.

Rogue and Mystique, both villains at the time, were ugly, but neither of them were as ugly as Callisto. Of course, Callisto is super-model hot today, if you discount the octopus arms. I wanted to capture her classic look when she was leader of the sewer-bound Morlocks, fighting Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.

I first thought of Callisto when I picked up a Matrix Trinity (the one stuck shooting upwards as she falls out the window). Somehow, McFarlane Toys managed to take a supermodel and make her ugly. The irony wasn't lost on me.

The challenge was finding a base body, as Callisto is decidely unheroic in her choice of clothing. When the superposeable Buffy figures came out, I knew I would end up finally making this one.

The modifications to the head were not that complicated. After removing Trinity's head, I used my dremel* to take off the peg and hollow out a socket for Buffy's neck. I made sure to leave the bottom of Trinity's hair, so I would have something as a base for the Callisto's hair, which I sculpted on.

I then built up her nose so it had the classic hook, added the eyepatch, and painted. I didn't quite get the head to sit as far down on the neck as Buffy's did, but in hindsight I think it helps give her the lanky look she had in the comics.

The body took a little more work. The fringes of her torn shirt are a combination of Super Sculpey and cut vinyl. The collar is sculpted, while the frayed bottom is cut vinyl blended with Sculpey. The bottom fringe helps hide the ab swivel, which is still functional. The sleeves are vinyl. I added a little pooch to her belly and then gave her a belly button.

The vest and legs were sprayed with black vinyl dye, and there's no rub in the hips. I widened the arm holes in the vest so that Callisto could lower her arms to a more natural position. Her wristband is a rubberband, and her knife came from the fodder box. Her chain belt is from a small reel of chain I bought for the price of a pack of gum in a craft store in Bangkok. I'd been dying to use it, but hadn't yet had the opportunity.

Note: * My dremel (originally from Arkenyon) died while making the socket in Callisto's head. This led me to leave the head sitting high (the bright side) and sculpting the belly so I could put in the belly button. Now I'm worried I've lost the magic Arkenyon transferred to me when I picked up his dremel. I also realized I should take better care of my tools!