Modster Garage: Slap a Little Paint on It!

By Justin Greathouse

For the longest time, I thought that I may have a serious problem. When I would look at stuff around me, I would think about how I could take it, switch it up, and turn it into something else, making it gooder. I not too long ago discovered that the term for this ability/disorder is for one to "mod" (as in modify). "You modded the crap out of that toy" "That's a wicked cool mod bro!" I felt a sense of relief. I am not alone ... there are more modders out there.



Early symptom instances that I can recall is being four or five. I started painting some of my Hot Wheels cars. That is, until my parents saw what I was doing and told me that if all I was going to do is paint all over them, they wouldn't buy me any more. So I quickly stopped.



Then I discovered that you could remove the tiny little screw from the backs of the G.I. Joe action figures and separate the chest piece exposing the black rubber band that connected the top half to the bottom legs. "Yo mix and match Joe!" The parents still weren't very thrilled but I think they might have quietly applauded my creativity.

Somewhere around that same time, my folks sat me down in front of the television to watch something that they thought I would like. Slowly, outer space and the titles faded in with eerie music. A...L...I...E...N...S. I was hit. Shaking and trembling, not with fear, but with excitement to see what happened next. I was captivated by the action, the special effects, the sounds, and then it happened ...



Lt. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) taking matters into her own hands, slams down an M41A pulse rifle, then grabs the M240 Incinerator Unit (flamethrower) and lays it on top and tapes them together with black duct tape. She picks it up, loads in the armor piercing rounds and grenades, and slings it around her shoulder to go rescue the little girl, Newt, before the entire planet goes nuclear. My God, that day changed everything.

For a good, long while, all my toy guns from then on out were taped together. I wish I could bottle up that sensation. It just felt right!



When I would play with my toys, I would act them out like they were little scenes from movies. During the fight scenes, it just didn't sit right with me that when this giant monster swung a slash with his vicious claws onto the hero's chest, it didn't leave any battle scars.



Enter the age of the soldering iron.



Soon I began melting some plastic and scarring up things with little battle damage details. My favorite example of this was with a toy line from a Power Rangers knock-off show called Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. (Yes, that is the correct spelling.) When I would add the war wounds to the white legs and arms to the main character "Servo", it would leave these awesome little brown rolls of melted plastic. It was so cool to behold with my young eyes. Like magic if you will. Alas, Servo wound up in one of our many family garage sales. (I got it in my head that I should stop playing with toys. A super silly idea, I know. Still haunts me to this very day.)

I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall when the parent that bought that toy case came home to their kid. The case sitting in front of their son or daughter and with anticipation and excitement in the child's eyes and kiddy tingles springing to their fingers, the kid probably rushed to open the case, ready to behold a pristine toy like the one on the picture. Oh my, but what is this? The child held in his or her hands not a lifeless toy, but rather a bad-ass bot that has been pitched in battle defending the digital universe! That is how I picture it, but in reality it probably got pitched in the trash.



To this day I still find myself taking some time out to mod and customize things. My garage doesn't contain a vehicle, but is chalk full of materials to make stuff out of other stuffs with. Occasionally, you might find me down the discount isle at Toys R Us or perusing the toy sections at goodwill and thrift stores, hunting for that next project to mod. Whether it's giving Bumblebee some sweet rims, adding some darks and highlights to a Rancor, or completely repainting the T-1 from Terminator Salvation because you can't abide the half-ass dry brushing that was done to it when it was made. The biggest reward for me is the "Big reveal," when I show my friends and they really dig what I have done. That energizes me to want to keep it up.



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