If I were an action figure...

About 18 years ago, I was buying cheap Mexican bootlegs of the Kenner Super Powers action figures at a toy market in Mexico City, then customizing them into other characters. I stopped doing that around the time my oldest daughter was a few months old, but some years back, I posted pics of a bunch of my custom figures on my old Tripod website.

Anyhow, for a few years thereafter, I kept on picking up stray figures at garage sales, flea markets and even eBay, with the intention of getting back to customizing some day.

That day HAS NOT arrived, by the way.

But I did pick up a "Bob the Goon" figure back then (from the first "Batman" movie), thinking it looked like a good starting point for a custom action figure of myself.

Flash forward to last week: I ran across a fellow figure fanatic when I was up in Phoenix for a meeting at an agency my office has been working with for a while. They introduced this guy as being into action figures (oddly enough, they didn't tell me what he does for the company), so I mentioned I was also a fan, we chatted for a while, exchanged info and URLs, and suddenly I find myself participating in a form on the ActionFigureInsider.com website. (The weird thing is, I've had this site bookmarked for a year or so, after running across it while trying to find info on some Captain Marvel figure or other.)

Anyway, most of the participants in the forum have "avatars" to represent themselves, so I figured I should have one as well.

Re-enter "Bob the Goon," or at least a photo of his head, which I "digitally customized" into a reasonable facsimile of my own visage and uploaded as my avatar.

Now all I have to do is figure out which box out in the garage has the actual figure, get out the putty and paints, and do the same with the real one!