I made this figure as a gift for a really good friend of mine. He's been there for me through some pretty rough times, and always tries to help me out. Lately, he's been going through his own rough times with finances/kids/work. So, I decided that I would surprise him with this custom. He loves He-Man, and has been a subscriber of Club Eternia since the beginning. He has multiples of near every MOTUC figure, and I just asked him if I could have one of the extra Skeletor bodies, without head or armour. Once I got the figure home, and sat down at my work desk, I started thinking of what direction I could take the custom.

In my mind, Skeletor is arguably the most powerful sorcerer on Eternia. I don't really see him as the kind of person to run in and start melee in close quarters, even though he could. His strength lies in his control of magic. So, I chose to not give him a sword. He has his havoc staff, along with a dagger. I imagine the dagger being used to carve out He-Man's heart in some evil ritual. I, also, was never really a fan of the harness. What kind of armour is that? It's ok for characters like He-Man and Conan, but not for Skeletor. I turned the bone ornament on his chest, into a talisman. BUT, the chain broke so I couldn't put it around Skeletor's neck when I took the pictures. The next thing I really had to change, was the hood. Cloaks and hoods are fine, but I always felt that the hood on the original figure looked more like the kind of bonnet Ma would wear on Little House on the Prairie. I like a lot of elements from his classic design, but I wanted to take those and blend them into a look that you could see in a Frank Frazetta drawing. I wanted to make a dark, arcane sorcerer. As a tip of the hat to the new comics (which are pretty good!), I gave Skeletor the Skull of Power that he steals from Sir Laser Lot to mess with reality.


***Recipe***

For the base, I used a MOTUC Skeletor. The head is the Jakks MK Scorpion skull, the detail on it was AMAZING and I loved the slight open mouth. The armour is from LOTR and Spawn figures. Not 100% sure on the figures, because it was all in my armour fodder bag. On the front and back of the chest armour, I added tattered fabric from a t-shirt. I didn't want to cover his entire torso, but I also didn't want to just have his entire belly hanging out. I used the same fabric around his forearms, to finish the bracers. The hood is from ML MoonKnight. I secured metal around the inside of it to widen it, so it had a more open look. The cloak is, also, the t-shirt fabric. I tattered and cut it, and sewed in a flexible wire for posing. I painted all the fabric with the same purple paint as the armour, so it matches. Then, I added mud stains at the bottom of the cloak, inside and out. I gave his feet a dirty/muddy look, too. You can't walk around barefoot all day and still have clean feet. On all the armour, I painted nicks and scratches to make him look aged and worn. His havoc staff is a wooden dowel, DCUC head, and fabric wrapped around it. The dagger is a LOTR dagger handle and a random blade from some figure, I thought it looked cool. His talisman is made from toy bones, a craft gemstone, and chain. The Skull of Power is another random skull, with a fin added, and painted.

I originally wanted to enter this in the He-Man contest, but my camera wasn't working. I went to my friend's house and gave it to him, and I borrowed his camera to take pictures. Because of that, the lighting and background aren't the best. And, when the chain broke on the talisman I couldn't get it to stay on for the pictures. My friend was having trouble getting the camera to upload to his computer to send me the pictures. So, I missed the contest deadline. But, now I have finally decided to post it. I don't really mind that I missed the contest. I made this custom for him, and he loves it.

I hope all of you like it, too. I'm working on more MOTUC characters in this style, also. Thanks for looking, and God bless!