General Marvel Legends

Misfit said:
I prefer my plastic comic book people to resemble the artwork they’re drawn from. I don’t particularly like the attempts at realism by Hasbro and other companies. It’s cool if that’s not your preference.
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I'm with you to a point.

My point break being these things don't often look like the artwork anymore. Ever since face print we've gotten more and more into a homogenous hyperreal style. And for that, I like the paint.

Something like Figuarts or Jada or Storm, sure, keep it classic.

Not a disagreement. Just where I'm at on the subject.
 
altcunningham said:
I'm with you to a point.

My point break being these things don't often look like the artwork anymore. Ever since face print we've gotten more and more into a homogenous hyperreal style. And for that, I like the paint.

Something like Figuarts or Jada or Storm, sure, keep it classic.

Not a disagreement. Just where I'm at on the subject.
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I agree. I think the “house style” of Legends has always been comic + realism, even going back to Toy Biz. It’s one of the reasons why I’m not a big Legends collector because it’s not my thing. I’ll happily pay a lot more for the Mondo stuff that is. This particular Xavier probably only exists because of the animated series and I got him (on sale) to slot into my animated X-Men display. He’s not perfectly suited for it, mostly due to the face. In addition to the lips (which have an almost metallic finish to the deep red), his eyes are outlined like he has long lashes or eye liner and the overall shape of the face is very different from the art on the box. It’s why I didn’t want to pay full price. I don’t love the hover chair Charles though, so I’m willing to try this one at a cheaper price. I don’t like the painted lips, but the eyes and subtle shading on the face might make it look worse without the painted lips hence why I was curious if anyone had removed that paint app since I recalled seeing a similar sentiment expressed. Maybe I was mistaken about where I saw that sentiment expressed? I had no idea I was kicking off a discussion on the virtue of painted lips vs non where Legends are concerned. I don’t personally care if people like it or not, like what you like, I just wanted to know if anyone had gone down this road with this figure and it would seem my question there has been answered.
 
Misfit said:
I just wanted to know if anyone had gone down this road with this figure and it would seem my question there has been answered.
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I might be able to.. sort've... help. I think your instincts are probably right that the added face detailing will make it look weird to remove the lips. You'd almost have to go back to a more 'painted' face and less 'printed' face. I am basing this opinion, however, on a specific instance with a specific figure so YMMV:
I ran across a Beyonder figure a couple of months ago that really stood out to me - I think it was at TRU. I still remember it because I stared for a while to figure out what looked weird about it and I realized they had missed the printing on his lips. Now, gotta be quick to point out, that headsculpt has a toothy smile. So I'm sure that made it way worse. Probably. But anyway - it was immediately off-putting in a way that it never would have been with older faces from the pre-digital printing times.
In my opinion.
 
Yeah the digital printing has gotten subtly complex since they started doing it. If you take your phone and use it like a magnifying glass. You might be surprised about some figures having little pixel point details that really tie the whole thing together.

And I think taking the lips off but leaving that same amount of detail around the eyes and eyebrow and stubble or whatever might contribute to it looking even less of a match.

And for sure some just execute better than others. I've seen a few figures where the lip color just didn't suit what they were doing, and then others it looks great and elevates.
 
Damien said:
I might be able to.. sort've... help. I think your instincts are probably right that the added face detailing will make it look weird to remove the lips. You'd almost have to go back to a more 'painted' face and less 'printed' face. I am basing this opinion, however, on a specific instance with a specific figure so YMMV:
I ran across a Beyonder figure a couple of months ago that really stood out to me - I think it was at TRU. I still remember it because I stared for a while to figure out what looked weird about it and I realized they had missed the printing on his lips. Now, gotta be quick to point out, that headsculpt has a toothy smile. So I'm sure that made it way worse. Probably. But anyway - it was immediately off-putting in a way that it never would have been with older faces from the pre-digital printing times.
In my opinion.
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Damien's observation might be the best datapoint one can get on Misfit's question because it may not be possible to remove the printed lip paint. I was surprised a few months ago when I tried this on a different face-printed figure. I planned to use the 2nd run movie Shuri for X-men 2099's Krystalin (don't judge me) and wanted to remove the warpaint on her face. I don't know how the chemistry for the faceprinting process differs from general factory paints but neither isopropanol nor acetone did anything to remove it, even while rubbing a q-tip on it while solvent was applied. As the Bluth company'd say, solid as a rock.

To remove the painted lips, one might need to colormatch to Xavier's flesh and paint over them.
 
I too had a hard time removing printed face paint. Tried on the Classified Falcon figure using acetone and it ruined the finish and nearly melted his face. I’ve used acetone on hundreds of figures before with ease, and this was a near disaster. I haven’t attempted it again.
 
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NORM said:
I too had a hard time removing printed face paint. Tried on the Classified Falcon figure using acetone and it ruined the finish and nearly melted his face. I’ve used acetone on hundreds of figures before with ease, and this was a near disaster. I haven’t attempted it again.
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I thought I was going crazy. Acetone is a pretty broad solvent so I was astounded it did nothing!
 
For anyone that doesn't like the super obvious lips on some modern figures, I was thinking it might be worthwhile to consider a subtle wash. For those of you that aren't colorblind, it should be a -relatively- simple matter to find a skin tone paint that's close to the figure (doesn't have to match exactly), dilute it down to a wash, and just lightly apply it to the lips. That may help blend the color of the lips to the skin more and make it stand out less.
 
That’s surprising. I didn’t even consider that the stuff would be hard, if not impossible, to remove.
 
You know now that you mention, I have had a few figures where there's been like the odd fleck of paint on the face. Historically, I can always just scrape it off with a few light nail swipes. I've had a few where the ink does bleed deep into the plastic to the point you would ruin the figure if you kept scratching.

I didn't know you couldn't acetone it off though.
 
I saw a guy and youtube use Windsor and Newton brush cleaner to strip paint of a GI Joe Classified, but it wasn't face printing paint, if that matters.

I agree with Damien, doing a wash of paint might be the best bet. But at the end of the day, unless you already have a set of acrylics, there's how much do you want to pay to fix a figure that didn't cost too much to begin with. But if you already have the paints or plan on tweaking more figs, it's a different story.

I'd personally love to see Legends do more cartooned head sculpts, like MAFEX. Or paint the whole head. I think maybe the painted features being too severe is because the raw plastic mixes slightly different than they planned.
 
Windsor and Newton changed the formula about a year ago or so. The new formula no longer works.
 
Resilient said:
Windsor and Newton changed the formula about a year ago or so. The new formula no longer works.
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I've heard that as well. It's very depressing. I wonder if someone will find out how to remove the face print effectively. from the boiled wasp story it sounds like it might involve heat or hot water.
 
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