A while back, I talked about the build-it-yourself Stony Smith I bought on eBay. Apparently, in the 90s, Marx Toys went into production on a new line of Stony Smith action figures when the buyer backed out, leaving them with a bunch of unassembled pieces. They’ve now resurfaced on eBay where you can get the pieces to assemble your very own Stony Smith, provided you cannibalize rivets and bungee cords out of other Marx figures (Marxman Bros. has since begun offering the hardware to build or repair Marx figures). The other issue was that the head and hands in the kit are not for Stony Smith, but for Marx’s other army guy Buddy Charlie. Since both figures are quite different, the head and hands don’t really work with the body parts. I ended up using the head and hands off an old, beat up Marx figure to complete my makeshift Stony, but I wanted to find some use for those head and hands.
The answer came to me as I sorted through the pile of action figure odds and ends that I have compiled. You see, the tricky part about acquiring pieces you want on eBay is that you often have to purchase auction lots which also contain stuff you don’t really want. Over the years, in my passion for collecting Captain Action stuff, I’ve built up a collection of random Captain Action body parts. The weird thing is that, while there are plenty of bodies, torsos, legs, and upper arms, the heads, forearms, and hands are extremely hard to find. The Buddy Charlie head and hands could fit nicely onto a Captain Action body, but I still needed forearms.
Through the Web site Cotswold Collectibles, I could purchase rivets, pegs, and bungee cords to assemble an action figure, along with body parts modeled after the vintage G.I. Joe figures. They had G.I. Joe-style forearms, but the issue was that, while G.I.Joe’s forearm was designed to receive a connecting peg from the upper arm, Captain Action’s upper arm was designed to receive a connecting peg from Captain Action’s forearm. Therefore, in order to connect a G.I. Joe forearm to a Captain Action upper arm, I needed a joint in the middle with pegs that would fit into each end.
Since I don’t have a lab in which to create plastic parts, I went to my brother who fashioned a wooden joint in his workshop. Basically, the joint was shaped like a bulbous vase, with a fixed peg that fit into the upper arm.
We then cut a slit in the rounded part of the joint which could receive a plastic peg. After drilling a hole through the joint to line up with the hole in the plastic peg, we were able to attach the peg to the joint with a rivet. This allows the plastic peg to move up and down. With the joint inserted into the upper arm, we could then attach the forearm to the plastic peg, creating a complete arm with articulation at the elbow.
Here's how the painted head and hands look attached to a mostly Captain Action body with G.I. Joe forearms:
Granted, the joint looks a little rustic and makes the arms slightly longer than they normally would. However, once you cover the arms with clothing, you really don’t notice anything. After attaching all the parts into a completed body and painting the head, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my new creation. I was reminded of how Army hero Sgt. Fury was transformed into the quasi-spy Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and thought about creating Buddy Charlie, Agent of S.O.M.E.T.H.I.N.G.O.R.O.T.H.E.R.
Then I remembered that, in body anyway, he was more Captain Action than Buddy Charlie, so I decided to make him Captain Action’s red-headed step-brother, Commander Blaze!
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