Jonny Quest

Wow. Those were the days... 1960's children's cartoons. Imagine action and adventure on a par with ANY adult live action show. How about regularly placing child heroes in real jeopardy? Then there's the use of guns with bullets being fired at them as well as equal gunfire from good guys (Race Bannon and Dr. Quest), regularly being directed toward the evil doers and equally often  killing them unequivocally and without mercy. Wow.

This was the stuff of Saturday morning cartoon fare during 1964-65 that I saw (as a little 5-6 year old) when Jonny Quest hit the airwaves. For 26 exciting episodes, viewers were treated to real first class action adventure, which just happened to be animated. The continuing saga of Jonny, his Dad (Dr. Quest), their bodyguard Roger "Race" Bannon, their dog Bandit and before too long, the addition of Jonny's friend Hadji, kept throngs of Baby Boomers like myself as well as their parents enthralled.  And who can ever forget that original theme music. It still tops ALL others as my favorite action/adventure theme music. It was definitely another nifty nugget in the Golden Age of  the Baby Boomers. Thanks you Warner Brothers!

And we don't have POPS yet from Funko for Jonny Quest. Oh the agony ....

Luckily, I did not allow that intolerable situation to last too. It's the Funkustomizer to the rescue!

For those who remember fondly (or for those born too late), here's our reference pic:

And finally here is our custom Funko POP Jonny Quest and co. (Dr. Quest and Race Bannon).

The recipes are as follows:

Jonny Quest

• The head is from a Hermie the Elf POP, repainted and resculpted (to remove the hat).
• The body is also from the same POP, painted and resculpted to remove the pointy toe shoes, change the sleeves and the collar.

Race Bannon

• Both the head and the body are from a Shazam POP, repainted, with the cape removed.

Dr. Quest

• The head is from a Kevin Love NBA POP.
• The body is from a Two-Face POP, repainted.

We'll probably add a Hadji and Bandit before too long to complete the group, so check back soon!!

Birdman

Growing up as a kid in the mid 1960's, life revolved around Saturday morning cartoons and comic books. While the latter had tons of heroes of every description, the list of the former, appearing weekly on my TV (my color  TV!), was shorter. This was some overlap of course, but there were a few that were unique.

One such example, appearing on Saturday morning cartoons from Sept 9, 1967 until Sept. 6, 1969 was BIRDMAN.  From the same creative genius' at Hanna-Barbera  (and created by Alex Toth), this was something special, in the same league as Space Ghost (check out our Funko POP custom) and Jonny Quest.

Here we had a combination superhero and spy (at least he took orders from a spy, a sort of Nick Fury look-alike) who was solar powered, and had a trained bird for a best friend and sidekick. Yup, it had something for everybody.

Years later. Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, brought Birdman back, sort of, as a lawyer of all things (named Harvey?), although still wearing his trademarked hood. For purists like me, that never happened. (The less said about it, the better, lol).

In any case, here's the classic Birdman in reference pics:

and here's my custom Funko POP of Birdman

Can't you just hear him shouting the classic "B-I-R-D-M-A-N......."

As far as the custom recipe is concerned for this Funko POP!

• The head is a Wolverine POP, repainted
• The body is from a DC Hawkman repainted

That's all there is to it ... just let him absorb some solar energy and watch him fly around the room  (what, yours doesn't do that??)

Space Ghost (& friends) Custom POP

It's September 10, 1966 and I am 7 years old.  Turning on our living room television set (the color one.... ooh ahh), I turn on the Saturday morning cartoons, not knowing that in a few minutes, I would be transported .... someplace wonderful.. the set "warms up" (they did that back then... transistors and tubes... retro tech) and suddenly a space ship streaks across the screen.

It's the Phantom Cruiser!

And aboard .... it's ...

S-P-A-C-E  G-H-O-S-T !!!!!

Wow, just wow (experiencing a childhood "cherished moment" flashback... feel the rush of endorphins.... )

From 1966 to 1968 (the first of two runs on TV), Baby boomers like me were treated to the exploits of Space Ghost, Jan, Jayce and their Space Monkey Blip (made perfect sense to me, I was only seven..lol).  Nasty villains such as Zorak, Brak, Metallus and Meltar would confront our heroes week after week and attempt to conquer the galaxy.

Naturally Space Ghost and Crew vanquished them and were victorious. This even continued through a second TV run in 1981. Still later, apparently tired from his time as a cosmic super hero, Space Ghost retired to cable TV and became a talk show host (I still think it was his evil double Space Spectre).

In any event, Funko has not made a Space Ghost POP as of yet (Jan. 2013) so it's my duty as the Funkustomizer to resolve that.... like this:

                                              Click the pic to Enlarge.

That's Jan and Jayce, his two teenage companions helping to pilot the Phantom Cruiser. Here's a reference pic.

Transforming this trio into custom POP form was a lot of fun. Here's the recipe

SPACE GHOST

1.  Head from Flash Funko POP  with ear thingies sheared off, painted.
2.  Body from Robin Funko POP, repainted.

JAN

1. Head and Body from Catwoman POP, ears sheared off and painted.

JAYCE

1. Head from Robin Funko POP, repainted.
2. Body from Flash Funko POP repainted.

So, for the purchase of three off the shelf POPs, you can relatively easily transform them  into this trusty trio.

You'll have to go to the Ghost Planet to get your own Phantom Cruiser though.