[TAO's Note: John Harmon may very well be the man of my dreams. He not only customizes action figures with the best of them, but he's also the fellow behind popular webcomic and regular must-read: Mint Condition. DrNightmare steps inside his brain for a few questions about toys, comics, superheroes, and war wounds. So don't skip this one, you might just miss out on true love.]
Articulated Discussion: As creator of the popular web-comic Mint Condition, and maker of narly customs like Brock "Murderfly" Samson, you've gotta have some totally sick collection of toys in your home. I mean, at least a bin of lefover legs or something. What's your plastic poison? And why did you call the comic "Mint Condition"? Do you in fact collect toys/comics MOC/10.0 or do you display them out of the package, playing keep-away with Spider-Man's camera, like the rest of us?
John Harmon:I have a lot of toys actually. I've been collecting since I was a kid (duh!) and I still have most of them. In storage I still have some old Beetle Borgs and Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog (with Pyre the Dragon). For the longest time I was all about Marvel. I'm a big fan of the Marvel Movies, so I wanted to have all the Marvel Movie figures. I've got an extensive collection of these too, but when Toybiz (or later Hasbro) didn't make a certain character from the movie I'd customize one, and that's how I first got into customizing. Now, since Hasbro seems to be all but coming to a complete hault on 6 inch Marvel figures I too have slowed down quite a bit. The momentum just isn't there anymore. Thanks to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra though for picking up the slack. The figure line has been AMAZING to say the least. I've been collecting those like crazy and right now they're the only figures I have posed.
I do have bins filled with figure parts too. I've got a couple of sterilite stackable drawers each organized and packed with figure parts for customizing. I have Some other drawers for my customizing tools too.
So as you can see, I do play with my toys. I don't keep them in package. The comic is called Mint Condition, because I'm a geek. Basically, that's it. I read comics, play with toys, rant about movies...I'm a geek. And proud of it. All my friends are geeks too. The name Mint Condition just refers to that really. There's also some weird pseudo-artistic undertones with the title having to do with friendships and how they're not always in "mint condition"...but it's mostly about being a geek.
AD: I find the lack of Ultimate Gandhi pictures on Google insulting. Tell us all about this character, what he does, who he's dating, where he gets his sweet loin-cloths, everything!
JH: You know, me too. I've got tons of Ultimate Gandhi images and each one is titled and alt texted appropriately for search enginges to pick them up and display them, but...I guess it's not enough. I dunno. I should work on that.
To talk about Ultimate Gandhi I think I need to explain where the idea came from first. Ultimate Gandhi (U.G. for short) came about from a heated discussion my friend Adam and I were having relating to Cyclops' optic blast powers (told you we were geeks). Somehow I mentioned Cyclops blasting Gandhi and he counters with Ultimate Gandhi, saying he could withstand anything.
After that I put him in the comic. I came up with a backstory and everything. Ultimate Gandhi is basically an alternate universe version of our Gandhi. In his world Britain never stopped being the ultimate empire. They've conquered many countries, but there's one that just won't give up. India. Ultimate Gandhi is the only thing keeping the nefarious Queen (who we never see the face of, a la Dr. Claw) from taking over. Aside from the Queen, U.G.'s arch nemesis is simply known as the Guard Leader. He's the head of the Queen's royal guard. In her guard, you lose all identity and are simply refered to by your rank.
Ultimate Gandhi spends all his time trying to keep his country safe. He's a cigar smoking, machine-gun toting all around more hardcore version of Gandhi. Ultimate Gandhi storylines take place outside the normal Mint Condition story. I use them as breaks from the regular story. He's a fan favorite, so people always appreciate when he pops up.
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AD: Why is John's face so pointy?! Why does it jutt-out so much and when is he going to tie a red scarf around it so on-coming traffic can swerve violently around it? Is YOUR face pointy?
JH: I have no idea. When I was designing the characters, it kinda just happened and I never thought about it. The Mint Condition art style was based on hard lines originally so there was a lot of sharp corners. My style has gotten looser in the nearly 3 years I've been doing the comic, and as a result John's face has actually gotten less pointy. You can probably track the evolution of his face (man that sounded weird). Also, no my face isn't pointy. I was just trying to give each character a unique facial design and somehow the character based on me got a pointy face.
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AD: What's your favorite toy-line to bust up and tinker with? Is Barbie's head easier to pop-off than G.I. Joe's? What's the worst thing that happened to you while working on them, and do you have any cool scars to show our readers? ...Please? :D
JH: Funny you should mention G.I. Joe, because the Rise of Cobra figures are very customizer friendly. I've customized several of my Rise of Cobra figures. It's great. Aside from that, Hasbro figures in general are great for customizers because of their neck ball joints. It's so easy to pop the heads off!!! I used to have to boil and pop every figure I customized so even a head swap was a hassle. Now when I do a head swap it kinda feels empty...but at least I don't burn myself on boiling water. So that's good.
Oh, and I do have some scars. Let me do a Public Service Announcement for all those who customize and those just getting in to customizing: Accidents happen. That's a fact. When you customize you work with several tools. Screw drivers, dremmels, KNIVES. And they can be dangerous. When you work with tools after a long time you get used to using them and sometimes you get careless. DON'T get careless. Always pay attention to what you're doing, and as cliche as it sounds safety first. Always be safe. Customizing is a great hobby and can be lucrative if you can sell your work. However no amount of customizing is worth a hefty hospital bill and scaring those you love. A few months ago I was working on a custom and was using a knife to help me crack open the body to switch out the arms (something I've done hundreds of times before) and I got careless. Needless to say, the phrase "emergency room" is a permanent part of my vocabulary now. So be safe, always pay attention to what you're doing, and the next time someone makes fun of you for playing with action figures, remember:
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AD: If and when you have kids (I've probably got a few I don't know about somewhere!), are you going to encourage and inspire them with your customs to follow an artistic career, or are you going to hide this part of your life from them in secret shame, awful, awful shaaaaaame!
JH: When I have kids, I definitely won't hide my customs or my action figures. I might put them on a high shelf though, so they can't reach them, haha. Just until they're older when they learn to handle action figures.
In all seriousness though, I'll totally encourage artistic careers for my kids, but I won't force them. I'll encourage whatever they want to do. If they decide to be in porn though, I'll just ask them not to discuss work at the dinner table.
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AD: I've noticed that most people who write an online-comic, paint toys, and wear a trenchcoat around all day, even in summer, usually have their own ideas for a line of action figures. If someone said, "John, I want to give you 10 million dollars, and with this money I want you to make lots of little plastic people to populate the desks and cubicles of geeks everywhere, and you can't run away with the money because I'll have you chained to a table the entire time.", what would you make?
JH: Wow...this is a thinker. I mean there's so many variables to consider when answering. I mean, am I allowed to base the line off of a pre-existing property, or does it have to be completely original?
If I can base it off of something, then I would definitely design a line of 6 inch, super poseable Venture Bros. action figures. We fans need them desperately.
If it has to be a completely original idea, then I would make a line based of my characters. Ha. Kidding. Sort of. I am working on a customized Ultimate Gandhi figure though, using a [SOTA] Dhalsim as the base.
But completely original? I dunno...that requires coming up with a whole set of characters, backstories, etc. Because if you start a toy
line that isn't based off a pre-existing property (like a cartoon,
movie, comic book) you had BETTER have backstories for the characters. I might have to get back to you on that on
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[TAO's Note: A big thanks goes out to John for taking the time to answer our questions! Show him your appreciation by checking out his site and customs at the links below.]
Links & Contact Info
