The Toy Corner: V: Enemy Visitor 80's Style Lizard Custom Action Figure

"V: Enemy Visitor" Unmasked Alien Action Figure

by Jason Elizondo

It's no secret that the entire line of "V" shows, which include "V: The Mini-Series, V: The Final Battle and the one season of "V: The TV Series" are my all-time favorite shows. Created by Kenneth Johnson, who also created The Incredible Hulk, 6 Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman and the Alien Nation TV shows, "V" was groundbreaking science fiction television at the time. And initially, it was a ratings juggernaut, making the first Mini-Series one of the most watched programs of all time.

As I play with my new hobby of making custom action figures out of movies and shows that I know they will never make a reality, "V" is different because they actually almost did, and came so close that they actually made prototypes. While the two Mini-Series events were hot property, Ljn began work on a "V" toyline, complete with 3 3/4" action figures, vehicles and a 12" doll. When the property moved forward into a weekly series, the show, sadly, took a huge step down in quality, and not surprisingly, ratings began sinking more and more, ultimately resulting in cancellation after just one single season. Ljn quickly scrapped their plans for the toyline, but not before their 12" doll actually made it into production. So that guy's fairly easy to come by on eBay and a very cool vintage toy to add to your collection I might add. But I still always wanted those little action figures, so I thought one of my first projects should be making one of the Lizard Aliens a reality.

Back of Cardback

I used vintage Star Wars parts, cut up, glued and painted this guy and I love him. I love him a lot and he came out as awesome as I hoped he would. I think for me the most fun was designing and making the cardback from scratch, which is ultimately easier than you think it is. There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to make these, and I had to pretty much take different aspects from various sources to make my own that would work within my budget and equipment. If anyone needs help or tips on how to get started, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm still learning as I go but it's a lot of fun, albeit extremely time-consuming.

For now I'm sticking to the standard 6 X 9" packaging that were so common with Star Wars and G.I. Joe packaging. But I do plan to grow and expand to other sizes.

As I write this I'm already on near completion of my next figure, with a very long list of "possible" new ones I really want to start working on. Until next time!