The character of Anarky was introduced via Batman comics in the late 80s. (He was also one of my first customs. The less said about that the better.) He’s been through several iterations since then. Reimagining him as an equal foil against the Dark Knight in “Beware the Batman” was inspired.

Initially I planned top make Anarky from a 6″ animated base, such as Batman or Nightwing. But none of the options really matched the shape of Anarky’s physique. Then I realized I was thinking about this too hard. Anarky, as he appears in the animated program, is literally meant to be the mirror image of Batman. His basic body shape is the same. And since the one figure Mattel made from that show was Batman, it seemed logical to track down another and start from there. So that became the base.

The belt was dremeled off and rebuilt with Magic Sculpt and small chunks of styrene rod. The glove fins were removed, and I used Magic Sculpt to “straighten” the boot tops. And I trimmed the cape.

His head was a 6″ TNBA Riddler. I build up the cheek bones, beefed up the nose, and covered over the existing eyes. The hood is shaped from Super Sculpey. (Not my first choice of sculpting material, but I needed something non-sticky to get this done.)

I am often asked “how do I paint a figure that is primarily a light color, like yellow or white?” And I always answer with something about it being best to spray the color, if you can, either through spray paint or an airbrush. Did I take my own advice? Noooooooo. But I had good reason. That cape did not want to come off. I could have forced it, but the cape itself forms the neck, and I didn’t want to risk damaging it. So the cape stayed on. And I painted the whole thing by hand. (The fact his outfit is a light grey helped, as the mixed in black gave it some opaqueness.)

Created September 2020