20th Anniversary Mayor “1984 Mail-In”

My self-custom character is Mayor, who was modeled after Hallmark “sticker” Snake-Eyes. I chose to use realistic colors rather than the sky blue here (even though this looks awesome in figure form).

The original custom was finished roughly 20 years ago. Many have asked the origin of the code name. My brother (Chad-Ghost), a friend, and I were working together. An obscure Classic Rock song came on the radio and I knew who sang it. I said “Toot! Toot! Train boarding Loserville, population 1.” That’s the day I became the Mayor of Loserville. I wanted to call this figure “Commando,” but thankfully Chad talked me into making this my self-custom.

Original Mayor

Hallmark Sticker Snake-Eyes

 

20th Anniversary Mayor, which I’ve dubbed “1984 Mail-in” Mayor, was initially mocked-up in 2016. I wanted a Mayor to look like a Hasbro produced figure, something that has plagued the completion of many customs over the last decade.

1984 Mail-In Mayor

20th Anniversary Mayor

Colors

Back then, customizing was simple. Colors didn’t need to match and I’d use the parts that I had rather than precision part picking. I used a lot of Krylon Camo Ultra Flat spray paints (which still work amazingly well), however the colors do not match original Hasbro colors. 

For this version of Mayor I used the original base color for Zap, as this torso had never been painted in light olive. Stalker’s camo was an obvious choice as well. Last was choosing the scheme. There’s not a lot of consistency in the original line as far as knives, bicep pockets, and thigh pockets being painted. Grenades were never painted, so that was easy, and Grunt had the only painted knife. I followed Zap’s example and painted his bicep pockets to match his explosive pouch.

Dark Gray: Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal 
Light Olive: Delta Ceramcoat Timberline Green
Brown: Apple Barrel Brown Oxide
Forest Green: Apple Barrel Woodland Green

Parts

Going with parts that were 84 and below was easy for this custom. It proved more difficult when crafting 20th Ghost and Sidewinder. I wanted this custom to be as playable as possible, and the arms are always a problem area for that, which, were solved with Short-Fuze’s arms, which match the original Zap colors perfectly. 

Head: Snake Eyes 83
Arms: Short-Fuze 97
Torso: Snake Eyes 83
Waist: Snake Eyes 83
Thighs: Snake Eyes 83
Feet: Snake Eyes 83

“Mail-In” Accessories

The original Mayor used Hawk 86’s backpack and Flash 83’s laser rifle. For the mail-in version, I wanted to use comparable accessories, but replaced Flash’s gun with Snow Job’s because I can no longer reconcile the use of an XMLR-1A without a power source/backpack. I’ve become a fan of Sand-Viper’s AG36 and felt Ripcord’s rifle to be visual similar.

Backpack- Grunt 83
Rifle- Transportable Tactical Battle Platform
Laser Rifle- Snow Job 84

Other Accessories

These are the accessories that will be displayed with 20th Mayor. I purchased the POTF AT-ST rifle years ago after realizing it’s similarity to Flash’s rifle. It finally found a home here.

Backpack- Hawk 86
Pistol- General Hawk 04
Rifle- Sand Viper 03
Laser Rifle- POTF AT-ST Driver
Knife & Sheath- Remco Commando Hank
Night Vision Goggles- Remco Defender

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