CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH
BASE FIGURE: AUSTIN POWERS MINI-ME
PARTS USED: ANTZ CUTTER (WINGS); STAR WARS: EPISODE I WATTO (ARMS)
MATERIALS USED: HOBBY KNIFE, SCULPEY MODELING COMPOUND, ACRYLIC PAINTS
FIRST APPEARANCE: "A THING ABOUT RATS" (AS HUMAN), ENTER THE FLY" (AS MUTANT FLY)

"Did you remember to put the retaining bolt in the warp drive assembly?"
"Now, how would I remember?  I have the brain of a fly!"

Preamble:  Baxter Stockman, as he appears in the original Ninja Turtles cartoon, is probably one of my all-time favorite characters.  He was moderately interesting during his short-lived role as Shredder's absent-minded assistant, I suppose, but what I really like was the fact that once the joke ran its course, instead of continuing to run the idea into the ground (as the writers did with the painfully stupid Bebop and Rocksteady), they took him in an entirely new direction, permanently mutating him into a fly and thus adding a whole new dimension to his character.  Baxter remained a lovable, addlebrained genius, but now had the added motivation of seeking revenge against Shredder and the Turtles for reasons he himself was never entirely clear on.  He became a recurring guest villain, making appearances nearly every season, and I loved every one of his episodes.  (Well, except maybe "Landlord of the Flies."  That was kind of gross.)

Sure, there was an official Baxter Stockman toy, but as with a lot of the TMNT toys, it didn't particularly resemble the cartoon version.  The action figure had a strangely-built physique, with torn clothing and a hideous face that didn't really look like Baxter as he appeared on TV.  My biggest gripe was that the figure was far too large, towering over the Turtles when in the show he only looks to be about three feet tall.  Well, the idea for this project percolated for a long time, and was the first TMNT kitbash idea I came up with.  It wasn't until a few years later, after I'd taken an active interest in TMNT again and had several projects under my belt, before I finally got around to tackling him (along with a more simple repaint of the original figure that I did at the same time).

Construction:  I'd previously used the head from the Mini-Me figure as part of an earlier project (my Hi-Q kitbash), but the rest of the figure was intact, which was fine since I planned to create a new head for him out of Sculpey.  I did need to cut away at his feet a little bit to make Baxter's toes, and I chopped off his pinky fingers since Baxter only has three fingers and a thumb.  I also did a little bit of work on the shirt collar, cutting it into a V-neck, and modified the pant cuffs to give them a ripped appearance.  Baxter's wings were made from the wings from an action figure named Cutter from the Antz toy line (you know, the Woody Allen movie that ripped off A Bug's Life).  The wings were clear plastic with brown detailing, so I used some paint thinner to remove the brown details.  The extra fly arms were made out of the arms from a Watto toy from Star Wars: Episode I.  (In fact, I'd been planning to use Watto's wings as well, until after I drew up a color model for Baxter and discovered that he only has one pair of wings.  Real flies have two pairs.  He's a mutant, though, so I guess that makes it okay.)

The main reason I delayed this project for as long as I did was because I knew I would have to create the entire head out of Sculpey.  (I like to think of myself as a competent sculptor, but I try not to deal with the stuff if I can help it because I'm always terrified of melting my action figures in the oven.)  Anyway, for the hair, I rolled tiny pieces of clay into cone shapes and attached them to the head, one at a time.  I had saved a plastic bow tie from another action figure, but I broke a piece off and lost it, so I just ended up making a new bow tie out of Sculpey as well.  Then I painted him, making sure to remember the eye highlights.  The finished figure stands 3¼" tall.

Bonus:  I also made two versions of the alien computer which Baxter first met when he discovered the spaceship in "Bye Bye, Fly."  The computer accompanied Baxter on every one of his subsequent adventures, and briefly took physical form in "Son of Return of the Fly II," but after its body was destroyed, it existed only as a computer chip that Baxter carried around with him.  Back when the original TMNT cartoon was on the air, I took one of those digital clocks shaped like a personal computer (the kind that you could get as a free gift with a subscription to PC World) and I drew the face of Baxter's computer on the front.  (I realize it's not completely accurate to the episode, so I may have to redo this later to more closely match the cartoon.  In my defense, though, I made this little guy seventeen years ago.)  When I built the kitbash, I wanted Baxter to have an accessory to carry, so I took the circuit board from an electronic R2-D2 that I'd gutted, and cut it down so that it fit in Baxter's hand.