Red Tornado Shrine: Custom Red Tornado Lego!

I saw this custom Red Tornado Lego and thought about how far Reddy has come, that he's getting into merchandise with all the heavy hitters, you can build your own whilst collecting various others, and he's in the spot light enough that there are those out there making customs of him. And pretty damn cool ones too.
And he'll always have that hostess ad...

This one was made my Mark Marquez, of Mark's Toy Corner, and he's got quite the knack for putting these little guys together.
Of course I won't just throw any old custom into my collections, but you have to make exceptions for your seriously lacking in stuff, low on the totem pole B-listers. You don't actually have to, but I occasionally do.

I believe he's got one for you too, Frank.

Thanks Mark!

Model and Toy Collector #24

I really like this cover here, done by Brian Clarke. I get a very comfortable feel from it. Of course I'm very strange...

But seriously, what a beautiful picture! The JLA sitting around, playing the Flash board game. Just having a good ol time taking a break from the wear and tear of everyday super hero life.

Anything missing?

Well, rumor has it that after catching the Flash cheating (at his own board game) for the third time, and with Ollie stirring the pot, the Martian Manhunter, (who was apparently not doing so well) got up from the table and murmured ,"This is b.s., and that game sucks. I'm outta here."
There's also tell of Aquaman, in a rare burst of on-land anger, heaving his chair across the room.

I also suspect that no one knows Ray is actually even standing on the table.

This was actually a very cool magazine to rifle through even aside from all the JLA goodness. It's from 1993, so it was fun to see what the kids were building waaaaay back then.
There's a whole JLA custom section in it, and I just had to share.


First up we've got a Hawkman custom featuring The Atom!
I believe this was made from a Superman aurora kit, and Carter looks pretty good.
I don't know what the hell Ray is doing.
Cheering Hawkman on?
Raising the roof?
Must be difficult for the man Hawk to fly around and stuff having to palm Palmer like that.
Maybe he's practicing his table waiting skills...




Over here you've got custom Hal, Jonah Jones, and Arthur.
Hal looks like he may be a nice custom.
MM looks afraid.

Now what the hell is Aquaman doing? Has he gone and tied some rope to a manta ray for skiing purposes? I just can't believe he did that.
He always seemed like such a nice guy.
He was always so quiet, kept to himself...

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What the...














The Martian Manhunter up front and Batman squoze in behind!?

Somebody call somebody! Whoever is responsible for this obviously did not get the memo.

And The Atom has no face. Maybe it's a kewpie doll.

Moving on, there's a custom Atom in the left hand corner! Looks like it may be a nice little figure, unfortunately the picture is so dark I'll just never know.
If Pete Dibenedetto would like to send me this (and any other) custom Atom pieces, I will happily show them in full light on the T3.
The Tiny Titan accepts no responsibility for lost or kept items sent to The Tiny Titan, unless you really, really want them back. But things get lost, yanno...

And last but not least, conceptualized superhero kits. Kits that these people think should have been made.

Sweet moses are they right. I'll take 10 of those Atom's. That Aquaman would be fantastic as well I would think. Who wouldn't want a Jonah Jones kit?
Flash and GL get quite enough, thanks.

It goes to show (in 1993 anyway) that there are other people out there whom demand B-list merchandise!

It's cool though, keep churning out different variations of the same group forcing people to make their own crap.

JLU Atom sketch double header!

I figured it was about time I threw another sketch up here. What you didn't figure was I'm throwing up 2! It's a combo of two unknown and under-appreciated artists, whom the world may never fully understand.

I approached the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art table at an NY con to see what all the commotion was about. Sitting at the table was a guy named Adriano, blowing through character sketches left and right. I chucked a small donation into the donation bin, then got into talks with the museum barker (I don't know what his official title was) trying to flag down people as they walked by. He spotted the JLU Atom figure hanging out in my pocket, we started talking about Ray until he asked me if he was dead (the conversation just happened to end there, I didn't flip the table over on him or anything... I was tired as it was). Adriano pointed to JLU Ray, I handed him over, and this is what he handed back to me (along with Ray) 5 minutes later, signed "Adriano the Merciless."

It's a very devious looking Ray. I'd expect him to be hiding out in the grass, waiting for some magnifying glass wielding villain to stumble upon him and this is what he's greeted with.
I enjoy the whole top heavy Atom going on here, and it's impressive for the amount of time it took to put this together. It is in color after all.
I tried to find out more about this guy (how bout a name?) to give him a bit more credit here, but the "MoCCA" website and Myspace page are... uncooperative. As in they don't respond.
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This beauty was done by my 2 and a half year old nephew Jake!

I saw him doodling today, asked if he would draw a picture of something for me, and he said he would. I retrieved JLU Atom in hopes that Jake would produce a master piece that I could double up with Adriano's, and he did not disappoint!
Jake's Atom here is much more serious. The driven, dedicated Ray Palmer that I've come to know and love. Give it a click for the easier to see version, he went about it lightly.
I think he felt that it didn't represent his best work, and therefore refused to sign it. I told him that I would take credit for it, but he just didn't care.
That boy is all art, no glory!

The Atom #10 ad

What you're seeing here is a beautifully done ad for an issue of The Atom (and some other comic) with a gorgeous cover. .

This was provided to me by Rob Kelly of the aquaman shrine and other beautiful bloggery. Thanks Rob!

The "Ride A Deadly Grenade" cover, done by two guys named Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson, has become a favorite amongst many people (and some even admit it) and for good reason.

For the very best in Comics reading...

Atom Pocket Super Hero

I've got Sword of the Atom coming up, but I need to get one of these pocket heroes on here. Let me just say, I love these things. Love them. They're just seriously cool little figures (cool is in the eye of the beholder) from the ever so giving DC Direct.
That said, I do have a gripe with the pocket heroes line. A complaint. It's in the ball park of what I normally complain about. But I'll save it for the big Pocker Super Heroes extravaganza.

So you've got original incarnation Al Pratt here complete with bikini bottom, packaged along with Dr. Mid-Nite, which I thought was pretty cool. I mean, when they're just sitting there on the shelf, alone, while variations of Batman, and Superman, and Superman's family, and Krypto, and the GL squad go flying off the shelves... at least the Doc can see in the dark. So they won't be scared.


Very cool figures and DCD made pretty much any hero you would want, so if you haven't already, track yourself down a pocket hero. I personally have my geekfest unopened ones, and then loosies who hang around causing trouble.

Sword of the Atom: Action Pin-up!

Gil Kane
Ray Palmer and a tribe of 6 inch jungle aliens
Gil Kane
Jean cranks up the crazy a notch
Gil Kane
Ray Palmer wielding a sword
Gil Kane

Sword of the Atom, coming up!

Crisis on Earth B-List!

Happy New Year to all, and welcome to the tiny titan's first official blog team-up!

We’re looking to bring in the New Year by offering up a double review of Brave and Bold #73, which features the world’s smallest superhero, The Atom, and the King of the Seven Seas, Aquaman!

Both the tiny titan and my buddy’s Rob’s aquawesome aquaman shrine have decided to get together on this, so thanks for heading on over here! If for some reason you were here first, please head over to the shrine afterwards and read Rob’s take on Arthur sleeping an entire comic book off.

“Hail, Galg the Destroyer!”

Written by Bob Haney, penciled and inked by Sal Trapani.

Cover by Carmine Infantino and Chuck Cuidera, making Galg look especially nasty.

Our story begins with Aquaman and Aqualad finding evil afoot when they come across some raiders thieving treasure. Aquaman assumes it’ll be a swim in the pond but a giant blast and a “holy hagfish” later, our two sea heroes watch the baddies get beamed into a ship that shrinks into seemingly nothing.


Utterly puzzled, Aquaman takes a sample of the water and brings it to Dr. Vulko, a well regarded Atlantean scientist. Dr. Vulko runs a few drops through every test in the book, but finds nothing. The mystery looks to remain unsolved, until… another drop lands on the microscope and the raider ship appears! Holy Haddocks, it was hiding in a drop of water!

Marauding thieves living in a microscopic water world!

But how can our heroes get to the bottom of what’s going on when they’re so big and the microscopic world is… oh so microscopic?

Aquaman knows. Aaaaaw yeah!

With instructions from Aquaman, Dr. Ray Palmer takes a Trans-Atlantic (who pays for that?) flight, enjoys himself some lunch, then gets in Atom mode and bails out when he’s over Atlantis.

It is around that time that out of nowhere a beam shoots out of the syringe holding the microscopic water world, hitting Aquaman and sucking him in! Nap time.

The Atom shows up, gets the lowdown from Aqualad, some action (as seen to the left) from Mera, and a lil oxygen pill from Vulko, then proceeds to do this thing. Into the water drop he goes where Ray locates and climbs aboard the raider ship, only to bring him face to face with… GALG!

A giant, one-eyed, purple starfish looking galgy plankton thing. A seriously arrogant galgy thing too.

Galg shows The Atom an unconscious Aquaman, trapped inside a diatomic prison, which is where the King of the Seven Seas will spend the remainder of this battle of wits and shrinky dinks.

Now, Galg is all about himself. Packing a serious Napoleonic complex, he admittedly has a modicum of intelligence and some sweet technology, but he gets mentally slapped around here by the mighty mite.

Twice he attempts to imprison Palmer, only to have him shrink out of one, and grow out of the other. With this, Galg feels he has met an equal, someone with whom he can take over worlds with. The Atom convinces him that he’s game, as long as he can return Aquaman back to whence he came. After all, he promised.

With Aquaman returned, The Atom shrinks here, shimmies there, and manages to get ol Galg teleported right out of this world and into the big one, where he proceeds to explode in the greatest of Hollywood style.

Cleaning up after himself, the tiny titan expands back to his normal size, destroying the water world behind him!

(Now you may wonder why The Atom didn’t just return Aquaman and then say “see ya” and grow to his full size then, destroying everything INCLUDING Galg… but then we wouldn’t have a giant galgy starfish plankton splosion.)

Everyone is all smiles, Ray explains that Galg’s body couldn’t take the pressure outside of his own world and that he’s glad he could be of service. Aquaman apologizes for sleeping the whole issue, and the world is safe again!

Well, I think it’s obvious that this isn’t the issue featuring Aquaman that Rob would take to a deserted island with him, but I know he’s aware that Haney worked on a lot of Aquaman, and probably wanted to have his go at shrinking The Atom and bouncing him all over the place.

With that said, I enjoy the way he handled Ray. He used him intelligently, but he wasn’t without his stumbles.

The art appears to get cooking towards the end, particularly where The Atom and Galg square off against each other. There’s some great looking panels in there, such as that one to the left, which I’m a big fan of.

It’s a fun read, doesn't quite care if it makes sense or not, and Galg makes for a dopey, yet arrogantly entertaining villain. Of course we prefer when Arthur and Ray are side by side (feet on shoulder?) handing out beatings to the bad guys.

So, we hope you enjoyed this trip into the teaming up of two B-list obsessive blogs. When you’re a rabid fan of the hero behind the hero, its clutch to have someone that knows what it’s like. Someone that has gone through the pain… of one cancellation after the other. Rob and I will continue to battle the forces of the B list, and vow to keep up the good fight in trying to get the spotlight to shine through past the usual suspects.

We’re hoping this is the first of many team-ups, and when that Atom and Aquaman film gets greenlit, you’ll hear it here first!