John Carpenters The Thing

Along with Aliens and the original Terminator, John Carpenters The Thing is my favourite and most viewed movie. This film is an absolute classic and Im suprised there has not been any discussion about this film previously in the Alien and Robot forum.

Anyhow I had been thinking about making a MacReady custom and perhaps buy the McFarlane Norris spiderhead to display along side him, if indeed the scale lokos right. Well pretty quickly I gave up on the idea untill I recieved a newsletter email from Hot Toys just now. Check this guy out . .

https://www.hottoys.com.hk/product.php?cat=3&pid=321

It would obviously need some work such as repainting and such but I think this figure would make a fantastic foundation for a MacReady. The bearded headsculpt, which in my opinion has to be based on Russels character, the sunglasses and clothing looks decent too. Im sure some of the webbing could be used for when Mac was carrying all that dynamite too. All you would need as extras are his famous hat, the bavaclava and a flamethrower. I could proably scratchbuild the torch pretty easy and maybe a Indianna Jones hat could be moddified.

What do you guys think?

I had the same thought when i read that newsletter earlier today! Who's going to make the MacReady gear??

That figure would make a great MacReady, but even with my poor artistic skills I managed to make a custom a couple of years ago. Get the Frontline Wyatt Earp Kurt Russell sculpt, and from there, beards and hair are pretty much the easiest thing in the world to sculpt with the proper pen tools.

The hat could be done with one of those felt fedoras from Project ARE with the brims bent up on the front and back.

DML makes the flamethrower & jacket...all I had to do was dye the coveralls the right color green and I think I used the Clint Eastwood Yamato shirt as his thermals underneath.

I sold the one I made and have regretted it ever since. I'm about to start work on another, and I'm thinking the DML German Shepherd w/ some tentacle-action would make a great sidekick.

But yeah, easily one of the greatest movies ever made. Poor Carpenter never could find that perfect niche again for some reason...

Thanks for the info Ashton If you have any photos of your old Mac custom I'd love to see them.

Yeah I hadnt thought till now but there must be a DiD or DML WW2 based flamethrower (like the ones US Marines used in the Pacific) that could be used. Yeah his clothign shouldnt be hard to source either, all thats needed is some imagination and initiative

Converting a German Sheppard into a Dog-Thing is a great idea also, Mac would definatley need something to go up against. Im not sure how large the McFarlane Norris spiderhead is though.

Im am definatley going to attempt this figure, trouble is, could I really trust Mac when hes completed lol

Stendec said:

Im not sure how large the McFarlane Norris spiderhead is though.

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Here's a link to the thread on OSW where a guy made a damn nice MacReady and I think he used the McFarlane Norris head as an accessory.

https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54100&highlight=macready

I thought I was the only one that'd made one when I ran across this thread so I posted mine further down the page, but as you can see it is inferior to the first one but not too bad for my 3rd or 4th custom (hell I still miss that figure).

Best of luck...the world can never have enough MacReady's. Be sure to post some pics if you get him finished.

It could easily pass for MacReady. Give him a repaint and a sombrero.

Batty said:

It could easily pass for MacReady. Give him a repaint and a sombrero.

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Yep, the beard and facial features are a perfect Kurt Russel as MacReady. Its a shame he has that moulded headband but at least it means you can put a hat on him. If he had that crazy 80's bush molded on there you'd never get a hat to fit.

Hey Ashton, your custom looks awesome. In fact, Id say yours is alot better than the other example. Your headsculpt is alot better in my opinion, both in the sculpt and paint application. You did a great job capturing his ghostly complexsion, the other one has too much colour in the cheeks. Your flamer looks more accurate too given the support frame mounting the fuel tanks.

Can you post that pic of your custom in this thread, it would make great reference. I didnt want to host and post without your permission. Judging by the other gyus pics, the Norris spiderhead looks a tad small but hell, it would do for me!

Best horror movie ever!

I love The Thing, it's one of my favortie Sci Fi/Horror flicks of all time.

Can't wait to see all the MacReady figures come together!

foolkiller said:

Best horror movie ever!

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Ditto...A lot of people give praise to Halloween, (and well they should..), but this Carpenter Classic is often overlooked...The score by Ennio Morricione (spelling might be wrong??..), is the best.

Saw it for the first time a couple of months ago but it became one of my all-time favorite sci-fi/horror movies A classic imo.

Well thanks for the compliment man. I see a million things wrong with it that I hope to correct and perfect next time around. Although I think that it suffers from my crap-photography skills more than anything else.

I have no problem with you using or posting this image. In fact I don't even have a hardcopy of it anymore--my PC has crashed since then. But here ya go.

you can find a loose flame thrower here:
https://onesixthdepot.com/cart/index.php?osCsid=7ef5bf64f13f82b66f48006440531a11

Just picked up the original Thing From Another World today on DVD, fingers crossed for HD. Plus it was buy one Sci-Fi/Horror DVD get a second one free so I also bought the Special Edition Alien and got the Thing for free!!

The figure looks great as is but would also make a great McCready. I have hopes that Hot Toys will actually make a Kurt Russell figure in some form whether it be Snake Plisskin or McCready sometime in the future.

Well I am so psyched about the possibility of making an accurate MacReady figure that I quickly repainted the HT headsculpt in photoshop since I was curious to see how well it would translate into Mac.



The beard colour is abit off I think but you get the idea of how great this headsculpt is. I love HT for covertly giving us great character likenesess, as they did with Michael Biehn.

Man that is a dead-ringer for Kurt! I wonder if the headband will remove cleanly thought? I don't want my MacReady forced to wear his hat the whole time.

I'd buy a MacReady but nothing else would interest me. The monster is interesting, but a little too gross to have in 1:6 for me.

Awesome movie!! Didn't care for it the first time I saw it... but then i saw it years later and fell in love with it.

don't know if i'd go for figures from the movie, but that Hot Toys Head Sculpt is totally Kurt Russell.