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 I was nine years old when I saw " Beneath The Planet of the Apes " at the Jolly Roger Drive-in in Sharonville , Ohio . The first of the APES films I had ever seen on the big screen , though the images from the TV ads for the first film Planet of the Apes were still indelibly imprinted upon my subconsious in their nightmarish and downbeat take on the fate of mankind , a film my parents obviously considered too horrific to subject a child about to enter the first grade to . The scenes of General Ursus instigating his plans for invasion before the citizens council perhaps the first hooks that set deep within me what has become a lifelong passion for me . It was not until junior high school before I found another person with the same appreciation for the Planet of the Apes series , and in addition to creating our own ape masks and costumes , we also choreographed adventures with our Mego POTA figures and set about turning the films into comic book adaptations , which were some of my very first forays into the comic book medium that would later become my career during the 1990's . I still have all my Mego Apes figures , as well as my original issue Addar model kits , and while some of my Marvel magazine format Ape comics disappeared during my move from Cincinnati to Orlando , I still possess those as well . It may well be redundant at this point to say that I have a particular fetish for all things APES . Any collector of Apes memorabilia can tell you , when it comes to simacula of that intimidating war monger , gorilla soldier and general Ursus ; we collectors have been consistantly getting the short end of the stick for thirty five odd years . The Addar model kit was about the closest thing we ever got to a killer replica of the general , but he suffered from the fact that his costuming was inaccurate and he carried a carbine in lieu of his pistol or commandeered submachine gun . For reasons beyond my understanding , the Mego version of General Ursus was clad in a similarly styled uniform in tan with bright purple leotards ! GAAAHHH!! Finally , thanks to Sideshow Collectibles , we fans of General Ursus now have a fairly faithful 12 inch tall representation of the character brought to chilling life by veteran hard ass James Gregory . To paraphrase Charlton Heston , " Thank you , Thank you all to Hell ! "   One of the most imaginative aspects of those initial POTA films was the costume design , and for me , the armor of General Ursus symbolized the zenith of simian fashion , from that stylized sagittal crest helmet to his studded leather cuirass and gauntlets . Aside from the studded yoke , none of these aspects of his outfit have ever been adequately reproduced in any of his previous action figure/model kit forms . I gotta give credit to the craftspeople at Sideshow for finally reproducing the general's attire in all its glory . I will also add that the sculptor Brian Dooley , has done a wonderful head sculpt of James Gregory in his ape face , so accurate you can practically hear Gregory's voice utter " The only good human is a DEAD human ! "  This figure comes so close to perfection , that it comes as quite a drag to see it crowned with another lame version of what is , without doubt , one of the most awesome designs of military head gear . I can't understand it , I've sculpted the General's helmet in 25mm scale as well as 1/4 scale and it's never been a problem , considering the awesome sculpt jobs done everywhere else on this figure I am amazed that the artists STILL blew it . One look at the figure's helmet in comparison to the helmet worn by Mark Lenard from the TV series ( albeit being a lighter and slightly smaller version than that worn by James Gregory in Beneath The Planet of the Apes ) one can merely shake one's head and wonder what the HECK wre they thinking ?!? It's truly the weakest aspect of this figure , which is a shame since if one thing really symbolizes Ursus , it's that kick ass helmet of his . This is unfortunately , a recurring theme in Sideshow's lineup of action figures , cutting corners that should not be cut . This all leads into the shortcomings of an otherwise fantastic figure . Personally , I would have liked to have gotten a figure that had the helmet as a separate piece , and I also would have preferred a rooted hair head , since the plastic hair tends to limit the neck joint severely . Sideshow has also provided us with molded rubber boots that while being accurate , severly limit the ankle joints and prevent the figure from being posed easily without the use of the figure stand . The articulation aside from this is quite nice and allows very convincing ape-like posturing , but the wrist articulation is rendered pointless due to the one piece glove/gauntlet sleeve that again makes one wonder " What the Heck were they thinking ? " The pistol , while close to the styling of the film version , is a bit off as far as the contouring of the body . These are relatively small criticisms of the figure , all things considered it remains the best damn version of General Ursus to hit the market and is definitely worth the pricetag of around $40 bucks . For those of you with customization on the brain , the shortcomings of this figure are blessings in disguise and can be fairly easily remedied . One of the first things I did was separate the helmet from the head ( which by the way , is very well cemented to the head ! ) but can be teased loose with a little bit of careful patience and a large needle . The head sans helmet is sculpted in such a way as to very easily accomodate re-wigging with real hair , a task I have not yet undertaken , but after careful examination appears to be applicable in much the same manner as the hairpieces were applied to the actual ape makeups in the films . The gauntlets also can be simply cut at the wrists and separated so that the sleeve will fit on the forearm and the gloved hand repegged back onto wrist joint allowing full articulation . Resculpting a new removable helmet and attaching a longer leather coif is another relatively simple task , that once completed will make this figure perfect . I'll be posting shots of the completed modifications in a future installment at Geeb-O-Rama .  It usually takes me a while to work up the initiative to customize a brand new figure , but General Ursus was such an excellent figure , I could not sit idly by with his stock helmet ruining his otherwise awesome presence . After I had removed the original helmet , I took a head blank and began work on his new helmet . The new helmet is made from Super Sculpey , primarily because I was in a hurry to complete this customization and for speed , it's difficult to beat the versatility of this polymer clay . Once I had created the basic form I baked the helmet to cure it . I then sanded it smooth and used a dremel with an engraving bit to carve the piping around the frontal plate . I then used smoothing bits to finish the contouring around the piping and finish shaping the helm . The raised geometric shapes of the rank insignia on the frontal plate were made with a second application of sculpey which was then cured with a hair dryer on the hardened main helmet form . This was then primed and painted with acrylic paint .  The original coif was far too short , and was rather simply constructed , being merely a cut piece of leather . For the new helmet , I wanted something a bit more dramatic ; so after creating a new pattern and cutting a new piece of leather to the proper length and shape, I sewed a 20 guage steel wire inside the hem of the new coif .The leather itself was taken from scraps left from an old pair of leather pants which was thin enough and fine enough quality to lend a very precise drape to the coif that was enhanced by the inner wire as well as allowing poseability dynamics to it . My hand sewing is still crude , but I'm very happy with the end results . This new helmet is not only removeable , but is also more accurately proportioned and shaped to General Ursus' helmet from the film , " Beneath The Planet of The Apes " .  Having resculpted the General's helmet in order that it could be removed , the next modification is giving Ursus hair . I had the Navajo Barbie head from a previous kit bash , and while it's a great face sculpt she unfortunately possessed tresses of suitable length and color to serve as the base for General Ursus hair transplant , so SLASH ! off comes her face ! This cheap and easy technique works nicely with the general's head sculpt , without his original helmet he has a really narrow crown , so I cut off the back of his head so that the Barbie wig pate would fit against it .  With both heads cut apart , now is the moment of truth as I test the fit , it works . I had sliced into the general's head just behind the cheek hair so thare is overlap as I press the Barbie pate onto the Ursus head . I was not sure if I would need to insert padding into the inside of the head , to insure it would not cave in , as I tested the fit it proved to be solid enough that padding the interior would not be necessary . From this point , after tying back the hair , I will use glue to cement both head pieces together .  With the coif removed , I then checked the fit of the helmet with Ursus' new hair in place ( it has not yet been cemented into position . At this stage he looks a little bit like General Fabio , but the extra length of the Barbie hair will be trimmed down and used to form the remaining hairpieces that need to be applied : the forehead piece , both cheekpieces , and the beard . Stay Tuned for further Updates on the completion of General Ursus' Re-wig .  Having for all intents and purposes , butchered my General Ursus figure , it was time to go ahead and start the final work towards his new hair transplant . I've never done this before so whether or not it'll work is up in the air but in theory at least it should work . I just don't know if this customization is, in the end , going to make this figure look better or not . Nor do I know if what I'm doing here is actually the right way to approach it or even if there IS a right way . In any event I have glued the base wig pate in place .  The Barbie hair has that trademark shellac to hold the style , so after the glue has dried it was time to do some initial taming to remove the excessive curl . I wrapped a rubber band around the hair at the general's chin line and poured near boiling water over the head and then allowed the hair to dry .  I separated the excess hair from the first trim job into 15 swatches , an arbitrary number being that I didn't know how many it would take to execute the forehead , cheek and chin sections . These too , were far too wavy to work with so I dipped each one in very hot water to tame down the wave and set them aside to dry . I then began to pick and choose through them to find appropriate swatches to begin gluing into place , separating them into smaller swatches in order to fit them more easily into the head and face contours . I am using Woodland Scenics Matte Formula Scenic Cement to glue them to the head which provides a flexible bond that dries clear and with a matte finish so that the glue doesn't show as the photos will attest . At this stage two thoughts are running through my mind . . . this is going to work and This is NOT going to work ! All I can do now is continue and see what develops .  Continuing the gluing process , and with each additional swatch of hair that is attached my confidence grows . Despite the fact that the swatches are flairing out all over the place I'm pretty sure that once the coverage has been achieved and I can begin taming down the hair and styling it the end result will be something I will be very happy with . Even at this rough stage , I can see that what I was hoping to achieve with this process is showing .  I have glued in place most of the general's new hair . I'm pretty sure I am going to need to do some additional hair applications , but I've gotten enough coverage to now go in with some really , really hot water and begin taming and styling the hair . Once this initial style is done I can then see how much more hair applications I will need for the final re-wig , and then it should be a simple matter of trimming to shape and some finishing styling treatments with hot water . At this stage I am also considering giving the general a couple shots of hairspray at the end for that final hold .  While there was something very ape-pealing ( pardon the truly bad pun ) about the general's unkempt and wild look , I'm trying to recapture the look of ape hair from the POTA series , so I needed to calm down the general's stray and fly away locks , the apes in the motion pictures always had very nicely styled hair . I needed to be careful , because I did not want the hot water to soften the glue that I used to attach the swatches of hair , so rather than wrap the head in saran wrap and pour boiling water over it , I used a paint brush to apply the hot water strategically . Mattel Collector Barbie heads typically have a coating of shellac to seal the hair style so I will need to do this hot water treatment several times to break down the shellac to the point where I can go in with a needle to fine tune the lay of the hair . After I finished up this first hair taming , I then took scissors and trimmed the general's hair to length , he'll get additional trims as the styling progresses .    | ReelArts Blue Bulleteer | Shocker Toys | Cool Girls | KiniKomix | KiniKomix2 | Custom Action Figures | eBay Auctions | AppleseedTribute | Macross Valkyrie | Planet of the Apes | Horse Sense | WeaversUpholsteryToo | ToyBiz_Iron Man | Dirty Pair | On Display | The OTHER Gorby | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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