Custom MCU Figure – Nebula (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”)

Hello world! Today, we’ll round up the recent “Guardians of the Galaxy” theme with a showcase of custom MCU Nebula in her Guardians uniform as seen in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” :

With the return of half of all life in the universe that were previously snapped away by Thanos, and the defeat of Thanos at the Battle of Earth, the Guardians of the Galaxy acquired the space outpost Knowhere, intending to use it as their new base of operations as well as converting it into a safe haven for displaced refugees. However, Knowhere came under attack by Adam Warlock, who was sent by the High Evolutionary to capture Rocket Raccoon. Following a fight between the Guardians and Adam, Nebula managed to inflict serious injury upon Adam, forcing him to retreat. Unfortunately, the attack caused Rocket to suffer severe life-threatening injuries, and the Guardians immediately embarked on a mission to find a cure to Rocket’s condition, with Nebula calling upon her contacts for help.

Recipe:
Head – Domez “Avengers: Endgame” Blind Bag Nebula
Rest of the body – Mantis from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
Blade – G.I. Joe sword, not sure who

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” has a 4″ figure toyline that did not include Nebula even though she’s pictured with the rest of the Guardians on the packaging. When it became obvious that no Nebula figure was forthcoming, I decided to custom make a GOTG3 Nebula figure myself, by using a GOTG3 Mantis figure as its base. A Domez Blind Bag Nebula head was used as I felt that it was in the same scale and it had a close enough resemblance without looking too cartoonish. Slight modifications on the head were made including slicing off the cybernetic parts around the left eye, and doing a slight repaint.

I’ve decided to do something creative by converting Nebula’s left hand to one that can actually change into the various weapons as seen onscreen. Small magnets were used to replace the left wrist and to create the various attachments such as the hand, blade, and blaster cannon. The rest of the left arm was sanded down to remove the original details and give it a grainy look, and then repainted metallic grey.

The onscreen appearances of MCU Nebula.
From left: “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”.

Guardians Assemble !

BONUS – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Figures Comparisons

After an extended hiatus from Marvel 3.75″/4″ figures by Hasbro (The ML Retro Collection DO NOT COUNT !), this scale has recently returned under the banner “Epic Heroes Series” with several toylines including GOTG3. So as a bonus I thought I’ll do a couple of comparisons for the GOTG3 figures.

From left: GOTG2 Star-Lord, GOTG3 Star-Lord, with special appearances by Owen Grady from “Jurassic World” and “JW: Fallen Kingdom”. I had been using the head of JW Owen Grady for the unmasked Peter Quill.

From left: Custom GOTG Drax, and GOTG3 Drax. Both GOTG3 Star-Lord and Drax use the same body mold. Generally, the “Epic Heroes Series” figures are somewhat shorter than the previous MU releases, and they have less articulation.

From left: Custom GOTG2 Mantis, and GOTG3 Mantis.

From left: Baby Rocket, Takara Tomy GOTG2 Rocket, and GOTG3 Rocket.

From left: GOTG Groot & Infant Groot, GOTG2 Baby Groot, “Avengers: Infinity War” Teenage Groot, and GOTG3 Swole Groot.
[FYI: Teenage Groot also appeared in “Avengers: Endgame” and “Thor: Love and Thunder”.]

The Guardians’ uniform in GOTG3 matches up pretty well with the designs of the team’s uniform in the comic books, and here’s a comparison between GOTG3 Star-Lord and Rocket, and Comic Book Star-Lord and Rocket.

I knew I was forgetting somebody…

And here’s a comparison between the MCU and comic books versions for one more Guardian –

MCU Cosmos and Comic Book Cosmos

Just one more:

Drax gets comfortable.