As I’ve noted before, I don’t make the same custom figure twice, especially when I put them up for sale. I don’t want to end up taking commissions for the same character over and over again, y’know? Yeah, maybe it’s easy money, but it’s not FUN to do the same thing too many times.
But there are exceptions to every rule.
I made the below Carnage figure in 2009, as one of my first custom Mighty Muggs. At the time, I was proud of how it turned out. I hadn’t really worked with Mighty Muggs very much yet, and I thought that Carnage’s irregular black-on-red look could yield some interesting results. And I was right!
But two years later, someone saw the above Carnage figure and contacted me, asking if I would make one for them, too. I explained that I don’t make the same figure twice, but then they offered me an amount of money that would be stupid for me to turn down. Besides that, I had learned how to make better decisions on Mighty Muggs in the intervening two years, and I came up with an idea for how to make Carnage’s black swirly bits a little more abstract in a way that would be appealing to me.
So I took on the commission, because, well, I was broke, and needed the money!
I think the second carnage came out a little better, but only because of the extra experience I’d gained. But now, I 100% will not take on a commission for another Carnage Mighty Mugg… mostly because Hasbro discontinued the things, brought them back, and killed them AGAIN, proving that the interest just got completely taken up by Funko POP!s.
Carnage is a registered trademark of Marvel Comics, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation. That’s right, Disney owned a character named “Carnage,” and that makes me laugh a little.