Project Small World

[Tomato]

*blows off the dust of this section*

So. I am currently committed to getting the Haslabs Giant Man, though I plan on customizing him a bit. And while I think he'd be ok as the centerpiece of a comic based Avengers shelf (which is clearly the intent)... my biggest issue with him is that he's almost TOO big for that, if that makes sense. In every photo of Hank with the other ML Avengers, they all look like... well, ants.

Being the fan of Ant-Man that I am, I thought maybe I'd lean into that, and make a display of Hank surrounded by all the members of his extended "family" instead. I was already sort of leaning in the direction of something similar (I had collected various figures by happenstance anyway) and this gives me an excuse to pull them out. Between that and the amazing run of books by Al Ewing (Ant-iversary, Wasp: Small Worlds, Avengers Inc) and I'm having a lot of fun with the idea.

However, as of right now... the shelf would be like, 4 figures. So I'd like to flesh that out a bit. I have a few ideas, but I thought I'd process my thoughts here, as well as open the floor to everyone here.

Going down the line by identity:

Giant Man

So I mentioned that I'm planning to customize my Haslabs a bit (specifically into the Avengers Inc costume, since it's my favorite look) I'm keeping Hank as Giant Man. I sympathize with any who prefer Hank in his "Dr. Pym" persona... but while I'm not Hank's biggest fan (my Ant-Man of choice is Scott Lang), if anyone's going to be the centerpiece of this, it's Hank. And at 24 inches... yeah, he's GOING to end up being the centerpiece.

As for Malhotra... I don't have anything against him, but I'm already planning on using the Avengers Academy costume for Hank (and even if I wasn't, it's a very similar costume), so doing it again, but bearded, is a bit redundant for me. I'll be more than happy to revisit him when he gets his own costume, however (tho that'll run into some of its own issues, but I'll touch on that when I get to Goliath.)

Wasp

Not going to mince words here: I have a decent "Mighty Avengers" Janet Van Dyne Wasp (the semi-modern black yellow look she had while dead) which I think would pair nicely with Nadia Van Dyne if we ever get a figure of her. I want Nadia on the shelf enough I *might* break down and customize her eventually, but that's work I *don't* want to do for now.

Ant Man

To no one's shock, Scott is my Ant-Man of choice. While I like (and plan to include) O'Grady, Scott has been a favorite of mine since seeing his bio in one of those expansion books from one of Marvel's attempts to break into the roleplaying sphere. I also got a really nice figure of his modern costume in a two pack alongside Stinger, so that's what I'll be using. That said, trying to figure out ideas for an Ant.

Goliath

To get it out of the way: While I'm generally ok with multiple forms of a specific identity, Clint is better as Hawkeye, and Erik is more interesting as Atlas. That leaves one Goliath of choice, Bill Foster (who is still dead, SOMEHOW. What the flip!?! My Man's been in a movie AND two different Marvel shows).

Now, Bill is an obvious choice for the shelf. However, my conundrum is how to DO him. The whole gimmick of the shelf is all the smalls, but Goliath isn't small. I'm not spending $300 to get additional Giant Man figs, and even if that WAS feasible, it wouldn't be practical, and would also overshadow Hank. My preference is to maybe do 12", but I'm not sure how that'd look in practice. There is a 12" figure I might get for reference (it's got enough flaws I'd want to customize my own, but it'd be good for size reference/blocking and I'd like to use the head at least)

Yellowjacket

This one is rough for me. I've been vocal for years about how I feel O'Grady should have gone on to take over the Yellowjacket mantle (it's a role he's very suited for), but alas, the MCU happened and Darren became the de facto Yellowjacket of the comics, with Erik (kind of) going on to become Black Ant.

And while I've MOSTLY made my peace with that (I did halfheartedly try to make some plans for an Erik YJ custom this morning, but it didn't go anywhere) and wouldn't mind having both non-Hank canon versions of YJ instead... neither is likely to get a figure anytime soon. Rita is mostly forgotten nowadays, and Darren's YJ costume, though simplified from the movies, is still very busy.

Still, Yellowjacket is one of the core Pym identities, so I don't want it unrepresented. Worth some more thought.

Atlas

Easy one. Want to add him, same conundrum as Goliath.

Stinger

While I don't love that they just randomly decided to make Cassie Stinger in 616, after years of her forming her own identity as Stature with the Young Avengers... I won't lie and say that I, as the former "AntmanAnext" wasn't just a LITTLE giddy to see that costume and identity make its way into mainstream comics. And seeing her show up in a Marvel Legends two pack (which I was always going to buy, even if I had no place to put them at the time) is probably the whole reason for this insanity.

Black Ant

*deep breath*

I still feel it's BS that the version of O'Grady running around is a LMD, since I feel like you could have easily had him go down the path of mercenary and paling around with Taskmaster without killing off the character. Black Ant is also a silly name, even by comic standards.

That being said, it's a unique identity and I have plans for customizing something akin to the Ant-iversary/ Avengers Inc costume. There's technically a Black Ant figure out there already, but it's the version with the EEEEVIL Ant-man helmet, and I prefer the current look because it calls back to his Irredeemable look, without being that busy.

Misc

I'm burning out a bit, but gonna put a couple of honorable mentions here. Big Man and Red Queen, also of MC2 fame, are unlikely to make the cut. I love A-next more than most, but while I think Red Queen thematically being a combination of the worst traits of both her parents is interesting, and the reuse of her name (Hope Pym) in the MCU is interesting trivia, I feel like Nadia is just a more interesting version of the same ideas.

I should also note, I'm not really planning on going down the Ultron rabbit hole with this. Not to diminish his importance to Pym's story, but he just feels... out of place among the others, and I'd rather focus on the size changers regardless.

Anybody worthwhile you guys think I'm missing? I've tried to be fairly exhaustive, but Pym's identities and associates have a habbit of spreading to all corners of the Marvel Universe.

[Tomato]

I know no one here probably cares, but the thread is a useful way to keep my thoughts straight. For anyone curious, I've been posting updates on my latest obsession project on my instagram.

Right now, I've got Janet, Scott, O'Grady, Darren and Cassie all set up. Currently working on Nadia and Antony (flying Ant for Scott's Ant-Man to ride for the display) which I'll probably be busy with for the next week or so. I have a rough idea for how to do Rita, Josten, and Bill (Foster does have a temporary figure, but the plan is to replace it eventually).

Raz continues to be a frustration for me. I've been slowly leaning away from customizing my giant Hank and leaving it as the classic Giant Man costume, but even with that Raz' Giant Man costume is a bit too similar. I like variety in a display, and even with 2 Wasps and 2 Yellowjackets there's not a ton of overlap, but the Raz Giant Man suit is literally just Giant Man, but again. If the man ever made his own damn costume (which, I KNOW, part of the whole conceit is that he only became a superhero because he got Hank's last Giant Man costume from Scott, but Scott got his OG Ant-Man costume from Hank too and he eventually got his own) I'd be more open. As is... I dunno. Part of it's the similarity of the suit, but part of it is that the costume was Hank's first, and I still associate it so strongly with Hank.