Minis for Green Hornet and Kato?

[ErikB]

Anyone know of some good minis for the Green Hornet and Kato?

I was looking at some Copplestone secret agents and they are a good start but would require conversion.  Masks could be solved by painting.

Recall, Green Hornet has a fedora and a goofy gun and Kato has a driver's uniform with a round/disk hat, no weapon.

[Aaron]

You mean these guys, right?

[wellender]

I know I've seen a Kato somewhere.  Maybe one of these guys from Pulp Figures for the Green Hornet.

[wellender]

Another one for Green Hornet.  From Rattrap.

[Pentaro]

I think Zombiesmith is about to release a GH.

[Heldrak]

There was some talk about the Green Hornet and Kato here a while back. You might want to pm Doc Twilight and ask him if he plans to release them through Black Army.

Remember that the 1940s comic book Green Hornet wore a surgeon's mask (presumably to protect him from the gas in his gas-gun). The domino mask is a TV show thing...

[P_Clapham]

It was a gas gun originally?  Very interesting.   

[Doc Twilight]

The mask was actually a "bandito mask" worn in the style of old west bank robbers. It was originally worn loose as a veil over the lower half of the face (think of it more as the lower half of, say, a Tuareg or Almoravid/North African style face covering, or even the bottom half of Cobra Commander's "hood" mask if you like, then as the kerchief around the lower half of the face style you'd see in a cowboy film, followed by a more tightly worn mask.

The eyes were initially covered, then not, then covered by a Lone Ranger style domino mask in various incarnations of the radio series publicity shots, the movie serial, and the pulps. (The Green Hornet of the 1960s wore only the thin domino style mask shown in the picture above.) Kato did not traditionally wear a mask, at least, one was not usually referenced, though I seem to recall that he wore a domino style mask in some of the movie serials.

The Hornet's mask took on a more sinister appearance as time went on, largely because, in the Green Hornet episodes/pulps of the 1930s and 1940s, the Hornet was believed to be a member of the criminal underground by the police, and by most of the gangsters her interacted with. As for Kato, he began life as Japanese, eventually became "Filipino", and I think ended with the pulp run as a Japanese-American.

The Green Hornet did not, as a general rule, shoot to kill. He used a gas gun, as well as what we might recognize as the equivalent of Doc Savage's "mercy bullets." Special weapons are very rarely referenced in the original incarnation of the radio series (which was, unusually, the first appearance of the Green Hornet - the pulps actually came shortly thereafter.) In any case, the desire to wound or maim rather than kill was inherited from his great uncle, the Lone Ranger.

Incidentally, Black Beauty didn't have any "special tricks" in the original radio series or pulps, either, none that I can remember. The Hornet did use smoke bombs from time to time, but I don't believe they had any connection to the car. I know that there is a lot of debate about whether Black Beauty was armored or not. The radio series isn't really clear on this, and I'm not aware that the Pulps are, either. (Again, I discount the claims made in the 1960s series.)

I grew up listening to my father's recordings of the Green Hornet, whose radio episodes were placed on record and stored at the Indiana State Museum. When he got the chance, he went to the library and recorded as many of them as he could (he grew up during the 1940s, but many of the classic pre-war episodes were created either before his birth or when he was too young to remember them). So, to say that the Hornet was one of my heroes as a kid would probably be an understatement;) In fact, I wasn't even aware of the television show until my undergrad days, when I saw a few bits of re-runs on the local college station. Dad later claimed that he never watched it because it ruined his "Childhood conception" of the Green Hornet and Kato, so that's probably why I don't remember seeing it as a younger child.

Anyway, The Green Hornet and Kato will be making an appearance in the Black Army  "Champions of History" miniatures range, well, at least, someone very much like them. (The rights regarding the Hornet are a real legal mess, to put it lightly, especially with the movie being made.)  He will be true to his 1930s-1940s appearance, as will Kato. The plan is to have separate heads so that you can approximate some of the different looks. Some of the locals have asked for 1960s options as well. I may consider them, but again, I'm not really a fan of "atomic age" evolutions of the pulp heroes, so I'm honestly not as interested in doing that.
If the Shanghai, 1930 miniatures game ever developes the interest to be published, you could probably expect stats for said miniatures in the game, as well. But that issue is very much in doubt at the moment.

Anyway, why aren't they out yet? Well, they are next on the schedule for COH, along with the Hornet's famous Uncle and his own companion, and a singing cowboy type, but at the moment, the sculpting/planning budget is focused on getting out our 15mm WW2 Miniatures Range and in making sure the "Secret Project" sees the light of day by the end of the summer. However, assuming those go well, you will probably see our equivalent of the Green Hornet and Kato before the year is out.

Hope that ramble helps,

Alex


-Doc

[Aaron]

FYI, The Green Hornet radio plays are available on www.archive.org (what a surprise!)

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=green%20hornet

[Doomhippie]

Unbelievable! 
Great find here!

[Aaron]

They've got an audio goldmine on Archive.org. If you poke around you can find The Shadow, Secrets of Scotland Yard, Adventures of Philip Marlowe, and even some Sherlock Holmes radio plays with Basil Rathbone.

[goon3423]

Yeah someone needs to get crackin on this! Blackcat Bases makes a great Kato, I was planning on using this and converting a Hornet from an Artizan mini, but hell a nice set would save all that headache.

[Neotacha]

They've got an audio goldmine on Archive.org. If you poke around you can find The Shadow, Secrets of Scotland Yard, Adventures of Philip Marlowe, and even some Sherlock Holmes radio plays with Basil Rathbone.

Oh, thanks for that information, Aaron!

[warrenss2]

I painted the guy leaping from the tombstone as my Green Hornet.

He is easily removable from the tombstone and you can leave off the cape if you wish, since you have to glue it on. Just greenstuff the place where it glues on.

[goon3423]

The one thats coming from Zombiesmith will be a pretty good stand in for the 60's Hornet, not sure about the pose though, if ya'll have not seen it the mini is in a very low crouch, its a great looking mini in a very extreme pose. Hopefully it'll scale up with Murch, Artizan and all the rest. I plan to buy one but not for the Hornet, I am a much bigger fan of the "old west train robber" type mask.