HeroMachine 3 Lives Again!

Design custom characters using thousands of mix-and-match art components all hand-drawn in classic comic-book style! Pick a body, add costumes, weapons, backgrounds, and more — no drawing skills required. No Flash required, it all works in your browser and is 100% backwards compatible for any creations you’ve made in the past.

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The HM3 Item Request List

I keep telling people “I’ll add it to The List” when asked for specific items. But what IS The List?! Well, now you don’t have to wonder, because here it is. If you want to add something(s) to it, let me know.

Done:

  • Roman shields (added to ItemRight Shields)
  • Roman helmets (added to Headgear)
  • Male sandals (added to FootLeft + FootRight Male Standard)
  • Shields for the ItemLeft slot (added)

Outstanding (from long-time user, 2026-04-07):

Hands:

  • Pointing sideways
  • Pointing up (“we’re number 1” pose)
  • Flat hand, pointer/thumb to front, fingers straight, facing down (karate chop style)
  • Relaxed hand

Hair:

  • More ethnic varieties
  • More profile and 3/4 view options
  • Dreadcurls
  • Jem and the Holograms-style big 80s rock star hair

Body/Legs:

  • Lower leg for default leg (exists for military and alternate but not default)
  • Thigh side view, inside to front (Van Damme splits pose)
  • Calf side view, inside to front
  • Foreshortened thigh (running/lunging toward camera)
  • Foreshortened calf (tucked under thigh, or whole leg extended forward)
  • Kneeling legs
  • Profile torsos
  • Female tech body parts

Feet:

  • More front-facing varieties
  • More top-down varieties

Heads:

  • Profile and 3/4 heads with no features (blank face)
  • Head tilted back / looking up (head and face)
  • Monsters set (Head-Monsters)

Nose:

  • Profile and 3/4 noses

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-09):

Heads/Headgear:

  • Cyborg/mecha heads (various styles)
  • Duke Fleed style helmet (Grendizer)
  • Classic mecha helmets (Jeeg, Voltron style)

Body/Tops:

  • Cyborg body parts (torso, limbs with mechanical detail)
  • Mecha abdomen details (Jeeg style)
  • Mecha abdomen type 2 + drill missiles (Kotetsu style)
  • Ghostbusters-style uniforms
  • Voltron-style body parts
  • Masters of the Universe style body parts

Arms/Hands:

  • Mecha-style gloves and hands
  • Tech/armored gauntlets
  • Mecha-style alternative arms

Legs/Feet:

  • Hi-tech leg armor
  • Mecha-style legs
  • Tech feet/boots

ItemRight/ItemLeft:

  • Taran’s magic sword (Black Cauldron)
  • Blackstar Power Star (two halves as separate items)
  • He-Man Power Sword (Masters of the Universe)
  • Masters of the Universe style weapons
  • Drill missiles (Kotetsu Jeeg style)

BackPlane:

  • Mecha-style wings
  • Ghostbusters proton packs
  • Centurions-style weapon system backpacks

Companions/Full Figures:

  • Blackstar’s companion Warlock

Outstanding (from community users, 2026-04-18):

Weapons/Items:

  • More swords
  • Historical sword designs with components: 1796 British Light Cavalry Saber, Venetian Schiavona, Highland Claymores, Katzbalger, Cinquedea, Russian Shashka (Cossack/Georgian Saber), leaf-bladed Celtic sword
  • More guns
  • Fishing pole
  • Modern pop culture anime weapons (general)
  • Power Rangers morphers
  • Ben 10 Omnitrix

Vehicles/Props:

  • Bicycles suite: road bike, mountain bike, beach cruiser, BMX, Euro-style city bike, tricycle, adult trike, quadricycle, e-bike, cargo bike

Headgear:

  • Flat cap / newsboy cap

Hands:

  • Relaxed hanging hand — female, male, and gloved versions for both genders

Heads/Headgear:

  • Bug-eyed Kamen Rider-style helmets (generic tokusatsu, not IP-specific)
  • M.A.S.K.-style helmets/masks

Tops/Body:

  • Male abs for the basic male torso
  • Mutant turtle-like torso (shell/plastron)
  • Owen Grady-style leather pocket vest (Jurassic World)
  • Sleeves shaped to fit arms in various positions
  • Full-length chainmail sleeves
  • Arm armor for various positions
  • Tokusatsu-style costume pieces — “not yet armor, already not fabric” mid-weight suits (generic Kamen Rider/Super Sentai inspired, not IP-specific)

Face:

  • More freckles and freckle patterns

Companions:

  • Mythical animal companions/mounts (in the style of the new farm animals)

Backgrounds:

  • HeroMachine logo as a background item (was available in past versions)
  • Modular city elements: city blocks, individual skyscrapers, roads, alleys (various sizes)
  • Skies (day, night, weather, etc.)
  • Natural/fantasy world landscapes
  • Background human figures: security, heavies, military, troops, crowds, generic people, models (scene-setting silhouettes/figures)

Tops/Clothing:

  • Cyberpunk female outfit set: crop top with keyhole cutout and high collar, detached sleeves with tech patches, asymmetric mini skirt with belt/buckles, thigh-high stockings/garters

Weapons/Items (additional):

  • Spyglass/telescope (user thought it was in HM3 but can’t find it — may be misremembering from HM2.5)

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-23):

Heads:

  • New heads, especially profile and 3/4 view — user says existing ones are overused

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-22):

Weapons/Items:

  • British L85/SA80 rifle without optic (Rifles tab) — popular in films, TV, games, RPGs

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-20):

Tops/Clothing:

  • More coat tails

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-19):

Hair:

  • More ponytails
  • More long hair options
  • More new male hairstyles

Tops/Clothing:

  • New tops
  • New trousers/legwear
  • More underwear sets: female briefs, brassieres (varying cup sizes)

General Themes:

  • Cyborg/mecha parts across all slots
  • Classic anime mecha (Jeeg, Grendizer, Voltron)
  • 80s cartoon properties (Masters of the Universe, Ghostbusters, Blackstar, M.A.S.K., Centurions)
  • Modern anime/pop culture properties (Power Rangers, Ben 10)
  • Cyberpunk clothing/accessories

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-30):

Tops/Clothing:

  • Spandex/bodysuits fitted to non-standard body poses (e.g. Female Body 50) — currently requires tedious masking to fit outfits to posed bodies

Outstanding (from community users, 2026-05-02):

Tops/Clothing:

  • Studs for clothing (decorative studs/rivets for punk/leather looks)
  • Prince’s Purple Rain jacket

Face:

  • Facial wrinkles for men and women — dedicated set (some exist in Head-Faces but need more variety in a standalone set)

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-05-06):

Ears:

  • Floppy dog ears

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-05-13):

Hands/Gloves:

  • Glove hands with individual finger color/texture control — separate color channels per finger to achieve effects like Miles Morales Spider-Man gloves
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HM3 Alpha (Transparency) Fixes

Several folks have reached out since the relaunch observing that there were some oddities with colors on a number of items. THANK YOU to those people!! After getting some more details and digging into it, I realized that the original import process from Flash to SVG files completely mistreated the “details” layer. Sometimes an item needed a static colored area that can’t be changed, like the whites of the eyes, white teeth in Mouth sets, or wheels on cars. Other times I they’d have a semi-transparent overlay to create highlighted or shadowed areas.

The import ignored all that and made them all solid, which had … less than desirable results.

I’ve pushed a bunch of fixes, though, so hopefully things should look more like you’d expect. Here’s one before image of a fantasy armor top:

You can see black areas between the middle part, on the outer edges under the armpits, and the stripes along the stomach outer edges. You might think that looks fine, and it probably does, but it’s not how it looked in the original Flash version. After the fix, here’s that same item:

Here you can see the same areas are semi-transparent overlays instead of solid blacks, allowing the undercolor to show through. It’s a much more dynamic and nuanced effect and what I intended with the original.

For the detail-oriented among you (which I, clearly, am not or I’d have noticed this before), here’s the complete updated set list:

Item SetItems FixedDetail Paths Corrected
Background Floors28, 312
Background Furniture41
Background Landscapes16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25 … (17 total)17
Background Sky151
Backplane Standard10, 192
Backplane Tech10, 122
Backplane Wings7, 8, 10, 22, 67, 72 … (14 total)97
Belt Military19, 28, 33, 3838
Belt Standard40, 74, 75, 7638
Belt Standard Female401
Body Mech39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 49191
Companion Standard761
Companion Vehicles23, 33, 35, 37, 39, 40 … (17 total)396
Eyes Female Standard99, 1002
Eyes Standard99, 1002
Foot Left Male Standard12, 14, 383
Foot Right Male Standard12, 14, 38, 97, 10010
Foot Right Male Tech397
Foot Right Monster23, 254
Glove Right Female9, 10, 11, 32, 385
Glove Right Standard10, 11, 32, 38, 62, 64 … (14 total)187
Hair Standard751
Head Aliens65, 66, 71, 72, 85, 866
Head Animals22, 41, 44, 476
Head Male Face7, 82
Head Mech10, 1520
Head Winners11
Head Zombie Face81
Headgear Fantasy3, 4, 6, 16, 42, 49 … (12 total)20
Headgear Glasses37, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 5825
Headgear Mask72, 7551
Headgear Mask Female65, 662
Headgear Military1, 5, 9, 33, 35, 4873
Headgear Modern7, 10, 13, 27, 28, 37 … (26 total)978
Headgear Standard3, 4, 6, 38, 40, 476
Item Right Blades Two100, 1017
Item Right Blunts821
Item Right Miscellaneous1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 47 … (12 total)14
Item Right Music29, 33, 34, 354
Item Right Polearms11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18 … (14 total)14
Item Right Shields5, 8, 11, 704
Item Right Tech24, 2538
Legwear Female Outerwear5, 82
Legwear Female Standard12, 202
Legwear Male Outerwear5, 82
Legwear Male Spandex29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 … (9 total)9
Legwear Male Standard12, 202
Mouth Female Standard691
Mouth Standard69, 80, 824
Neckwear Standard40, 47, 50, 51, 6519
Shoulder Left Tech101
Shoulder Right Capes61
Shoulder Right Tech10, 25, 269
Shoulders Tech101
Tops Female Bustiers30, 40, 55, 56, 575
Tops Female Coats68, 692
Tops Female Dresses261
Tops Female Fantasy Armor19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 … (16 total)16
Tops Female Fantasy Common671
Tops Male Coats68, 692
Tops Male Fantasy Armor9, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 … (18 total)18
Tops Male Fantasy Common671
Tops Male Standard371
Tops Male Tech11
Totals303 items (+ 69 mirrored Left counterparts)**2,382
paths**

All Right-side handheld items, gloves, feet, and shoulders were also mirrored
to their Left-side counterparts, bringing the effective total to 372 items
fixed.

Thanks again to the HeroMachiners kind enough to take the time to point out the issues, much appreciated. I am far from perfect and absolutely would have missed all of this if not for your attention and care.

Posted in HeroMachine 3, News & Updates | Leave a comment

I did the mash, I did the MONSTER mash! 61 times.

I’ve just released what I hope is a fun new set of items, Head->Monsters. It features a variety of different kinds of complete (eyes, noses, ears, mouths, etc.) heads in several different styles. I also am continuing to experiment with items that are not 100% front-facing, so you’ve got some profiles and such. I hope you like them!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, Item Catalog, New Item Releases, News & Updates | Leave a comment

More Monster Noses via Dblade

Dblade continues to do great work adding to the Nose set, I just pushed his updates to the live site:

These are available for your monster-creating convenience now in both male and female Nose sets. Enjoy and please thank Dblade!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates | Leave a comment

Call me pushy, because here are some new bustiers

I’ve just released 9 new items in the Tops – Female – Bustiers set. Enjoy!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates | Leave a comment