FINAL FANTASY IV
CHIMERA PROJECT #627 CREATED: MAY 2019 The terrifying Chimera was once believed to be a mythical creature, until its existence was confirmed by Cecil Harvey and his band of travelers. The three-headed monstrosity was part lion, part goat, and part dragon, possessing the most brutal and vicious characteristics of each. Cecil's group first encountered a Chimera as a surprise monster-in-a-box while exploring the expanses of the Tower of Bab-il, earning a Blizzard spear for their troubles. Additional Chimeras patrolled the corridors of the tower, sometimes accompanied by a FlameMan or Tofu. The Chimera was capable of a powerful Blaze attack that affected the entire party, engulfing in flames anyone not sufficiently protected from such an attack. As a magical creature, the Chimera was resistant to magic attacks. Casting any form of lightning, fire, or ice magic actually fueled the creature's powers rather than weakining it, making it particularly difficult to defeat. (The Chimera was among the few monsters who was never renamed for any of the various Final Fantasy IV remakes.) Safari, Ltd. makes an excellent chimera figurine that has an exceptional and detailed sculpt. It wasn't built quite like the Chimera as it appears in Final Fantasy IV, however, so I had to make some changes. I swapped the position of the goat head and the lion's head, building a new neck for the goat and a new mane for the lion. I also cut off the snake-for-a-tail and gave it the tail from an elephant toy I had laying around. The original toy had a couple of lion's paws and a dragon's talon, but the game sprite shows the Chimera with four goat hooves, so I had to replace three of the creature's feet. After all that rebuilding, it was time to paint the toy, predominantly based on the the SNES 16-bit game sprite colors (the Chimera got a color scheme makeover for the PlayStation Portable remake, but it's a major departure from his original look). |
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