FINAL FANTASY IV
MAD OGRE PROJECT #625 CREATED: FEBRUARY 2019 En route to Eblan, Cecil Harvey and his traveling companions ventured into the ruins of Eblan Castle, which had been demolished by an attacking Rubicant long before he arrived. At first, there appeared to be no living creatures dwelling within the destroyed castle. When Cecil and his group stopped to inspect a treasure chest and check its contents, however, he and his group were cornered by a trio of Mad Ogres, ostensibly guarding the treasure. Indeed, Cecil was surprised to encounter the powerful Mad Ogre before ever meeting the lesser, run-of-the-mill Ogre. The Mad Ogres were almost impossible to kill. They had thick armor-like skin, were incredibly strong, and had a natural resistance to magic spells. Suffice to say, Cecil's group barely made it out of Eblan Castle alive. His group would later encounter four Mad Ogres while exploring the Tower of Bab-il once again fiercely guarding a treasure chest. The heroes were awarded the rare and valuable Ogre hatchet, but it was a brutal battle in which they barely emerged victorious. (The Mad Ogre retained the same name in all the various releases and remakes of Final Fantasy IV.) To build the Mad Ogre (and his physically-identical cousin, the Ogre), I wanted an action figure that would rightfully tower over the other toys I built of Cecil and his compatriots. I chose a big Titan Heroes version of the Hulk, which measured 12" tall. I did shorten his torso and legs, though, so now he's closer to nine inches in height. I needed real rooted hair, so I got a Barbie doll on clearance, cutting the scalp off and attaching it to the Hulk's head (I was lucky enough to find one with brown hair for the standard Ogre, and black hair for the Mad Ogre). I made some minor changes to the face, giving him one drooping eye and some monstrous teeth. I didn't want him to melt in the oven if I sculpted him new clothes, so instead I bought some material, broke out the needle and thread, and hand-stitched him a costume. I permanently sewed it to the toy after I was done painting him. I probably went way too crazy with the details on the paint job. I worried about things like how dirty his feet would be (very, I would assume), and how much blood might be caked onto his knuckles (quite a bit, I would imagine). Most male action figures don't have visible nipples, but that's an anatomical feature that I felt was missing, so I corrected that oversight as well. The finishing touch was to take some of the extra Barbie hair and carefully glue strands of hair, one at a time, to his arms and hands and chest (he very clearly has hairy arms, if you look at the original 16-bit Super Nintendo sprite). |
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