I've been working on a couple of my latest Final Fantasy IV projects for way too long. In my defense, though, some of that time was just spent waiting for the parts I needed, and ordered on eBay, to get here in the mail. It's nice to have finally finished them. Two of the largest and most intimidating baddies from the game are the MacGiant (short for Machine Giant, I'm sure) and the RedGiant, both huge mechanical monsters who are differently-colored but who share a game sprite design. Building them came with its own unique set of challenges. For one, I knew that any physical modifications I made to one, I would have to be able to make to the other, since they're supposed to be identical. Also, the fact that they each have a cannon-arm and a claw-arm has always reminded me of Omega Supreme from Transformers, so I had to do some prodigious eBaying in order to secure the parts I needed. Finally, airbrushing these guys was a must, since the game designers used multiple colors for these guys to create the illusion of lighting and depth, and they would have looked very plain if I'd just painted them a single color each. These are among the most ambitious projects I've attempted, partly due to having to create two of them but also due to their size (these are twelve inches tall, far bigger than most of the action figures I've worked with... I can't remember the last time I had to mix up such a huge batch of paint). I actually do have a project waiting in the wings that's even larger than that, because I'm also planning to eventually build the Giant of Bab-il. (He probably won't be to scale.)
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I do believe this is the first time in history that I've attempted six identically-designed projects at the same time. Clearly, I am a madman. So, in my insane quest to build as many monsters from Final Fantasy IV as is practical (where "practical" is defined here for our purposes as "throwing as much disposable income at the idea as possible"), I really wanted to build those ridiculously blobby food monsters from the game (you know: Tofu, Cream, Pudding, etc.) At some point I remembered that there was a jellyfish named Pearl from the old McDonald's Finding Nemo promotion that was about the right shape. All I had to do was make them look evil. So, I know that plastic melts in the oven. I swear to you, dear reader, that I was careful. I sculpted new eyebrows and mouths for these little monsters, and I was four projects deep when I somehow managed to melt projects five and six. So, it was back to eBay to find two more jellyfish. I spent just as much on the two replacement jellyfish as I did on the original six. But, hey. Any problem can be solved if you throw enough money at it. After Mrs. Potato Head was done handing out angry eyes to everyone, I made them some teeth out of toothpicks. Each monster got seven teeth. And then took them all to creative dentistry school and gave them root canals because I wasn't happy with them. So, that's seven times six times two. Eighty-four teeth. No wonder there are tiny pieces of toothpick all over my floor downstairs. Using my airbrush didn't even dawn on me until very late in the game, but I'm so glad I used it. It allowed me to capture the same colors used in the Super Nintendo game sprites, but in a way that seems natural and believable (well, as believable as a gigantic walking pile of tofu could possibly be). Anyway, here are the Jelly, Cream, Slime, Tofu, Pudding, and the infuriating PinkPuff. What's next? Not sure. I have some birds that I got at Target (candidates for the Eagle, Roc Baby, and Cocktric) but I really like the ones at Toys "R" Us better so I might wait for those instead. I've got a couple of dragons by Safari, Ltd. (Blue D. and Red D. and D.Machin) but I need one more before I can paint them. I'm just getting started, though. It may take me many years to collect all the toys that I'll need to do the whole cast. This is definitely a long-term commitment. (Check back with me in ten years and see how far I've gotten!) I'm also going to need a new bookshelf to display all these guys... It took me a while to get my Final Fantasy IV Chocobos finished up. I was waiting on some new white paint to show up in the mail. (I mix white paint into pretty much every color. No white paint, and I can't do a damn thing.) So, I've got a version of the yellow Chocobo, the white Chocobo, and (of course) the ever-elusive black Chocobo (spoiler alert: it's really more blue than black). Going forward, I've got toys ready to modify into the MacGiant and RedGiant, and I also picked out some toys to turn into the various food-based monsters (Jelly, Cream, Pudding, etc.) Not exactly sure which ones will be next, so I guess we'll both be surprised! As long as you're reading this, have you ever noticed a toy that made you think, "Wow, that looks exactly like a monster from Final Fantasy IV"? Yeah, I know. It probably happens every single day. Anyway, if you want to, go ahead and click the Contact link and let me know about it. Maybe it's totally different from what I'm planning, but maybe it's a fantastic idea that I'll totally steal. You never know! I just finished a miniature action figure version of the TinyMage, one of the roving monsters from Final Fantasy IV. Unlike a lot of the monsters in the game, whose game sprites were recycled for use as other creatures, the TinyMage is entirely unique within the game, so I only had to put together one of these. I'm working on some Chocobos right now, but I need more paint (you'd be surprised how much white paint I go through; I mix it with everything). Can't find single bottles of Testor's brand acrylic paints anywhere these days (enamel paints are much easier to find) so I just ordered some on eBay. As soon as it shows up I'll get back to work on them. (It was over 100 degrees yesterday. Hope the paint doesn't evaporate in my mailbox!) I've built action figures of all the playable characters from Final Fantasy IV, perhaps my favorite video game of all time. I also did exactly one monster. At some point, I realized how amazing it would be to have this huge display shelf filled with all the monsters from the game as well. I was so taken with the idea that I started cataloguing the monsters and started looking for existing toys that I could paint into them. There are about 200 roving baddies in the game (many of which are just color-swaps of the same sprite template) plus the various bosses, so it may take a while to do. But, nobody ever said my projects lacked ambition. So, the first three new monsters are the skeletal stygimoloch-like dino-creatures you encounter in the game after the party travels to the Moon. The first is the purple D. Bone creature; the next is the orange D. Fossil you find a little further in the game; and the last one is the bone-white D. Lunar, the optional boss who guards a treasure deep within the lunar core. There will be many more of these to come, if all goes as planned! |
DAVID GRAHAM EDWARDS
Illustrator, writer, painter, sculptor, collector of toys and cats, observer of things. Categories
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