Ever thought you might want a Bomberman of your very own? Here, Albert tells us how he made his. Check out his blog and portfolio for even more info and pictures:
"So here it is. My last vinyl toy of the year. A hand-painted "Bomberman-themed" custom Kidrobot MUNNY, with Super Sculpey additions. After several months of on-again, and off-again work, I finally reached a point to where I could say it was finished. And I think it looks pretty darn good!
Like the other MUNNY's I've done, Hudson Soft's Bomberman seems like a perfect fit for the combination of big-head, small-body MUNNY design. He's basically a great character to make into a toy, like Bonk was. I'm a huge fan of the Bomberman franchise, having played it on the Turbo Duo, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and now the Xbox 360. Bomberman is definitely one of my favorite games, and I consider it one of the best multi-player games in gaming history. Not an exaggeration. How could you not enjoy Bomberman?
This MUNNY is to show my unending enthusiasm for the game! Using Super Sculpey, I started off with shaping the head, then the shoes, then the belt. The massive head took a while to shape. I cut off the MUNNY's ears and placed thick layers of sculpey onto the existing vinyl. To balance out the head, I made Bomberman big shoes so that he wouldn't topple over. My sculpting tools included a cylindrical bottle to use as a roller, a kitchen knife, a cheese peeler, and well, that's it. Very simple, nothing special.
I mixed the colors of acrylic paint myself, and after much trial and error, I settled for these colors. They aren't exact to the characters colors from the videogames; the colors are slightly lighter. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. There were times where I thought the head would break in half under the pressure of the boiling, but in the end it worked."
How did you get the idea to make Bonk and Bomberman toys?
Well, I first learned of customizing vinyl toys from a friend, and I was really interested in doing my own, but I needed an idea to start off with. I figured I may as well try doing a videogame character. Other characters were too complicated in design, so I decided to go with Bonk because of it's simplistic design which works well with the Kidrobot Munny toy. I did Bomberman several months later because I wanted to do something a little more challenging. I wanted to do something different, that hadn't been done. Bomberman Live for XBLA came out around the same time which was great, because Bomberman was making a come back as a console downloadable.
What was the most challenging part of making the toys?
There were several challenges. I think the challenging part was capturing the attitude of the characters. They're both very distinct personalities, Bonk especially. Also getting the colors right was tough, since I was mixing paint from scratch. Bomberman presented more challenges in that I had to use more Super Sculpey for the massive head, balancing it out with the big shoes, so the toy wouldn't topple over.
Where do your Bonk and Bomberman live now?
Well, I've received a few offers from gamers who want to purchase them. Yet, I haven't sold them. I put a lot of time and effort into making these. They're on my shelf at home. Ideally, I'd like to have them in a Vinyl toy show sometime, or a video game themed gallery, like the I Am 8-bit. If they'll have me of course!
Any plans for additional Hudson characters in the future?
Haha, I'd like to do more original characters, but if I did do another Hudson character, Master Higgins from Adventure Island would be fun.
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