| LEGO
SHREDDER
PROJECT #240
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH
PARTS USED: LEGO SAMURAI FIGURE, STAR WARS SCOUT TROOPER (HELMET),
QUI-GON JINN (CAPE)
MATERIALS USED: ROTARY TOOL, SUPER GLUE, ENAMEL PAINTS
FIRST APPEARANCE: "TURTLE TRACKS" (TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA
TURTLES)
"'Stick with me,' you said, 'and I'll make you
a big man.' Some 'big man!'"
Preamble: This was another silly project
that I've been planning for a long time but never actually got around
to finishing until recently. Around the same time I was scavenging
for pieces to build my LEGO versions of C-3PO and Boba Fett (long before
the official Star Wars versions were released), I also tracked down
some parts to build a LEGO version of Shredder. (Of course, I'm just
perverse enough that I had to sit on this project for years, only bothering
to finish it in the wake of the grand resurgence in Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles popularity and the release of the official TMNT MegaBloks building
sets.)
Construction: The plan was to construct
Shredder entirely from existing LEGO parts. The only piece I actually
kitbashed was his helmet, which was cobbled together from samurai helmet
parts and combined with the face mask from a LEGO Star Wars Biker
Scout helmet. I borrowed the cape from another Star Wars figure
and painted it purple. Everything else is standard fare, except of
course for the new paint applications. I pretty much threw the unwritten
rules of LEGO-painting out the window, and decided to make the figure as
accurate as possible at such a tiny and misproportioned scale. To create
the chest muscles, I had to cheat slightly and use my hobby knife to score
impressions in the surface of the toy. (It's not like I've got
tampographing equipment in my basement, after all. Besides, doing this
also enabled me to paint the tiny armor plates on his arms and legs and hands,
something I'm sure they would never dream of doing on an official LEGO
product.)
Comments: In case it's not obvious,
the figure is based on Shredder's appearance in the original cartoon series.
I briefly considered painting him in the blue-and-purple colors of
the original Playmates figure, until I realized that the whole point of this
project was to create a representation of a character, not to duplicate
an action figure I've already got. (I've also done a LEGO version of
April O'Neil, to give Shredder
someone to capture once a week.) |
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