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 wonder, could I get away with doing a LEGO version of April O'Neil?  She'd look weird with flesh tones the same color as her jumpsuit...)