| USAGI
YOJIMBO
PROJECT #187
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH
BASE FIGURE: USAGI YOJIMBO
MATERIALS USED: ACRYLIC PAINTS; FABRIC; NEEDLE AND THREAD; HOBBY
KNIFE
FIRST APPEARANCE: "USAGI YOJIMBO" (TMNT)
"I should warn you, I have never lost a sword
fight!"
"That is because you have never before faced a samurai rabbit!"
Preamble: I'm not really sure what
the deal was with Usagi Yojimbo's appearance in the Ninja Turtles cartoon.
Both made their start in black and white comics, of course, and Usagi's
success can be at least partly attributed to the black and white comics explosion
spawned by the TMNT book in the mid-1980's. Usagi also had a guest
shot or two in the Turtles comics, and I've read that Turtles creators Eastman
and Laird were pals with Usagi creator Stan Sakai, which may have led to
Usagi Yojimbo's inclusion in the Turtles cartoon, not to mention becoming
part of the TMNT action figure line.
The problem was that the Usagi Yojimbo action
figure isn't actually wearing the costume he had on in the TMNT show. It's
quite possible that the toy was modeled after one of his comics appearances,
but his cartoon outfit also appears in the comics, so I don't know why they
didn't just go with that look instead. (It's especially disconcerting
that Playmates Toys made him blue and purple, which made him look more like
a Foot Clan reject than anything else.) In any event, I wanted a
show-accurate Usagi, so I figured the best way to about that would be to
make him an outfit.
Construction: Originally, I'd only
planned to make a few cosmetic changes to the toy. I pulled the armor
plating off his arms and legs, and I also cut off the wrist guards. I
repainted his eyes, nose, and sandals, and also gave his fur a new coat of
white paint since the original figure was cast in more of an off-white color.
(My ex-wife was also a smoker, so I was concerned about the bare plastic
turning yellow if I left him out for display.) I also painted his swords,
which were originally cast in plain brown plastic, to make them a bit more
realistic looking.
Making the costume for him was the tricky bit.
I briefly considered using a modeling compound to sculpt a new outfit
around the existing toy, but since I'd already had a couple of good experiences
with making cloth outfits, I figured I'd give that another go. The
deliberately-oversized outfit is a three-piece deal, hand-tailored from scratch.
The pants don't actually fasten anywhere, so I had to pop his leg off
in order to get them on. The tie on his belt is also fake; it actually fastens
in the back with a strip of hook-and-loop fastener. I also included
a loop on the belt to store his swords. For the symbols on his kimono,
I borrowed some tiny buttons from a set of doll clothes and painted them
gold before sewing them in place.
Update: The one thing that always
bothered me about this project was that his shoulders looked too broad (which
was of course an artifact of the original sculpt). A few years
down the road when I was updating the site with new pictures, I revisited
this project and whittled down Usagi's shoulders and his midsection so he'd
have less of a bulky physique. It's a comparatively minor change (indeed,
I think the real problem is that the cloth material I used was way too thick),
but I still think it's an improvement.
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