Wander from the Playstation 2 game Shadow of the Colossus

This here is my first custom Vinylmation. I got this blank white vinyl Mickey way back during my Easter vacation to Disney World in 2009 with my family and girlfriend Val. Didn't want to customize it until I had the right inspiration I guess. Playing through Shadow of the Colossus for about the 6th time recently, I was definitely inspired. Here is the 3" Mickey as Wander. Wander, the main character, must climb a series of 16 colossi and defeat them only by finding their weak points and putting his sword to good use on them. Defeating all 16 would release his girlfriend from a sort of deep sleep or curse. Pretty much one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and I've been playing them for 23 years so that's saying something.

Onto the symbolism of what I painted. On the front side I wanted to depict Wander as he looked in the game using a key element of gameplay. I painted his ear as the sun because in the game you have to use your sword's reflection of the sun to locate the next colossus in a massive open-world environment (including desert, forests, caves, lakes, etc.). The sword is from another figure I borrowed. The glyph on the front of his shirt is actually what the weak points of the colossi look like when you find them, only theirs glow in a vibrant light blue.

On the back side I used a reference picture of a colossus and painted him as a black sillouette. But I wanted to give a feel for his texture so I added some brown and green to depict the colossi hair that you had to latch onto in order to actually climb the darn things! They were made of mostly stone, grass, fur, and parts that looked like building features. There was a very architectural feel to all of them since they basically rise out of the earth when you find them. Anyhow I painted his pants green and it doubles as grass for the scene on his back.

On the sides I wanted to add some feathers of different birds hanging on his belt. In the game you could collect lizard tails, but I liked the look of hanging bird feathers instead (a little artistic license).

All in all I really like how it turned out. Up next I will be customizing a 9" Vinylmation Colossus to accompany Wander here. Enjoy!

Paints - Testors and Citadel acylic flats