Samus Aran gave me space cooties

[MmM]

This is a Ramulken, an alien creature from the Game Boy video game Metroid II: Return of Samus. I started working on it Saturday afternoon (3/17/07) and completed it the next evening.

Completed figure:




For comparison purposes, below is the Game Boy 'Metroid II: Return of Samus' instruction manual entry for Ramulken. Please not that said booklet is printed in only black and red inks, so it's difficult to say if the colors are 'true' or not, as many colors are impossible to reproduce under those limited conditions.


Webpage with more information:

http://kramwartap.fortunecity.com/ramulken.html

And, just for the heck of it, here's an animation I made from the three Quake II Iron Maiden portraits I've drawn over the years:

[Quasar]

If you're interested in more diverse color schemes in the future, many of the Metroid II enemies reappear in Metroid Fusion, and since they were made by the same people you can probably trust that the colors used were what were originally envisioned. But that being said, I think they all look great enough as-is ;)

It is interesting to see how many of the creatures from SR-388 were designed to seem evolved against Metroid predation, with the impossibly tough, spiked shells covering their upper bodies. You did a really good job with the shell on this one :)

[Inferno]

Never played Metroid II, but your rendition is quite similar to that of the pic. Actually, yours is even more detailed. Keep em' commin!

Nice Iron Maiden pics, btw.

[VileSlay]

Nice. metroid II was a kick ass game. a lil' confusing at times since some of the areas were so similar. I loved the metroid evolutions. have you made any of those?

[MmM]

VileSlay: No, I haven't made any Metroid mutations, although I've certainly mulled the idea over on multiple occasions. An Alpha or Omega metroid would probably be the two most likely candidates were I to do it.

Quasar: I have some full-color pictures from the Metroid II manual, that I assume are from either the Japanese or European version of the book, that I got from a French website. I compare those to my U.S. manual when it comes time to paint. I also have a folder saved on my PC at home, full of Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, etc. enemy sprites, but thanks for the suggestion.

Unfortunately, I don't think spiked shells do diddly squat against Metroids. In my 'weakness' write-ups on the webpage, I notes that the shell is useless against Metroids (even Mother Brain and Samus Aran herself aren't immune to their energy leeching).

Below are a few pictures with the shell unattached. It wasn't necessary to glue then together, as I designed the figure so that the body would pop into place inside the shell with a tight fit. However, after several days of playing/posing the completed figure, the thin, white, five-pronged element above the eye developed some stress fractures as the pressure applied when moving the legs also acted on the body, moving it slightly, which in turned moved the prongs, causing the cracks. So, I decided to permanently glue the body into the shell, but before that, I thought I'd take some photos of what the figure looks like unassembled.