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I could never start collecting toys. Other than the fact that I once spent a fortune on a really nice 12″ statue of Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 4, I’m too cheap to afford them. But when I saw a pair of vinyl toys custom-made by artist Shawn Nakasone based on Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead horror adventure, I had to resist reaching for a credit card.
Under his Sciurus Customs brand, Nakasone enjoys carving these statues for people, partly because they were originally given to friends. “Some of them pushed me to release [the data] online, and pretty much everything went from there,” he said in an email interview with GamesBeat. “Some of them are based on commission requests, but most of them are just characters that I’m attached to and I think other people like them too. The characters I create often don’t have a lot of characters based on them.” , and I think that people appreciate the fact that there are [like them].
Whether you’re recreating a comic book superhero or a video game character (more images in the gallery below), Nakasone always starts from scratch. As the basis for the characters, he uses collectible vinyl figures: Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs line and Kidrobot’s Munny toys.
“By carefully studying reference materials, paintings and sculptures, you can really understand character design: what makes them work, what makes them special,” he says. “It’s a very meditative process and it’s interesting to discover small details that you [haven't seen before]. I also enjoy the feeling of progress after each number, learning from past mistakes and refining ideas and approaches.”
In The Walking Dead, Nakasone faced the added challenge of adapting the game’s manga-inspired graphics. “I take as many references as I can from books or the Internet and sketch characters on the computer,” he says. “It’s very important to study the references, understand which aspects of the design shaped the character, and analyze what defines the art style. That’s a big part of my job: staying true to character no matter how the environment or scale changes.”
“The style of Lee and Clementine is different than most of the action figures I’ve made,” he continued. “The characters in the game are very crude and messy, with lots of thin and thick lines and washed out colors superimposed on each other. I wanted to make sure that this aspect of the art style is reflected in the final part because it really tells the character who they are.”
Nakasone hopes to send both parts as a donation to Tested.com’s second annual Octoberkast, a 24/7 live podcast that raises funds for children’s games. Child’s Play is a non-profit organization that donates games and toys to hospitals to help sick children play. This year’s Oktobercast featured several Telltale Games employees, including The Walking Dead story consultant Gary Whitta, creative director Sean Vanaman, and lead designer Jake Rodkin.
Unfortunately, Nakasone was unable to deal with Lee and Clementine in time. So he ran his own auction on eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going to Child’s Play.
“I ended up choosing Lee and Clementine from The Walking Dead partly because of Telltale Games’ connection to Octoberkast, but mostly because of my emotional attachment to the game and its characters,” he says. “Telltale Games really did a fantastic job of making me really care about them. Everyone I know who has played this game is very sympathetic to Lee and has a protective/paternal feeling towards Clementine. I’ve actually never seen any game with this. It makes them almost perfect for the characters I want to make for a charity auction.”
Like his earlier works, “Lee and Clementine” is likely to be one of a kind. He has no plans for other characters in The Walking Dead. But even if he did, don’t expect him to put Kenny on the list. “In my game, he turned out to be very unpleasant,” he said.
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Post time: Sep-08-2023
