We posted
that fan-made Draenei Barbie last week, and a few commenters sent us a note about this figure, custom
made by Abotu over on Emerald Dream. The Barbie was just something funny that a few fans did while bored, but this Troll Rogue is the real thing -- custom leather armor fitted onto what used to be
a Tomb Raider figure, heavily modified with Sculpey, wood (for the daggers) and even boot laces (for the braids). It's really, really impressive, not only in the way it looks, but in what it took to make: the whole thing took about two months' worth of work (Abotu guesses it might cost over $1000 to make selling these worth it), and many parts of it are completely fabricated. The head is sculpted from scratch, and the hands and feet are from an X-men Nightcrawler figure, but even those have been shaped to look completely different from what they used to be.
Quite a piece of work. We've put all of the image in an easily browseable gallery below, to save you from the trouble of cutting and pasting Photobucket links. Our own
15 Minutes of Fame column has also scheduled an interview with Abotu, so stay tuned for more information on how this all came together (and how you too might be able to immortalize your character like this). And as always, if you've heard of some amazing fan art like this, feel free to
send it along on our tipline -- we always love seeing what
World of Warcraft fans are putting their crafting skill points into.
Tags: action, action-figure, awesome, boot-laces, crafting, custom, custom-made, expensive, feet, figure, nightcrawler, sculpey, tomb-raider, troll, troll-rogue
Filed under: Trolls, Rogue, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Fan art
Apr 6th 2009 at 8:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dreyja Apr 6th 2009 8:18PM
That is really, REALLY well done! Wow! Kudos to the creator.
Gessilea Apr 6th 2009 8:22PM
Wow. That is the most freaking awesome thing I have seen in a while. Eomer's going DOWN!
Hilus Apr 6th 2009 8:26PM
Fantastic!
Balasan Apr 6th 2009 8:27PM
Amazing. If I had the money I'd pay good money for this.
R. Sue Apr 6th 2009 9:04PM
Not only a gorgeous piece of artwork, but a troll chick as well! Troll chicks FTW!
tonedeff Apr 6th 2009 9:53PM
Am I the only one not seeing the value in this thing at $1000? :S
Rattlegear Apr 6th 2009 10:02PM
The $1000 is based on "time spent" crafting it. If he was to be able to make a living doing this, then 1000 is about what he would need to charge. That's typically how the art world works.
Kerberos Apr 7th 2009 2:05AM
$1000 for these would would be for a custom figure of your own figure. For just the troll rogue figure he could always disassemble it and make castings and run copies off faster. I used to do resin figures, this makes me want to pick up some super sculpty and make one of mine own.
Thanks, you did a real good job on her!
FifthDream Apr 6th 2009 10:18PM
That's really awesome. I just wish trolls looked this cool in the game.
Tirris Apr 6th 2009 10:39PM
Nightcrawler is my favorite superhero :D :D
NekoAli Apr 6th 2009 11:16PM
Wow.. simply amazing work there. I love the detailing on the armor, and it does look spot on for a troll. It helps that it looks practically identical to my troll rogue, down to the red braids and all. I love the poses in the photos as well, especially the throne.
pirate ship Apr 7th 2009 1:51AM
There is no way anyone is going to pay 1000 bucks for a figure like this. If they really wanted to sell this, the just need to work on a mechanical process themselves. Having done sculpting molds, once you make the first imprint, you can make a lot more enmasse much faster.
And as a second thing, a company liek Mattel has the means to produce this product, all the linens, etc and sell it to a consumer for m100 dollars easy. 1000 dollars? I'll pass
Land Apr 7th 2009 2:34AM
Ok first off, READ it carefully next time, he says, and i quote, "Abotu guesses it might cost over $1000 to make selling these worth it." He's not saying he's going to sell it for 1k, he says for it to be worth making them, he would would prolly sell for around that much.
And about your rather pathetic attempt at comparing him to Mattel, i mean come on dude, a good portion of this figure was made from COMPLETE scratch, not asian kids scratching around a 20x50 ft sweatshop in the middle of some country getting paid 50cents a day. And considering there's collector that Star Trek(i know not the same, but stay with me)hand made items go for several thousands, a hardcore player wouldn't mind paying it if he ad the money.
PeeWee Apr 7th 2009 5:22AM
If I had the cash, I would. If nothing else I'd do it just to prove your fail.
Shade Apr 7th 2009 9:44AM
He isn't Mattel. He's one dude, with no major manufacturing anything, who painstakingly put together this thing bit by bit, by hand, sculping the bits that needed to be sculped, and did it all over an existing action figure which means he had constraints to work with as far as what could go where.
The hair is all hand-braided from the looks of it, and the armor is a custom fit too.
This isn't a mass-produced product, this is less of an action figure and more of a poseable statue of sorts, and by all means for the amount of time and effort that went into designing it and putting the thing together, $1k is -not- too much to ask. You may not pay it, you make think it's excessive, but it's not a toy, it's a work of art.
And trust me when I say there are people out there that would easily drop that much on having something like that. This blows a figureprint right out of the water.
Balius Apr 7th 2009 3:36AM
This is very well done piece, and rightly shown off.
Desmond Naranjo Apr 7th 2009 6:41AM
Emerald Dream represent.
WoWie Zowie Apr 7th 2009 7:22AM
i loled at the last pic.
the throne pic is boss
her tusks look a bit odd, but then again, trolls look a bit odd.
very nicely done!
WoWie Zowie Apr 7th 2009 7:23AM
i loled at the last pic.
the throne pic is boss
her tusks look a bit odd, but then again, trolls look a bit odd.
very nicely done!
Lisa Poisso Apr 7th 2009 9:18AM
Abotu, come in ... Your 15 Minutes is calling ... Check your guild forums for contact info!