The exalted Emperor of the Minifig Nation, Adolphus Bartholomew Smythe, is pleased by the combatants who brought forth their ‘Sinister Toymakers’ and ‘Paranormal Gunslingers’ to the arena. His thoughts have turned to the east for this next challenge...
The third minifig design battle has begun. The theme of this month’s challenge is...
“Samurai Sho(w)down”
The video game experience of the 1990’s was dominated and defined by arcade fighting games. Companies like Capcom and SNK provided complex fighters with amazing, and often wacky, character designs. SNK produced a series of games under the title of ‘Samurai Shodown’ or ‘Samurai Spirits’. We have provided a link to a character list from that series below. Your challenge is to pick one of the 66 character designs and depict that character in minifigure form:
- You must depict the character as the main element of your design.
- You must state in the body of your entry who your character is supposed to represent (i.e. “Haohmaru”).
- This is not a ‘in the style of’ challenge. It must be based on one of the 66 characters.
- The fighter should be a LEGO minifigure.
You can find a listing of the 66 characters from the franchise at the
Samurai Shodown official website. The site gives a brief synopsis on each of the 66 characters. You can then use sites like
Google Images to find more reference material.
Other elements that will be looked upon favorably but are entirely optional include lighting, presentation, posing, and photography/digital effects. Do remember that the figures should be the primary focus of the composition and should not be overwhelmed by other design elements.
Although this is not a ‘customization-only’ contest, you may find many of
the tutorials we’ve collected on the site to be helpful. There are also tutorials on photography, presentation, and digital effects.
Entries must be submitted to the
UD Minifigure Design Battle Arena group on Flickr before 12:01 am EST March 16th, 2011. Entries submitted after this time will not be considered eligible. Remember to read the ‘Rules and Guidelines’ thread before submitting your entry.
This month’s winning prize is sponsored by FireStar Toys, where the victor will receive a gift card to FireStar worth £25 (approximately $40 USD**) which can be used on a wide variety of LEGO brand products, custom minifigures, or custom accessories from companies like BrickArms, Tiny Tactical, Si-Dan Toys, or Amazing Armory Ltd., to name a few. You can start planning on how to spend your winnings by visiting
FireStar Toys today.
To those who are about to design, we of the Minifig Nation salute you. Good luck!
*Please read the contest ‘Rules and Guidelines’ thread regarding views on depicting violence and other topics of a potentially serious nature.
**Exact value in US Dollars is dependent on the currency exchange rates at that time.
