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Worlds & Stories
Meet the characters behind the models. Explore their worlds, identities and interpretations.
Starscream
Starscream usually arrives wings first. These two Blokees figures carry the familiar red, grey and blue, but their labels point in different directions: an animated origin film and a newer comics universe where even the Decepticon leadership is up for a fight.
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Darth Vader
The mask and cape have no trouble introducing him. What sent me digging was the breathing. One of cinema’s most intimidating sounds began with a piece of diving equipment, which is a wonderfully practical way to make somebody seem to own the entire corridor.
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Iron Man Mark 85
There is a lot attached to this Iron Man: large back-mounted shapes, a long forearm blade, another substantial arm treatment. The little red-and-gold person has brought his own equipment department. I wanted to look at how the Mark 85 stays legible underneath it.
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Captain America
The shield is expected. Mjolnir is the interesting extra. On this Endgame figure, the hammer pins Steve Rogers to one film scene. Following it backwards takes me to a comic from 1988, where he was not even using the name Captain America.
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Venom (Marvel Rivals)
That is a lot of Venom to fit into one small figure. The Marvel Rivals version has enormous shoulders and a mouth that could swallow its own caption. What made me look twice was the game team’s description of him: they designed a hunter, not a slow wall of black muscle.
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Ultraman Tiga
The preCOOL Tiga has a large head and a compact body, which is a perfectly good reason for him to exist. Cute does not need an apology. What I wanted to follow was the red and purple: the Multi Type design is carrying a small piece of the character’s fighting logic into that friendly little shape.
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Evangelion Unit-01 (TV)
The narrow waist and long limbs are already a little unsettling. Then the mouth changes the conversation. I started looking at this TV-version Unit-01 as a creature being held in a particular shape, rather than a vehicle with a face painted on it. That is where its design became much more interesting.
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Pikachu
The Pokédex calls Pikachu a Mouse Pokémon. Its designer was thinking about a squirrel. That tiny mismatch sent me back to a 2018 interview with the people who made the original games, where the red cheeks turn out to have a rather better origin than “they looked cute.”
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Sakura Miku
The flowers and pink twin-tails would have been enough for a pleasant little seasonal figure. Then the research led to Hirosaki. I find that a much better story: a virtual singer’s spring design taking on a real role in a place with an actual cherry-blossom season.
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Nightwing
No cape filling the space between the arms. A blue line across a dark torso, a mask and a pair of sticks. The Blokees Nightwing starts with a lot less visual furniture than Batman, which makes the body’s position much harder to hide. I wanted to follow the acrobat in the design.
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Megatron
Big shoulders, angry face, enormous weapon. Megatron is not usually difficult to read. Transformers One makes the earlier shape worth a second look, though: D-16 does not begin with the finished villain’s body. The design changes as the character does.
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Naruto Uzumaki
A glowing attack is an easy accessory to admire and move on from. Naruto’s has a better backstory than that. There were balloons, an unhelpfully difficult rubber ball, and a cat that accidentally made a rather useful teaching assistant.
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