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Good morning, figure freaks! I'm back with more Metroid custom figures! Progressing with the next installment in my series 2 "Military, Metroids, and Minor Characters" line, I give you the fourth incarnation of the Metroid creature, the Zeta Metroid! The previous evolution, the Gamma Metroid, was the first form to possess functional legs. Though it retained the ability to float like its previous life stages, it needed legs so it could learn to walk before it evolved into the larger, heavier, flightless (generally accepted retcon) Zeta Metroid. However, despite its decreased maneuverability, the Zeta was an improvement on the Gamma design in nearly every way. Faster, stronger, more durable, and armed with an array of deadly attacks, from its clawed forearms to its acid spit to its leech-like mouth, perfect for sucking the life force from its enemies. Obviously, in making a dinosaur-like alien, you want to start with a dinosaur figure. Sadly, most dinosaur toys in existence have extremely limited poseability, just shoulders and hips and maybe a head. Furthermore, most bipedal dinosaurs have normal, forward-pointing knees and walk on their toes. The Zeta Metroid, on the other hand, has reverse knees and walks on flat feet. To accomplish this unusual joint structure, I took a generic Velociraptor toy, removed the legs at the knees, attached the knees and lower legs from an old 5" scale X-Men: Secret Weapon Force Colossus figure, attached feet from a TMNT Movie Leonardo figure (the newer CGI flick), and resculpted the entire surface of the limbs. Since Colossus was one of the few oldschool X-Men figures to have ankle joints, the dinosaur effectively tripled his articulation on the spot. The arms, likewise, had to be replaced. A pair of Marvel Legends X-23 arms with the claws cut short did the trick nicely. Another X-23 arm for the neck (yes, I use this character for EVERYTHING . . . not like she's worth $#!+ on her own, horrible figure, but nice, spindly limbs), a custom sculpted head, a leftover segment of a rubber glitter ball for the belly dome, computer wires and armor plates, and a full paint job, and we've got ourselves a Zeta Metroid! An interesting side note: the original dinosaur toy had an action feature! Flick a little switch on its back, and the figure would wave its arms and roar. Well, I was able to maintain the feature for the Zeta. He claws and snarls with the press of a button! Sadly, there's no real way to display this feature here on the site, but if you look up "Zeta Metroid - Jay Field" on YouTube, you can see a video of the figure in action! You see, back in December, I submitted this Zeta Metroid figure to the Metroid Database website for a "Build A Metroid" contest. For this contribution, combined with my other Metroid creations, I won second prize! See you next mission!  |
| Deadpool |  | Submission Order |  | Etecoons and Dachora |
| Gamma Metroid | | Metroid Series | | Etecoons and Dachora |
| Gamma Metroid | | Created by Batman1016 | | Etecoons and Dachora |
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I definitely hear you about retconning. I generally hate retcons in comics, movies, TV, and such, because they usually only want to alter history just because they want to do something "cool," but the original history or established facts won't allow it, so they just change it anyway (see: Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Heroes Reborn, Star Wars Prequels, the entire Stargate TV franchise). However, when a retcon makes the world make more sense - say, because no one was thinking about long term when the product was first created, and they only realized later that what they'd made was stupid/illogical/weak from a story or scientific plausibility standpoint - I'm all in favor of it. Retcons can make a nonsensical one-off concept into a spectacular universe, or they can weed out a lot of the lunacy that can build up over time (see: Earthsiege/Starsiege, Pre-Crisis Superboy/Batman vs Modern DC Universe, Legacy Of Kain).
But hey, to each their own, I guess.
Personally, I go with the outlook that the first occurance of something takes precedence over later incarnations/changes/retconning (I.e. the original Kraid, which I like to call "Tater Tot Kraid", is the "real" Kraid to me--I don't argue that the newer Kraid looks better, but he's also relatively unfaithful to the original source material--I suppose I could rationalize the size/appearance disparity in his case by saying he was young/just hatched/etc. in Metroid 1 and grew/matured by the time Super Metroid occured). I'm not saying your view is wrong, or mine is right, because either is equally valid, just that I don't approve of retconning in video games (or other media). I've sculpted figures of later incarnations of various characters/creatures, rather than the originals, myself if I felt one version was more aesthetically pleasing than the other.
Why do I go with that instead of the original? Well, basically, the old games were old and had technology limitations and/or no continuity about story or biology. When Metroid 2 was made, they had limited system resources to work with, and no idea Metroid it would become the major series it is today, so they didn't worry about what "made sense." It wasn't until Super Metroid, or even Fusion, that they began to gel a real, coherent story to it all, and tie it all together. Interpretation has to evolve with the universe itself, and I prefer the newer interpretation to the original.
On a side note, is a pretty well-known fan remake of Metroid II. Total SNES/GBA-quality overhaul, in the vein of Metroid: Zero Mission. From screens and video-clips of his progress, he also uses a very similar design for his Zeta Metroids, indicating he either worked off of this picture, or felt a similar redesign was necessary. At any rate, I think this design feels more natural and realistic as a progression, so it's the one I rely on. I still use the GB artwork for the face designs, however.