Zagreus, the heroic bad boy protagonist of Supergiant’s smash-hit roguelike Hades, is getting a Nendoroid — and the process of making his lean, muscular form into a round, tiny, chibi Nendoroid has been documented by GoodSmile in this behind-the-scenes video.
Originally, the sculpt of Zagreus looked “a little pudgy”, because the sculptors didn’t have a great deal of experience of muscular male characters, the designers said.
From there, it was a matter of compromising between the Nendoroid designers and the Supergiant team — one call that is show in the video features Jen Zee, the Art Director at Supergiant, and Greg Kasavin, the Creative Director, giving feedback on the lil guy. Greg suggests making the laurels out of a flammable material. This is why he’s a Creative Director and not a toy designer.
Then it’s on to painting, and simplifying the colours without losing too much of the detail. Many of the finer details are left out, both to save time for the painters and money for the buyers. After that, the final approval stage is comparing the design to the original art, and making sure it reaches the “overarching Nendoroid chibi style”.
When it’s approved, it’s time to photograph the boy, with all his accessories and poses, and make him available for pre-order!
Zagreus’ Nendoroid is available for pre-order until March 10th (US pre-order link here, GoodSmile pre-order link here).
But wait, there’s more: GoodSmile has another Hades Nendoroid in the works! And iiiiiit’s…
…Zagreus’ boyfriend, Thanatos! (Of course, Zag might be dating someone else in your save file, but… why?)
We’ll keep you posted about Thanatos Nendoroid details.
