Shiny Things Gallery | Fandom | Final Fantasy | Chocobos | Lucius and the DB10 Party Bus
So. It was near the end of Desert Bus 9 (of course) when I decided that I wanted to push further for something a little... more for DB10. I mean, the tenth Desert Bus for Hope! It's a party! A celebration! And then I thought, well, why not make something of a chocobo-drawn bus-coach thing? Because. Apparently that's how my brain works.
So let's talk about Lucius the chocobo first, yes? He’s my biggest poseable chocobo to date, all 1 pound, 5 ounces of heavy stainless steel wire armature, yarn and polyfil. I was inspired mainly by FFXV chocobos this time around, but I'm sure the other influences can be seen. Each feather of his tail and crest are individually wired. Along with his top and bottom jaw/beak, neck, wings, first four primary feathers on each wing, legs and toes (which I'd really wanted to make "traditional", hence huge claws). Fully extended, he has a wingspan of 15 inches, which also happens to be about how tall he is with a “relaxed crest”. He likes dancing, greens, and going maybe a little faster than he ought to when pulling the party bus. You didn't hear that from me, though.
And then matters got a little more complicated. This is kind of a concept piece, so hang with me here folks. What I'd actually wanted to do was make this with real working wheels and bike chains for tractor treads with optional flip-out "rockets". Yes, honestly. And I'd gone about testing how to get that to happen, but. Admittedly, a whole bunch of real life things got in the way. It just wasn't going to be possible to see through the way I really wanted, not in the time I'd allowed myself to devote entirely to the Craft-Along project. So, I gave myself another challenge. I'm an old. I remember the '80s. Specifically, I remember action figures and playsets from the '80s. And how we couldn't really afford them, so I made my own out of cardboard and paper.
This started out as cardboard and paper! Then foam, more cardboard, layers of things and fabric and finally a top coat of glossy acrylic medium to give it a plastic-y look. I, uh. Kind of went all out. I suppose. I've been working for years on combining lightweight materials and techniques to allow them to be flexible and sturdy while still being reasonably lightweight. Success! I even managed to experiment with texture so that it looks a little like the rough papery cardboard that some of the commercial playsets used to come with, long long ago. I'm... not sure who would ever actually pick up on that besides me, but that's not the point. While I was working on the initial base for this, right as I was cutting things and evening them out, I suddenly had this delightful image in my head of someone who found an old piece of junk bus abandoned in the desert and just decided to slap on a new coat of paint, re-upholster the interior, and let a chocobo pull it. The image clearly stuck with me, because uneven (but alarmingly strongly reinforced) surfaces abound.
As for the interior itself, it was partly inspired by real Arizona buses. But mostly I had the fabric laying around and I thought it was hilariously "party bus-like", hence. The seats are even cushioned, by the way. Only the best for the toys. Plenty of room for luggage too, I'll have you know.
Then of course I am me, so that couldn't be the end of it. I made real silk velvet curtains in dark blue, then decided what I really needed for the back wind was an assortment of Desert Bus shift flags! All hand-painted with a slight sparkly sheen, to be expected from me. Both the curtains and the shift flags all attach to the bus via magnets. I then added a little makeshift pine tree air freshener insignia to the front, with the tree obviously covered in glitter (sorry Tally!)... and then somewhat painstakingly made a harness for Lucius. I mean. This is my life now. I may as well embrace it.
Sold at Desert Bus 10 for $499! Thank you for your generosity Geisterkarle!
So let's talk about Lucius the chocobo first, yes? He’s my biggest poseable chocobo to date, all 1 pound, 5 ounces of heavy stainless steel wire armature, yarn and polyfil. I was inspired mainly by FFXV chocobos this time around, but I'm sure the other influences can be seen. Each feather of his tail and crest are individually wired. Along with his top and bottom jaw/beak, neck, wings, first four primary feathers on each wing, legs and toes (which I'd really wanted to make "traditional", hence huge claws). Fully extended, he has a wingspan of 15 inches, which also happens to be about how tall he is with a “relaxed crest”. He likes dancing, greens, and going maybe a little faster than he ought to when pulling the party bus. You didn't hear that from me, though.
And then matters got a little more complicated. This is kind of a concept piece, so hang with me here folks. What I'd actually wanted to do was make this with real working wheels and bike chains for tractor treads with optional flip-out "rockets". Yes, honestly. And I'd gone about testing how to get that to happen, but. Admittedly, a whole bunch of real life things got in the way. It just wasn't going to be possible to see through the way I really wanted, not in the time I'd allowed myself to devote entirely to the Craft-Along project. So, I gave myself another challenge. I'm an old. I remember the '80s. Specifically, I remember action figures and playsets from the '80s. And how we couldn't really afford them, so I made my own out of cardboard and paper.
This started out as cardboard and paper! Then foam, more cardboard, layers of things and fabric and finally a top coat of glossy acrylic medium to give it a plastic-y look. I, uh. Kind of went all out. I suppose. I've been working for years on combining lightweight materials and techniques to allow them to be flexible and sturdy while still being reasonably lightweight. Success! I even managed to experiment with texture so that it looks a little like the rough papery cardboard that some of the commercial playsets used to come with, long long ago. I'm... not sure who would ever actually pick up on that besides me, but that's not the point. While I was working on the initial base for this, right as I was cutting things and evening them out, I suddenly had this delightful image in my head of someone who found an old piece of junk bus abandoned in the desert and just decided to slap on a new coat of paint, re-upholster the interior, and let a chocobo pull it. The image clearly stuck with me, because uneven (but alarmingly strongly reinforced) surfaces abound.
As for the interior itself, it was partly inspired by real Arizona buses. But mostly I had the fabric laying around and I thought it was hilariously "party bus-like", hence. The seats are even cushioned, by the way. Only the best for the toys. Plenty of room for luggage too, I'll have you know.
Then of course I am me, so that couldn't be the end of it. I made real silk velvet curtains in dark blue, then decided what I really needed for the back wind was an assortment of Desert Bus shift flags! All hand-painted with a slight sparkly sheen, to be expected from me. Both the curtains and the shift flags all attach to the bus via magnets. I then added a little makeshift pine tree air freshener insignia to the front, with the tree obviously covered in glitter (sorry Tally!)... and then somewhat painstakingly made a harness for Lucius. I mean. This is my life now. I may as well embrace it.
Sold at Desert Bus 10 for $499! Thank you for your generosity Geisterkarle!
