Given the overlap of comics fans and action figure collectors, there's a decent change you recognize at least a few figures you recognize here. On the left is an Apocalypse from 2004, on the far right is a Dr. Fate from 2008, and in the center are Moon Knight and Indiana Jones from 2022 and 2023 respectively. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might also recall the Khonshu statue I generated with some help from AI. What likely is NOT familiar to anyone is the Shuma Gorath that Dr. Fate is fighting.
The basic design of the figure is from Warden Makers. The flexi-tentacles are a not-uncommon approach for making octopus, squid, dragon, and snakes figures for 3D printing: the individual pieces are designed in such a way that they can be printed already interlocked so you have a complete, flexible (but loose) armature that's ready to use right off the printer. No assembly required. It's a clever technique that is unique to 3D printing -- you physically cannot manufacture a part like that with traditional injection molding and so it's a popular style among the 3D printing community. They've applied the same idea here for the fictional but tentacled character of Shuma Gorath.
But, as I said, it's designed to be printed as-is so there's no assembly. Which means you're generally limited by the physical size of your 3D print bed. Most of Warden Maker's designs are chibi-style figures and are designed basically as small desk ornaments, so it's no surprise that a flexi-Shuma-Gorath is scaled with them. It's a clever design, though, and I wondered how it might scale up for action figures.
On my particular set-up, I could only enlarge it to around 200% and still have it fit on my printer. That gave him a full "wingspan" of about 11 inches with the eyeball itself being about 2" in diameter. Larger, certainly, but not remotely big enough to work alongside figures in a 1/12 scale given that the character is regularly shown as essentially a mystical kaiju. (If you're not familiar with the character from the comics, it's depicted -- though not named because of legal reasons -- in the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness movie.) The particular version that I've created here is about 400% of the original design's size... which does not fit on my 3D printer. I had to figure out a way to break up the figure into consituent parts, print them individually, and re-assemble them. I was able to do very crudely and ineffeciently, but it was do-able even with my limited skills. So with some assembly and a few hits with a can of brown spray paint, I've got a Shuma Gorath to display alongside Khonshu, Bast, and Anubis.
(Honestly, the Shuma Gorath should probably be at least twice as large as how I've got it here to be something closer to an 'accurate' scale. But, if you're unaware, toy designers often have to sacrifice scale accuracy for functional purposes. The original Millennium Falcon toy from Kenner? If that were actually to scale with the action figures, it would be something like six feet long! Where would I fit a giant tentacle monster with a four foot wingspan?!)
I mention all this, partly because I enjoyed the process of making the figure, but also because I don't know that most people think to try to re-work designs in those terms. I obviously didn't design the figure from scratch -- I don't have nearly that level of skill with modeling software -- but I can repurpose another design to make something that we are exceptionally unlikely to see from any toy company. And now I can glance to my side any time while I'm working on some project I don't want to deal with and briefly transport myself to an exciting adventure with gods and monsters in Egypt!
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