I took on this project in sculpture class my final year of college in 2007. For our first project we were required craft a piece that combined two different types of animals, using only sheet metal and rods. Right away I tried to figure out how to make this project something I could put in my game room, and I thought it would be super cute to “breed” a Chocobo and a Moogle together.

After getting permission from my professor to use imaginary creatures instead of real ones, I started by creating the sculpture out of paper. When I had that all mapped out, I moved on to the real deal. At that point I had never welded before in my life, so getting started was a little difficult. After a few false starts, I got used to it and it went much smoother. I did burn my face with a braising rod once, but other than that, I avoided major injury.

The whole project took me 25+ hours, not including all the waiting time between the 10 coats of paint. I really wanted the whole thing to fit the “Kawaii” style of Japanese design that is so cute, so I made the Mog wings and ball glittery, and stuck to the bright yellow paint for the Chocobo body.

I also included a spiraled rod of metal around the body of the Chocobo, glittery like the wings, to help show movement in the sculpture. In reality, it is supposed to be a Chocobo attack, but I didn’t think anyone from my class would understand.

Overall I am really happy with how it turned out. When I first introduced the sculpture to the interwebs it was received pretty well. Kotaku even did a quick story on it. Enjoy the photos!