A look at the development process of the Figma MGS2 Solid Snake figure

Konami published an interview with Max Factory talking about the creation process of their  Metal Gear Solid 2 Solid Snake figure.

It is clear that a lot of care goes into the creation of these figures. Yoji Shinkawa himself supervised them, and the prototype was changed 3 to 4 times before being approved.

Shinkawa was also the one who made the initial sketches to be used by Max Factory, and they are pretty detailed, down to the soles of Snake’s boots.

Max Factory explained that they used a technique called ‘washing’ to give Snake a realistic paint job. “Washing involves first painting a base color of the figure, and then applying a diluted, darker color over the base color which is wiped along to create realistic shading on the figure.” Obviously, the face was also an area of importance. “The painting of the facial expression was closely supervised by Yoji Shinkawa and painted to faithfully represent Snake from the game.”

The figure’s sculptor, Masanori Kuroda, explained some of the challenges this specific figure created. “The part I found most difficult while working on the sculpt was his muscles. I wanted to keep a more realistic feeling for Snake, but at the same time I wanted to keep the animated feeling that the figma series is known for, which made it quite difficult to find a good compromise.” There’s even some articulation in Snake’s famous mullet. “A special movement was added to the back of his hair in order to ensure his prone pose could be recreated. […] Basically, there were all sorts of new movements that had never been seen in figma figures before, which meant there was a lot of trial-and-error testing to ensure everything came out right!”

The figure can be pre-ordered at the Goodsmile Online Shop for a price of ¥7,800 (keep in mind this doesn’t include the shipping costs).

Source: Konami Blog