Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Convulsion Enter! Special Style!

yarrr mateys, this post be long and has many a picture in it. if you have difficulty in reading pictures, consider yerself warned.

so, a couple of days ago i was wandering about the MHCC with some friends when i came across this box. what actually caught my eye, was what i thought was a dwarf from WoW ( you have to keep an aye on the kneebiters y'know). i was shocked, flabbergasted even, when i saw that the dwarf was wearing an eyepatch and a pirate hat.

what was this wonderful product? i wondered. has Blizzard made some new action figures with pirate dwarves? where was the horde set? i want my blood elf buccaneers! i quickly grabbed the box from the shelf and read the label.


that's right, Convulsions Enter, Special Style indeed. it might have been at that point when i realized that this maybe, just maybe, wasn't a licensed Warcraft product. in fact, this had nothing to do with warcraft at all, and someone had just photoshopped a pirate hat and eyepatch onna picture of a dwarf. i was saddened.

and then i read the back of the box.

the text is a bit blurry, but basically reads:
Convulsion enter, funny special style good luck. Completely new to come in to the market, collect of all kinds of pirates and vehicles to enjoy a wonderful pirates garden.

i don't know what a pirates garden would look like, but i bet it would be awesome.

the box also had an image of a lich from Warcraft 3 on it, and the Pirates of the Caribbean skull. Liches, to the extent of my knowledge of necromancy, are not nautical, and do not convulse in a special style.

i can't say i was tempted to buy it, but i do feel sorry for kids who get this stuff bought for them. you know, like when you get that spiderman action figure, where the designs and stuff are painted on funny, and fall apart after five minutes of play.

after scouring the internet (a grueling task) i managed to find the original image of the alledged pirate dwarf, and using my photoshop skills, arrange a comparison.
i don't know about you, but thats some photoshop skill right there. you know, pasting a pirate hat and eyepatch onto something isnt as easy as it may sound. to prove this, i decided to make a picture of a pirate kitten. it took me several hours of painstaking sketching, inking, re-inking, scanning and digital painting, to create this:

i can only imagine what the graphic artists at Pirates Legends went through.

Thanks to John for the use of his camera!

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