This figure was initially created based on the official illustration used for the key visual of the series, but as a big fan of the game it was very difficult for me to try and balance out his appearance in the illustration with my image of him as he appears in the game...

The balance and posing of the figure were all based on the official source material, but using just that single illustration just didn't seem to give me the epic appearance and pose that I had pictured in my mind. I still remember some of the many meetings with the planning team during the production where I would actually sculpt at certain areas with them watching, trying to find ways to bring out a more dynamic feel to the pose and bring out that spirit of Link that fans have come to love...

After much deliberation we managed to keep the overall outline of Link from the front in tact, while placing him in a stance that has power put into his shoulders that creates a kind of depth to his pose that gives it a feeling of motion - I think we really succeeded in creating a figure that captures the strength of Link for fans to enjoy adding to their collection.

I'm Hiroyuki Hirose from Decomas Lab, and I was in charge of the painting of this Link figure. Recently there have been a lot of figures that we at Decomas Lab have really had to think about how to approach before painting. The figures that need some kind of unique or special paintwork often bring a lot of hard work and consideration with them, but they are always so much fun to work on! I can't wait to work on the next one!

The biggest theme for this paintwork on this figure was bringing out the 'blue shadows' that were so prominent in the original illustration. This brought on all sorts of questions such as just how effectively could the use of light in the illustration be applied to a figure, or just how far could I go with the paintwork detail while still keeping the product plausible for use in the final manufacturing process? I went through a number of different renditions and through lots of trail-and-error finally managed to create the figure you see now.

There were certain parts on the figure where I made use of a very specific foundation color, or even complete painted out areas for the shadow to stand out more - but I have nothing but praise for the sculpt of the figure. Particularly the sculpt of the hair as well as at the knees allowed the shadows to fall so nicely with the sculpt that it made my painting feel so natural. The figure also featured a coarse effect that you'd probably never see on figures of cute girls - this was also a nice new challenge that somehow gives the figure a kind of optical illusion of being more like a 'picture' than most figures. This is one of those figures that you really need to take a nice close look at with your own eyes!