I planned this one over a week ago when I realised the last DOOM's release date was on a Tuesday. One thing let to another and I ended up having perhaps the most involved Weekly Penguin photoshoot of all time. The only Photoshopping going on is some colour correction and replacing a brand logo seen in the background prop with UAC.
So what have here is Jerry of The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time by That Other Fish. Jerry is the weapons merchant of the game and he has chronic back pain. In his plushie form he carries a plush shotgun, but for this session I gave him a BFG upgrade.
Jerry has also made a new friend, Mr. Gibs. This was first of the hand-made plushies sold via Romero Games online store. Yes, its a pile of gibs, as a plush toy, signed by John Romero no less.
Phrasing it Jerry 'made a new friend' makes me wonder what Mr. Gibs popped out of? 🤔
The BFG 9000 is the LED lit version that comes with the DOOM Anthology. The plushie obviously can't 'hold' it and is way too heavy for it anyway, throwing its balance off. So I used a circular knitting needle to prop him up. Both needles are under his jacket on the back side, whilst the see-through plastic wire loops through the holes in the gun, tying it to Jerry's flipper and body. No damage done to either plushie or the gun this way.
The casings on the ground are real. Before DOOM made me a computer-obsessive nerd as kid, I was used to do some model building. Near where I first lived, a dude used to go practice shooting in a sand pit, using a small caliber gun. I used to collect the casings in case I needed them for a diorama for artillery shells or something of that type. I had completely forgotten I had them until I came across the box about a year ago. Three decades late, but finally found use for them – and the small caliber casings look like heavy ordnance next to Jerry.
The background is my old Samsung TV I used for console gaming, with Samsung's branding photoshopped to UAC. Everything set on an old, half-rusted and heavily roasted oven tray. To top it all off, the scene is lit with three-directional lighting – two coloured LEDs beams blasting green and a flat bright light lamp giving some sharp white light for details.
As you can see, all this was supposed to be an epic celebration but is clouded in darker than dark shades. With the recent announcement from Sony and mass-firings hitting id Software, there's an ever-increasing possibility that DOOM Revelations is the last game I will play. I'm a physical games collector – always have been – so it would be temptingly poetic to end the hobby with the same series that made me into a hardcore gamer nerd and a gamedev.
I don't know, right now I'm just beyond disappointed and angry at the inhuman parasites controlling this hobby.
But enough of this kind of 'doom and gloom' and time for the real deal one last time.
