FFXIV: adorable fan-made plushies make minions a reality
I’m an obsessive Final Fantasy XIV minion collector, it’s the joke of my Free Company that I just can’t get enough of them, so imagine my delight to discover these beauties - plushie minions!
Ashlee Blackburn, or more commonly known by her Tumblr and deviantART alias of Blackash, has been an avid gamer and artist for a long time. Her artwork has come in many different mediums in the past, from traditional art, digital, and even sculpture work. Both her deviantART gallery and Tumblr portfolio boasts a number of impressive gaming-related art works. However, the focus of this article is her adorable range of plushies, based on the minions from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Her foray into Final Fantasy minions began with a simple request for a plush of the baby behemoth minion from a friend.
However, it was not to be the only plush she ever made, another friend asked her to create a soft toy version of a Poring from Ragnarok Online, then another request of a leech from Final Fantasy XI. After receiving encouraging feedback and more ideas and requests, Ashlee’s plush skills continued to grow.
As well as sharing photos of the finished creations, Ashlee also shares intimate glimpses into the process behind making some of the plushies. Above you can see a prototype of the Goobbue Sproutling minion plush, next to which you can see the finished product. It’s really interesting to see how the design must have evolved from its initial concept to its final form. Ashlee expressed just how great it is to see her idea take shape: “It’s always exciting when I get to see what I’m making finally take shape. Going from a flat empty shell to something cute and cuddly makes all the pinpricks worthwhile.“.
Ashlee’s menagerie of real Final Fantasy XIV minions continued to grow, as well as requests and commissions adding to her list, she created more minions as gifts for friends and family. Of course, every minion that she makes is entirely from scratch. It’s not as if Square Enix hand out “how to” guides on how to make minions. Some of the more complex minions required creating difficult patterns before even being able to start stitching fabric together. Ashlee studied the work of other artists and used online resources as well as her own experience to create her minions.
Above is Ashlee’s Wind-up Sylph plush, it was her most complicated pattern to date at the time and consisted of over 30 pieces. The finished product was around 17 inches (44 cm) tall. Her range of minions includes Tonberries, Raptors, Bombs, Mandragoras, and more. You can see the full collection via Ashlee’s Tumblr.
Many people have commissioned Ashlee to make them their own minion plushies. Recently, she was commissioned to make a bluebird plush that was used by a skilled cosplayer, AtalantaDreamweaver, at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas. The minion was attached by using rare earth magnets in both its bottom and tail.
The above image is courtesy of AtalantaDreamweaver and you can find it in her deviantART gallery.
I love discovering fan-made creations of games I love and these plushies are no exception. The amount of detail that has gone into them makes them look professionally made as if they were real merchandise. Square Enix has actually released its own Final Fantasy XIV minion plush that was available at the Fan Festivals, as well as its online store. The Delivery Moogle plush included a code for the in-game minion, however, it sold out extremely quickly.
If you want to see more of Ashlee’s work, to support her, or even find out about commissions, you can track her down on Tumblr and deviantART.
