Our third Community Spotlight of 2021 features Damian Merazzi, a die caster and superfan of action figures. After acquiring a 3D printer, he used it to bring to life brilliant action figures based on Metroid bosses like Metroid Prime, Quadraxis, Ridley and Dark Samus. We hope you check out his creations!
Damian Merazzi
Hey everyone, I’m Damian Merazzi, I work in the Die Casting industry, designing and machining the moulds of all kinds of consumer goods, and currently in the final stretches of graduating in Industrial Design.
As a kid I always had a fascination with complex action figures that would convert into something else, and unsurprisingly, ended up with tons of Transformers, Megazords, and Saint Seiya Knights, they wouldn’t last long though, as I also loved to modify them, taking them apart and adding pieces from other toys. No wonder I ended up in the mould-making industry and later studying product design, as deconstruction and reverse engineering is absolutely required.
Metroid titles have always been my all time favorite type of game (especially those that allow for player expression and creative solutions through their level design) and I’ve been playing them for decades, but it was the double combo of Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion that really got me sucked into true fandom. Since then I’ve been keeping tabs on the franchise and the community, but outside of some Wikitroid edits I didn’t really do anything impactful.
Fast Forward to 2020, and things took an interesting turn. I bought my first 3D printer after toying a lot with the one in college, and I just knew I had to do something Metroid related with it, but it couldn’t just be model print, there is plenty of that, it had to be different, had to be complicated. Only a month after getting used to the machine I made my first work with it, Quadraxis from Prime 2, my all-time favorite boss in gaming, fairly well received by the community (it even got a comment from an ex-Retro Studios lead!!!!), made entirely just by looking at its official render. I later did something a little more modest, a Metroid lamp, it was mostly done as a test run of the LEDs for what it was to come… enter Metroid Prime, originally started as a brand new design like Quad, but halfway through I switched to using an in-game model (for several reasons) and modifying every body part to make them functional in real life.
Our Thoughts
RoyboyX
Damian’s figures are astounding! I’m always amazed when I see what people with 3D printers create using them, but these take the cake! The Quadraxis figure with its lights is especially incredible, and I think there’s a member of our team who will really appreciate it. I also remember Damian from Wikitroid, where he edited as Ddd87 (formerly DIM87), so I’m happy to get to promote him in a Spotlight. Keep up the excellent work, Damien! I’d love to see more Metroid monsters from you! (maybe Mother Brain…?)
Image Gallery
For more of Damian’s works, please visit one of the links below: