| GRANITOR
PROJECT# 445 "We must fight our way through them and find the Neutrinos!" Preamble: Unlike most of the characters introduced in the original TMNT five-part pilot episode, the character of Granitor was never revisited, making his only cartoon appearance in "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X." He accompanied General Traag when they were pursuing a gang of rogue Neutrino kids through a battlefield in Dimension X when they were inadvertently summoned to Earth by Shredder, who was experimenting with the trans-dimensional portal aboard the Technodrome. He and Traag pursued the Neutrinos through New York City, despite the attempts by both the police and military to subdue them. They were even successful in driving the Ninja Turtles into a full retreat—a rare feat indeed. Their fight with the Turtles eventually resulted in the Turtles pushing them back through the portal to Dimension X. (Yeah, he was a little dim, but not every Rock Soldier is cut out to be a general.) Though we never saw him in the television series after this, Granitor later went on to appear as an end-stage boss in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game for Nintendo, the only source that actually identifies him by name. Granitor never got an official action figure in his likeness, but I thought it would be fun to construct one. It made sense to start with a spare General Traag figure, but I had to heavily modify the toy in order to create Granitor's very different physique and styling. I'm classifying this one at least partly as a sculpture, not just a kitbash, since I created so much of the project from scratch. Construction: I took lots of screen shots of Granitor from his animated appearance, noting design elements like his height (he's taller than Traag), the shape of his arms and upper torso and head, and his color scheme. (I think the original General Traag figure was intended as a fusion of Traag and Granitor. Notice how the action figure is approximately half grey and half brown?) I figured I could probably get away with keeping Traag's legs and lower body pretty much as they were, and make the subsequent modifications to the figure from the waist up, though I did cut off the legs at the knee and reattach them in a different position to give Granitor a little extra height. When all was said and done, he ended up really tall—much more so than most of the official Turtles toys. Of course, the Ninja Turtles barely came up to his waist in the cartoon, so this is a good thing. I'm so accustomed to TMNT figures being too small that it looks weird to my eyes, though. (Actually, I think the main reason they did this was so the toys could fit in the standard sized packaging.) I built the new body elements out of Sculpey brand modeling compound, making sure to sculpt them in a somewhat similar style to the original Traag figure. I wanted to keep all the figure's articulation, though, so that meant incorporating the existing joints into the new design. For the arms, I added some paper clips for structural support and built up the new shoulders around that. For the upper body, I had to cut off most of the upper torso (leaving the connector peg for the center of his body intact so his legs would stay on), saving the joints for the head and arms so I could reuse them. I didn't want to have to rely on the strength of the Sculpey to hold his body together (it tends to crumble, especially since I don't always bake it all the way through), so I built an internal framework for the new body and wrapped the modeling compound around that. (The fact that his body is hollow also prevented the figure from being too top-heavy.) I used a piece of the original head and used that as the neck, building the new head on top of it. Sculpting the head carefully was very important since I wanted to capture the character's likeness as closely as possible. In painting the figure, I went with a similar approach that I did with my Traag project, laying down a base color and then going back and painting darker shadows in the cracks and lighter highlights in order to try to create a three-dimensional representation of the way the character was depicted in animation. He still retains his original seven points of articulation, and looks particularly good on the display shelf next to my General Traag project. Comments: I'm always afraid of working with Sculpey because I worry about the plastic elements of the project melting in the oven. The hard styrene plastic used for the body of an action figure his body has a lower melting point than the soft vinyl used for its arms and legs, so it seems like the most important piece, the body, is always the first piece to deform. This time I was using a clay-baking oven about the size of a toaster oven, with a nice, clear glass window so I could watch my project like a nervous parent. Despite this, his exposed lower torso still changed shape a little bit and I ended up having to carve the holes out again because they were no longer big enough for his legs! I also wrote a theoretical toy biography for Granitor, as it might have appeared on his packaging. Needless to say, it was done in the same style as the other TMNT biographies by Playmates Toys, which means it's loaded with alliteration and is completely absurd. (In my imaginary little world, a hypothetical official Granitor toy would come with the same accessories that the General Traag did.)
PORTRAIT OF GRANITOR
VITAL STONETISTICS: Granitor is the loyal limestone Lieutenant to General Traag, and is one of the fiercest fightin' Rock Soldiers this side of Dimension X. He's got a stone to pick with the teenage Neutrinos, who always get in the way of his craggy combat training. What really gets his mountain goat, though, is the Turtles...and Granitor is determined to grind their shells into gravel. His signature Brick Blaster is his weapon of choice, but when the situation looks rocky, he breaks out his Reptile-Eradicatin' Rifle to ensure that this mutated military mineral comes out on top. Just in case, he keeps a standard-issue Dimension X Dagger on hand, useful for mountain climbing or picking turtle flesh out of his jagged-edge teeth.
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This Page Created: 5/10/2010
Last Updated: 6/23/2010
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