Halloween Monsters

Four years ago, I decided to start a new tradition -- to finish one Perler bead monster each year for Halloween and display each one in the window or on the front porch when visitors would arrive. Of course, my favorite monster designs are from the original Phantasy Star. But so far, I have managed to chose those that seem most suitable for Halloween.

• 2010 was the year of the Skeleton
• 2011 was the year of the Zombie (and included some glow-in-the-dark beads)
• 2012 was the year of the Wing Eye
• 2013 was the year of the Ant Lion (spider)

Are you a fan of the original Phantasy Star? Maybe you can help me decide which monster to create for Halloween 2015?

Finished Alis from the Original Phantasy Star Title Screen

Finished this Perler Bead project of Alis a couple of years ago. Life got away from me, and so I didn't get around to updating this blog.

Here I am after all this time with an image of the finished Alis from the original Phantasy Star title screen--originally released on Sega Master System.

Alis From Phantasy Star Title Screen

Okay, I realise that I have not updated this in a very long while. I wanted to post a large project that I completed last summer. Now I am looking through my files and trying to find the photos I took. Here, at least, is a sneak peek at the progress.

I wanted to make one of these "mega" Perler bead images. So I went back to my favorite old RPG game...the original Phantasy Star. This is the start of Alis from the title screen:

I'll let you guess how many peg boards it took to complete this while I go find the other photos. Also, here is the original screen shot from the Sega Master System:

Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Rune

Rune is a powerful magic user that joins your party in Phantasy Star 4. Here are his battle and explore poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet that I used:

Rune keeps showing up in all the Phantasy Star stories, but under different names. This is most likely due to different translations of the game, and the fact that his character reappears every 1000 years to help the next generation defeat Dalk Falz. Notice that he appears as Noah is PS1 and as Lutz in PS2:

Here are the three PS4 heroes that I have completed so far together on the wall:

Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Rika

Rika is the character that becomes Chaz's love interest by the end of the game. She is a numan, which is part human / part cat-like animal. Numans first appeared in Phantasy Star 2 with the introduction of Nei. Here are Rika's battle and explore poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet I used:

A screenshot from Rika's introduction in the game:

Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Chaz

I decided to work on some bigger projects next. I wanted to do a few of the main characters from Phantasy Star 4 in both their battle and explore poses. Since the main character was Chaz, I started with him. Here are both poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet that I used Chaz:

Two screenshots showing Battle Mode and Explore Mode:

R-Type

R-Type was one of my favourite side-scrolling arcade shooters from the 80s. In this game, your mission was to control a space ship (R-Type) and fight off the evil Bydo empire. As I remember it, the game was fairly difficult to defeat. Here is the ship with the basic "pea shooter" starting weapon:

Some screenshots from this very cool game: