Finally, I’m working on an iconic movie character again: none other than the Dude himself enters the stage and joins my collection. “The Big Lebowski” is one of those movies that you just get to know completely naturally. Somehow, sometime, you see it. I strongly assume that this is still true for teenagers today. The character is cult, the supporting characters are cult, and countless dialogues and sentences are cult as well.
The Dude miniature is available as “Bathrobe Dude” from Impact Miniatures. They have a whole line of The Big Lebowski figures, but they are rather oldschool sculpted. I bought Lebowski, Donnie, Walter and Jesus, the rest didn’t appeal to me much based on the product images. Lebowski himself I think is quite nicely designed, even if the legs are too rough. He comes with two hand options: One with a glass, one with a milk carton. I opted for the glass and tried to make it look like he was drinking White Russian. Well, I’m still practicing that a bit 🙂
Then, of course, there’s Donnie and Walter – what a duo! Both of them combine whimsical humor and tragedy at the same time, but their moments together are among the funniest in an already ingenious film. When Donny tries to change things for the better with always well-intentioned, sometimes naive, sometimes clever ideas and suggestions and Walter just doesn’t want to know anything about it. Or when Walter once again forgets himself and can only suppress his rage with extreme restraint – well, sometimes not: “Shut the fuck up, Donny!”
In The Big Lebowski, Walter is clearly the audience favorite: an unforgettable character you think you know, despite his overacting. Walter also has the best one-liners. Can’t we all quote a few off the cuff?
Needless to say, I had to have the miniatures of both as well. While Walter is a very nice, accurate figure that captures the character perfectly, I’m not really happy with Donny.
Donny is the most oldschool of the three, the proportions don’t quite fit and the face is relatively rough. Unfortunately, Donny has clearly modeled eyebrows, which turned out quite thick. I unfortunately didn’t give any importance to this when I was preparing and only realized when I was painting them that they were far too thick and that I couldn’t leave them unpainted either, however. I think I tried too much to correct Donny’s face and get it to look like Buscemi. The result is so-so, but I’m very happy with Walter for that. The trio is still beautiful and clearly recognizable. Now it’s time for a White Russian!
