I Am Groot!

[Revell-Fan]

A colleague of mine is leaving us and what would be the best way to say goodbye by giving her a flower, or even a tree - in a flower pot.

The Dancing Groot papercraft on Behance was the perfect item.



The kit has some big parts which are easily identifiable. So I spent another evening with cutting and scoring.



The instructions are straight forward. The assembly is very well thought-out but unconventional at times because there are overlapping pieces on neighbouring parts. Once you have gotten accustomed to this you will see that the bonds are very strong. They have to because the model is articulated and has to withstand some stress.

The instructions recommend to add some weight to the base part 5. I inserted some small stones which fit like a glove.





Parts 9 & 10 are wrapped and glued together to form some struts.



The "wiggle components" are assembled.



The "wiggle lever" part 6 has two very big strips which are glued to each other. They form a diagonal strut which reinforces the part. A very interesting construction.





At this stage I noticed that there are a few marking on the flower pot which would be visible on the final model. To conceal them I laminated several pieces of coloured card to it.













The two parts of the body are very straight-forward.



The texture is very nice and gives the model a very life-like appearance.



This is the "wiggle spine".





The body hull pieces are attached to it as described in the instructions. I left a bit of leeway on the bottom to make sure that the model was able to move freely.

 

[Revell-Fan]

A spring is attach to the top.





Now that the main construction was complete I chose to hide the markings on the inside of the pot by adding several strips of coloured card cut to fit.





Then came the most laborious task: Cutting out the "hair" of the figure.







I spent almost twice as much time on the branches as on all the other parts of the kit combined. But the final look was worth it:











Little Groot is taking shape nicely!

The arms consist of two parts each which are interconnected:











All flaps were used, nothing was superflous.



And after attaching the head to the spring



I give you -

 

[Revell-Fan]

GROOT!





And like every plant from the flower shop this one comes with a tag describing what sort it is, how you have to handle it and what it needs to prosper:



Well apparently this kind of green stuff does not need many words to specify its requirements.







If you touch the lever the body and the head will wiggle and waggle around like there is no tomorrow. It is a really great gimmick which made me smile quite a bit.

However, I felt that there was something missing...

Yaknow, something... a little something...



Of course good ol' Bob was right! We need a friend for the tree!!!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Now who or what should be this friend be? Another tree? That would take the specialness out of the first one. No, it must be something completely different. Something that would complement the tree. But what does a tree need - aside from Bob's canvas-filling tenderness? A GARDENER!!! The plan was set. Now I could proceed.

On https://www.kookycraftables.com/free-downloads I found a suitable subject. Since my friend is not only a huge "Guardians of the Galaxy" fan but also a big "Star Wars" fan it was quite logical to combine both franchises and add Grogu to the tree. I re-arranged the parts in Gimp to save paper.



Assembly was straight-forward and the little fellow took shape in no time:







The kit allows you to re-position the arms and ears. If you use a paper fastener you can easily add a joint and make them posable.

I created a a new left arm and a little watering can on-the-fly in Corel and painted the pattern in Gimp.





One slight miss of the kit is the fact that the back sides of the ears and arms are left untextured. I changed that by printing mirrored versions of the kit parts. I re-painted the ears to make them look like a back side.



The collar is wrapped around the neck of the figure. Due to the higher position of the newly created arm it was necessary to make a small incision.





It fit like a glove.



I noticed a long seam on the head and printed a new green part to hide it. While I was at it I printed some new side pieces for the watering can which looked a bit pale.





The flowers on the can got some decorative self-adhesive beads from the spare box.



DONE!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Grogu, the gardener!











And both models side by side:

 

[Revell-Fan]

Much to my surprise lil' Grogu too has a gimmick. It comes with different faceplates which are held in place by the collar piece. You can easily swap them out and change the expression of the figure.



Happy / Sleepy Grogu



No-more-frogs-for-you Grogu



Angrogu



All-frogs-have-hatched Grogu



Cute Grogu

When not in use the faceplates can be stored inside the figure. A very carefully planned kit this is.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Thank you very much for watching! A last view at the couple before both are sent to their new owner.













Have fun and enjoy!

 

[mijob]

Its a lovely kit. Great job RF.

 

[micahrogers]

The fun, and whimsey of these kits is just so lovable. you are a treasure to your friends and colleagues.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

As always, you did a FANTASTIC JOB on these projects! I hope that your colleague will like them!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Thank you all!

Well, I brought her to tears. Mission successful!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

Thank you all!

Well, I brought her to tears. Mission successful!

I hope that they were tears of joy!!!

 

[Chuffy70]

Superb little keepsakes, I hope they are cherished for years to come...can I ask what is this 'GIMP' you speak of....Is it windows or apple gubbins?

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

Superb little keepsakes, I hope they are cherished for years to come...can I ask what is this 'GIMP' you speak of....Is it windows or apple gubbins?

GIMP is a (free for download open source) image editing program. Here is the link to the website: https://www.gimp.org/