Another pair of VIP Zombie sculpts in today’s post – This time we have the (dead) Elvis Impersonators as well as a trio of ladies dressed as a particular instance of a Princess hailing from a certain Galaxy Far, far Away…
First up, the trio of Princesses. Interestingly, they don’t appear on the artwork for the VIP Zombies set – I wonder why? Possibly something to do with a litigious Mouse, I imagine. As we saw with Union Worker #42 yesterday, clearly there was indeed some sort of cosplayer-attracting con when the Zombie Apocalype started – perhaps that’s where all of these Celebrity/Actor/Character survivors came from? I painted them as cosplayers of Princess Leia in her Jabba’s Barge costume rather than the actual princess, which gave me the opportunity to vary their skin tones, hair and tabard colours slightly – as promo and BTS photos of the costume from 1982-4 and on do vary depending on the lighting and the state of the photo.
Three more VIP Zombies in the form of The King of Rock’n’Roll – Elvis Presley. To be honest, caring about Elvis was a bit before my time, but I do recall when a a young’un I heard that he’d died come over the radio news – and then going to find my mum to tell her that it happened. These three could fit into a cosplayer con, but to me, they just say “Vegas” much more. Are Elvis Impersonators still much of a thing these days? Do Millennials even know who Elvis is or why he was important in the development of modern music? I won’t even ask about Zoomers! 😀
Anyway, I obviously had to go with the iconic white jumpsuit, but that then left me with a few choices for the others – Black, Red or Blue. I was going to do the black one but eventually changed to blue since there were so many images of him in the Blue one. Also, a bit more colourful and standout-ish for the special VIP version of Walkers in the boardgame. If I could find one more, I’d paint it in black – but I don’t want to pay going rates for another entire box of these – and while I’ve just discovered that eBay does seem to have a fair whack of “fell out of the back of the factory” zombicide models listed, I can’t find Elvis in there, so it’ll have to wait or just never happen.
All six of these models were completed after Boxing Day but before New Year’s Day – and as such manage to also qualify for Dave’s latest Paint what You Got challenge. I do have more that fit into this slot as well, since I managed to get onto a bit of a painting tear in the final days of 2022.
And finally, while painting each of these two sets of models I did have a couple of songs going in my head, so for those interested in hearing what sometimes goes in in here, I’ll link a couple of videos…
See you tomorrow with some more models from my December of Zombies!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great work . Love the Elvis reincarnations. I have not seen these ones before so it was good to see them. I remember on January arriving in Forbes thinking that I had arrived in hell. Only to find that it was their annual Elvis Festival with impersonators singing on every street corner. Some good – most bad. I think it is still going.
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Whoopsie! This post went up 11 hours early! Damn WordPress scheduler – was supposed to hit at half past midnight as the daily dose of Zombicide!
That description of Forbes does indeed sound like a trip to hell… 😮
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You know what they say: “one horde of zombies a day keeps the doctor away”… Once again a great job: for the paintjob, we especially appreciate how you rendered the different skin tones of the pseudoLeias.
Little test : I (R) asked the millennial D to recognize the strange characters in jumpsuit and with a giant tuft… the answer was Elvis Prisley. Elvis isn’t dead yet…and in fact he’s a zombie!
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Thank you! Almost at and end of the Zombie month finally – though I have finished one rather large undead so far in January.
Looks like Elvis passed the millennial test (better than Mussolini, at least in this country) but I don’t think many Zoomers would know him at this stage. 🙂
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Excellent work on all mate, cosplayers was definitely the way to go, and with all the references to Elvis in Zombie movies he is well and truly part of the undead ( Zombieland 2, Army of the Dead”)
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Still need to watch AotD (one day!) but I wish Zombieland 2 was nearly as good as the first. Not wrong that he fits nicely into the genre, though! 🙂
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Lovely job 👍
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Cheers, Alex!
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These are great! 🙂 Zombie Elvis impersonators are brilliant idea!
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Zombie Elvis works on a couple of levels, doesn’t it? 😀
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Nice work on these. Classic Elvis in the white suit is my fave. I really like the glowing eyes too. I know you did it on others too, but it really stands out here.
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Thanks! I’m now done with the glowy-eyes models. Luckily these sculpts had the eyes on them to make it pretty easy. Many of the older ones really just have indents where the eyes are supposed to be so it just doesn’t work.
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Millennial here reporting in. Yes, I know who Elvis is and I know his music. I’m not a fan and I don’t think he’s widely appreciated by people my age or younger. I think Elvis impersonations are not as common as they used to be too though I might be wrong on that. I think they’re fun in a shlocky kind of way and perfect for Zombicide.
I really like both of these sculpts even though it is surreal seeing zombie Princess Leia/Carrie Fisher. I would think/hope these are fun to use in game and they’ll certainly add some character to the board whenever they make an appearance!
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I’ll be honest, as a Gen-X’er, he’s someone I am aware of and could name and recognise a good chunk of songs, but not someone I’ve ever chosen to listen to. I can appreciate his role in music, though not without a narrowed side-eye at his devolution into a self-parody (probably) at the hands of the “Colonel”.
I can certainly imagine Elvis Impersonators becoming a rarer breed as he becomes less culturally important in the present day and I can’t see anyone else doing a Zombie Leia model after recent years’ events – but yeah – both are perfect for shlocky Zombicide games! I need to get that Bill Murray survivor miniature painted!
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That is all well-said, mate. I think Elvis had a strong impact on one generation and music kind of moved on without him. Him gaining weight and being eccentric later in his somewhat short life doesn’t necessarily help his reputation either. That Bill Murray mini is perfect because he was in a recent zombie movie!
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I actually think it’s a lot more than that – Elvis – along with Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Buddy Holly are really the foundations of all of modern Rock as we know it today – along with its various descended genres.
Zombieland was a great film. The second one you could watch or skip – but yeah, Murray was typically great in his role. 🙂
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