One talented Pokémon fan has brought the adorable Eevee to life like never before with a custom-made doll that shows what the cute fox-like creature would look like in the real world. Gamers were first introduced to Eevee in the original Pokémon Red and Blue games that took the world by storm in the late 90s, and since then it has become a popular member of Nintendo's ever-growing assortment of collectible monsters - to the point that it served as the cover mascot of 2018’s Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! for the Nintendo Switch. Eevee was also the subject of a special Pokémon GO Community Day event last summer, and the adorable canine later took to the stage alongside Pikachu as a balloon in the 2021 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
What truly sets Eevee apart from other Pokémon is how it can evolve into one of several different elemental forms under different conditions, with new evolutions being added with almost every new generation. Still, there are plenty of Pokémon fans that prefer to keep their Eevee in its fluffy default stage, which Pokémon designer Motofumi Fujiwara modeled after a chance encounter with an "indefinable creature" in a forest when he was a child. Sure enough, fans have created plenty of impressive crafts and artwork based on Eevee and its evolutions, including interesting concept art for the elements Eevee's line doesn't include yet.
YouTube sculptor and dollmaker KaypeaCreations (who has previously created an impressive rendition of Houndoom among other characters from games like Animal Crossing and Okami) recently uploaded a video showing off their cute and lifelike Eevee doll, which they decided on after polling viewers about which Pokémon they wanted to see get sculpted next. After humorously cutting to a brief shot of their dog, KaypeaCreations begins by tweaking an existing 3D model on their computer to better resemble Eevee's head. From there, they modify a canine paw from another project to be more "cuddly,” then print the pieces out on a 3D printer. Once the resin is dried, KaypeaCreations goes to work building an armature skeleton out of plastic pieces - which they glue to the paws and head before wrapping quilt batting around it to form Eevee’s body as shown in the Pokémon games. Then comes Eevee’s fur, which KaypeaCreations wraps and sows around the body before shaving it down to the appropriate thickness with a common pet shaver and a pair of scissors for finer detailing. Finally, KaypeaCreations uses an airbrush to give Eevee some tonal variation before eventually showing off the finished doll in all of its cute and fluffy glory.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that the mainline Pokémon games will enter a new generation with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet on the Nintendo Switch, and some fans have already begun to theorize that a new Eevee form will come with it. Fueling this speculation is the appearance of yet another Eevee in Pokémon Journeys - and Eevee from past seasons of the long-running Pokémon anime tend to take on whatever new forms debut in the subsequent Pokémon game. In the meantime, The Pokémon Trading Card Game is more than happy to release new cards based on Eevee and its many currently-existing evolutions.
Indeed, the baseline Eevee remains one of the most iconic Pokémon out there, and KaypeaCreations’s latest homemade doll perfectly captures its lovable, fuzzy design in a more realistic style. This might be the closest Pokémon players could get to seeing a real-life Eevee, and demonstrates how Nintendo’s famous monster-collecting RPG franchise draws its best influences from the various creatures one can already find out in the wild.
Source: KaypeaCreations/YouTube