KK2 minifigs that don't look stupid?

[Echo]

Despite it's flaws, I was quite fond of KK2, however, like everyone else, I didn't like the minifigs. Back in January, I tried to make new versions that didn't look quite so gaudy. I managed to make decent versions of Bantares and Talonjay soldiers, but I was stuck on the other two provinces. Then one day, I created a design that could be used for all four provinces.

The '06 newcomers, Adric and Kentis

King Jayko and two Talonjay knights.

The other original three; Santis, Danju, and Rascus.

And here we have Santis showing how it is done. They use light bley arms and legs, dark bley, hips and hands, a torso the color of the armor, and a light pearl silver three-bar face grill helmet.

[Aanchir]

Some of the faces on those Talonjay knights are horrendous. And in general, I can't say that these minifigures look any better than the actual Knights' Kingdom II figs. With such generic helmets and colors they lose a lot of the personality the actual figs had, but since they don't get rid of the vibrant colors from the actual theme they probably wouldn't satisfy people who disliked the "jellybean knights" either.

As it is, KK2 was a fantasy theme that didn't really strive for realism in any of its designs. By trying to make a "halfway-point" between realism and fantasy with these figs, all you accomplish is making both the colorful fantasy armor and the more realistic greyscales look out-of-place. The end result just looks like real-world knights wearing colorful screen-printed T-shirts, as opposed to the colorful armor from the actual sets which could be more easily be imagined as "just the way armor looks in this universe".

I think these figs might be improved if you gave them silver helmets with the actual Knights' Kingdom visors on them. That way, there would be more of the colorful primary colors, making the armor feel less out-of-place and the figs feel less generic. Naturally, you might be opposed to this, since most of the designs of the helmets in Knights' Kingdom were clearly fantasy-oriented and usually not based on real-world medieval helmets. But I think it could help unify these fig designs a lot more.

At the same time, I'm glad to see that even among those who disliked the "jellybean knights" there were people who liked the universe and sets of KK2, and if these figs suit your personal vision of the Kingdom of Morcia, then that's your creative freedom!

[CMP]

Yes, one of the 'high points' of KK2 were all the interesting visors. Over a silver helmet they'd look fine. Perhaps colored hips/hands or legs would help. Right now, they're kind of just generic knights wearing brightly colored armor.

They're still an improvement over the jellies, though.

[Peppermint_M]

Nice modification there. It's always good to strive and the colourful armour is like the tabards of the knight's colours (See here for those who might not know. These guys tour the local castles here and whack each other with blunted weapons, also at least a few of them were well yummy ). The would certainly fit in a Kingdoms Tournement or at the local Tilt Field.

However there are a few steps I would have done myself a little differently: Kept a few of the visors on lite bley or pearl silver helmets, the ones you used look nice but some of the uniqueness has been lost, the coloured feathers do look nice on the more soldiery characters. Also, maybe swapped the hips from dark bley to a colour that matched the armour parts (maybe)or broken it up with printed armour legs.

Good figures also need careful face choices, even if it is simply one of the many generic stubbly/manly ones.

Keep on striving to improve. Lets see these knights at a suitable location!