Is There a Blacksmith in the House?

Days have passed, months have passed, and this blog has fallen into abandonment and obscurity, just like The One Ring did in the days of middle earth. Another thing that has kind of fallen by the wayside is my Mancave, codenamed: Watchtower.

If you recall, just as Sauron put his own self into his ring of power, so I have poured my own labor, blood, and essence of manly nerdiness into my Mancave. Click on these links if you want to read about my past Mancave Beutification Projects: Tetris Bookshelves, The Greatest American Clock, and Pac Man Mood Lighting. After all that work, I got tired, ran out of inspiration (and budget), and the Mancave's decor fell off my radar. There are still parts of me that I would like to see shown in the decor somewhere. I've got to get something Harry-Potter-ish in here, then maybe something Mario Bros. themed too, and at some point (when budget allows) I've got to get those wires under the TV hidden in the wall. All of that will wait, however, until there is sufficient budget, or inspiration.

A couple of nights ago, I sat here in my cave pondering what else I could add. I was feeling crafty, and had a sudden urge to smell sawdust, which always leads to something awesome. So I thought, "what this room needs is a weapon, mounted somewhere on the wall," but what weapon could I choose? I wasn't just going to go out and get a replica of Gandalf's staff from Lord of The Rings, the portal gun from Portal, or The Sword of Griffindor from Harry Potter. Those things are expensive, and as much as I love Harry Potter, the Sword of Griffindor isn't the part that would match my personality. Then, just like a confundus charm was removed from me, inspiration hit, and I had already had everything I needed to bring my vision to fruition. Those weapons have no super personal tie to me. Why not use something that does? Why not get the very first sword I ever picked up and wielded myself? The first sword I ever used to battle the forces of evil? Granted this sword, and these battles all existed only digitally in the 8-bit world that was Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda. Yep, I decided to make my first weapon in that game, and mount it on my wall: The 8-bit Wood Sword, that is given to Link by an old man in a cave.

Here's a close-up of the Wood Sword:

And I think I'll put it...

And so the project begins...

And so another 8-hour day of myself poured into an awesome nerd-project. Here is the finished plaque for mounting:

And here are some shots of the finished sword, in its 8-bit glory:

Finally here are some shots of the finished product, on the wall:

Just like the original from the game, this sword is made of wood and it is a scale model, modeled so that the grip would fit in my hand's grip with each pixel equaling 3/4 inch. While it looks awesome, there is one more thing that will be added, but is coming in the mail. I ordered a small sound box that I will mount inside the back of the plaque, so that if someone takes the sword off the mount, the plaque will play the sound that is played when link picks up the sword in the cave. Here is a video of someone playing the game, but don't worry about watching it, it is just so you can hear the sound, when Link picks up the sword. the video is a lot longer than that, but I didn't know how to cut it down.



Bring it on Ganon, bring. it. on.