Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension

Mario, Sonic and Zool: the Holy Trinity of video game mascots in the 1990s. Two of these characters are going strong to this day. Zool – the lovechild of Cool Spot and a Ninja Turtle – explored a visually intense platformer landscape deep with thematic heft, which let the Amiga gamer grapple with complex socio-cultural questions such as “What if world, but made of Smarties?”

Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension
Zool in action in the diabetes-inducing first level.

If you want to express your personality through the consumption of Zool merchandise, there are only dog-eared tie-in novels from 1995 to collect. And that’s not enough for me – I dreamt of owning a plastic rendition of my hero from the Nth Dimension. SO I MADE MY OWN.

This is my digital sculpt of Zool, created in Blender. As he’s some sort of weird ant, I printed him the size of a two-pence coin and painted him up with a specially made Chupa Chups base.

Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension

And then, to recreate the sugary joy of the original computer game levels, I emptied sixteen packets of Smarties into my lightbox.

Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension

Now that I’ve found a way to conjure miniatures from my imagination into paintable pieces, I am completely giddy with sculpting potential. What next? Maybe a 1990s British pop culture Justice League, with Superted and Bananaman.

Ninjabread out!

Curis

Curis has painted for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Avatars of War, Wargames Foundry, Studio McVey and many others. He's won at Golden Demon and Salute. He publishes monthly painting tutorials on Patreon.

14 thoughts on “Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension

  • April 1, 2021 at 7:36 am
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    Awesome work on Zool!

    It would be great to see other classics from the 80s and early 90s such as Ruff n Tumble, Supercod, Simon the Sorcerer or any number of those computer game sprites of yore!

    Reply
    • April 12, 2021 at 7:24 pm
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      I’d thought already fo James Pond Robocod, but I hadn’t thought of Simon the Sorcerer! He’d be an absolute treat as a Doctor Strange analogue in the project! Thanks for that.

      Reply
  • April 1, 2021 at 7:38 am
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    Hi ! I played this video game on my Amiga 500+ during the 90’s , very good souvenirs :)

    Top sculpting and Top painting job :)

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    • April 12, 2021 at 7:25 pm
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      Thanks Nico! I’m really surprised that so many people remeber Zool, to be honest. I thought it was just me.

      Reply
  • April 1, 2021 at 10:46 am
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    I have to see Superted and Banana Man (and Danger Mouse…?)

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    • April 12, 2021 at 7:26 pm
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      Oh oh oh, yes Danger Mouse, yes, as the Nick Fury superspy character that’s in charge of the team!

      Reply
  • April 4, 2021 at 12:37 pm
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    This little guy looks amazing. What a smooth print! And paint job too :D

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    • April 12, 2021 at 7:26 pm
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      Thanks Allison!

      Reply
  • October 25, 2021 at 12:46 pm
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    wow!! :) looks amazing ^^ one of my favourites game characters of all time do I need sell kidney to get one?:P

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    • January 31, 2022 at 7:13 pm
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      Being honest, Luc, I didn’t think anyone else would want a Zool! I’ll have a think about how to make him available for people that want one!

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      • April 10, 2022 at 1:50 pm
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        Cool :) ^^ looking forward to that ! thx

        Reply
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  • September 26, 2022 at 12:22 pm
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    I’ve always wanted to paint minis of the characters from telebugs. Maybe I should take their creation into my own hands!

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  • November 13, 2022 at 8:21 pm
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    Hi. Zool has recently been remade by Apprentices at Sumo Digital and it’d be cool to get hold of your Zool figures for the team…?

    Reply

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