A Zangief cosplayer took top honors at a manly-man pageant last week, and our Kotaku team of super 'shoppers swung into action. We've got 20 studly submissions, plus Debaser101's winner, inside!
For starters, I know everyone was expecting me to pick aardvarkattack's Asshole Dog entry this week. I hate to go all coach's kid on A.D., but I have to stop showing so much favoritism. He's going to have to step up his game to get back in our starting lineup. I'm sorry. I know I just condemned him to an adulthood full of daddy issues. He'll be strong, successful and full of repressed anger for it.
Also, much as I'd like to include a.sievewright's awesome Zangief-Power Girl team up, I just ... yeah ... it'd send a bad message. Nothing stops you from looking at it, though. (NSFW)
Alright, on with the roundup. Toshi (20) gets in the first callback to Casey the Zangief Kid from Australia. dummysystem (5) parties down with the Miss USA runners-up. Major_Error (9) makes a strong debut, a little late for the exergaming trend. The extra effort on the Mii sells the 'shop. I know it was quick and dirty, but I like the big-head mode effect greentrace (6) created, intentionally or otherwise.
Lots of people looked at Zangief and saw Robin Williams. jjangu (7) gives us the best interpretation of that. pan1da7 (11) had the best take on the many A-Team submissions. robase (14) was suitably meta. SphessMahreen (16) and Stuart.C (18) both went with a nude-Arthur motif in Ghosts N' Goblins.
Finalists? asanab76 (1) went way old school and gets a nod. bugeyestn (2) imagines that the TSA would bother with the backscatter X-ray before giving Zangief the full-cavity. Shadoroch's "Bears of War" (15) is nice, but a little subtle, not transformative enough. Speaking of not subtle, check out Zangief in my overall No. 1, by Debaser101 (4). An inspired work and a fan favorite. Can't go wrong with that.
Whew! I cannot believe we've been doing the 'Shop Contest every week for longer than the Mars500 guys were incarcerated. Pat all of yourselves on the back, we'll return with another challenge tomorrow.
You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.