There are a million things that inspire the minis in Infinity. This in and of itself does not worry it. It is when the inspiration takes priority over making the unit fit that I have issue. HI and TAGs, for example, draw clear influence from anime, but none of this has ever worried me because it does not dominate the view. It is inspiration and homage, but nothing more. I was originally planning on starting Bakunin this year, but the releases have so disappointed me that I no longer have any interest in playing the sectorial. The Moderators are just plain boring. The old N2 Moderators had personality and fit the Bakunin theme, but the new ones do not. The Morlocks are horrific. At least Colossus makes sense (+2 ARM), maybe Killer Crock (Regeneration), but Joker, Harley and Katana have no vague relationship to Morlock lore or mechanics. The references are also far too thickly applied to the point that you can only see the Suicide Squad and not an Infinity model. The old N1 and N2 Morlocks (eg tentacle hair girl) were amazing concepts that fit perfectly. I feel they got the balance better with Zoe. The cybernetic parts fit her character and the Bakunin theme perfectly, while the original reference material is not-so-famous making it not take-over from seeing the Infinity character.
I personally don't like how explicitly Massacre is inspired by Deadpool. He's got an awesome character design and an awesome name... consigning him to just be a Deadpool expy is fucking lame.
On the other hand, Morlocks are literally the same thing as the Suicide Squad - misfits that are sent to do something useful and hopefully die in the process. My take is that they suffered from backlash caused by source's aggressive PR more than anything.
To be fair to the models though, they are technically quite excellent, and it really wouldn't take much to de-SS them
But could you guess that he's supposed to have Regeneration if you never saw/knew the character he was copied from? What was the reference for Zoe?
In my opinion? But that's my point, it's not very obvious. It may have been inspired by something different altogether. It's not so close that I can immediately call it out I think it also doesn't help when there's multiple models that are making the same reference. That way you can more easily draw the comparisons. Without The Collector's stupid hair on the moderator models I wouldn't have known they were going for Guardians references.
Huh... That Sombra comparison doesn't tick me much. Zoe's concept paints her a lot more down-to-Earth worker, something that's not too specific. As of hairstyle, it seems it's still all the rage even though initially it gained mainstream-tier popularity in like 2015...
To be honest that hairstyle has been popular in the cyberpunk genre for a long time. Goes way back to the goth/cybergoth/industrial music subcultures, in the early 2000s at least. Plus Zoe and Pi-well predate overwatch by at least a decade. That being said the redesign is radically different from the old sculpt, so they could have been influenced by later works. But then again i could google 'cyberpunk female cyborg' and probably round up a half dozen images that look like they influenced Zoe.
I was sold on the game by a friend as "Briarios fights Deadpool, also there's hacking and everyone has those cortical stacks from that Altered Carbon book" so I'm not as fussed by it. Sñr Massacre was also introduced when Deadpool was more of a niche character, before the Daniel Way written solo comic, before the Deadpool video game and movie, so it finally felt like more of a nerd Easter egg than blatant cash-in.
It is possible they took the hairdo from Sombra, but that is about it. It is hardly a unique style, so I would not have drawn the comparison myself. She is more closely based on a comic character, from Descender (published by Image). I have not read it, so I know nothing about the character, but they share very similar cybernetics. Reptile -> Regeneration. That is my thinking. Lizard-men are a common trope. If you removed the other three minis, you would not even identify him as Killer Croc (whose appearance changes constantly), just a generic Lizard-man.
I don't mind the references. They make me chuckle on occasion and I kind of like how they're keeping me guessing. And sometimes, it's about expected. If you're going to have a unit of highlanders it almost seems obligatory to have one's face look like Christopher Lambert (although preferably without the Katana). If you have a unit of highlanders and one looks kind of like the TV show highlander I probably wouldn't have recognized him and it would have slipped past me. Most of the other references did, for example the ones that supposedly look like Sean Connery do not look like Sean Connery to me. Some of them are pretty obscure, the O-12 officer and the Scarfed Ghazi Muttawi'ah in particular (the latter looking like a Spanish fashion blogger). It's entertaining to have those pointed out. Did the Morlock box go too far? A bit, but don't paint Harley Quinn and the Joker like their counter parts and they'd likely escape notice. And frankly, I've forgotten that they've existed by now until I saw this thread, as by far I mostly see the old sculpts in play.
I do like those "pop cultural references". Not in every individual case, but in general. As much as I like the Infinity-fluff, there are fictional worlds that are better at creating a unique narrative setting. What I like about Infinity is the opposite. All those references to real world politics, history, culture, religion... all those easter eggs, archetypes, indirect quotes... It creates a somehow "universal" feel - very postmodern, very contemporary. Similar to the reasons everyone loves "Stranger Things" for.
Inspirations are fine. Poses need work latelly. You can ignore or not know about the first, but the second are impossible to ignore. Everyone in standing over a pile of absurd trash... I see. *grin* Yep, named Effie/Queen Between: I also have seen people saying she looks like Ladytron from Wildcats: But the Descender one looks a bit more similar.
The difference between a "plagiarist" and a "genius" is in whom they copy stuff from. A plagiarist steals ideas from one source. A genius, from many. To quote Dan O'Bannon (who wrote "ALIEN"). "I didn't steal Alien from anyone. I stole it from EVERYONE!" (which is why he is a genius). Infinity doesn't steal from just one source. It steals from many. In the same way that 40k stole from EVERY large SF trope from the 70s and earlier. They just put their own "spin" on things. I don't see most of the blatant comic book influences as anything but paint (but I don't read superhero comics nor do I venerate any of the spandex short bus crewe).
Inspiration moves from to many univers, in is also true to sci fy. We can't forgot that infi ity in his origins was an evolution of a role game. Respect new Bakunin minatures, i just feel the references are too comercial, other like for example the orc troop ( as a concept), the lost acontecimento regulars or Bárcenas ( a politician from the actual ruling party in spain being in trial for corruption) 0-12 civilian where more like easter eggs. I don't know maybe it's me but in general i feel marvel and DC films are too comercial and the reference looks like more a copy than an easter egg. Maybe the problem is the models are too static and they look like hey i'm the joker buy me xD. In the same topic, Infinity - Overwatch share the same idea of futur idealistic and some visuals. It was a meme running for internet making comparations, i will try to find it again, but i'm sure someone on Overwatch art team is or at least was an infinity player. Some background thinks from Overwatch looks like infinity models...
Infinity have so much more than these ‘homages’ to pop culture. And that aside you’re free to discard the fluff for your own ‘fanboyisms’ and convert Massacre into a Twilight vampire with a paint scheme of your own. So there really is no problem - aside from sculptors lazily ripping off early nineties GW poses, while rules development seem to come from the GW marketing manual.
