The Statues of Blizzard are sculptures of iconic characters, weapons or vehicles from Blizzard Entertainment's universes: Diablo, StarCraft, Overwatch, and Warcraft. BlizzCon visitors have a chance to see many of the statues when visiting the Anaheim Convention Center. Blizzard has also started offering smaller versions of the large scale statues as collectibles.[1] Most statues were created by Steve Wang and later by the Alliance Studio. The most famous one of them must be the Orc Statue.
Permanent Statues[]
The Orc[]
- Main article: Orc Statue
The statue of an Orc riding a wolf was created in 2007 and is permanently located at Blizzard's main location in Irvine, California.[1]
Kerrigan, Queen of Blades[]
A bronze statue of Kerrigan was created in 2008 by Steve Wang and is permanently located outside of the Blizzard offices in Versailles, France. She stands 14 feet tall.[1]
Arthas, The Lich King[]
A bronze statue of the most iconic character[1] in the Blizzard universe Lich King Arthas Menethil was created in 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary[2] of the founding of Blizzard Entertainment. It is permanently located on the Calligraphy Greenway in Taichung, Taiwan. It is a 14 foot, 4,000 pound one-of-a-kind statue.[1] It was created by Steve Wang.
Life-sized Statues[]
Lilith[]
A statue of Lilith was showcased at BlizzCon 2019.
Arthas Menethil[]
A statue of Arthas Menethil was created in 2019 by Infinity Studio for Blizzard's booth at ChinaJoy 2019. It is depicting Arthas from Warcraft III: Reforged.[3]
Lady Jaina Proudmoore[]
A statue of Jaina Proudmoore stood at BlizzCon 2018 that was created by the Alliance Studio.[4]
Sylvanas, The Banshee Queen[]
A statue of Sylvanas and the base stand stood at 8 feet tall and weigh approximately 200 pounds. She is made primarily of silicone (for her skin), polyester resin and epoxy resin. She was created by the Alliance Studio and marked the first time to create a statue for display with flowing hair. She was created in 2017 for BlizzCon 2017.[1]
Colossal Tracer, Pharah, Genji[]
The colossal sized statues of Tracer, Pharah and Genji were created in 2016 by Alliance Studio as a promotion for the game Overwatch.[1]
Oversized Gorehowl[]
The oversized axe known as Gorehowl was created in 2015 by creating a custom steel support frame that was embedded into a series of CNC foam carved panels. The foam was then coated in a hard coat polyurea material and a final finish was created using a combination of airbrushed and hand-painted techniques. The finished creation stood at 15 feet tall and weighs just over 450 pounds. It was a promotion for the launch of Warlords of Draenor in New York City's Times Square on November 11 and 12, 2014. To herald the arrival of the Iron Horde, they slashed one of the city's iconic Yellow Cabs in half with a giant version of Grommash Hellscream's battle axe, Gorehowl. The display caused quite a commotion, garnering coverage across the world.[1] It currently resides near an exit of the Blizzard Museum.[5]
Another version of this axe was located at NetEase's Blizzard offices in China which was subsequently torn down after the two companies couldn't come to an agreement on the renewal terms for their licensing agreement that brought Blizzard games to China.[6][7]
- Credits
- Gorehowl Axe fabricated by Atomic Props
- Environmental Base fabricated by Rebel Scenery
Tracer[]
This Tracer statue was created in 2015. A special multi-layered projection screen and animation were created to emulate a hologram effect for her chronal accelerator chest feature. She was built using urethane resin, fiberglass, steel, leather, PETG, spandex, shock cords, electrical wiring, LED lighting, dental acrylic, and magnets. She stands about 6'6”, and weighs just over 200 pounds.[1]
Grommash Hellscream[]
A statue of Grommash Hellscream was created in 2014 by the Alliance Studio. He is fully sculpted from clay onto a base, making him equivalent of two statues in size. He stands 8'6” high and weighs 450 pounds.[1]
Tyrael, Archangel of Justice[]
A statue of Tyrael was created in 2014 by the Alliance Studio. He stood 14 feet tall and weighed about 700 pounds, crafted from fiberglass, silicon, silk, urethane, aluminum, chainmail, heatshrink, lexan, wood, chromoly steel, carbon fiber, kevlar, glass, paint, electronics and lights.[1]
- Metal ornamentation on the base was made of aluminum plate and cut with water.
- Approximately 14,400 LEDs were used to light Tyrael's wings
- According to Steve Wang, Tyrael was by far the most complicated statue he's created for Blizzard—and it was completed in six weeks.
- The costume's embroidery was made of superfine high-grade gold silk.
- The lights in Tyrael's wings are computer controlled to simulate random bursts of energy.
Jim Raynor[]
The Jim Raynor statue was created in 2010 and stood 8'6” tall and weighs about 400 pounds.[1] He was built using fiberglass, silicon, rubber hosing, steel, human hair, acrylic, paint, wood, plastics, steel armature, and bondo, this statue included a few steps that were out of the ordinary:
- In order to sculpt Jim's face accurately, his head was projected onto the raw materials using in-game graphics.
- Jim's hair is human hair, with each piece hand-punched and placed individually. His beard was also hand-punched, then shaved down to stubble.
- The lights on his back thrusters were programmed to change color from blue to red, to simulate the thrusters getting hot.
This statue was created by Steve Wang.[1]
Kerrigan[]
The original fiberglass Kerrigan statue was created in 2008 by Steve Wang. She was crafted with silicon, aluminum, acrylic, paint, wood, plastics, latex, and bondo. She stood 14 feet tall and was even accompanied by realistic creep effects.[1] She was also shown at BlizzCon 2008.[8]
Illidan, The Betrayer[]
Illidan was created in 2006 by Steve Wang for E3 2006 and was crafted from fiberglass, silicon, aluminum, acrylic, paint, wood, plastics, latex, bondo. He is a bit shorter than Kerrigan, but stands at 14 feet tall[9] and weighs about 400 pounds. In order to simulate his fel effects, Illidan's body was painted with UV paint and illuminated by black light. His wings are made of layers of translucent material, making them appear more natural and lifelike.[1]
This statue was created for E3 2006[10] but was also seen at BlizzCon 2007.[9]
Nova[]
November "Nova" Terra was built in statue form in 2005 and her height was '9.5. She was built with fiberglass, silicon, aluminum, acrylic, paint, wood, plastics, latex, and bondo. She was put together by Steve Wang's team.[1]
Night Elf[]
A night elf statue from BlizzCon 2008.
Dwarf[]
The Dwarf was created in 2002, being Blizzard's first statue. Standing 9 feet tall, the dwarf was our first step into the world of statues. He is made of latex, foam, and wood, and has hand-punched hair for both his eyebrows and beard. His gun was custom-built by a toy manufacturer. This statue was created by Schell Sculpture Studio for E3 2002 and designed by Sam "Samwise" Didier.[1] He was also shown at BlizzCon 2008.[11]
Azeroth Choppers[]
- Main article: Azeroth Choppers
The legendary custom motorcycle designer Paul Jr. assembled two handpicked teams of bike experts to bring to life a pair of asphalt-kicking chopper designs inspired by World of Warcraft's two warring factions. The choppers were created in 2014.[1]
Warcraft movie[]
The following statues are characters from the Warcraft movie. Most were created by Dam Toys while the Durotan statue was created by Phicen.
Employees[]
Chris Metzen[]
Chris Metzen certainly left a mark on Blizzard and the Warcraft universe. With fans and Blizzard saddened due to his retirement in September 2016, Blizzard released a homage to him on the Blizzard Entertainment HQ Lobby with a very own statue featuring him holding hands with baby Winston from Overwatch.[12][13] The statue was heavily inspired by the iconic statue of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse's hand, called Partners.[13]
Videos[]
- Forging a Hero - Arthas Statue - Heroes of the Storm
- Colossal Collectibles - The Making of Overwatch's Oversized Action Figures
- From the Forge – Making Grommash Hellscream
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Nebu 2018-02-15. Statues of Blizzard. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2018-02-15.
- ^ A King is Born in Taiwan – Unveiling the Arthas Statue. Blizzard Entertainment (2016-07-25). Retrieved on 2018-03-07.
- ^ Infinity Studio Arthas Menethil Statue (2019-08-02). Retrieved on 2019-08-05.
- ^ BlizzCon 2018 Opening Ceremony - All the Announcements Including Warcraft III Remastered and Diablo. Wowhead (2018-11-02). Retrieved on 2018-11-10.
- ^ File:Blizzard Museum - Armory14.jpg
- ^ Rich Stanton 2023-01-20. NetEase smashes up World of Warcraft statue after its nasty breakup with Blizzard. PCGamer.
- ^ Archimtiros 2023-01-18. NetEase Response to Blizzard Entertainment - Local Orc Statue Torn Down. Wowhead.
- ^ The BlizzCon Book: A Celebration of Our Community, pg. 23
- ^ a b The BlizzCon Book: A Celebration of Our Community, pg. 14
- ^ File:Illidan statue5.jpg
- ^ The BlizzCon Book: A Celebration of Our Community, pg. 21
- ^ Peter Sung on Twitter (2017-03-12). “Saw the @ChrisMetzen statue in our office this morning. Check it out”
- ^ a b perculia 2017-03-12. Chris Metzen Statue Revealed at Blizzard HQ. Wowhead. Retrieved on 2018-03-15.
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