North of the Border is a YouTube channel that creates the most astonishing, often horrendous clay models, depicting scenes or characters from some of your favourite video games. Whether it’s Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, or Pokémon, the site’s creator, Adam, aims to produce outstandingly realistic models. Sometimes, though, they’re just breathtakingly impressive, although now and again to a degree that they’re officially declared “Cursed.”
North of the Border’s Adam is a deeply talented artist, who isn’t afraid to use his abilities for evil. That’s how you end up with a Pikachu you wouldn’t want to show your children, or a Red M&M that’ll make you yearn for the Maya Rudolph ads.
It’s also very worth noting that these videos are superbly edited and narrated too. Adam is a witty, entertaining narrator of his own creations, making them fun and funny to watch, along with all sorts of little flashed-up gags on the screen. At the same time, the videos are put together in such a way that you’re not sat there staring as a guy smooths a piece of clay over a wireframe for thirty minutes, but also don’t feel disconnected from the process. There are no unreasonable sudden leaps, leaving you suspicious that he nipped off to a 3D printer midway through.
We’ve gone through his back catalogue and picked out our gaming favourites to share with you. If you like them as much as we do, he has a Patreon that’s worth a support. And if you’re wondering who officially declares things cursed, that’s the American Regulation Regarding Grading Horror.
Tears of the Kingdom Box Art
When all we knew of Tears of the Kingdom was a title and the box art, Adam wasted no time embracing the forthcoming Zelda sequel. Just that one rendered piece of concept art was enough to see a full sculpture of the scene.
It’s a great example of North of the Border videos, with extended jokes about the creator’s oversized head and sarcastic asides accompanying the witchcraft-adjacent ability on display as better-than-shop-bought Link comes together in just five viewing minutes. Then he gets into the far larger task of building the rest of the diorama, in ways that’ll blow your mind.
Shiny Gyarados
My ordering method here is I picked my two favourites and put them first, in an effort to hopefully convince you to subscribe to this dude’s channel and love it as much as I do. Realistic shiny Gyarados is one of the best, not just because of the incredible final effect (albeit with its photoshopped image!), but because of the brilliant narration that accompanies the 13-minute edit of a week’s work.
Choo Choo Charles
This was a pretty irresistible game for the channel. While perhaps more successful meme than successful horror game, Choo Choo Charles is perfect for a North of the Border treatment, given it begins in nightmare form.
I love that Adam didn’t want to make a cursed Thomas the Tank Engine, but figured Choo Choo Charles was the compromise necessary to meet all those viewer requests. And the result is, expectedly, awful and brilliant.
Thicc Thor from God of War Ragnarok
God of War Ragnarok’s inclusion of a Thor who’s really let himself go was, I’m sure, decided long before the MCU went and did exactly the same thing. However, GoW Fragglerock took it way further, with a much prouder belly to show.
North of the Border uses this extra bulk as a brilliant way to hide some wiring, allowing a final result with proper-glowy lightning bolts cracking between his fingers, which is just the greatest.
Realistic Kirby
You’ve already seen the video still above, so there are no surprises here about just how awful a person North of the Border’s Adam truly is. When I think of a “realistic Kirby,” my mind turns to something fluffy, adorable, and huggable. This is not that.
This is the thing I can’t quite remember when I wake up in a sweat, left with a feeling of inexplicable dread, and the uncatchable memory of monstrous horror. Thanks, Adam. Thadam.
Realistic Wario & Waluigi
Keeping us all on our toes, the far more obvious choices for realistic-means-nightmares characters would be Wario and Waluigi. But no, instead we get something much closer to how the nefarious pair would look were they to appear in real life.
Oh my goodness, they’d better show up in the forthcoming Mario movie, just so when they inevitably become the stand-out fan-favourites, they get their own spin-off sequel, and North of the Border can work as part of the design team for the project.
The Witcher
Here’s what I like best about this one: it’s not Geralt. He’s not the only Witcher! Instead the build went for Vesemir, from Netflix’s Nightmare of the Wolf.
Check out the layering of clay that goes into getting the characters to be so perfectly human-shaped, the way muscles are put onto the covered wireframe, before even thinking about adding in clothing and detail.
Minecraft’s Wither
This is a stunning creation, made even more impressive by the wiring running through the deceptively thin build. But for me, the best part of this one is that base.
Look at it! It’s al of the horror! He calls them “Not good but good enough,” which is silly. Someone mod this in as a texture into Minecraft immediately.
Elden Ring’s Iron Fist Alexander
A lesser person would have gone for any number of Elden Ring’s bosses, but not Adam. He went for “Alexander the Pot Boy.”
The magic here is the detail on the arms. It’s mindblowing.
And hey, he made a pot out of clay.
Horizon Zero Dawn
The channel has been running for about three years, and in its earlier days clearly attempted to milk the YouTube algorithm by suggesting that these were “how to” videos.
Ha aha ha aaha haa-haa ha ha.
Watching someone else be impossibly good at something is one of my favourite reasons YouTube exists, but that doesn’t make it a “how-to”! I’d like to coin the term, “How-can’t.”
As if to further rub salt in the wound, this Horizon Zero Dawn sculpture is minuscule, ensuring that no mortal human could ever achieve the same.
Mario & Peach Vs. Last Of Us Zombie Luigi
This is too clever. It’s what would happen if the Mushroom Kingdom met the same fate as Earth in The Last of Us. You know, fungal.
You’ve got Mario and Peach crouched behind a crumbling brick wall, while on the other side stands just the most perfectly designed zombie Luigi. Perfect because, look, he’s still Luigi! He’s got that gormless expression on his face, he looks positively enthused about infecting his former brother and friend with mushroom horror.
If this article achieves anything, let it be a public request for the Toad-based follow-up to this theme.
As I said, you can support this creative brilliance via Patreon, and follow the channel right here.
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