This Elden Ring fan made a 20-foot Hidetaka Miyazaki for the ultimate boss fight, and that's just the start

Tobyn Jacobs, a papercraft master who I can only describe as drunk with power, has turned Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki into a real-life boss fight by way of an imposing 20-foot cutout. 

Jacobs, or MeanForce1 on Reddit, shared his creation with the Elden Ring subreddit earlier this week, complete with an authentic FromSoftware HUD to really sell the experience. Other Tarnished were quick to speculate on what kind of attack patterns Big Miyazaki would use and how you could counter them. 

i_made_a_20ft_tall_cutout_of_miyazaki_video_of from r/Eldenring

"He gets more transparent as the fight goes on," suggests PJ_Ammas, referencing one of the best memes from the lead-up to Elden Ring's launch. 

"Just throw a pickled foul foot and he’ll start sprinting for it, opening him for DPS," BananaMan0803 proposes. 

"The arena is a swamp," mlodydziad420 says, stating the plainly obvious. 

Big Miyazaki was well received, and would be an excellent candidate for Elden Ring DLC. He also raises a question you may be asking yourself now: why and how would you make this? It turns out Jacobs has fielded this question before, going so far as to release a short video explaining his passion for enormous, sometimes mass-produced cutouts of people and characters – or as he put it, "why I do things that make people think I'm insane."

"I do not think this is what a normal, sane person's house looks like," Jacobs says in the video, describing a room plastered floor to ceiling – and indeed on the floor and on the ceiling – with illustrations of Sayaka Maizono from Danganronpa (hence his nickname, The Sayaka Guy). "But it's just my philosophy on being yourself. I post the things that I do because I simply want to, and I'm not really afraid to showcase a side of myself which could be seen as embarrassing. Not posting these things would mean people not knowing who I truly am, and doing that is exhausting, being something that you're not." 

I've seen Jacobs' handiwork around various fandoms before, and after witnessing the majesty of Big Miyazaki, I simply had to flag him down for an interview. 

Responses edited for clarity and length.

12DOVE: I'm glad I watched your video explaining why you make this stuff, because that was definitely my first question. One thing I still want to know is how you choose what people or characters to make cutouts for. How did we get from 21 Amelia Watsons to a 20-foot Miyazaki?

Tobyn Jacobs: Generally when it comes to things I make, I really just make whatever I feel like, as with the type of stuff I do it can be very boring since the process is relatively the same thing of cutting hundreds of images then taping it all together. So if I have just a moment of inspiration to make a giant anime girl cutout, or a person I really like, then I will just do it. It's really hard to force yourself to make something you’re not passionate about for the type of things I make.

I'm also curious how long these things take to make, and how much money. That's got to be a lot of papercraft supplies. 

I have gotten pretty fast from where I first started. The first giant anime cutout I did, that was 41 feet tall, took me I think a few months to build, and now I could make something its size within about a day or so. So generally it depends on size, but something the size of the Miyazaki takes between six and 12 hours. The normal-sized cutouts take about 20 minutes each to make. 

As far as money, it’s definitely a lot. The printers have been the most expensive; I think I have around $30,000 worth of printing equipment. And generally, I am spending thousands each month with art supplies – ink and paper, or whatever else. 

Is this a profitable hobby for you or just for fun? Do you sell many paper creations?

I don’t sell many paper creations yet, but in the future I want to sell more of it. Currently there are a few anime convention vendors that want to buy my stuff, so once I get the selling part down I’ll probably go more into that direction. However, currently I’m not really selling to the public as I’m a bit focused on just making content on social media. But it is definitely not just for fun.

i_made_a_40ft_tall_cutout_of_mumei from r/Hololive

I can definitely picture these at conventions. So what kind of workshop footprint do you have? Where do you make and store these giant things, and how do you transport them? I realize they come together in pieces, but that's still a lot.

All of the things that I make, I make in my house, just on the floor or the garage. And I store all of the stuff I make throughout my house. I’ve never done a house tour, but all my stuff I make is all over my walls and what not, and yeah, since they are so big what I’ll usually do is cut them up, then display like 10 to 50% of a project on my wall. If they didn’t come apart then I’d be a bit stuck! But in terms of transportation, there are many methods that I use. If it’s just around the house, I’ll roll it up like a newspaper and drag it on a wooden platform with a wheel. And if I have to go somewhere far, I usually just choose cutting it up then storing it in the back of my car.

i_made_a_life_size_paper_figurine_of_noelle_from from r/Genshin_Impact

You lucked out with the high ceiling seen in so many of your videos. Even it can barely contain some of these things from what I've seen.

Yeah, that’s been really helpful. I usually like to keep it indoors because once you go outside there’s another issue with wind and whatnot. My love for this stuff cannot be contained in 20 feet. 

I saw you're aiming for a 100-footer this year. Do you have a person or character in mind for that goal? May I humbly suggest Bigger Miyazaki? 

Yeah, I do have a few. It most likely will be a vtuber or someone in K-pop. I don’t have anyone in mind specifically. And yeah, that Miyazaki would truly be like the size of Elden Ring bosses like the Fire Giant. That would be quite menacing.

his_body_is_ready from r/SmashBrosUltimate

To close, do you have a favorite cutout so far? And for the Miyazaki fans, do you have any more Elden Ring projects in mind?

I think probably my favorite cutout I’ve done would be the 40-foot tall [vtuber Mumei from Hololive]. My two original monstrosity creations I also really like; I usually say they are my favorite but it’s hard to choose.

And for Elden Ring projects, I may do more in the future. A 1:1 Elden Beast I think would be really cool but I will have to see. 

These are the monstrosities I was referring to, as people have asked about my favorite and surprisingly it’s this. Alongside Mumei. 

the_protectors_of_the_white_castle from r/Bossfight

Jesus Christ.  

How does Hololive keep invading game news? I don't know, but the Deep Rock Galactic community's response to Shishiro Botan was so wholesome it hurts.