Soup Dumpling
It has six legs and two pedipalps, each ending with a chopstick. It moves hydraulically, i.e. by pushing and pulling its soup filling through its appendages. Although it looks bulky, it is almost as agile as Homeless Rice Ninja, and packs a far greater punch. One of its strongest moves, “Maximum Souper”, is to repeatedly catapult itself while thrusting its chopsticks. Being punctured would sharply decrease its speed and pressure, but would also enable its soup to be a defense mechanism, since the soup bursts out and scalds the opponent. It is the antithesis of Halo-Halo; while Halo-Halo is sweet, cold, low mobility, and immune to cutting, Soup Dumpling is savory, hot, high mobility, and vulnerable to cutting.
About The Design
This went through many iterations of trying different dumpling styles. The cephalothorax was going to be plugged with shrimp, but I decided against that since using that style of dumpling for the purpose of a soup dumpling is particular to Din Tai Fung; I ultimately opted for a more recognizably soup dumpling closing, but I kept the hourglass shape because it’s cool. I wasn’t able to fit eight legs, but maybe I can make that work next time. The pedipalps turned out too large for the chelicerae and one of the legs to be visible in this view. The pedipalps have stripes to help them stand out from the legs.
R&D
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I built a basic hydraulic joint out of a foam board, syringes, and a chopstick.
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I made a crescent-shaped dumpling model out of Sculpey.
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I photographed and ate dumplings at Din Tai Fung.
Shout-Outs
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I read that spiders move using hydraulics and then decided to make this.
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This is visually a sequel to Graham Cracker, Project Empanada (not on my Krita-Artists portfolio since it was made all in CSP), and my non-HRN drawing of a cobalt blue tarantula.
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Hot soup bodily fluid: Acid blood from Alien/Xenomorph and Scald from Pokémon
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Ridged dumplings: Ridged head from Aliens (second movie) Alien design
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Pedipalp stripes: Juri Han’s hair bands (which are a reference to Jolyne Cujoh’s hair bands)
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Maximum Souper: It’s just Maximum Spider, the fighting game ninja super move that Spider-Man, Wesker, Strider, Cammy, and Greninja all have.
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My studying spiders and dumplings: The JoJo scene where Rohan identifies, punctures, and tastes a Spider as research for his manga.