The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone is a podcast hosted by McElroy brothers Griffin, Justin, and Travis (better known for their podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me, colloquially known as MBMBAM) that began in the mid 20-teens. Along with their dad, Clint, TAZ is an actual play podcast where the four play tabletop RPGs, with the inaugural season, known as “Balance”, featuring a variation of Dungeons & Dragons.

At the time, I was an avid follower of the podcast, and used soft toy design and sculpture techniques to recreate the main characters.

Initial disclaimer: these designs were created prior to the release of the graphic novel series and therefore don’t follow the current canon.
Secondary disclaimer: “Tres Horny Boys” is a group moniker from the podcast

Sketches & Development Notes

Initial basic character sketches and notes
First thing is always to get an idea of the scale between the characters
Taako overview with some Angus ideas
Initial Angus design and wardrobe ideas included
Magnus and Merle overviews and notes
Disembodied doll arms and hands
Choosing colors for a bald Merle
One of Angus' socks in the process of being knit
Taako's brown lace-up boots
Merle was the only one lucky enough to get toes
Magnus' black boots on his feet as they're being glued
One of Merle's completed sandals
Magnus' disembodied doll arms giving a thumbs up
Sewn iterations of body parts and limbs as well as scraps of paper

Magnus Burnsides (Travis McElroy)

The tallest and widest of the three, Magnus has a feather-like leather chestpiece and removable cargo pants with functional pockets.

Magnus Burnsides' face up close
Magnus' wide blocky torso and grey leather feather chestpiece
The back of Magnus' grey leather feather chestpiece
The functional pocket in Magnus' cargo pants, holding a D20

Merle Highchurch (Clint McElroy)

As the shortest, Merle lacks both knees as well as a non-tree right arm (spoilers, sorry!).

Merle Highchurch's beard with flowers woven in
Merle's outfit, from the surfboard shirt to the open-toe sandals
Merle's surfboard shirt comes off to reveal his wooden arm

Taako (Justin McElroy)

The design of Taako’s umbrella – the “umbrastaff” – was largely based off of the functional life-size version made by Sam Calow.

Taako laying and posing as if he's in a magazine
Taako's outfit has no real color scheme, with a pink shirt, purple vest, gold tied belt, green-blue star pants and lime green socks
Close up of Taako's face and hair braids
Taako's umbrella staff, which is patterned like a galaxy with a silver trim and handle.

Angus McDonald (Griffin McElroy)

Angus’ structure and design was a departure from the other three, as he was largely based off of dolls done in the Waldorf style. His internal structure consisted of a needle-felted torso and head, the latter of which was later also needle-sculpted.

His vest and socks were hand-knit, and some handspun yarn was mixed in to his hair wefts.

Angus McDonald, wearing his schoolboy outfit and socks but no shoes
Angus' hair takes up most of the space, but his little green bowtie is still visible
Listening to podcast episodes over a time period - a character's body is dramatically changing, which equally dramatically changes my in-progress design

The only downside to using an ongoing podcast as a reference – dynamic character development!