If you’ve heard of Bioshock 2, chances are you are familiar with the iconic Big Daddy doll made with a baseball for a head and thumbtacks for eyes. This doll was feature in the teaser trailer as well as in the game and ending, and eventually marketed as a collectible. If you played through the game and were observant however, you likely recall the other Big Daddy dolly, a fabric one found in random apartments as well as Grace’s place in the Sinclair Deluxe hotel, and in the infirmary and pediatric wards of Persephone. That doll didn’t receive much attention, which is odd because it was always my favourite. I decided to make an amigurumi reproduction of it as a Christmas gift for my mom, since she loves the game and the Big Daddies.

The doll is proportionately sized, and though I skipped the orange screwdriver in the eye (I didn’t want to hurt Mr. Bubbles, and wanted him to be cuddly!), the recreation is quite similar to the original, though obviously in crochet and not fabric. Because of it’s size and the number of pieces to put together it is a time consuming project but the techniques are basic so with a little patience, anyone can do it. I took photos of him with my daughter’s Adam Needle from her Little Sister costume for effect. Sadly she has outgrown the dress so a Little Sister photo shoot was not happening.

Click to get the Bioshock Big Daddy Bouncer Doll pattern

Because every Big Daddy needs a Little Sister to protect, and since it was requested and hinted many times by my awesome readers, I whipped up an amigurumi Little Sister for my Big Daddy. I took notes and will be publishing the pattern shortly but haven’t time to try to make sense of all the cryptic scrawlings together yet. It was just too exciting to hold off on posting the photos.

Her clothes and hair are in the style of the Bioshock 2 Little Sister, and though I think there is still some tweaking to do, I am pretty happy with it. The Adam needle is a separate piece with a yarn needle stuck in the end. I didn’t give her a face, because I thought about it and decided that anything embroidered or applied was likely to look cartoony and not as eerie and vacant as the Little Sisters are. Not having a face I think, speaks to the altered uniform states all of them are in, not really there at all. She’s not aged or bloodied, to match her Big Daddy, true to a yarn representation of something messy, bloody, dirty and worn, but made of yarn, so none of those things.

The pattern will be coming in a few days.

I’ve put together a couple of quick and dirty videos on how to do the slip stitch details addons for Mr. Bubbles’ dive suit cuffs, drill etc because I found it really difficult to explain and after a few emails I received, it became apparent it was really difficult to comprehend as well.

The Bouncer is the iconic image of Bioshock, the first one anyhow… with his glowing portholes, Little Sister in tow and posture no man could envy, a cuddly version was an absolute necessity. This has been my most ambitious and maddening pattern design so far because of all of the pieces and details involved. I started a long time ago and had originally hoped to have this out before the release of Bioshock 2, but had to redesign so many parts and I couldn’t crochet fast enough to get it together in time, so here he is a few days behind schedule in all of his Amigurumi glory… Mr. Bubbles is all yarn save for 8 buttons (no wire reinforcements and yes he can stand up on his own!) Pattern is after the photos for those ambitious enough to want to make your own Big Daddy! Click photos to see the larger version.

Get the Big Daddy Amigurumi Pattern »