GRcade Christmas SigSwap 2013 - The Grand Unveiling

Hello, and welcome to GRcade Christmas SigSwap 2013: The Grand Unveiling

This is it. The toil, the days of in-depth research, the burning of the midnight oil... it all comes down to this. 22 forumites, no..... 22 people, exchanging tokens of peace and love. Is there any purer symbolism of hope for humanity than the exchanging of signatures on a video games and stuff internet forum? Who knows how many infamous conflicts could have been prevented if the likes of Ghengis Khan, Napoleon and Kaz Hirai had all sat down in front of MS Paint and knocked a quick one out for their randomly selected SigSwap partner.

For the stattos among you, this is a record breaking SigSwap. Never in the storied history of this event have so many sigs been made in so short a time. You only had 3 and a half days compared to the normal 6 or 7, but you all showed great hustle to meet the deadline. So thanks.





SKIP TO THE END > Ok, it is time to witness GRcade's creativity at its very best.






I recommend you scroll slowly down through each partnership to take each one in and give each pairing the attention it deserves.

Scroll down my friends, for awaiting you are untold treasures....














































































































































































































1. Falsey and Clarkman

Clarkman's gift for Falsey:

Sparkleman wrote:"Falsey has been one of my favourite forumites this year. I imagine him like a hardcore version of a character from the Beano. I am yet to meet the great man in person, but I visualise him to be something like this central figure. I have bordered this figure with a pair of Emmas - his ultimate Christmas wish. Merry Falsemas to one and all! May your STDs be secret and few."

Falsey's gift for Clarkman:

Merry Falsemas wrote:"His christmas name reminded me of Mr Sparkle from the simpsons, so I ran with that."

2. Staydead and Raxicori

Staydead's gift for Raxicori:

Yukiho wrote:"As we rarely meet in threads I found it quite difficult to make your sig without researching you but hopefully this sig is christmassy enough while still containing the things you like. Also unlike everyone else I wanted to try and spell your name right, so hopefully it's ok!

Have a nice christmas and a happy new year man."

Raxicori's gift for Staydead:

Raxing around the Xmas Tree wrote:"When I started thinking about this I realised all I really knew about StayDead is he loves Japan, Anime and Starcraft. So I looked to create a simple clean design using these 3 elements. I went with a thinner more streamlined sig for a nice understated feel."

3. Dan. and Ad7

Dan.'s gift for Ad7:

Danta wrote:"This Christmas-themed signature was inspired by about seven minutes of browsing Ad7's recent posts. Ad7 recently put up a Christmas tree, which he was quite pleased with, so I have humorously implied that he offers a Christmas tree erection service as he is so good at putting up Christmas trees. I doubt that anyone else's Christmas-themed signature will have the words 'erection service' in their explanation message either, so that's another little nugget for you to enjoy. Carlton from the Fresh Prince makes an appearance because one of Ad7's work colleagues recently performed the "Carlton Dance" in a humorous manner in public (at least, that is my understanding of the situation). Also featured is an anti-Starbucks protester, although I was struck by internal conflict when deciding whether or not to include said protester, as although I believe Ad7 works at Starbucks and doesn't particularly enjoy it, I am sure he probably enjoys getting paid by Starbucks, and this would not be possible if this protesting young man had his way. The holly is included as a little festive treat for everyone else. Merry Christmas"

Ad7's gift for Dan.:

Advent7 wrote:"Here's Dan's sig

From his post history I can see he likes english soccerballs, so I've used my extensive knowledge of the game to invoke the spirit of his favourite team (the red ones I think).
I can also see he appreciates Grcade's affiliation with bumming, so in lieu of a bumming logo i've added a nice hashtag so he can keep bumming well in to the new year. Merry bloody christmas Danta!"

4. Mommy and Lagamorph

Mommy's gift for Lagamorph:

Mommy Xmas wrote:"It's Lagamorph, innit? I was going to turn it into a rant about him never hanging that picture that I sent him last christmas but I didn't. In the previous year he has hung over 600 shite pictures on my monitor. Outrageous. Anyway, I had no time and even less imagination.

That's all I could come up with."

Lagamorph's gift for Mommy:

Sleighamorph wrote:"I saw posts in UFC and Cricket threads so went with those as a 'theme', and there's a nice little link back to last years Secret Santa, so the old man is technically christmasy"

5. MCN and Seven

MCN's gift for Seven:

Somebody Else's Presents wrote:"While this isn't particularly christmassy, I do believe it reflects Seven well. It has a 7 in it, and his Christmas name. And he loves video games, so I assume he loves Mario Kart."

Seven's gift for MCN:

Donner wrote:"I just wanted to have fun with using his christmas name."

6. Kezzer and Alvin Flummux

Kezzer's gift for Alvin:

Jesus of Keizereth wrote:"My Signature for the one! the only! his mother loves him only!

ALVIN FLUMMUX!

This year was a learning experience having moved up from jay's paint masterpiece last year to photoshop this year!!

Not only was there a learning curve but also inspiration was hard to find (especially through over 23000 posts!) but some detective work and questioning of individuals helped tie down the main themes.

During the post history trawl it became clear that the vast majority of posts were to the Infamous 'pictures and Gif's' thread so in some way I wanted to epitomise the entire thread in just one picture. It was suggested that I could have Imgur.com on a blank background an leave it at that but that would be no fun. So, lets describe what's happening!

Starting from the left we have some super anime girl that I was told in good faith by the in house expert was the mainstay of anime and that most watchers would know. After looking at Alvin's profile it was a safe bet that he liked them anime's (because it said so under his interests). Moving to the right we have the Doge™ which sums up the Pics&Gifs thread nicely, and following Doge™ is a larger woman... which several sources confirmed would be appropriate for Alvin. ( ¿ I don't even know? ) after said woman we have the rare image of a crying eagle because Mr Flummux is with the Americans now, and right in the centre is the Sonic screwdriver tattooing Alvins name into a big bum (see above) because after looking through posts and after some interrogating information was passed to us that he like the doctor and other things...

And there we have it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
love kezzer xxx

NB. after doing all that work I realised there was hardly any Christmas stuff in there apart from Doge™ so now we have Santa and a wee present "

Alvin's gift for Kezzer:

Alvin Flummux wrote:"I PRESENT UNTO THEE MY SUBMISSION FOR KEZZER JE(SUS).

Upon being assigned Kezzer as my new life partner, I decided that I would do a bit of research into his likes and dislikes, wants and do not wants, interests and do not interests. Going back through his list of things he has said recently (kept in a locked safe in [s]his[/s] my room), I took note of his recent interest in the "Battlefield 4" video-based board game (I understand it is similar to the board-based board game "Risk"), as well as his love of cars and automobiles, famously camp man Cliff Richard, and his normal year-round name (Sir Kez of Zer). I took this information, plopped it into my hands as because let's talk why not, and then out it comes, Chewbacca riding gloriously in the front seat, Cliff in the back, blustery fecal gales of war abound. Then, with a parting massage from Cliff, it was ready.

I hope you put as much effort into loving this as some guy, me I guess, did into making this vision you clearly once articulated a real vision of that vision. Kezzer. I hope you do.

MERRY CHRISTMAS KEZZER AND ALL OF THE REST OF THIS PLACE AND ITS PEOPLE!!"

7. Aayl1 and Cuttooth

Aayl1's gift for Cuttooth:

Aayule1 wrote:"When I was first asked to make a festive signature for cuttooth I thought to myself two questions. The first was "What do I actually know about cuttooth?" and the second was "What does anyone actually know about cuttooth?".

I quickly realised there was only one thing I was absolutely sure about when it came to cuttooth. And that was there was a chance he was a big black guy who celebrates Kwanzaa instead of Christmas, and I feel this sig reflects that."

Cuttooth's gift for Aayl1:

Cuttooth wrote:"When I think of Aaron I naturally think first of him living in Japan, so that explains the bauble on the plain white background. I also know he's taken up running, losing a fair amount of weight in the process, so I feel a measure of congratulations is due in this sig. Finally I noticed a post Aaron made a while back saying he enjoyed the Shibe meme, giving me my final piece of the puzzle.

Just in case he's completely sick of the meme by now I've made a far plainer version that simply says 'Merry Christmas' (according to Google Translate)"

8. Skarjo and Jay Mysterio

Skarjo's gift for Jay Mysterio:

Starjo wrote:"Jay is one of those forumites that has been around forever but I never seen to cross paths with. So, I had to dig around for something to base it on. His avatar was my first stop so I wanted to get a bit of Phoenix Wright in there. Then I also saw that he'd been pretty active in the various Dr Who topics, so I thought I'd combine them and have the TARDIS landing in a traditional Christmas scene and Wright being not very happy about that at all.

However, I then had to create this using my shitty paint skills, and ended up saying bollocks to it and making the damn thing in Powerpoint."

Jay Mysterio's gift for Skarjo:

Star-jo Sig

Bonus Avatar

Jay Christmysterio wrote:"Let me list the things I know about Skarjo, or should I say... Starjo? Geddit?!

Oh, I actually should be calling him that? I see. Well, anyway, here is my list:

1. His name comes from the lovely actress Scarlett Johansson
2. His avatar is the Pokémon know as Flareon
3. He currently lives in Japan

I entered the keywords Scarlett+Johansson+Flaeron+Japan+Christmas into a super computer (Atari Jaguar), instructed it to make a sig and avatar for him and it output the pictures above.

As you can see, it is Scarlett Johnasson dressed in Flareon cosplay offering Starjo a delicious Christmas Bento in Japan."

9. Rog and Poser

Rog's gift for Poser:

EggRog wrote:"I decided to be nice this year and just do a normal boring sig. I did google "christmas Poser" and there is some weird gooseberry fool in the images. Turns out poser is a CG model program and people use it to make pictures of women with giant boobs smothering burrower-sized men. I did manage to grab a couple of safer pictures of poser women to use. Merry Christmas Poser!"

Poser's gift for Rog:

Seven Posers Posing wrote:"Basically, I stalked the gooseberry fool out of Rog. I then did a bit of research on Cleethorpes, and found it's well known for its donkeys on the beach. Donkeys are the unsung heroes of Christmas (apart from the song Little Donkey, where they were quite literally the sung heroes of Christmas).

So I got to thinking what would happen if the nativity happened in Cleethorpes. Aside from struggling to find three wise men and a virgin, the rest just followed on. Oh, and in the bottom left, Rog's real name is the same as a character from Hollyoaks, played by Alex Carter, so he made an appearance too.

I can only apologise for my lack of skills. I hope Rog enjoys this.

Thanks,
Steve"

10. Xmanny and Hyperion

1cmanny1's gift for Hyperion:

Xmanny wrote:"I decided to try and figure out what Hyperion meant. After spending a few minutes searching, I discovered I had no idea. So I decided to go with three things, a guy off a book, a god, and a ship. I used my horrendous paint skills to put them together, so hopefully you named yourself after one of those things. I expect you to wear this for a long time.

Sincerely

1cmanny1"

Hyperion's gift for 1cmanny1:

Hyperion wrote:"As he's the boards resident Australian - I thought that Manny would appreciate having a logo with some of his national hero's in. I hope it really brings good feelings of home this festive period.
Happy Christmas Manny!"

11. JChalmers and Bunni

JChalmers gift for Bunni:

JChristmas wrote:"So yeah, Bunni, Scotland, NHS and Anung (poor you ) Thought I'd create a sig that emcompassed all three and merged it with a big Christmas vibe.

If it's really not for you I'll redo it but to be honest the other one was going to promote Scotland's independance and that could've gone completely wrong!"

Bunni's gift for JChalmers:

SUBSTITUTE SIG BY MCN

Somebody Else's Presents wrote:"I made this in a hurry, that's why it's a bit gooseberry fool. I went with the SNES because of the whole Super Nintendo Chalmers thing, and the dialect in the text reflects his Geordieness."

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And there we have it for another year.

What an eclectic selection! Some great sigs with lots of thought gone into them.

Thanks again to all who took part, and now all that remains is for you to put on your brand spanking new sigs.

For those that did not take part, feel free to comment on this year's selection of sigs, and which one is your favourite.

Merry GRcade Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Thanks, Seven! Had a proper chuckle at it

Thanks Clarkman, I really like it. Though I feel that yours is much better than my effort, so sorry about that.

Excellent stuff everyone.

I like how Rog, who's house is most likely underwater right now managed to make a sig before Bunni. For shame Bunni, for shame.

Thanks for the sig Raxi I love it! Although I wish I could see more of the background. :p

Apologies for mine

Merry Falsemas wrote:Thanks Clarkman, I really like it. Though I feel that yours is much better than my effort, so sorry about that.

You're welcome, bro. I like my sig a lot too.

Thanks for mine Skarjo, looks like it is over the size limit though as I'm getting this error when trying to set it:

Your images may only be up to 550 pixels wide.

I'll tweak it once I'm on the PC and wear it with pride

Here you go.

Lovely, cheers Mocky!

Oh my God, mine's amazing! Cheers Jay!

(I'm so sorry).

Thank you new life partner!

our bond shall never be broken

Cheers Laga!


It's a work of art. Apologies for my cobble.

Thanks MCN Had to re-size it a bit though, but it's great

Oh ffs...

Jesus of Kiezereth wrote:Thank you new life partner!

our bond shall never be broken

Indeed, and thank you in return. Now I finally have a signature that arouses me.

Fantastic work everyone else, too; we're a great bunch.

Once again I emerge better off than my partner.

cheers, cutty. Sorry for your monstrosity.

I wasn't expecting that.

Cheers Aaron.

The real winner this year is doge.