One of our favourite aspects of hockey, aside from all the on-ice happenings, is cool collectibles and memorabilia. If it’s interesting, original, and hockey-related, we’re pretty much always on board, so when we saw these awesome figurines made by Dryden, Ontario’s Michael Nerino, we absolutely had to know more.
He was even kind enough to make us one of our own!
Have you ever seen Eric look cooler?! We most definitely have not.
While all we could do at first was drool over the insane detail on his pieces, and the obvious abundance of talent that must be required to make them, we couldn’t help but wonder how exactly an individual gets into the art of figurine-making. It sounds just about as intricate as it looks, so we had to get in touch with Michael himself to ask just how and why he got into the very niche craft.
Nerino is a teacher who studied Visual Arts at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and although he didn’t play a whole lot of hockey himself, his arts background mixed with his love of the game has always fuelled an interest in the design element of the game. The junior league up in Northwestern Ontario is the SIJHL, the Superior International Junior Hockey League, and Michael was heavily involved as one of the most dedicated volunteers for his hometown team, the Dryden Ice Dogs, until last season. The Ice Dogs are on another level of small-town junior hockey magic. The tiny town of 7,749 packs the Dryden Memorial Arena for every Ice Dogs home game, and everyone involved with the team takes it as seriously as any pro league.
Each piece of the Ice Dogs staff and volunteer puzzle brings a unique aspect to the table that helps elevate the program to the next level, and Michael is a big part of it.
An expert with painting custom table-hockey games, Nerino took care of everything design-related for the Ice Dogs. Though it’s definitely not standard for Junior A players to have their own figurines, he started to experiment with the art of making them about 15 years ago when he wanted to change a figurine that one of his friends already had into his favourite player.
From there, Michael’s work has taken off. He made the figurines specifically for Ice Dogs players and alumni at first, and while some were just for players to keep and remember their time in Dryden, many of them were also auctioned off for charity. Based upon the wide variety of places that former team members call home, Nerino’s figurines now reside all over the hockey world. He’s also made them for hockey heroes from the region like Dryden-native Chris Pronger and Matt Murray, and local kids whose parents wanted a memento of their playing days and provided him with a figurine to work with.
The only person Nerino doesn’t make them for? Himself. He’s also never charged a single person for his work.
Nerino has made nearly 300 figurines, and he’s never kept a single one, but that’s just how he likes it.
The process of transforming one figurine into another doesn’t seem to follow the same exact process every time depending on the aesthetic goals in mind. Usually, they involve a process of clay modeling to add or change features, sometimes 3D printing, painting on details with tiny brushes, and a whole lot of Frankenstein-esque piecing together of different figurines.
Nerino, his figurines, and the city of Dryden represent hockey at its best and purest form: when it can provide a sense of community, pride, and togetherness all based around a common love of the game.
