Zelda and I to the Hyrule's Arsenal.

The Hyrule's Arsenal is a name given to the unique craftsmanship of the arsenal of weapons in the game “The Legend of Zelda“.

I'm the one who does this work, Junior Fernandes, a 35-year-old guy, a fan of the franchise and who one day decided to make a Link shield and hasn't stopped since.

Me and Zelda

I discovered The Legend of Zelda when I went to the game store to rent a game for the weekend and I decided to take that "The legend Of Zelda - Ocarina Of Time" for the Nintendo 64.

I don't really remember my age at the time but I believe I was around 12 years old.

I fell in love with the game and immediately went looking for the magazine "Detonado" to discover the puzzles and clear them. Some time later, I started playing Majoras Mask and it was an unforgettable journey.These games were engraved in my mind and heart.Link became my favorite character in "Super Smash Bros" N64.

After that, I played Twilight princess on the game cube, skyward sword on the wii, wind waker, Zelda breath Of The Wild on the WiiU that I got from my friend (I still can't believe it, this gift, it was certainly a proof of friendship!) and still Today, I couldn't buy a Nintendo Switch to play Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

In the gaming world, I had more contact with Nintendo games and my friends played everything, no one expressed as much love for Zelda as I did.

When I created the Facebook page...

It was wonderful to meet people who love Zelda as much as I do. Until then I thought it was just me but I saw that people shared the same nostalgic feeling as me.

I remember rainy afternoons after school, playing that open-world RPG game, with that medieval landscape, it was so cool to be able to ride a horse, enter castles, interact with creatures, follow that little story... After meeting these people, little by little I was gaining space on the Internet and on the social network Facebook with my shields. Until I risked making the master sword and the sheath;

I am very grateful to everyone who has been with me to this day.

The Begin

"I don't have a degree in higher education but life offered me a college and I finally understood it".

I worked at a visual communication company and was a digital printer, then an ESKO Router cutting operator, a final artist and a laser cutting operator.

I learned how to work with some materials and design the cutting files, then I put my imagination into practice to observe the designs of Zelda's weapons parts and draw, cut the parts and assemble my first Hylian Shield.

One day I decided to put the shield that was once for personal use up for sale on the open market because I wanted to test if other people were interested and I wanted to make some extra money. To my surprise, even though at that time the shield had no technique whatsoever, I received interest and made my first sale.

From then on I made another one for myself, in order to test new ways of doing it, and another, and another...

The first shield I made was made of galvanized steel but there wasn't even a handle to hold it, I didn't know how to do it.

​The first name of the page was "Zelda Sword and Shield", then "ZarsenalShield" and now "ArsenaldeHyrule".

I started without references in mid-2016, without technique and without resources, just with an instinct that an artist has of wanting to give life to something that is in their mind.

So I made my first Master Sword

Made in 9mm MDF and sculpted in expanded PVC. I made that round part between the handle and the wings of the guard and also the pommel in biscuit dough, I used a thinner PVC pipe for the handle and green satin ribbon.

But people liked it and were interested!

I can say that these people led me to discover what I wanted to do with my life. Again I say, I am very grateful to them.

I then researched more about Zelda's ARSENAL and took the risk of making several models.

Look at this version of the shield from ''Link's Awakening'', for example.

To this day I don't have a workshop or studio, but that has never stopped me from continuing.

My motto is "Start where you are, use what you have and do the best you can"So I left my registered job in 2019 and even at home, I started making clothes and started offering my work to fans on the internet. Another stage of learning began in various ways at the same time as I learned to be a Father.

In 2021 I started a partnership with a friend who I have never met in person, his name is Rodrigo and during the pandemic I got in touch with him in order to form a partnership to put my items for sale on Etsy (a crafts platform with international window). He accepted and it worked out really well! Check it out Etsy.com/shop/Lojaforadacaixa?section_id=37636384

That's when I noticed that the work I made with my hands was being valued by people all over the world, including in Japan!

I can say that I'm a dreamer and I have the profile of an aggressive entrepreneur, that's why I go for it, sometimes without even knowing where I'll end up, just with the faith in my head that ''Everything will be fine" ;, trust!

I see myself as the Link on the Breath of the Wild poster in this image:

I can say that God honored my faith and I believed so much that when the requests started arriving, I couldn't control the avalanche.

The price of believing

After receiving many requests inside and outside the country, I became overwhelmed, I worked a lot, day and night and still had a routine with a child and the news of another... in short, many challenges and problems arose for my learning , which I needed to push myself mentally and physically to find solutions.

I found myself a prisoner of the work I love and went through a serious episode of burnout, mental exhaustion.

Items broken in transit, refunds, delays in orders, faulty parts...

I collapsed, no joke.

My skin had allergies and blemishes that I still carry today, my blood pressure went through the roof and I cried without even understanding why. It was heavy.

Today I'm here, after a while working in another environment, a lot of things happened, I moved house twice in 2023, the same year I had another baby. I'm still recovering from a financial collapse, recovering my mental health and the routine is still crazy but the garments are moving forward.

In short, that's it!

NOW...

To live a new stage;

I created crowdfunding on APOIA-SE and KO-FI to keep me at work, to get tools and rent a place to set up my workshop studio.

I'm limiting my crafting to subscribers and plan to make lots of "DiY" on YouTube and launch my digital magazine.

However, I have been playing Zelda infrequently and I still haven't managed to buy my Nintendo Switch to play the long-awaited "Tears of the Kingdom". 

Alright, I hope I can get the console and the game soon.

My immense gratitude to the countless people who believe in and praise my work, I certainly got this far thanks to Zelda, my Faith and the strength that God sent me through you.

Thank you!