Palette References and Gear

[Shuriblur]

Hello fellow squids and octos!

Perhaps you are wondering where the developers got inspiration for the palettes that were shown off for the Inklings! Well look no further, as I try to breakdown the different sources of inspiration as well as the gear sets for these fresh squid kids (incase any of you would like to rep your favorite palette option in the Splatoon game).

Inkling 1 - Orange Inkling Girl

Spoiler

The poster child of the first Splatoon game, and arguably the most recognizable look for the inklings.
Head: Fake Contacts
Clothing: White Tee
Shoes: Pink Trainers

Inkling 2 - Blue Inkling Boy

Spoiler

Same thing to be said about the first Inkling boy. Probably the most recognizable look for the male inklings, but not quite as popular as Inkling 1.
Head: Fake Contacts
Clothing: Zink Layered LS
Shoes: Purple Hi-Horses

Inkling 3 - Agent 3

Spoiler

This Inkling looks exactly like the "Hero" of the first Splatoon game. Her ink colors is typically what you'll see Agent 3's ink color as in most official appearances, like in the Sunken Scroll 2 from Splatoon 2. This palette is currently situated as the third one (probably intentional).
Head: Hero Headset Replica
Clothing: Hero Jacket Replica
Shoes: Hero Runner Replica

Inkling 4 - Green Inkling Boy

Spoiler

Appears to be based off the promotional art for Sheldon's Pick vol 2. His shoes were given to another inkling and replaced with moto boots interestingly enough. I'll go over this later. Big thank you to Peptobislawl for finding this reference!
Head: Skull Bandana
Clothing: Armor Jacket Replica
Shoes: Moto Boots

Inkling 5 - Pink Inkling Girl

Spoiler

This Inkling girl's style can actually be found on a decent amount of the original Splatoon official artwork. Was also the first Inkling to show off the Inkbrush.
Head: Takoroka Mesh
Clothing: Black Squideye
Shoes: White Kicks

Inkling 6 - Teal Inkling Boy

Spoiler

Similar to Inkling 5, this boy's style was featured in a multitude of Splatoon official artwork. However, I was unable to scrounge up artwork that featured him in this color.
Head: Retro Specs
Clothing: Baby Jelly Shirt
Shoes: Blue Slip-Ons

Inkling 7 - Purple Inkling Girl

Spoiler

This is one of the more popular amiibo sets for the Inkling. A color close to this (it's a bit more pink) was also featured in a promotion image with the .52 gal deco.
Head: Squid Clip
Clothing: School Uniform
Shoes: School Shoes

Inkling 8 - Indigo Inkling Boy

Spoiler

This is a palette for the boys which I was unable to find the reference to. Pointed out by IsmaR , this Inkling takes some gear from the manga character, Skull. Their outfit features some Octo themed gear, which could be for a similar reason to why the third palette has the Agent 3 gear (since this outfit sits on the eighth slot). Could also be why this Inkling has the Octoling Boots and not Inkling 4.
Head: Skate Helmet
Clothing: Octo Tee
Shoes: Octoling Boots

Hopefully you guys enjoyed taking a look at these. If you know of the references for Inkling 8, or you have reference that shows Inkling 6 with his ink color in Smash, I will be more than happy to add them to this list. And a thank you for Splotim since I used a photo of yours from another thread.

Edit: Toyed around with most of the images, so that hopefully they fit on your screen instead of having to scroll to inspect them!

 

[IsmaR]

4 to me comes off as a reference to several notable characters in the Splatoon manga, namely the character Rider. Uses the same ink color/has the same skin tone, though he doesn't ordinarily wear the Armor Replica Jacket (Goggles, also pictured above, does) nor the Skull Bandanna.

The 8th I guess could be using what gear was leftover, but again I could see being a manga reference in the leader of S4, Skull, who canonically uses the same dark purple ink. Though it seems they took the signature Skull Bandanna and gave it to palette 4 to differentiate it.

All of this could be complete coincidence I suppose, and they could've just went with what looked "unique." Though the 4th palette/2nd Inkling male definitely struck me as Rider.

Nice work all the same. I'll probably be using Pinkling the most, but swap between all of them pretty often.

 

[Shuriblur]

4 to me comes off as a reference to several notable characters in the Splatoon manga, namely the character Rider. Uses the same ink color/has the same skin tone, though he doesn't ordinarily wear the Armor Replica Jacket (Goggles, also pictured above, does) nor the Skull Bandanna.

The 8th I guess could be using what gear was leftover, but again I could see being a manga reference in the leader of S4, Skull, who canonically uses the same dark purple ink. Though it seems they took the signature Skull Bandanna and gave it to palette 4 to differentiate it.

All of this could be complete coincidence I suppose, and they could've just went with what looked "unique." Though the 4th palette/2nd Inkling male definitely struck me as Rider.

Nice work all the same. I'll probably be using Pinkling the most, but swap between all of them pretty often.

Wow, nice catch! I’ve never read the manga, so I might need to check that out. It does look like Skull’s gear was split between 4 and 8 oddly enough.

Also, just now thought of this, but the Octo gear might be on palette 8 because it relates to the number eight...kind of how Agent 3 is on 3.

 

[TMNTSSB4]

No wonder why the Inkling Girls are more popular...they got way too much style compared to the boys

 

[IsmaR]

Wow, nice catch! I’ve never read the manga, so I might need to check that out. It does look like Skull’s gear was split between 4 and 8 oddly enough.

Also, just now thought of this, but the Octo gear might be on palette 8 because it relates to the number eight...kind of how Agent 3 is on 3.

That's a good point I didn't even consider. Also probably why they saved the most similar colored clothing for the matching ink color, while they saved the Hero Gear for both of the ink colors associated with the story (4 still probably has the hero gear to mirror 3, similar to how defaults for girl/boy are similar).

 

[Peptobislawl]

The green boy is actually from the sheldon's picks promotional material, this was the best pic I could find of it.

Spoiler: Large Image warning

 

[Shuriblur]

The green boy is actually from the sheldon's picks promotional material, this was the best pic I could find of it.

Spoiler: Large Image warning

Yo, thank you! Hopefully this means that the Octo palette is a reference too!

 

[BigMac1304]

Does anyone else really like the indigo inkling's helmet?

 

[Yosher]

Juuuust to say, the orange Inkling Girl in Smash doesn't wear Studio Headphones. In fact, that version seems to swap between Fake Contacts and Studio Headphones, as she doesn't have it in the amiibo, but then does have it in her Mario Kart 8 appearance, aside from the character's icon in said game, and she does have official Splatoon renders of both variants too.. but either way, Smash Inkling Girl is this, with Fake Contacts rather than Studio Headphones.
https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/splatoonwiki/images/1/13/Splatoonweapon.png

Also, Inkling no 5, clothing, 'Tent', needs to be 'Black Squideye'.

Other than that it's nice to see this!

 

[Shuriblur]

Juuuust to say, the orange Inkling Girl in Smash doesn't wear Studio Headphones. In fact, that version seems to swap between Fake Contacts and Studio Headphones, as she doesn't have it in the amiibo, but then does have it in her Mario Kart 8 appearance, aside from the character's icon in said game, and she does have official Splatoon renders of both variants too.. but either way, Smash Inkling Girl is this, with Fake Contacts rather than Studio Headphones.
https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/splatoonwiki/images/1/13/Splatoonweapon.png

Also, Inkling no 5, clothing, 'Tent', needs to be 'Black Squideye'.

Other than that it's nice to see this!

You...are absolutely correct! XD Big whoops on my part. I am so use to seeing the studio headphones, and enjoy that look a bit more that somehow I just imagined them on her...I know the usual Squid boy look officially has the pilot goggles at points as well, but because it’s not my preferred look for them guess I didn't mess that one up. And I love how I just abbreviated the brand of No 5’s clothing.

Thank you for catching me on this. Guess my excitement for the character caused me to rush this a bit. I will make adjustments when I get in front of a computer.

 

[Yosher]

It's all good! Like I said they keep swapping that particular version between Fake Contacts and Studio Headphones and all, so it's understandable you'd sub-conciously imagine her in your favourite depiction that way especially when you're so excited over the character in the first place. Which I can certainly understand because I love having Inklings in Smash finally as well!

Although admittedly I am a little disappointed that all the Inkling looks are taken from Splatoon 1, with nothing from Splatoon 2. They all even wear the default Splatoon 1 shorts! I guess this is because when Inkling was made for Smash, Splatoon 2 was still in development or something and they didn't really have any references for Splatoon 2 at that point. But I guess at least we have Lil' Judd on Moray Towers for our second game representation? ..I suppose having Splatoon 2 Inkling options would make it out-of-line with them using the Killer Wail though, unless they'd make a seperate Final Smash for those Splatoon 2 Inklings which I don't see happening, so I think we're stuck with the first game designs. Which is fine! They're still all good designs, and it's just great to have Inklings here at all, so it's more a little nitpick than an actual complaint on my part.

 

[TMNTSSB4]

These Inkling alts are still amazing to look at

 

[Disruptis]

In case anyone was wondering on the specifics of references from the manga, I'll leave this here:

Spoiler: Rider Picture

Rider, from the official Splatoon manga, is shown as having yellow-green tentacles (hence "yellow-green team") and dark skin. However, considering the promotional art came first and is way more similar in terms of gear, it's more likely that Rider was just based off that one. You can still technically see a connection there, if you want to. Skull, the only other inkling in the manga series brandishing that bandana, is too drastically different.

Spoiler: Glasses Picture

(Clothing update to what is closer to the appearance in-game happens a little bit into the manga.

Now with the Teal Inkling we see a bit of the same, but because the team Glasses belongs to "team blue" he has a closer matching colour than the original reference.