According to "K-shi" 「K氏」, a pseudonymous Digimon designer from PLEX who is credited with the initial concept sketches for the Digimon Pendulum Z II, Mimicmon (as its name suggests) is themed on the role-playing game monster archetype of the mimic. In its initial concept, the object which it would have been mimicking was a barrel (concept art pictured right);[1] at this point, it was tentatively named Rebellimon 「リベリモン」, and it lacked the Dead Shot.[2]
Concept art that was published on Digimon Web demonstrates that, in addition to the barrel concept, another design concept for "Rebellimon" (pictured right) was a bipedal monster equipped with a crude sword and shield who wore a cylindrical cage over its head.[2]
During the design process, following a proposal from another designer, the barrel motif was replaced to have "Rebellimon" instead mimic a cage, using the caged Digimon motif from the earliest years of the Digimon franchise, and this became the basis of its final design.[1] A model sketch specifically cites the original Digital Monster virtual pets as inspiration for the Digimon's cage.[2] It was also decided that the name "Rebellimon" did a poor job of conveying the intent of the Digimon, so it was renamed to its final name, Mimicmon, while the name "Rebellimon" was given to a different Digimon from the Metal Empire model of the Digimon Pendulum Z II, for whom they felt it was a better fit.[2]
The Digimoji text on the labels on Mimicmon's cage reads "ZIP" (). This may allude to the ZIP file format which compresses and archives multiple other files within one place in a smaller data size. Mimicmon's bio on the Digimon Reference Book states that it, like ZIP files, compresses the data of the Digimon that are confined within it.[3]
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