Toy sculptor Paul Harding talks about how he broke into the business

Toy sculptor Paul Harding talks about how he broke into the business. Via.

*Buy DC Direct toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Two interesting answers during the recent Hasbro Star Wars Q&A reveal the difficulty of producing toys:

SSG: The new Vintage Collection C-3PO figure has some great sculpting and a nice shiny gold paint job, as well as plenty of articulation, it's a big improvement in those areas. However, the figure seems to have a larger overall issue, the size. While Lucasfilm claims 3PO is 1.67 meters tall and this figure is the right scale to that (1:19.2 is the 6' to 3.75" scale), the figure just looks way too small next to even Luke Skywalker figures, who in the films is actually roughly the same height as 3PO - as evident in ANH. Do you feel the figure turned out too small? It's not just height, even if you pop the torso joint out (which seems to be set deeper than the figure was designed for, making the black stomach too short and visually throwing the rest of the torso proportions off), the whole scale of the figure from the shoulder width, the thickness of the limbs, the size of the head, and of course the height seems to be a step down to 1:20, especially disregarding the Lucasfilm height for the character is 5' 4" which is clearly wrong since actor Anthony Daniels' height is 5' 7" outside the costume that adds a little height. Would there be any possible way to correct this figure's scale issues, perhaps through stereo-lithography, or would it require starting again from scratch with a completely new mold (which would be a shame considering how much promise this figure has otherwise)?

Hasbro: The figure was intended to be the right height, but lost some mass along the way. We sculpted the figure to be 5'7" and actually added a little to that because of the panels. However, during production the sculpt shrank much more than the typical 4% average shrink we see. The shrink rate of plastics isn't an exact science and there is variability....this C-3PO is on an extreme end of the statistical curve. We do really like the features that this one has, and will look at a potential future re-sizing, but that won't be for a long while.

SSG: At Comic-Con, when asked about the white mark on the Vintage Collection Vader's unmasked chin, Derryl gave this answer: "Brian Parrish isn't here to answer that question, but we don't think it's a mold mark like some fans are saying. I believe it's meant to be scar tissue, so there's some different coloration to show on his face. But we can get Brian to confirm that, throw it in as an official bonus Q&A and we'll answer that." So, with that in mind, what officially is the white stripe on this Vader's unmasked chin? If it is scar tissue, was it designed to be that significant a color difference to the rest of the skin color, or was it intended to be more subtle?

Hasbro: Yes, we can confirm that it is not a mold mark. Actually, how that paint got there is a story unto itself. It looks like our original paint master suffered some abrasion during transit, and the factory interpreted the damage as another paint operation. We saw it and noticed the difference, and decided to keep it.

2. Very weird toy giveaway.

3. The first ten pages in Jason Chalker's scifi webcomic Major Maddox have been posted.

*Buy ray guns at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Comment and win a plush baby vampire.

2. At Entertainment Earth: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Holy Grail/magnetic paperclip holder.

3. How to turn a Mike Mignola drawing into a three-dimensional sculpture:

I had to cheat angles, add planes where they wouldn't normally work, and generally throw all the knowledge I have of three-dimensional realistic anatomy out the window.

*Buy Hellboy toys at eBay.

How vinyl toys get painted

Dyzplastic posted photos and information explaining how vinyl toys, such as its blindboxed Androids, get painted.

*Buy Google Android vinyl toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Ted Nugent paper doll.

2. Massive homeless encampment on Oahu.

3. I love Q&As about toy manufacturing:

Can you tell us why the SDCC Plastic Man’s stretchy arms are all one solid color? Why couldn’t his hands be flesh colored?

Good question! When you do a stretch accessory, it is not possible to do it in two colors. We looked into painting the hands flesh color, but the paint would chip off as it stretched. In this case the colors are limited by the action feature of the toy, not a design choice.

4. Chris Samnee is giving away a Thor sketch.

*Buy sketch cards at eBay.

Star Wars toy news

Darth Maul and Owen Lars Visionaries pack. Via.

-As of right now, there's no plans to make action figures based on The Force Unleashed II or The Old Republic.

-Hasbro believes that articulation is not particularly important to children, and since making figures articulated is so expensive, newer Clone Wars action figures have less articulation than older figures in the same line of toys.

*Buy Star Wars Visionaries at Amazon.

Cape Fear, starring a tiger (link roundup)

One of three animal mugshots by Aadi Salman.

And a few more links:

1. Fast Company has an article about Spin Master's effort to take advantage of the Bratz ruling by rushing out a fashion doll to compete with Barbie. Early snafus included dolls that were all cross-eyed, and misinterpreted orders that led to the manufacture of human-sized accessories.

2. "Rock the Soap" is a soap opera-themed cruise.

3. The Big Bad Toy Store has the Revoltech Jack Skellington available for preorder.

*Previously: Nightmare Before Christmas desktop icons.

*Buy A Nightmare Before Christmas toys at eBay.

The Wolfman (link roundup)

Subtle poster for the Wolfman by Olly Moss for Empire Magazine.

And a few more links:

1. Comment and win Touma's Little Trickers.

2. Free Star Wars action figures if you buy three lightsabers/blasters/helmets.

3. Q&A with a toy developer at Reddit. Sample answer:

I have a BA in Art History and Classical Languages with two minors in Philosophy and Medieval Studies...and two Masters degrees - one in Latin and the other in Computer Science with a concentration in AI design. I got into it by saying....I want to make toys! Reading up on it and starting from the bottom and working my way up. Where there is major will there is a way.

Via.

*Previously: Wolfman vinyl toy.

*Buy Wolfman posters at eBay.

Admiral Ackbar as a Wild Thing (link roundup)

Admiral Ackbar/Where the Wild Things Are mashup by Andrew Fulton. See also: Dork Wolverine and Professor Crumpleton. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Kraft Foods is the official sponsor of the destruction of old Dallas Cowboys Stadium. The child that wins an essay contest will win the Cheddar Explosion contest and get to push the plunger.

2. Albert Chan of Thinkway Toys describes how his company works with John Lasseter to make toys for Pixar. Sample answer:

After the "Toy Story" movie was released in 1995, John told me he would be in Hong Kong and would like to visit the toy factory that makes the "Toy Story" toys. After his arrival, we took a two-hour car ride to the factory in China. While we were there, he left no stone unturned and went through the entire production process. He looked at and felt the various colored plastic pellets that would eventually form the different color components of the action figures. He studied how the factory workers applied spray paint on the toy figure faces. After going through every production stage, John realized that the manufacturing process was still very labor intensive and not as automated as he had expected. It was a very hands-on process and involved hundreds of workers and man hours.

Via.

3. Day of the Dead-style Lego.

*Previously: Admiral Ackbar Lego CubeDude.

*Buy Pixar posters at eBay.

Avatar Happy Meal toys (link roundup)

Avatar Happy Meal toys are now at McDonalds.

And a few more links:

1. Ever wonder what happens to Star Wars action figures that no one wants? Here's a question and answer from a recent Hasbro interview:

SSG: Back in January, we asked about what happens to pulled-back pegwarming figures, and at the time you hadn't bought back some in a while so your answer focused on other methods of using the packaged figures, but on October 2nd you answered another site that this year's pulled-pack figures were being destroyed. How exactly are they being destroyed, and are those destroyed materials being recycled in some manner, or are they just destined to become landfill? Can Hasbro further clarify the details of this issue and address rationale behind this measure which could negative effects on the environment?

Hasbro: Due to their nature, they cannot be recycled. Beyond that, we don't have any details on the specific method of disposal.

2. And from a related interview, Hasbro discusses the process of deciding what toys to make:

Hasbro: We have actually done a lot of work on what size and price the Twilight would be if we did one, but have always come back to the same place: it simply does not have the gravitas in the show that a big vehicle would need to have in order to succeed. It has not shown itself to be as truly heroic and universally memorable like the Millenium Falcon. Unless the Twilight gets a lot more attention and becomes something that really gets kids excited, we won't be adding it to the 3-3/4" line.

3. Happy Armed Jews week.

4. Downloadable Star Wars Droidel.

*Buy fast food toys at eBay.

Clever Neosporin ad (link roundup)

Clever Neosporin/Operation concept ad by Dave Stone and possibly this Thomas Sun. There's also a piggy bank/Neosporin ad.

And a few more links:

1. Good definition for ARGs:

Many games are escapist. ARGs are the anti-escapist. They are the "I'm here, let's make it better, dammit."

And speaking of, here's the Avatar ARG site.

2. An explanation for why Hasbro toy lines don't share accessories very often (3rd question).

3. Spacesuit design by Gabriel Ba.

*Previously: Little Big Planet's Sackboy in a spacesuit desktop wallpaper.

*Buy Avatar posters at eBay.

Toy design can be complicated

I mentioned yesterday that Burger King kid's meals currently come with toys based on the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movie. The sailboat made out food will be familiar to anyone who has read the book (I've read the book roughly 100 times myself, although I don't care for the various changes to the text that were made in the revised version):





But hold on a second. The boat in the book was topped by a pennant made of bacon. What's that on top of the Burger King boat? Cucumber?




In fact, the original design featured pepperoni and bacon:



I'm guessing (and only guessing) that the last minute change was made so as not to offend Jews and Muslims who can't eat pork or mix meat and dairy.

*Previously: Toy designer talks about how he designs Transformers.

*Find Happy Meal and cereal toys at eBay.

Chewbacca Mighty Mugg cosplay (link roundup)

Chewbacca Mighty Mugg cosplay spotted in this Dragon*Con photo gallery.

And a few more links:

1. Katherine Heigl was in the movie Zyzzyx Road, famous for being the lowest grossing movie of all time.

2. Hisashi Yuki from Takara Tomy talks about how he designs Transformers toys. Via.

3. Baby Soda Bottles look like they'd give Altoids tins a run for their money as fun emergency kits.

*Previously: The neon signs of Rapture.

*Buy Bioshock toys at eBay.