1. How would you describe the style of your SubCasts figure designs?
Attitude without the action, posturing without the posing. We wanted to create something for the resin sculpture collector and the designer toy collector alike. Most resin sculpts of these same characters are in their traditional poses of action, and most designer toys are the opposite, standing motionless, just being about the design aspects of the toy with a clear definition of the attitude created. With the Marvel characters having so many interpretations out there, this seemed like a logical, and fun way to approach them. They are the Marvel figures WE want for our collection, and can only hope they appeal to others.
2. Did you design any differently knowing that they'd be produced in polyresin versus vinyl?
Absolutely........We wanted to work in polyresin to try and do things that are not vinyl friendly. We collect a lot of vinyl toys, and i have noticed that a lot of our favorite ones, that are the more detailed in design, have problems holding themselves up. They either need a special stand, or to be held up with museum wax stuck to the bottom of their feet.....and a lot of those, have given way, fallen off the shelf, and broke. When vinyl figures have a lot of weight to them, and have thinner appendages, they tend to start bending and leaning. I looked at polyresin as a blessing, so that we could create very top heavy characters, and put them up on some skinny legs! We also wanted to give them postures that would not have to be so balanced, so they could do things like lean farther forward, and not face toppling over when a breeze blew by. Polyresin just gave us a more robust playground to run with, and the potential for pushing things a bit farther.
3. Some in the designer vinyl scene may say that a license like Marvel is too mainstream for the designer vinyl movement, what are your thoughts on this?
Like anything else, to each, their own......Marvel is pop culture, as is Star Wars, as is Disney, as is hip hop and rockNroll, etc, etc.........they have all found their way into the designer toy culture one way or the other. Good design is good design, im not a fan of ALL pop culture.....far from it. But i do love quality design, and if something is designed to my liking, im all over it.
Ive never really been that much into mainstream comics, and this line was awesome in the sense that these characters lend themselves so well to designer toy aesthetics...........the work is half done!
4. What influenced and inspired your design? Past toy projects? Work from other artists?
Current design projects?
Ive always been much more into character designs with an ample amount of character distortion. I love forced perspective in design, and really look for it in characters. When it comes to comics, i was always way more into the underground comic scene. I grew up on Vaughn Bode, Rick Griffin, Robt. Williams, Big Daddy Roth and that whole gang. I have always loved lots of detail, as well as an interesting form and silhouette in the characters. That style has always influenced my work, and it has been a lot of fun bringing that esthetic to these characters. I had the chance to work with Skottie Young a few years back on a project, and i always loved his work with classic Marvel characters. I think he really broke down some walls in how far you could push established character designs, make them your own, and still have Marvel feel good about it.
So far with Marvel, we have been fortunate in being able to do the same, so i have to thank Skottie for that wall busting.
5. What were you hoping to bring to these characters that traditional portrayals of them lack?
Everyone knows that these characters have been done inside and out, backward and forward. We are not reinventing the wheel here, we are just taking these well established characters and futzing around with them, our way. What we wanted to do was design some of the characters with their strengths heightened, and others with more of their human attributes coming through. With all of the exposure Spidey has gotten over the years, we just could not bring ourselves to design him in a traditional posed sort of way, so, we went an total opposite direction, and gave him a bit of a tired posture, and much more in line with what he might look like in a police line up, or getting his mug shot taken. We also wanted to give him a look based on the anatomy of a "grey" alien, as the Spidey mask always reminded me of those aliens, and we had a chance here to play that up. All of the characters we done so far, have a bit of this "theory" in design behind them, giving them our own little thumbprint. We are really big on story, as a design team, and always want to the viewer to want to dig a bit deeper into what we are presenting them.