Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Early Stages 3



Over the years I have learned that the gesture of a toy is a very instrumental part of having a "good" figure in your hands. Even some of the most intensely sculpted figures can lack this very essential aspect. It needs to hit all the marks for me personally or else I wouldn't want to play with it.

In the early stages of fleshing out the Raptinok, I was entertaining the idea of having this figure portray a stance akin to a Raptor. The Raptinok in the beginning had a more fierce and heroic stance (what he is currently sporting now) which I liked better in the end. It is important to see it both ways sometimes. Every one of my figures go through countless stages before I reach the final product. This includes many revisions to design, engineering, scale, you name it. I will make prototypes and let them resonate for a little while to get the general feel for a certain design. At the end of the day, I need to be happy with it before I let it out in the world. As we say in the sheet metal business - "You are only as good as your worst employee". I feel the same way with my toys!

Anyway, enough of my toy making babbling, thought you might like some more behind the scenes stuff.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Early Stages 2





During the production of the Mecha Treeborgs I started in on the Raptinok sculpt. Last year I was influenced by many different toy companies who happen to all be producing some sort of Dino toys. What really did it for me and pushed me to the Raptinoks was Imaginext's Dino Mech figure. It hit all the marks from the core sculpt down to the paint apps and removable armor. I could not stop marveling over this guy!

Above is a sketch study from Matt Doughty. After I started getting the design down and piecing together the figure, Matt helped me visualize a good stance and possible articulation for this guy. Something heroic yet menacing was the outcome of his study. As I have probably said before, almost every project goes back and forth between Matt and myself at one point or another. Whether its engineering, basic design principles, or general thoughts, Matt is there to help me make these toys even better than before. I am truly lucky to have him in my corner!

More photos on tap!

Monday, July 11, 2016

Early Stages 1


Here is an early prototype version of the the Raptinok figure. It went through numerous revisions before its final stage. Over the next few days we will be looking at the early development of this Dino!