XM STUDIOS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – CO-FOUNDER BRYAN TAN

I had the immense pleasure to contact Bryan Tan to make this awesome interview about XM Studios. For those who doesn’t know who Bryan Tan is, here’s a brief summary from STGCC site:

“Bryan Tan is a veteran entrepreneur, having been at the forefront of digital marketing since founding his first digital agency in 2001. He grew the business fivefold, merged with another company, diversified into Data and CRM and doubled the size before venturing into the world of Collectibles.

Bryan's love of toys and collectibles led him to co-found XM Studios in 2012 with Ben, Seng, Clair and Chris. Focusing on premium collectibles of the highest quality, XM Studios' first Statue won them Statue of the Year 2014 and the rest, as they say is history. As one of the Directors, Bryan is also active in the collectibles social media space where he regularly interacts with the community for feedback because he firmly believes that the best products should be designed together with the customers.”

Yes, due to his habit of keeping in touch with the community, Bryan conceded CCF this very funny yet very serious and altogether informative interview. Enjoy this exclusive talk with XM’s co-founder.

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1 – What do you think about the rivalry between XM fans and Sideshow fans?

It’s everyone vs everyone actually. XM fans vs Sideshow fans, P1 fans vs XM fans, P1 fans vs Sideshow fans, Iron Studios fans vs all <Insert Any Company> fans...basically there’s rivalry everywhere. To me, this is like sports be it Football, Rugby, NBA, Hockey etc, where it’s natural for fans to root for their favorite teams. And there’s always going to be – what we call – ‘SUPER FANS’ for every team. These super fans are by and large nice people but they are also fiercely loyal and dedicated. Now when you put 2 groups of super fans who are rooting for different teams in the same room, rivalry, name calling, arguments on ‘mine is better than yours’ WILL HAPPEN.  (In extreme cases this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orDiSrbRRWI)

Bolalaranja, I’m really glad you asked what my thoughts are as I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. Yes I understand it’s natural, and it happens but super fans need to remind themselves of the bigger picture and stay classy. Like sports, “Collecting” is meant to be a unifying activity where people of any age, race or background come together to enjoy the sports and the company. For instance in basketball, yeah the teams are important but don’t forget to enjoy basketball for what it is. Love, enjoy and respect the sports and the community. Sportsmanship is a virtue about fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing.

So my message to these super fans is: Ask yourselves, what kind of collectors do you want to be? The kind whom everyone loves to hang around because you are a good sport and there’s mutual respect? Or the kind others avoid because you are always defensive, attacking and putting down others for basically not liking what you like?

My personal choice is to enjoy the company of those who display sportsmanship and respect the hobby of collecting. And that’s why we try to always remind our customers in our sign-offs “Happy Collecting!”.

Stay classy San Diego.

2 – What’s exactly prevents you from selling directly to United States (I’m very alienated about politics and economics)?

Firstly, I do not claim to speak on behalf of any of our licensors and I’m hardly the expert on politics and economics (my background is in Technology and Film Making)! I do believe it’s about the management of territorial distribution for business reasons such as avoiding over market supply, cannibalisation of products etc. Basically to keep things in balance and healthy.  There are some licenses we are able to sell globally though such as Top Cow and Jade Dynasty (Asian Comics) so it’s not all that bad really! J

3 – How many years has XM Studios?

We’ve started the company in 2012 but nothing really happened in the first year. It was about a year of getting rejections from licensors we approached so we did not have anything to work on. It was only in 2013, XM started having gigs and it’s been an amazing journey for 3 years so far. 

4 – Do you solemnly uses 3D software to sculpt or there is handmade sculpts too? If there’s handmade sculpted figures could you name a few?

Almost all of our stuff are done in 3D. We tried hand sculpting with our 1/4 Thor but because we were such suckers for listening to feedback and making changes, that method proved to be impractical. In the end, we had to scrape that project and restarted it in 3D. However, there is magic in handsculpt, an art form we greatly respect so we’ve always been trying to explore that. The new Shibumi from Jade Comics is a handsculpt project and so are some of our 1/4 busts.

   

5 – Why are your prices so much higher than Sideshow’s?

I think everyone’s price is rising to be honest but for XM specifically, its mainly due to us having a lower production run (so less bulk savings) and we invest into several layers of QC and coaching the Factories to do better products. The packaging we use is also costlier in terms of material and finish. Our volume of business is also much lower so our shipping rates aren’t as competitive and that really adds up quite a fair bit to the final cost.

6 – As I noticed, you now have the DC and Star Wars licenses. Any new plans on the DC front besides “Darkside War” 1/6 diorama? Who’s next? And in Star Wars something beyond Boba Fett?  

A lot of products will be revealed in the upcoming September STGCC (Singapore’s version of Comic Con)! Not trying to avoid the question about licenses but due to confidentiality clauses and out of respect for the licensors, my lips are sealed.

7 – You are known for the quality of the final product. What is the trick to maintain so high standards?

There are 3 key ‘tricks’ to this. Mindset, Hardwork and Expertise.

1)  Mindset: XM isn’t run by business folks, we are collectors first and foremost. This is important because it governs the way we approach our products – what would be cool for this character to do? What is the story and motivation behind this pose and base? How can we make this a worthy representation of the characters? What finishing, materials, quality and packaging would bring it to the next level? As you can see, we make pretty cool B characters not because they are highly popular and therefore profitable – we make em’ because as collectors, these are what we would want.

2)      Hardwork: Because straight out of the Factory products just doesn’t cut it. We adopt a partnership approach with our Factories, we train and teach them the art and techniques of painting, finish and engineering. We travel and spend at least 30% of our work time at the factory, rolling up our sleeves, doing the work they do, setting an example. We’ve gone as far to create our very own quality check office with experienced touch up artists as an additional QC process to check every piece from the factory.  Every product goes through at least 4 rounds of QC before we ship the products to customers. It’s hard work but the results are worth it. Of course nothing’s 100% perfect but we believe we have a reasonably healthy QC benchmark in the industry, averaging less than 0.5% of reported issues from customers. (e.g. that’s about 5 out of 1,000 statues). Usually the issues happen due to poor shipping handling, or secondary handling (customs opening up to check etc).  

3)      Expertise: The XM creative team has over 2 decades of painting, sculpting and engineering experience. The type of paint, the kind of paint, the way it’s painted, the way the statue is being structured, from foundation to practicality, weight ratio to stability – the knowledge and experience definitely helps!

Some images of our XM Workshop (QC) http://www.xm-studios.com/introducing-xm-workshop.aspx

8 – You’re also known by being extremely creative regarding poses and bases. How the average time it takes from the concept to the final product to be delivered to the costumer? In which country do you manufacture your products?

It differs based on complexity and how many changes we try to fit in but the typical time frame is about 6-9 months from start to end.  Country of manufacturing is China.

9 – You tend to contract freelancers to complement your staff in the making of the pieces. How to grant visually unity to them, since every artist has his style?

Seng, XM’s creative head oversees all the creative talents in unity along with Hery, XM’s Art Director. Their job is to ensure a XM consistency flavor even though we work with so many madly talented artists. Like you correctly pointed out, every artist has his/her own styles but in order to have a reasonably consistent line of products we have to establish a set of art direction and style for all artists. It’s not easy for sure and there will be differences especially between creatives so it’s about managing balance, expectations and of course chemistry. Ain’t gonna lie, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine; most projects are smooth but there are a few that didn’t work out as well as we wanted.  What’s important is the virtue of sportsmanship; recognize differences, respect each other, be gracious and our number 1 rule, never ever shortchange anyone. We pay the full fees no matter if we use the work or not.

10 – Which was the fastest selling statue you ever launched?

It’s a tie between Ghost Rider and Samurai Batman at about 2 mins sold out on our online allocation. Batman in particular was a nice surprise as he had a lot of haters in the beginning. But I’m really glad the project turned out great, thanks to the awesome creative partners HMO and HIVE. (These guys REALLY rock!)    

Batman pics at http://www.xm-studios.com/batman-samurai.aspx

Ghost Rider pics at http://www.xm-studios.com/ghost-rider.aspx

11 – What piece(s) you are most proud of?

Every piece, man! Every piece is blood, sweat and tears. I know most people expect us to say Magneto but for us, we put in the same amount of love and attention to all our creations. They are like our children… you don’t choose to love one more than the other.

12 – If you could change just one thing in XM Studios what would be?

For starters, the XM HQ needs to be bigger and cooler. And we need a proper coffee machine.

13 – And what will never change in XM Studios?

Commitment to quality, always be open and listen to feedbacks because we’re not making these statues for ourselves at the end of the day. 

14 – What the acronym XM stands for?

Most people think it’s Xenomorph (Ang brothers’ history). Yes, we drew inspiration from the past but XM actually stands for Xtreme Masterpieces. (cuz EM wouldn’t sound as cool)

15 – Do you know why your pieces are so cultish among collectors? What’s your theory?

I think it has to do with a couple of reasons; a factor could be the difficulty of acquiring our products. Given our limited ES and distribution rights, demand is often higher than supply so our products are not exactly easy or cheap to obtain. Also, for better or worse, the XM quality is often only experienced in person, when one receives the product, opens the box and lifts out the heavy statue and feels the physical presence of the piece. Infamously, the photos on our website often don’t do our products justice (For the record Ben, our MD cum photographer claims his expensive camera works magic).

So the small group of XM owners who have felt the XM experience often try to convince a larger group of non-owners that our final product is better than what you see on our website – making these XM owners look like Super Fans/cultists! (Note to XM Fans, stay classy people. Remember, sportsmanship.)

It could also be that we do crazy things with dynamic poses and bases, switch out parts that actually changes the story and becomes 2 or 3 statues in 1, we produce characters that are often overlooked and mega dioramas that defies collecting space logic. We are crazy. Some people like crazy.

Or maybe it’s just because we are such awesome and cool dudes… people actually genuinely like us! Well that’s my theory anyway.

16 – Could you share with us any new projects you didn’t revealed yet just to get the hype up?

Unfortunately, contractually I can’t. Also, foreplay is very important – revealing all our cards just ain’t as sexy bro.

17 – How many people in average are involved in the creation of a new product from sketches to the painted prototype? (Creation of only one figure)

Typically about 8 people.  Seng does the work, the other 7 just stands there and watch.

No, really.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS FROM CCFIGURES

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TOO LAZY TO READ

I confess I’m a bit frustrated. It’s not every day that you get an exclusive interview with a Prime 1 Studio sculptor to read. Even so, what should be great news in my opinion goes as fast as hell to the bottom of the thread because subjects like “order this or order that”, “here’s my collection” and whatnot get so much attention from the viewers (I cannot call them readers) that sinks into oblivion an otherwise very interesting source of information. So I will do an immature thing here and ask you who read this article and like it to post a comment on the thread, so the interview can escalate some positions and become more readily available for true readers to find. Thank you. Sorry for being so childish. I had a lot of work putting it all together… :P