INTERVIEW WITH POP CULTURE SHOCK JERRY MACALUSO

From Street Fighter, passing by Mortal Kombat to Masters of Universe and Conan (Schwarzenegger version) to… Power Rangers (?!), Pop Culture Shock has been amassed a great deal of fans. Today I’ll interview the founder of PCS (as the company is called by its fans and by his owner), Jerry Macaluso.

Ladies and gentlemen, with you: Jerry Macaluso!

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1 – I will start with a hard one: what sets PCS apart from the rest of the
fierce competition you face?

Jerry Macaluso (JM): You aren’t kidding when you say ‘fierce competition’. Over the past few years it seems like a dozen new collectibles companies have appeared. I think what separates us is that unlike the owners of most collectibles companies, I myself am a designer/sculptor. This means I consider PCS to be more of an art studio that sells copies of its art, than a corporate type manufacturer. While we use many talented sculptors, I personally art direct every project to make sure it stays true to the PCS ‘look’. There is a cohesive style to everything that comes from this studio. The other aspect that really separates us is, we listen to the community. We may not always agree, but we are listening and give all constructive criticism serious thought.

2 – Are there new franchises on the way? What could you anticipate to let
us salivating?

(JM): Well the big ‘well known’ secret is we are doing Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. It’s a license that’s very close to my heart because I was the Creature Supervisor for the first season. Another new license we have is Rambo. Even though other Rambo statues have been made, like with Arnold Conan, I don’t think it’s been done justice yet. Ours is going to be epic. Another that we are working on is the new videogame Battleborn. It’s a great game and when I saw the character designs I knew I wanted to make statues of them. We have a few more licenses but the paperwork isn’t done so I shouldn’t speak too soon!

3 – Many costumers complain of the long developing/producing period of PCS
from prototype or announcement until the end product arrives at the homes
of collectors? What do you say about that?

(JM): The long wait from pre-order to delivery is something we are working hard to improve on. The delays certainly are not intentional. There are a lot of factors during manufacture that cause these delays. The biggest factor is that I demand a very high level of quality and frankly, there are only a dozen factories left in China that can achieve the quality I demand. If we push too hard quality comes down, so we take a bit of a ‘when it’s done it’s done’ stance. That’s always how you get the best quality. Most collectibles companies will approve the second sample, it usually takes 4-6 samples before I approve them. Having said that, we are slowly moving to a pre-order model where we are further along at the factory level by the time we announce the preorder. This should cut down on 3-4 months of wait time.

Where's my Robocop?

4 – Which license has been the most profitable so far?

(JM): Street Fighter is our most popular license. I’ve been the Street Fighter licensee since 2001. That’s a long time!

Come and get me!

5 – Which was your fastest seller product of all time?

(JM): I honestly don’t remember. We have had a few collectibles that sold out within 5 minutes. The 1:3 Akuma, 1:3 Ryu and some others. I bet the collector community has a better memory than I do.

Five minutes ago I was on pre-order...

6 – Do you have some PCS sculpts that are your favorites? Which ones?

(JM): As an artist myself, I tend to like things less and less as time goes by. The longer I see something the more I can start to find flaws and pick it apart. So the honest answer is, the most recent pieces are almost always my favorites. Having said that, I still really love the Mortal Kombat 9 Sub-Zero sculpted by John Cleary a lot. I can’t really find any flaws in it to this day. As far as pieces I have sculpted myself, it’s the 1:3 Darkness from the movie Legend. It’s one of my favorite character designs of all time and I think I did a good job capturing his character.

Perfect in Jerry's opinion

One of Jerry own favorite works.

7 – All the process of sculpting of Pop Culture Shock is digital (through
3D software) or is there a part that is still hand made? Which parts are
hand made? I’ve heard you’re an active sculptor yourself and that you make
the 1/3 statues from PCS hand made. Is this info accurate? If so,
congratulations, handle business and clay at the same time! ;) At least you
didn’t abandon the fun part being in this industry.

(JM): My career began as a sculptor. I have sculpted for Toy Biz, McFarlane, Mattel, Trendmasters and as well as many movies. I try and spend 50% of my week on business and 50% on art. Currently we do about 85% of our 1:4 scale and smaller collectibles digitally and 100% of the 1:3 and life-size busts in traditional clay sculpture. While I myself can sculpt digitally, I still prefer good old fashioned clay and wax.

Jerry and his "work" on the movies

8 – On average, how many people work on a PCS figure to elaborate the
painted prototype?

(JM): A lot of artists are involved from concept, to sculpture, molds, casts, electronics, paint, costuming, etc… I would say at least 6 people are involved on every piece. Sometimes many more. Then we should not leave out the photographers, graphic artists, customer service, shipping, factory project management and so many other people that keep things running.

9 – Do you outsource sculptors? If so, how do you guarantee unity to the
pieces of a given line of statues?

(JM): While we do have a great staff of full time in-house artists, we do outsource many of our sculptures. As the sole art director at PCS, I work hard to keep a cohesive look to everything. I give a lot of direction to our sculptors to help guide them to our style. The sole exception to this was when we were doing Masters of the Universe collectibles. For those I brought on the brilliant artist Emiliano Santalucia to art direct.

Thank Emiliano Santalucia.

10 – Do you have a 3D printer at PCS or do you outsource this part of the
project either?

(JM): We own two Stratasys Eden 3D printers, which are very high-end machines. However, even with two of them we still need to send some prints out to vendors when we get behind. If we had more room at the studio I would probably buy a couple more.

11 – How old is Pop Culture Shock? When things began to work? Tell us a bit
about the company’s story

(JM): Pop Culture Shock Collectibles was technically formed in 2007 after I sold my previous company, SOTA Toys. However, for the first few years it was mostly a hobby as I ran it out of my home and I only released one statue per year. After 10 years of running SOTA Toys I was a bit burned out and just wanted to take it easy. In reality the fans and collectors created PCS, because I would not have grown the company if I wasn’t getting so many requests to make more statues. So, in my way, I see PCS as having really come together in 2010.

12 – In your opinion, what is the best statues company out there (not
counting PCS, of course)? Why?

(JM): That’s a tough question as companies have strengths and weaknesses. My personal favorite is Kotobukiya PVC statues. They are so beautifully made and really capture the characters personalities. But at the same time I’m not a big fan of their polystone statues. Something is missing in their polystone for me. As far as polystone I would say Sideshow is still king of the hill. Their art department really knows how to balance the composition of the figure with the base. Some companies, like XM and Prime 1 go too crazy on the bases for my tastes. I prefer a more subdued base. And while he isn’t releasing any statues lately, I’m a huge Randy Bowen fan. I love his work.

Bowen Designs, Kotobukiya and Sideshow.
Jerry favorite companies other than PCS.

13 – What measures you take to guarantee quality control standards to your
production lines? Never saw a fan complaining of the end product they
receive from PCS.

(JM): We do something most collectibles companies do not, we have a full time employee in China. Most companies rely on the factory quality control and every few months send someone from the USA to China. I’ve learned that that is not good enough. Our employee spends his week going from factory to factory doing constant quality checks. He and his assistant also personally review every piece before it is packed into the box. This ensures we have one of the best records for quality control in the industry.

Quality in every product is a cornerstone to Jerry Macaluso.

14 – Do you have a specific team for each franchise or everyone takes
whatever work falls on one’s lap?

(JM): We don’t have teams but I do have artists that are my go-to for certain licenses like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Some artists have a hard time getting into the aesthetic of a license, particularly if they aren’t a fan of it. You really want to choose a Street Fighter fan to sculpt Street Fighter.

Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter are two very
different games also on sculpting.

15 – What is the most fun and what’s the most difficult parts of working in
this industry?

(JM): The most fun is conceptualizing a new project. Discussing ideas with everyone and sketching. That’s great fun to see it come to life. The worst is all the technical and logistical issues that come with working with factories 6000 miles away. It can be very difficult even with our full time employee there. I wish I could hop in my car and go see what’s happening personally.

16 – How do you justify the inflation of prices of collectible figures in
the last couple of years, even though PCS is one of the companies with more
competitive prices over there?

(JM): Prices are rising for several reasons. The good reason is quality. Many of us companies are raising the quality and better quality usually means higher price. In addition, factories that have the best quality are raising their prices because they have come to see that there is a line of companies knocking on their door trying to get them to manufacture. It’s the law of supply and demand. There just aren’t a lot of great factories left. There are other more incidental reasons, but the two above are the main ones.

17 – Why 1/4 is the standard scale for figures nowadays? Is there an
explanation for this? If not, what’s your theory?

(JM): I think 1:4 scale is the perfect balance of detail, space and price. As you get smaller a lot of collectors feel the statue becomes more like a toy. I think our 1:6 statues are some of my favorites but they don’t sell nearly as well as the 1:4.

18 – Do you think that the 1/3 figures will really catch or is this format
reserved for very special figures in PCS?

(JM): I think 1:3 scale is my favorite. It’s certainly catching on with Prime 1 and ECC jumping into it. Because of the cost and space I don’t think it will become the ‘new 1:4’ so for now I’m only focusing on what we call ‘A List’ characters. But you never know, I might try something down the line.

1:3 Arnold ready for war.

19– Did you ever think in entering in the 1/6 articulated figures arena?
What’s your vision about this segment of the Market?

(JM): We are doing 1:6 articulated figures, or as everyone calls them these days, ‘Hot Toys Style’. I’m approaching this market from two different angles. One is from what we are known for, Street Fighter. We have a very full line of 1:6 SF figures being developed. I hope this line goes for ten years , if not more. The other way we are getting into it is with licenses for less well known properties that I’m a fan of. So, we are doing Sons of Anarchy, The Thing, An American Werewolf in London and even Alice Cooper. All things I love that I didn’t see anyone else doing. I myself collect Hot Toys so I’ve learned about the market that way, and while I don’t think we are at the Hot Toys level yet, I think the 1:6 figures we are making are pretty good.

Entering the 1:6 arena to cause some anarchy on the market.

20– What makes you happy with PCS? What makes you mad about it?

(JM): PCS is like being a kid in a candy shop. There is not much to complain about. I try to choose licenses that I love, or that I find creatively interesting so it’s always fun. At times dealing with the factories can be a bit of a drag but really it’s a great job.

21 – Where are your figures manufactured?

(JM): China

22 – What do you say for a guy/gal who wants to enter the Market as a
sculptor?

(JM): I would suggest practice both digital and traditional sculpture. The best digital sculptors I know are also good at clay. Being good at clay is harder than digital so it gives the artist and extra step up. I would strongly suggest spending a lot of time learning to translate others two dimensional artwork into three dimensions. Most of the time in this business the sculptor will not be designing the statue so they need to know how to translate others artwork. Many times I see great sculpture portfolios full of original art. But then you hire them and they cannot follow others art. Being able to copy is one of the most important things.

23 – What would astonish you the most: to see an alien or to see a ghost?

(JM): Hmmm good question. I would be most astonished to see an alien as I actually spend a lot of time thinking about what type of life exists on other planets. I’ve always wanted to do a line of statues based on alien creatures.

24 – Three bands and three movies.

(JM): Bands - The Sweet, Savatage, Abba. Movies - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Evil Dead 2, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Did he see Encounters of 4th Kind? That movie almost got me.

25 – What is the franchise of your dreams?

(JM): Gatchaman

Gatchaman. Would you collect them?

26 – Leave a final note, or quote, or a bombastic news to PCS fans.

(JM): I want to thank all of our fans and collectors. Without you we wouldn’t be here today. I also want to thank you for the interview. We will continue to work hard to bring collectors the highest quality statues and figures possible while keeping prices as reasonable as possible.

Thank you for your patience! Have a great day!

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You already gave a great day with this interview, Jerry! To be perfect only if you send me a Blanka statue, since I’m Brazilian and love SF II!... Just kidding… kind of… er… nevermind…

Well, thank you for your sincerity and passion for what you do and for a so informative and fun interview. Now I understand the reason for such cool statues with such high quality production value and so friendly prices. And Gatchaman doesn’t seem an impossible dream. I just don’t know if it’s going to sell…

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