INTERVIEW WITH IMAGINARIUM ART OWNER DANNY LIM

He is a very approachable guy with no restrictions whatsoever. He owns one of the beloved studios from Singapore, Imaginarium Art, and his line of Iron Man figures are praised by many, even though it’s hard to North American people get his pieces.

1 – What do you think sets Imaginarium Arts apart from the fierce competition of the collectibles market nowadays?

Danny Lim: Every statue company has their own touch, be it licensed or customs, every designer gives their greatest effort to ensure acceptance from the community.  In fact, we greatly respect their work.  At the same time, IA sets ourselves apart by producing statues that changes posture by switching limbs and torsos to ensure fresh look on display shelves as and when our fans like.  On color, it is a challenging task to keep up with what fans want, to counter fierce competition to be as accurate as we can.

2 – Why so many Iron-Mans? Could you explain that to us? What else do you have under your sleeve? I see you’re focusing on Transformers as well. Do you have a special taste for robots?

DL: I am a fan of Robots, as Iron Man falls into the same category. I decided this is what we would love to do. In our first 1:2 scale Iron Patriot, our expectation for it was high, we could not imagine we pull it off so well with color application, and hence our factory became one of the best Iron Man producer in China.

As a Death Metal fan, I had always wanted to do something under Horror category, let’s see how we can twist this out in the future.

Yes, Personally, I am a Japanese Anime Robot Fan, I collect Bandai’s Soul of Chogokin from GX-01 Mazinger till now, so robots are my forte.  They capture me with their excellent shiny paintwork while on display.

3 – What’s the differentials seek when developing a new piece?

DL: Though it’s a statue we produce, we seek playability aspect of it too, for example, a pose change statue can be another avenue of playability.  The face sculpt is also an important factor which we always seek good painters to work on color application on production.

4 – You seem to work only with big-sized figures from 1/1 to 1/4. Why this choice?

DL: Personally, I like bigger display in my house, as the details can be seen from afar, and catches more attention at home for me. Also, licensing concern, there are a huge pool of licensees holding many years of smaller scale categories.  Well, we do with what we can have, and work towards success.

5 – Do you believe that characters on throne sells well? Because you made Aquaman on throne and Sideshow launched Thanos on throne and there’s XM famous Magneto on throne. Is this a trend you intend to follow?

DL: Not Exactly, it really depends on the character, to be exact, all kings sit on thrones, for Aquaman, in Chinese, it called King of the sea translated, oh well, then he need a throne.  Our upcoming  Coronation Starscream is on throne as well, he wears a crown and likely to fit in a throne, would be suitable.

The success of other brands with characters on throne, IA congratulates them on their success.

6 – What licenses Imaginarium Art have and for which markets?

DL: We currently hold Hasbro’s Generation 1 license in Asia + North America.  There will be more to come.

7 – Which piece is the biggest IA success up until now?

DL: There are different successes in every release we have, namely, 1:2 scale Mark 42, Mark 17, our 1:1 Helmets, Hulk Busters, they truly brought up the name of company.

8 – What character do you want IA to make that wasn’t done or is not possible to be done just yet?

DL: I would love to make a Transforming Japanese Anime Robot Voltes V in diecast material.

9 – Who do you say it’s your direct competitor in the market today? What do you offer that the said concurrent doesn’t offer and what is the same?

DL: Basically, it’s the paint work, sculpt details, and product accuracy. There are more companies that produce accuracy too. It’s really not up to us to say who is better.  In the end, it’s always the fan that chooses which brand they want to buy from.  If it’s us that they choose, we are most grateful and will keep working hard to fulfill all the requests of our customers.

10 – What is you wildest dream for IA?

DL: My wildest dream for IA is to have me retired and start sunbathing in Hawaii with 2 bikini girls!

11 – Who is you favorite all-time character? Do you have a license for it?

DL: My all-time favorite character would be God of War’s Kratos. Oh well, we don’t have the license but I prefer to buy just 1 for keep sake in the market.  Gaming Heads made a good one on throne.

12 – Is you who decides what pieces/characters/poses will be produced or the development team has some input in the decisions about a new release?

DL: I would think of a draft concept, what the characters should be, poses as well, and we table out all the possibilities in a team to explore production, paint work, and packaging.  It’s a team effort.

13 – Do you consider yourself very centralizer regarding the way you run your company? Do you have some problem to delegate some decisions to other members of the team?

DL: For collectibles industry, it is important to have people with good knowledge, skills at what they do best and enthusiasm with good energy.

14 – Speaking of team, how many work at Imaginarium Art? What are the departments of the company? Is there someone or a team to manage quality control of the pieces in the factories? Because I never saw nobody complaining about IA having any production problems.

DL: Occasionally, there are support issues needed for our products. Electronic problems bound to happen sometimes but very minimal.

We have Design & Art team, Admin & Customer Support, Factory coordinator (Me!), Quality Control Managers, Logistics team, these are the basics as every company needs.

15 – Name three IA pieces you’re really proud of.

DL: Iron Man Hulkbuster, Iron Man Mark 42, Transformers Soundwave

16 – Name three pieces from other companies that you see as great accomplishments.

DL: Sideshow’s Thanos on Throne; Prime One’s Transformers Movie version, all of them;

First 4 Figures’ Zelda

17 – Three favorite bands or singers/composers etc.

DL: Whispered (Finland), Dimmu Borgir (Norway), Nightwish (Finland)

18 – Do you still use hand sculpt on IA or is all digital as it is the new reality of our hobby?

DL: Most of our sculpt are digitally sculpted as it gives the freedom to amend and resize within a short time.  It does not mean manual sculpt is but it takes a longer time, as we all know licensing time frame keeps the clock ticking.  As well as, it takes a very good hand sculptor to produce what we need.  Unless it’s a custom, where time is not a concern, hand sculpt can be considered.

19 – What’s the average time of development of a Imaginarium Art piece, from the first idea to the boxed product ready to go to the buyer?

DL: Depending on the model itself, mechanical projects takes a longer time to cast due to multiple parts and it could go up to hundreds of little parts.  Organic Projects like Batman, takes a shorter time.

Form an idea till a ready product, it takes about 6 - 9 months to complete 1 project.

20 – How do you decide the edition sizes (ES) of each piece? What was the biggest and the smallest ES from IA?

DL: We decide the ES based on the popularity of the character, at times, based on our distributor’s estimation.  The Biggest is our Transformers G1 Soundwave and lowest is our Guardians of the Galaxy Milano.

21 – What do you think about the quick raise of prices of certain collectible companies? Do you think this is a movement of all industry? What do you think are the factors that lead to this immense raise of the prices?

DL: The quick raise of pricing currently is a concern, we agree China labor cost and standard has raised, standard of living too.  It’s an expensive hobby now, we have fans that have to save for months just to buy our Soundwave, as for this, considering factory owners producing statues are driving BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz and even Porsche. They know the market too, so jacking up the price is somehow normal regarding this.

We are looking into ways of producing products in a more affordable way with no compromise on quality, working hard on this.

22 – Three favorite games.

DL: Crash Bandicoot, Starcraft, Uno card game

23 – Three favorite movies.

DL: Saving Private Ryan, The Lady Killers, Pacific Rim

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

DL: Neither, I would be very astonish to see Jabba the hutt drinking an Ice Cold Beer with me.

28 – Live a phrase, a bombastic revelation or a quote to our fellow readers.

DL: Be true to yourself, and keep going in what you do if you think is right, obstacles will happen along the way, stay focus and believe in yourself.

29 – Many people think Imaginarium Art is gone. What can you tell to those people?

Imaginarium Art is not gone at all, in fact, we have grown into a better company, rumors are rumors, and rumors are powerful in social media platforms.  People use perks and money to engage parties to create rumors.  That’s life, it’s either we fall into this trap or keep up.  Anyway, it’s of not of a concern to us.

The fact is we have new warehouses, new team, new offices, better IA Warriors, new manufacturing partners to keep ourselves up to this game.  How can we be gone or bought over if we are still posting and producing new sculpts to show our fans for production? 

Not the time yet to go Hawaii with 2 bikini girls yet for me.  Still got statues to produce…..hahahaha

Thank you for your time and patience. I’m sure the readers will really enjoy this interview, especially Imaginarium Art fans.

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INTERVIEW ABOUT KILLER CROC WITH SCULPTOR PABLOOD-Z

Sideshow’s Killer Croc figure got me when I saw a close up of its face. The lines where crude, rough, almost as they were being made with anger, with the same ferocity of the character. Obviously and undeniably, it was hand sculpted. Computers can’t do that. As I loved the result, I decided to look for the main sculptor – Pablood-Z – to discover more about the process of bring it to life. Here is what we got about this figure that’ been low on the collectors radar, but is a sculpting accomplishment to those who likes their statues to have strong personality and enjoys pieces done the old fashion way.

Killer Croc: rough, organic - human - lines. That makes all the difference.

1 – I like very much the way Killer Croc was sculpted it has more crude, rough lines than any other statue I’ve ever seen on Sideshow. It was decided by the design team? Or it was in common accord with you?

(Pablood-Z): Working with Sideshow is all about teamwork, a lot of decisions are taken before and after they assign a project to sculptors, however each sculptor put its style on it, and that's what I always do, give my vision of the character, always that I am allowed.

2 – Looking at the figure and you soon realize it was hand sculpted. The pose the imperfections, the asymmetry… humanity in this statue is explicit. It was a decision taken early on in the project? Not to look like a computer generated image?

(P-Z): I don't think so, nowadays I could say that digital sculpture has conquered the market, and it has open the doors to many digital sculptors that have not a “strong" artistic formation, I feel digital media only expands and increase my possibilities as sculptor, I am happy that I decided to make the transition.

3 – This idea of a more “crude” sculpting has to do with the character represented or did you wanted to make a totally “non-computer” sculpture to show Sideshow still pulls it great style?

(P-Z): When I sculpted Killer Croc, I had zero digital experience, I just did it the only way I knew. However I agree that the crude style fits better on characters like these.

Good old had sculpt all along.

4 – Don’t you think it was an audacious undertaking? Many people could turn their noses thinking it looked like an “unfinished” figure of sorts or “made in a rush”… (even though nobody seemed to care as much as I do about this aspect of the Killer Croc)

(P-Z): Well, it always depends on everyone's point of view, many people are not able to see the difference between a good and a bad job. But never pursued to get an unfinished general aspect, rather I pursued an organic one.

5 – Anyway, I think the result turn out awesome because of the roughness, there are almost “violent” lines on the sculpt which makes it feels so fresh and different and matches so well the feral character. Well, being said that, I would like to know, because I believe the comparison is valid since they’re all “reptiles”: were the Sideshow Teenage Ninja Turtles sculpted in ZBrush (or whatever software you use)? If so, it influenced in some way the decision of going old style with Killer Croc?

(P-Z): No idea of who sculpted the turtles for Sideshow or if they are digital or traditional sculpt, but in any case, I go my own style always that's possible.

Turtles, hope we don't cross at the sewers... for your own good...

6 – Speaking of ZBrush you also sculpt in 3D software? If so what do you prefer: hand sculpt or computer sculpt? What are the benefits and the hurdles of each method?

(P-Z): Although there is a lot to learn about Zbrush, I already can say that Zbrush allows me more freedom and control over traditional. In fact, I am at a point where I tell myself why I didn't make the change years before, I feel that digital flows inside me more in only 1 year than traditional did for more than 15 years of sculpting. I don't miss traditional, but I know that thanks to it I grew as an artist.

7 – It was more easy or more difficult to sculpt Killer Croc this way, more rough around the edges? Or is this your style of sculpting?

(P-Z): I felt very comfortable sculpting Killer Croc, I think it has to do more with my style. This has been one of those easy to do sculpts compared to other projects.

8 – How much time from first discussions about the character to the prototype we saw at Comic Con? I just discovered you changed companies and became the Art Director/Lead Artist from Imaginarium Art (a good subject for a next interview! That there will be if you’re up to!)

(P-Z): Killer Croc was sculpted by ends 2014 I think. It took me 2 and a half months to get it complete. Previously, David Igo, incredible friend and Art Director, came with the idea of it and he provided some reference images of the style he was pursuing, then told me to generate some ideas for a statue based on that style. I made several rough sculpts and we went for one of them, that took me a couple of weeks.

Sometimes I'm falling to pieces, somebody put me together... ;)

9 – What was the role of Alfred Paredes on the sculpture? I bet that mouse was his idea.

(P-Z): Alfred Paredes? No idea. The sculpture is reflecting 98 % the work I made. Oh yes, I just checked, they added one line of Bricks at the bottom of the base. Sometimes, Sideshow makes tiny adjustments and they credit that person at the same level as the one who made the entire job which I do not agree.

I am providing some images of my original sculpt that will allow you to get your own conclusions. The rat was not on the original concept, I decided to sculpt and put it there because I felt it was a good harmless addition.

 

Details... and the rat! ;)

10 – Why Sideshow is using this translucent effect in every new figure it releases? Is it a new technology? A new material? What it is? It’s getting quite out of control, annoying, in my opinion. It’s like customs trend of doing every single character “on throne” now. Annoys me too. (But those are very subjective opinions! To me, just gets overwhelming, repetitive and boring everything with translucent effect, everyone on throne. Gets stale fast.)

(P-Z): Translucent effect? Where precisely? I only noticed the translucency accordingly applied on the water on base, which is good. If translucent effect is required, why not use it? That's ok for me, no complain. Thrones, oh yes! Seems like the idea is that collectors want thrones, I am not fan of them at all, but everyone tends to think that characters on thrones will sell.

11 – Are you proud of the result? The painting really brought it to life, especially the eyes, but all the pallet from the darkest blackish green to brightest cream yellow is just fantastic. Apart the painting are you proud of the sculpture and the way it was done?

(P-Z): I think the paintwork is awesome and really brought the character to life, I like it. And I am happy with the job I did, however I am very critic with my own work in general, there are always things that could have been done better, you are able to see that more clearly with the past of time and seeing it from a distant point.

Incredible color palette. Impressive transition from very dark tones to very bright ones.

12 – Speaking of pride, please name three sculptures you’ve done that you’re proud of.

(P-Z): I could not talk about pride, but I can name a few I still like: Hulk vs Silver Surfer Diorama,

Blood Elf vs Draenei Diorama and the Galactus Legendary bust.

Handmade. No computers used.

13 – What character would you like to sculpt but were not able to tackle until now?

I love Silver Surfer, I would like to sculpt a 1/4 statue of it, my own design and style.

14 – What’s your favorite character (not necessarily from comics)?

Love Devilman, Cobra (space adventure), Ryu, Ken, Akuma and Bison

Akuma, Ryu, Ken some of Pablood favorite characters.
A Street Fighter fan, perhaps? :)

15 – What it takes to be a good sculptor? Can somebody embrace the profession in a cold, unpassionate fashion?

I am convinced that all is about a mix between passion, perseverance, enjoyment and attitude.

16 – What would astonish you the most: to see an alien or to see a ghost? (No, you can’t answer a ghost-alien or an alien-ghost! Take the easy road takes all the meaning of the question. :P)

Both are really interesting, I don't like aliens if we are referring to Giger's “Aliens”, I find them very boring at this point.

17 – Three bands you love and three favorite movies.

No favorite bands, I enjoy music in general, nowadays I am enjoying a lot Lana del Rey.

Movies? Many! “The Road”, “A Story of Violence”, “Oblivion”.

18 – Leave a phrase, a bombastic news or a quote to our fellow readers.

"I believe in god when everything is lost", I find it funny and a so fucking true statement at the same time.

And I have faith in you and in your bold decision of leave Sideshow and start a new career in a much smaller place. I desire you all that is best and that we can see your work again soon enough. I would like to add that, as probable the last Pablood-Z hand sculpt, certainly Killer Croc will be that much more valuable to me now. Thank you for taking your time to answer the questions. I and I believe the readers are thankful for that.

You can order Killer Croc with the exclusive crocodile alternate head right now through Sideshow sponsored link below (while supplies last):

-x-x-x-x-

Oh, and to those interested in a good fight, or a fight for good, below is the link for the petition asking Sideshow to begin their payment plans as soon as the figures are out for pre-order, giving us more months to pay at smaller monthly fees. If you like this idea, just click the link below and sign the petition. It will take just a minute and can make a lot of difference to all of us average-pocket collectors. 

Sideshow payment plans starting along with the pre-orders means more months to pay, meaning cheaper monthly fees, meaning more easier payments. If you want this to happen, sign the petition. It only takes a minute but can bring long term facilities to all of us Sideshow (and Prime 1 and Hot Toy and etc.) collectors.

https://www.change.org/p/sidewhow-collectibles-sideshow-we-want-payment-plans-with-more-and-lower-monthly-fees