The Intricacies of High-End Collectible Toys: An Interview with Bigshot Toy Works' Clen

As we sat down to chat with Clen from Bigshot Toy Works, it was clear that he was passionate about his work. He spoke with enthusiasm and dedication, sharing insights into the world of high-end collectible toys. "It's such a new thing like I've never done anything like this before," he began, reflecting on the first time he worked on a project like the Iron Giant. "You said it took two years of your life, it was because...there was an approval process and then there was the technical process of actually getting the prototype made."

Clen delved deeper into the complexities of bringing a concept to life. "Once you have a prototype, you have to tool it and make sure that all the parts fit properly and move properly," he explained. "And then, like, this really complicated paint job because if they're making like 1 piece every single one of these scratches is not a mistake, it's not there because somebody blasted a laser at it - it's like an intentional spot that has to be perfect in every single piece." The attention to detail required was staggering, with each component meticulously crafted and inspected.

The production process itself was a marvel of engineering. "Most factories when this thing first came out to China...most factors are like 'no, they can't do it' because it's like the amount of time it takes on the production line," Clen revealed. The assembly required for high-end collectible toys was painstakingly labor-intensive, with each piece assembled by hand thousands of times over. "There's no machine there's no special magical made in China doesn't mean magic - you know so everything has to be assembled by human by hand on an assembly line process." This level of complexity and potential for disaster meant that every aspect of the toy was scrutinized, from the arm to the screws.

Clen's personal pet peeve was figures that didn't stand. "My biggest pet peeve is figures that don't stand," he confessed. "We have both of these do stand, they don't need their own stands - it's just a little top-heavy because it's got so much stuff in there." To address this issue, the team added rubber bushings and ball joints to provide a smoother motion. "It's like a little hip action to give him a little bit of personality," Clen explained.

The collaboration between Bigshot Toy Works and clients like Mondo and Sideshow Bob was also noteworthy. "We're always fortunate that we have clients who are passionate about this stuff and want it to be as perfect as it can be," Clen said, highlighting the importance of art direction and feedback. These clients were willing to invest time and resources into making each project a success, which allowed Bigshot Toy Works to push the boundaries of what was possible.

The engineering of high-end collectible toys presented numerous challenges, from balancing practicality with aesthetics to ensuring that every component functioned flawlessly. "It's such an interesting problem-solving challenge," Clen reflected. "There are points where you get so focused on one little thing and forget something else - like what can go wrong?" To mitigate this risk, the team employed a rigorous testing process, examining each aspect of the toy to identify potential issues.

As our conversation drew to a close, Clen emphasized the importance of attention to detail. "It's not just the aesthetics, it's not just the paint job - not even the sculpting," he stressed. "The engineering and materials are where the magic happens." With each project, Bigshot Toy Works sought to create a seamless experience that would leave collectors in awe. By combining artistry with technical expertise, they were able to craft truly unforgettable collectibles.

We thanked Clen for sharing his insights and experiences with us, and invited readers to explore Bigshot Toy Works' impressive portfolio at bigshot toyworks.com/bigshottoyworks.com. As we parted ways, it was clear that the world of high-end collectible toys was in good hands with Clen and his team at Bigshot Toy Works.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody it's Norm from tes.com I'm here at New York ComicCon and there's an area here called The Block that features one of my favorite things collectible toys now this is Clen clim is the creative director of Big Shot toys yes and uh you guys work behind the scenes in developing a lot of the Collectibles that I see being sold by companies like Sideshow and even Mondo yes so tell me about pink shot toys and what you guys do we are a development studio and we offer a service to our clients where we take a concept from sometimes from a napkin sketch and an idea all the way through production sometimes our clients come to us with a concept that's pretty fleshed out and we do sculpture prototyping developing for production uh sometimes we take the whatever the concept is all the way through through our Factory Partners in China produce the things deliver it to them or in cases like you know this Rainer or this uh Iron Giant that we did from Mondo we just handle the the the digital development the articulation design engineering sometimes tooling and then hand it off hand off the package to uh the client to take it into production in their factories in China what you mentioned there from the talking about the the articulation design the the cad Design toy development today must be so different than what it was like 10 years ago or even 5 years ago yes you can do so much now with toy design like when Sideshow came to you and they said they had a licensed new rer with blizzard right you know their game assets like do you is that the first thing you asked for you I want the Blizzard game assets to start off with nice we we want like if if there's source materal like a digital file whether it's like the original animation file from Iron Giant or the the the Cinematic file from the RoR from Starcraft or any of the other pieces that we worked on before um we want those we want to take a look at them to be as authentic as possible like in the case of The Iron Giant we got the file but it was from 19 whenever the movie came out so it was completely useless for any kind of production but it was perfect for us to get the exact detail idea and silhouette idea of where everything is and then take that and design it design all of the movement around it to make sure that the figure did everything that it's supposed to do CU there was that CG model but they probably used shaders and didn't have all the the polygons or all the ribbets and nuts and so you you still the sculpt it yes we have to we have to take the take the asset use it as reference almost like a tracing paper type of deal and you rebuild the entire piece part by part by part by part and you have to figure out with Iron Giant it's mechanical so the design was really well executed so all of the moving parts were there but a lot of the stuff wasn't really worked out in Practical terms like how does this ball joint you know sit inside this shoulder to enable list motion and then how do we get you know how do we get this to move so this is like an independent piece so that's like nerdy stuff that we have fun trying to figure out all the time it's like how do you get as much motion into a figure and still retain its original look without deviating from the form because that's what everybody really cares about is the form the attitude and like you know the iconic poses like the Superman and you know like the sitting down and you know you go I stay no following you know like how do we get those poses from these figures without changing it so it doesn't look right and sometimes really tough you have really thin Parts I remember toys when I was a kid had articulation but they cheat they were never exactly the same proportions all the details and now that you like you said collectors want both so for someone like Rainer how do you go about deciding how many features to pack in well this one because this is such a complicated piece there's 524 individual pieces in this figure so that's the the tooling alone on that is enough for like my whole house and everything in my whole house and so it's a it's a huge investment so everybody at Sideshow everybody at blizzard all all you know they were very they were very focused on trying to be as authentic as possible to capture every single detail of the piece and sometimes because it was such a new thing like I've never done anything like this before you said it took two years of your life it it was because because we there was an approval process and then there was the technical process of actually once once the model is done and once you have a prototype you have to make it you have to Tool it and then you have to make sure that all the parts fit properly and move properly and then you have like this really complicated paint job because if they're making like a th pieces every single one of these scratches it's not a mistake it's not there because somebody blasted a laser at it it's like an intentional spot that has to be perfect in every single piece you know the portrait have to work out like the the visor everything has to fit perfectly and work every single time so most factories when this thing first came out to China most factors is like no they can't do it no because it's like the amount of time it takes on the production line because these are all assembled by hand it's not like there's no machine there's no there's no special magical you know made in China doesn't mean magic you know so everything has to be assembled by Human by hand on assembly rhyme process thousands of times perfectly over and over and over again so the level of complexity and the level of you know potential disaster like if the arm breaks or if if a screw is not in right or if it's not glued properly you're screwed yeah and so you have to you know for for somebody like Sideshow they can't be replacing $500 action figures you know these if you're making a th000 iron Giants you can't be the last thing you want is somebody to love this thing so much that they spend $300 on it bring it home and it's broken because then your entire experience of this thing is busted you know you're you know it's like i' I've had toys like the finger breaks or you know you glue it but then you're not looking at it the same way you know so we're always trying to make sure that everything is as perfect as it can be like with this guy my biggest pet peeve is figures that don't stand yeah so so so we have both of these do stand they don't need their own stands he's a little topheavy that's because he's just got so much stuff because the battery pack in there but we added like rubber bushings in here and instead of just like having like straight cut hips there's like a ball join in that's like nicely tightly rolled so you can do like a little hip action to give him a little bit of personality so he can just kind of stand and it's we're always also really fortunate that we have clients like like Brock at Mondo and like all of the guys at SRO like Matt Bishop over there like they're really passionate about this stuff and they want this stuff to be as perfect as it can be and they sort of just like you know they're art directing me on what to do and they're like we need this to be like this or we want this changed or we want this slightly different but we're all in it to make the perfect you know Iron Giant or the perfect rainar so we're all always working together to just try to balance out the practicality and the you know the oh wouldn't it be cool if but then you know gravity sets in and materials and and the materials as well it's such an interesting problem solving challenge the engineering of high in collectible toys it's it's it's always it's always like that because then you like there there's stuff that like you can get so focused in on one little thing and you forget something else so you're always like figuring things out in your head like what can go wrong what can go wrong and I like there there are points where like I get projects in where the first thing that I do when I look at something is isn't like how cool can it be it's like how can this thing get go sideways right how can I avoid that from happening during the entire production process which winds up costing time money and lots and lots of you know screaming screaming people in China so when we tell people to pay attention to detail and how much attention detail goes in the toys it's not just the Aesthetics it's not just the paint job not even the sculpting just the engineering and that's what you guys do thank you so much Clen for chatting with me and sharing with me some of this information this is so cool I would love I could sit here and talk for an hour with you about toys but we had so much more to see on New York ComiCon please check out their products uh bigshot toy works.com bigshot toyworks dcom and we'll see you guys next time thank youhey everybody it's Norm from tes.com I'm here at New York ComicCon and there's an area here called The Block that features one of my favorite things collectible toys now this is Clen clim is the creative director of Big Shot toys yes and uh you guys work behind the scenes in developing a lot of the Collectibles that I see being sold by companies like Sideshow and even Mondo yes so tell me about pink shot toys and what you guys do we are a development studio and we offer a service to our clients where we take a concept from sometimes from a napkin sketch and an idea all the way through production sometimes our clients come to us with a concept that's pretty fleshed out and we do sculpture prototyping developing for production uh sometimes we take the whatever the concept is all the way through through our Factory Partners in China produce the things deliver it to them or in cases like you know this Rainer or this uh Iron Giant that we did from Mondo we just handle the the the digital development the articulation design engineering sometimes tooling and then hand it off hand off the package to uh the client to take it into production in their factories in China what you mentioned there from the talking about the the articulation design the the cad Design toy development today must be so different than what it was like 10 years ago or even 5 years ago yes you can do so much now with toy design like when Sideshow came to you and they said they had a licensed new rer with blizzard right you know their game assets like do you is that the first thing you asked for you I want the Blizzard game assets to start off with nice we we want like if if there's source materal like a digital file whether it's like the original animation file from Iron Giant or the the the Cinematic file from the RoR from Starcraft or any of the other pieces that we worked on before um we want those we want to take a look at them to be as authentic as possible like in the case of The Iron Giant we got the file but it was from 19 whenever the movie came out so it was completely useless for any kind of production but it was perfect for us to get the exact detail idea and silhouette idea of where everything is and then take that and design it design all of the movement around it to make sure that the figure did everything that it's supposed to do CU there was that CG model but they probably used shaders and didn't have all the the polygons or all the ribbets and nuts and so you you still the sculpt it yes we have to we have to take the take the asset use it as reference almost like a tracing paper type of deal and you rebuild the entire piece part by part by part by part and you have to figure out with Iron Giant it's mechanical so the design was really well executed so all of the moving parts were there but a lot of the stuff wasn't really worked out in Practical terms like how does this ball joint you know sit inside this shoulder to enable list motion and then how do we get you know how do we get this to move so this is like an independent piece so that's like nerdy stuff that we have fun trying to figure out all the time it's like how do you get as much motion into a figure and still retain its original look without deviating from the form because that's what everybody really cares about is the form the attitude and like you know the iconic poses like the Superman and you know like the sitting down and you know you go I stay no following you know like how do we get those poses from these figures without changing it so it doesn't look right and sometimes really tough you have really thin Parts I remember toys when I was a kid had articulation but they cheat they were never exactly the same proportions all the details and now that you like you said collectors want both so for someone like Rainer how do you go about deciding how many features to pack in well this one because this is such a complicated piece there's 524 individual pieces in this figure so that's the the tooling alone on that is enough for like my whole house and everything in my whole house and so it's a it's a huge investment so everybody at Sideshow everybody at blizzard all all you know they were very they were very focused on trying to be as authentic as possible to capture every single detail of the piece and sometimes because it was such a new thing like I've never done anything like this before you said it took two years of your life it it was because because we there was an approval process and then there was the technical process of actually once once the model is done and once you have a prototype you have to make it you have to Tool it and then you have to make sure that all the parts fit properly and move properly and then you have like this really complicated paint job because if they're making like a th pieces every single one of these scratches it's not a mistake it's not there because somebody blasted a laser at it it's like an intentional spot that has to be perfect in every single piece you know the portrait have to work out like the the visor everything has to fit perfectly and work every single time so most factories when this thing first came out to China most factors is like no they can't do it no because it's like the amount of time it takes on the production line because these are all assembled by hand it's not like there's no machine there's no there's no special magical you know made in China doesn't mean magic you know so everything has to be assembled by Human by hand on assembly rhyme process thousands of times perfectly over and over and over again so the level of complexity and the level of you know potential disaster like if the arm breaks or if if a screw is not in right or if it's not glued properly you're screwed yeah and so you have to you know for for somebody like Sideshow they can't be replacing $500 action figures you know these if you're making a th000 iron Giants you can't be the last thing you want is somebody to love this thing so much that they spend $300 on it bring it home and it's broken because then your entire experience of this thing is busted you know you're you know it's like i' I've had toys like the finger breaks or you know you glue it but then you're not looking at it the same way you know so we're always trying to make sure that everything is as perfect as it can be like with this guy my biggest pet peeve is figures that don't stand yeah so so so we have both of these do stand they don't need their own stands he's a little topheavy that's because he's just got so much stuff because the battery pack in there but we added like rubber bushings in here and instead of just like having like straight cut hips there's like a ball join in that's like nicely tightly rolled so you can do like a little hip action to give him a little bit of personality so he can just kind of stand and it's we're always also really fortunate that we have clients like like Brock at Mondo and like all of the guys at SRO like Matt Bishop over there like they're really passionate about this stuff and they want this stuff to be as perfect as it can be and they sort of just like you know they're art directing me on what to do and they're like we need this to be like this or we want this changed or we want this slightly different but we're all in it to make the perfect you know Iron Giant or the perfect rainar so we're all always working together to just try to balance out the practicality and the you know the oh wouldn't it be cool if but then you know gravity sets in and materials and and the materials as well it's such an interesting problem solving challenge the engineering of high in collectible toys it's it's it's always it's always like that because then you like there there's stuff that like you can get so focused in on one little thing and you forget something else so you're always like figuring things out in your head like what can go wrong what can go wrong and I like there there are points where like I get projects in where the first thing that I do when I look at something is isn't like how cool can it be it's like how can this thing get go sideways right how can I avoid that from happening during the entire production process which winds up costing time money and lots and lots of you know screaming screaming people in China so when we tell people to pay attention to detail and how much attention detail goes in the toys it's not just the Aesthetics it's not just the paint job not even the sculpting just the engineering and that's what you guys do thank you so much Clen for chatting with me and sharing with me some of this information this is so cool I would love I could sit here and talk for an hour with you about toys but we had so much more to see on New York ComiCon please check out their products uh bigshot toy works.com bigshot toyworks dcom and we'll see you guys next time thank you\n"