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| | INTERVIEW WITH JERRY MACALUSO OF SOTA TOYS, INC. | | SOTA Toys, Inc., have been given the license to create figures and vehicles of the characters and ships from THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. Series 1 will be hitting stores in June and is comprised of seven-inch figures for Riddick, Lord Marshal, Vaako, Kyra, and the Lensing Necromonger, with an MSRP of $12.99. Removable weapons and armor round out the package, and a boxed set will contain some additional items along with a Hellhound figure. You can see the figures and packaging by clicking here.
PitcherBlacker was lucky enough to get the chance to fire a couple questions at Jerry Macaluso, President of SOTA toys. Take a gander...
How generally does the process work of actually getting to do the figures for a feature film? Is this something that you have to bid on, or does the studio contact you?
The studio licensing dept will generally contact all of the toy companies and see who wants to put a bid in on the project. We were specifically courted because our Tomb Raider figures were hot at the time. Most toy companies believe the studio simply picks the comany who is offering the most money but I think they also weigh in quality and if the toy company 'gets' the project. I was a fan of Pitch Black and Twohy in general so I could really relate to what they were doing. Plus I've been in the film business for years and hadn't seen production design as what I saw for Riddick in many years.
Briefly, what is the process from signed contract to finished figure in a package on a shelf?
Lets see.. contract then we gather all the reference we can find at the studio (and there's usually not much because the film makers are kind of busy making the film!). We decide what figures we will make and begin sculpting. Along the way we submit things for approvals and continue to refine and make changes based on the studio/actors and director's comments. Once we have everything approved we fly on over to China and walk them through the project. If you don't hold the factory's hand you will end up with something very very bad..lol. They're just so used to dealing with the huge toy companies and cutting every corner possible that when you want to make something good it's a battle. While the factory is engineering the figures we work on package design and selling them into the stores. That's about it.. of course theres a lot of sleepless nights but it's worth it. All in all it takes about 7-9 months to go from contract to stores depending on the complexity of the project.
Who are some of the people that have worked on the actual CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK figures, and what did they do?
Our sculpting lead is Alexi Bustamante. He supervises a bunch of sculptors that include Jon Stevens, Aaron McNaught, Troy Smith, Davis Fandino and Mike Arbios. Joe Petro and Kat Sapene developed the paint work on the figures. Jed Haigh is the production supervisor and he makes sure everything stays on schedule and deals with the approvals process. Jess Bansal is our head of sales and works out exclusive deals with retailers such as the Hellhound ONLY being sold through the Musicland chain of stores in the USA. That chain includes MediaPlay, Suncoast and Sam Goody.
What kind of difficulties did you encounter during the creation process?
Hardest part was getting the reference we needed. Not that anyone was difficult but a lot of the designs were not finalised until the last minute so it meant us not including a few things we might have liked to in the first series. We also ran into a big problem early on in that a lot of the laser scans that were done were done on body doubles and just didnt look right. That means that all of the armour had to be resculpted by hand...it put us a good month behind.
Has there been any involvement with the figure development by any of the principals from the movie, such as Vin Diesel or David Twohy?
I would say both David and Vin were very involved. I mean , keep in mind they're making an epic film so i wasn't in daily contact with them, but they were definately involved. Vin is a huge fan of comics and action figures and I was extremely flattered that he approved our figure of him the very first time we showed it to him with just one minor change.
What determines whether you make vehicles and additional figures... the sales of this first series, or the success of the movie?
Sales. Tomb Raider was a disaster at the box office but our figures flew off the shelves so we made more. We're prepared to do more Riddick figures if sales warrant it. The film could make a billion dollars but that doesnt necessarily mean the figures are a hit. We'll just wait and see. As for vehicles, we ended up making high end collectible resin versions of some of the spaceships. These will be very limited and probably come out around Sept.
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