When we went up with pre-orders for the Iron Giant Deluxe Figure back in January, the overwhelmingly positive response was for me, personally, a double-edge sword. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing something that you and your team spent (at that point) a year and a half planning, adjusting, sculpting, adjusting, painting, adjusting (well, you get the picture), being received with such enthusiasm. Truly a fantastic feeling.
Then the other side of it sinks in - can we live up to the anticipation and expectations of what something like this comes with? The obvious answer follows close behind - of course we can! - but it's going to take some time, a lot patience, and a ton of love.
Preamble out of the way, I wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain, showing you where we're at with the figure, with a bit of visual aid to help out.
This is a "first shot"(or "test shot") of the figure, which is an early, unpainted sample we look over to make comments on, before the figure's tooling ( or tools - the metal molds that are essential in plastic manufacturing) are given final approval. Since the tools take a very long time to make, it's important that we're sure everything is working properly, before the full production of the piece starts. Basically, this is where we work out all the kinks.
You'll notice in the video that the fingers are loose, which is something we obviously don't want in the final product, and we've highlighted that as something that needs adjusting. Thankfully, there were very few things that needed to be adjusted, so we're well on our way!
For the sound and light feature, it was the factory that suggested the buttons be the top two vertebrae-type pieces on the back. In retrospect, it's so obvious that I can't even remember where I had first suggested the buttons be! That's why collaboration at all stages of products like this is so important.
In the video below, you'll see what I mean about the buttons, and get a first listen of the sound feature, with a selection of just some of the lines. Now the only bummer news about this is as much as it's been requested, and as hard as we tried, the studio wouldn't let us use any line mentioning "Superman." I know, I know, but it was outside of our control. That said, I think the lines we picked are still great at representing the Giant's character.
There you have it! HUGE shoutout to Klim & Bigshot Toyworks, who worked tirelessly to make this figure possible! We'll be showing you more updates in the coming months, including a look at the packaging, painted samples, etc., as we lead up to the release of the figure, which is currently scheduled to be the first quarter of 2016.
Thanks again for your support and patience! We know you're gonna love our little big Iron Giant.
