118th: Mechs are fairly complex in design. How difficult is it to get one from the drawing board to actual product?
TN: Mechs are not as difficult to sculpt as the humans! To be honest, we are very experienced in designing transformable figures, so the mechs didn’t seem to be an issue. However, cost control is quite a challenge due to a low number of the run. Capcom provided us some 3D models from the game, however those are quite basic shapes, and we had to figure out the physical transformation by ourselves.
Take Evax for example –
1) Capcom provided us their 3D models and 2D concept art
2) We remodeled them in CAD.
3) Rapid Protype
Prototype Version 1
4) Later we modified the design to meet mass production requirements.
5) Refining. From time to time, we fail to catch something in our design, and then have to scramble to cover it in the last minute.
Take the VS guns for instance. At the end of the development stage, we suddenly realized each VS gun would have different configurations when being mounted to left side or right side of the VS. In he game, the model was just simply mirrored, but for the figure itself, we had to think of something to make the conversion happen. So, we came up with a solution which will be quite interesting for you to find out when you receive the figures.
Continue reading the Q and A on Page 5…
Great Q&A!