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The Core Of Collecting At San Diego-Comic Con

CoreBy Anthony Desiato (@DesiWestside)

Joe LeFavi, Comic-Con HQ's VP of Marketing, kicked off SDCC's "The Core of Collecting" panel by asking why fans collect. He posited that, "We love popular culture so much that we need a tangible representation of it." Before he introduced his panelists, "the modern-day curators of pop culture," he queued up a video featuring one of the hobby's most famous collectors, Mark Hamill.

Hamill teased the upcoming launch of his docuseries for Comic-Con HQ, Mark Hamill's Pop Culture Quest, though he jokingly said his original title was Let Me See Your Stuff. In the show, Hamill will appear and showcase fans' "greatest and most obscure collectibles" as he seeks to identify the forces (no pun intended) that drive collectors.

Following the video, LeFavi turned the floor over to his panelists, an all-star roster of designers and developers behind some of fans' favorite collectibles: Steve Zimmermann (Sideshow Collectibles), Dev Gilmore (Gentle Giant), Matt Marone (Project TriForce), Jim Fletcher (DC Collectibles), Matt Arevalo (Loot Crate), David Scroggy (Dark Horse Collectibles), Chris Berejik (ThinkGeek), and Sir Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop).

As the panelists revealed their earliest collectibles, from Zimmermann's plush Kermit figure to Taylor's garage kits, it became apparent that they were fans and collectors themselves, a theme that resonated throughout the session.

Returning to LeFavi's initial question, Taylor offered that, "When you walk out of a theater, you have a quickly fading memory. Collectibles are a permanent reminder that bring you back to that moment."

Much of the panel was devoted to exploring the respective companies' development processes, including decisions about which licenses to pursue, which characters to bring to three-dimensional life, and which stylistic choices will best represent the characters in question and appeal to fans.

At Dark Horse, for example, Scroggy explained that the development process starts with the question: "Do we like it ourselves?" In deciding how to best exploit a particular license, "the property will dictate the type of item." He pointed to the company's Game of Thrones snow globes, an item that reflects that wintry look and feel of the show.

Most of the companies represented on stage primarily work with licensed characters, save for Fletcher's DC Collectibles with its in-house properties. However, a number of companies, particularly Weta and the video game-based TriForce, have started to develop their own IP to exploit through merchandising, thus eliminating costly licensing fees.

With respect to stylistic choices, Zimmermann said that the goal is to "pay homage to the characters and capture their personality." As fans themselves, many of the panelists echoed the sentiment that fan feedback and interaction is an important factor for companies to consider. Arevalo said that Loot Crate continually seeks customer input as the company selects the contents of its subscription boxes each month. Taylor, meanwhile, stated that Weta solicits feedback and requests through online forums and takes that survey data into account when planning the product line.

The panelists also praised in advances in technology, particularly digital sculpting, that have vastly improved and expedited the development process. Gilmore recounted a contentious exchange with a Comic-Con attendee a number of years ago where the fan argued that digital sculpting wasn't art. Now, as Gilmore pointed out, "everybody does it."

Collectibles may start on a digital rendering screen, but they ultimately end up in collectors' homes, where one of pop culture's most prominent representatives may just be waiting with a camera. Hamill's Pop Culture Quest arrives online this fall.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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