Don Figueroa dropped us a line and let us know that he and some partners have created a new company which will feature all original robot designs, comics, and toys. Check out their official statement below!
[INDENT][INDENT]VALENT WANG AND DON FIGUEROA ANNOUNCE MECHA WORKSHOP – COMIC BOOK AND FIGURE TIE-IN
Valent Wang, along with famed TRANSFORMERS comic book artist Don Figueroa (Dreamwave’s Transformers: The War Within, IDW Publishing’s Transformers On-Going) have announced the formation of a new company, Mecha Workshop, which features an online comic as well as a collectable action figure line featuring customizable mech-figures that convert and have alternate modes!
The free-to-view online comic will be written by Dan Taylor (former editor IDW Publishing) and drawn by acclaimed artist Don Figueroa. The comic will showcase the unique universe of Mecha Workshop and develop a full back-story and current on-going story of heroes and villains! Lettering for the comic will be done by Thomas Mauer.
Celebrity artists Enrico Galli and Luca Zampriolo are also on board for this project. While both will be behind illustrations, the colors, graphics, and visual effects will be handled by Enrico Galli and Luca Zampriolo will be doing the sculpting.
This all new toy-line will premiere with the Infantry Unit Mech figure, who is a fit for a diverse range of combat situations!
Check out MACROMASTERS (Comic) (Figures), an older project of Don Figueroa featuring his own home-made figures, to get a possible idea of what’s in store for Mecha Workshop![/INDENT][/INDENT]
You can see some of Don’s comic work in our Comic Section here: Don Figueroa (Artist). Stay tuned for more details!
Deceptijohn
If your toys are going to be sitting on shelves attempting to entice a non-collector into making a purchase I can understand trying to approach the design with an eye toward getting the attention of the shopper. If you're making a collector product that will never see a shelf outside of a warehouse or the odd resale(comic) shop then you should think about it more like an ammunition casing; very important to delivering a cost-effective round on target(in this case on target meaning undamaged) but ultimately expendable and not worth adding unnecessary cost.
Primus
I certainly see your point. Maybe that's one of the reasons Palisades went out of business
megamonkeytron
Word.
I don't own anything that stays in a box. To me, what's the point? I play with 'em. They're toys.
MC Rap Throne
I have zero interest in this. Easy pass.
SMOG
I kind of agree with this. I actually LOVE nicely designed packaging… it has an undeniable appeal, especially when you compare stuff like most Japanese mass market toys to mass market US releases. It's pretty dramatic.
HOWEVER… the flip side is that then I feel obliged to SAVE the packaging. Dammit! I swear I have almost an entire closet full of nothing but attractive boxes for fancy Japanese robots. It really kind of defeats the purpose! This hobby takes up enough space as it is!
zmog
Deceptijohn
Packaging is the last of my concerns when buying a figure. I'd much prefer every cent go into the figure than into expensive packaging. They could send it out in bubble wrap and a brown packing box for all I care as long as the toy is amazing and at a good price point.
Gen. Magnus
I absolutely can not wait to see these fully detailed and ready for retail.
airfox
Interesting. Can't wait to see full designs – both on art form, and toy protos – to make up my mind, but so far it looks cool.
I'm saying this as someone who's bought almost every "toy" produced by Fansprojects, and some by iGear, BTS, Xovergen, etc.: the problem I have against the pro-3rd party argument expressed above, is that it comes from the train of thought that somehow Hasbro/TakaraTOMY are required to do what WE want, and not what makes sense for them as a company.
The funny thing about saying "we're Transformers collectors, not mecha collectors" is that if we're strict on our definitions, 3rd party products aren't really Transformers ™; and that's the exact reason why we can still buy such 3rd party products.
(And what's in a label in the end? …. when I was a kid I slapped an autobot symbol on my Popy DX Sankan-Oh from Ippatsuman, and played with it as a Transformer)
-airfox
Primus
Hopefully the same attention to detail will be paid to packaging as to the product itself. I think that's important when dealing with these very collectible type of items. When I did work for Palisades they always tried to design the best packaging possible considering the price point and product type (obviously there was only so much they could do with resin statue packaging). One really cool aspect I liked (as a designer) was the credits. It probably means more to the people that work on it then the people that buy it but I think it's cool to know who the people involved with bringing something to reality were.
Anyway, congrats to Valent, DON, and Dan. This looks to be an exciting venture and I hope it flourishes!!
QuinJester
Powered armor is a favorite of mine, and the prospect of swappable parts and customizable armor sounds pretty rad (as does the amount of personal interest the creators are obviously taking in this line). It's got 100% of my attention and support, to be sure.
I'm glad, also, that they're eschewing transformation gimmicks for a more "real armor" vibe and to allow a greater amount of detail (Opening cockpits? Movable fingers? Yes please!). As Mr. Wang has pointed out, there's already a series of mass retail transforming robots to sate my desire for things that change from one thing to another. What I don't have enough of are fun, poseable, and highly detailed mech suits.
I look forward to additional prototype photos.
Night Flame
Bring on the big bots. I don't have a lot of room for display, but I'll make room if these are as impressive as I'm hoping they will be.
theestampede
As I said it sounds really good to me, but unless the figures are really, really impressive and reasonably priced, 10 inches is much too large for me to start purchasing.
I'm a big fan of robot damashii sized figures or the size of deluxe class transformers and would gladly start collecting modular, figueroa robots in a smaller scale, but at 10 inches a reasonable display is much more difficult.
valentwang
Competing with Transformers or any other series never came across our minds. Don's Transformers roots go way back. Be it good or bad, it has been a major part of his life.
I understand how draining it is to collect toys.. Paint jobs, mint boxes, repaints, re-runs, affordability…etc.
(Yeah.. I'm one of those who takes lots of time picking out paint jobs and mint boxes.)
We really just want a toy that is affordable but still high in quality, comparable to other well established toy companies. And we hope we can reach a point where one feels that he/she's getting more than what they're paying for.
I remember my childhood/old skool days… Large scaled toys at pretty decent prices. The toy won't be small but we'll definitely make it as affordable as we possibly can. I miss those days y'know.
Cartoons, Comics, Toys…etc. We all grew up with these and they inspired and shaped us in someway or another.
We spent just as much effort on the comic even though it'd be free-to-view online. Some might call it marketing, but in a way we don't wish to force feed anyone.
We're even throwing in the physical comic along with the toy just for collectors. For those like me, who hates wrinkling their comics can view it online. However, the physical comic will contain some differences as compared to the online version(visually-wise), hoping collectors will find it collectible.
This Mech might be the smallest in the group but it's basically a jack-of-all-trades unit, not by itself though.
You never know, the simplest things might end up being the most complicated. Gotta show some love for the little guy
Smasher
That's what she said.
General Tekno
Well, it sounds to me like the comic is much like the G1 Marvel comic was – an instrument designed to sell toys.
The whole webcomic business model in general is "free product used to sell merchandise/services", for the more successful comics, anyway.
Taylor
You and I both.
Night Flame
This sounds awesome. And here's to hoping the gamble on having the comic be free pays off in massive toy sales.
General Tekno
So if I'm reading this right, that one doesn't transform?
Still, 10 inches is an impressive first venture.
NATO-BOT
Don just posted the fallowing on his DA page:
"Mecha Workshop's premier Mech is actually the first of a toyline we have planned. while it will be the smallest of the bunch (atleast on the heroes' side) this 'Infantry type' will be somewhere around 10 inches tall. fully articulated (including the fingers!), loads of weaponry and removable armor pieces.
We're working on making it as afordable as possible without skimping on the quality, comparable to other mech lines out there. beyond this first release, we're also planning larger, "Variably Configurable" mechs with secondary modes as well as combining abilities.
Besides the toy, there will be a tie-in, mini-series online comic (first issue is a whopping 28 pages) for FREE! written by yours trully, Valent Wang and Dan Taylor, colored by Enrico Galli.
stay tuned as we'll update you as much as possible."
Notilator
and yes i totaly agree whith you on that.