VINYL MTV Geek: Interview with Jim Valeri (Lead Designer) Villains
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- 297
- Location
- California
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Two of the most ravenous subsets in collector culture are the Designer Vinyl & Disney collectors. Well, Disney has been tapping into both of those audiences with their lines of blind-boxed Disney Vinylmation toys! This month sees the release of the 3rd series, titled “Villainsâ€, and is an exclusive to The Disney Store. Each figure comes blind-boxed and wrapped in a foil packaging, so you have no idea who you’re gonna get. The individual artists have their signatures signed to the bottom of the character’s feet and on the accompanying card. We recently talked with lead designer Jim Valeri on all things “Vinylmation†and why a certain Disney villain reminds him of his father.
MTV Geek: Where did the inspiration for the Villains series come from?
Jim Valeri: We were working with the Parks initially when we learned that we were going to be designing our own for the stores, and we had to work with them to try and find out what they had in the works to make sure that we didn’t duplicate our efforts. It was just sort of spontaneous. We were in one of the meetings and someone said “Have you thought of doing the villains?†and I said, “No, but that’s a great idea.†Of course the artists I work with are huge Disney fans, and for them the more obscure the character the better in a way, so there’s that aspect of it too. The Villains as a force just seemed so attractive to us. The hard part was trying to figure out which ones to go with initially, so it’s really been fun.
Geek: The Vinylmation figures are in the same style as the [Kid Robot’s] Dunny and the [Toy2R’s] Qee, but in this case they use Mickey Mouse as the platform. What are the challenges when it comes to painting up a character on one of these and making the design fit the shape?
Jim: There’s quite a few with being confined to one shape and having this giant array of character types and designs over the years. It’s a daunting thing thinking, “How am I going to represent a skinny character on this chunky shape, or a non-human form on this shape?†In a weird way, the limitation actually fuels our creativity. It’s sort of that philosophy that unfettered creativity is nebulous. Sometimes you need some of these limitations to really come up with solutions, and it’s amazing when watching the process. No one has a set approach when they’re attacking these figures. We just kind of sketch and run the ideas off each other, and it’s just amazing with how they present themselves.
As far as manufacturing and designing them, we really have to be cognizant of how much detail we put on there. The more detail, the more cost, and the more things that can go wrong; so, we try to push the envelope as far as we can, but we also try to stay aware of how that’s going to affect the factory and ultimately the price. Plus from a design standpoint, the more elegant the solution, usually the better.
Geek: What has been the collector’s reaction to the Villains line so far?
Jim: They’ve been getting out there for the past few weeks, and from what we can tell it’s pretty huge. The guys here are always monitoring the blogs, cause they’re true fans as you can tell, and the anticipation is fantastic. It’s funny too because some stuff was leaked out, and as anything leaks out there’s always dubious assumptions that are made. [Laughing] Just to see people speculate about “Oh, what’s the Chaser gonna be?†It’s just fun to see the fans that are really anticipating these things having chats, arguments really, amongst themselves as to what villain would be destined initially and how it might manifest itself. Just in really preliminary “our finger on the pulse of what’s happening†terms there’s really a demand for it, and we’re really excited about it. I don’t know that we could have come out with a stronger series for our first Disney Store-exclusive Vinylmation.
Geek: So, who’s the Chaser? C’mon, just go ahead and get it out there! [Laughing]
Jim: Oh, okay! Wait, the line’s breaking up! [Laughing] Y’know, that’s half the fun with the whole Blind-Boxed aspect of it, that you’re not 100% sure of what you’re gonna get, and that anticipation. That’s one of the things we want to take care of, because it sort of fuels the excitement of it. It’s like opening a Christmas gift, with you not quite knowing what it’s going to be, and I think we’re going to really work to try and keep that “Collector†feel, even though we’re exposing these to a broader audience of Disney fans and shoppers in our stores. We definitely want to keep the “precious†aspect of it and the excitement of the chase-- that’s a real thing, and we’ve gotta keep that sanctified. [Laughing]
Geek: Are a lot of the artists and staff Vinylmation collectors themselves?
Jim: A couple of guys that work for me, I think they must spend half their income on these things [Laughing], and once you’re hooked, you’re hooked which is kinda cool. I just think it’s fun cause there’s a little friendly rivalry about whose design is working the best and everyone wants to be the Chaser. They all want to have that assigned, but we’ve went to a kind of lottery system so no one can hog all the glory [Laughing] and made it an equal playing field. There are people here in Pasadena, our home base, that have their work areas covered up with these things!
Of course, the person looking to obtain these things is such a wide range, from young kids to old dudes like me, and that’s the best part of it. It’s rare that you can appeal to that broad of an audience with just one type of product.
Geek: Definitely. Disney fans are obviously a huge audience for these, but the Designer Vinyl fanbase is generally pretty rabid as well when it comes to collecting the lines that they like; and there’s huge crossover appeal with Vinylamtion, right?
Jim: Yeah, and we’re gonna be really utilizing that. We’re going to have to start thinking about not just Chasers, but variant Chasers and things like that so that there’s even more uniqueness in the offerings. One of the benefits of having our giant portfolio filled with characters is that there are some of which that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time. When we do a series, we try to keep every person in mind that might be interested in these things, so we try to cater to the collector and keep those really cool, maybe not obvious choices. We want the obvious A-list characters and, speaking for the villains, the kind of “henchmanâ€, and then we want that one or two that you really have to think about where that character came from. Plus that’s also a way to re-educate the public about the legacy of the company.
Geek: As for the characters you designed, did you pick them yourself?
Jim: In the first round [of Vinylmation] we were sort of virgins, so we were just kind of going around, picking and choosing. People would actually audition by doing a sketch and if it felt right, after doing a consensus, we would assign that.
I personally did want Stromboli because he looks hauntingly like my father whose passed on, who was sort of this tempestuous Italian guy; so, I felt like I was channeling him when I was designing Stromboli and that was fun. [Laughing] Of course, every guy has their reasons for designing the characters they want to do. Like I said though, that was our initial way of doing it, but now everyone wants in on the action so I have to keep these guys from going ahead and trying to design the whole pack for themselves. Now it’s like “No, no, no! You’ve gotta pick from the hat!†[Laughing]
It’s neat though, because we get together in a group and kind of critique each other and push each other to come up with the best design. Every artist has their own hand, there’s going to be aspects about what I do that are going to be different from Enrique or one of the other guys on the team, because we’re all going to have our own different takes. We want to respect that, and I think that’s one of the phenomenon of Vinylmation and the design aspect is that there’s a specific twist that each artist brings to it – to the point that people can identify what each artist brings to it, without even having to look under the feet and see the artist’s signature. I think there’s something as an artist, of course, we love all the attention we can get. [Laughing] We’re just totally always looking for glory and getting attention for our work, and this is one of those rare times where we get actually sign our names to something as individuals, and I feel like that’s also a nice thing to keep in mind is that everybody brings their own facet to the approach.
Geek: Is a series 2 of the Villains possibly underway?
Jim: I’m not at liberty to discuss the reality of that. However, it IS a good possibility. [Laughing]
Geek: Good, because all of us here at MTV Geek are kind of big superhero fans and seeing Syndrome from The Incredibles in Vinylmation form would be very cool…
Jim: Oh, is that your request? Okay, I’ll note that. [Laughing] Yeah, that’d be awesome.
For a wide variety and info on Disney Vinylmation products, you can visit: http://www.DisneyStore.com/vinylmation or just head to a Disney Store near you.
Two of the most ravenous subsets in collector culture are the Designer Vinyl & Disney collectors. Well, Disney has been tapping into both of those audiences with their lines of blind-boxed Disney Vinylmation toys! This month sees the release of the 3rd series, titled “Villainsâ€, and is an exclusive to The Disney Store. Each figure comes blind-boxed and wrapped in a foil packaging, so you have no idea who you’re gonna get. The individual artists have their signatures signed to the bottom of the character’s feet and on the accompanying card. We recently talked with lead designer Jim Valeri on all things “Vinylmation†and why a certain Disney villain reminds him of his father.
MTV Geek: Where did the inspiration for the Villains series come from?
Jim Valeri: We were working with the Parks initially when we learned that we were going to be designing our own for the stores, and we had to work with them to try and find out what they had in the works to make sure that we didn’t duplicate our efforts. It was just sort of spontaneous. We were in one of the meetings and someone said “Have you thought of doing the villains?†and I said, “No, but that’s a great idea.†Of course the artists I work with are huge Disney fans, and for them the more obscure the character the better in a way, so there’s that aspect of it too. The Villains as a force just seemed so attractive to us. The hard part was trying to figure out which ones to go with initially, so it’s really been fun.
Geek: The Vinylmation figures are in the same style as the [Kid Robot’s] Dunny and the [Toy2R’s] Qee, but in this case they use Mickey Mouse as the platform. What are the challenges when it comes to painting up a character on one of these and making the design fit the shape?
Jim: There’s quite a few with being confined to one shape and having this giant array of character types and designs over the years. It’s a daunting thing thinking, “How am I going to represent a skinny character on this chunky shape, or a non-human form on this shape?†In a weird way, the limitation actually fuels our creativity. It’s sort of that philosophy that unfettered creativity is nebulous. Sometimes you need some of these limitations to really come up with solutions, and it’s amazing when watching the process. No one has a set approach when they’re attacking these figures. We just kind of sketch and run the ideas off each other, and it’s just amazing with how they present themselves.
As far as manufacturing and designing them, we really have to be cognizant of how much detail we put on there. The more detail, the more cost, and the more things that can go wrong; so, we try to push the envelope as far as we can, but we also try to stay aware of how that’s going to affect the factory and ultimately the price. Plus from a design standpoint, the more elegant the solution, usually the better.
Geek: What has been the collector’s reaction to the Villains line so far?
Jim: They’ve been getting out there for the past few weeks, and from what we can tell it’s pretty huge. The guys here are always monitoring the blogs, cause they’re true fans as you can tell, and the anticipation is fantastic. It’s funny too because some stuff was leaked out, and as anything leaks out there’s always dubious assumptions that are made. [Laughing] Just to see people speculate about “Oh, what’s the Chaser gonna be?†It’s just fun to see the fans that are really anticipating these things having chats, arguments really, amongst themselves as to what villain would be destined initially and how it might manifest itself. Just in really preliminary “our finger on the pulse of what’s happening†terms there’s really a demand for it, and we’re really excited about it. I don’t know that we could have come out with a stronger series for our first Disney Store-exclusive Vinylmation.
Geek: So, who’s the Chaser? C’mon, just go ahead and get it out there! [Laughing]
Jim: Oh, okay! Wait, the line’s breaking up! [Laughing] Y’know, that’s half the fun with the whole Blind-Boxed aspect of it, that you’re not 100% sure of what you’re gonna get, and that anticipation. That’s one of the things we want to take care of, because it sort of fuels the excitement of it. It’s like opening a Christmas gift, with you not quite knowing what it’s going to be, and I think we’re going to really work to try and keep that “Collector†feel, even though we’re exposing these to a broader audience of Disney fans and shoppers in our stores. We definitely want to keep the “precious†aspect of it and the excitement of the chase-- that’s a real thing, and we’ve gotta keep that sanctified. [Laughing]
Geek: Are a lot of the artists and staff Vinylmation collectors themselves?
Jim: A couple of guys that work for me, I think they must spend half their income on these things [Laughing], and once you’re hooked, you’re hooked which is kinda cool. I just think it’s fun cause there’s a little friendly rivalry about whose design is working the best and everyone wants to be the Chaser. They all want to have that assigned, but we’ve went to a kind of lottery system so no one can hog all the glory [Laughing] and made it an equal playing field. There are people here in Pasadena, our home base, that have their work areas covered up with these things!
Of course, the person looking to obtain these things is such a wide range, from young kids to old dudes like me, and that’s the best part of it. It’s rare that you can appeal to that broad of an audience with just one type of product.
Geek: Definitely. Disney fans are obviously a huge audience for these, but the Designer Vinyl fanbase is generally pretty rabid as well when it comes to collecting the lines that they like; and there’s huge crossover appeal with Vinylamtion, right?
Jim: Yeah, and we’re gonna be really utilizing that. We’re going to have to start thinking about not just Chasers, but variant Chasers and things like that so that there’s even more uniqueness in the offerings. One of the benefits of having our giant portfolio filled with characters is that there are some of which that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time. When we do a series, we try to keep every person in mind that might be interested in these things, so we try to cater to the collector and keep those really cool, maybe not obvious choices. We want the obvious A-list characters and, speaking for the villains, the kind of “henchmanâ€, and then we want that one or two that you really have to think about where that character came from. Plus that’s also a way to re-educate the public about the legacy of the company.
Geek: As for the characters you designed, did you pick them yourself?
Jim: In the first round [of Vinylmation] we were sort of virgins, so we were just kind of going around, picking and choosing. People would actually audition by doing a sketch and if it felt right, after doing a consensus, we would assign that.
I personally did want Stromboli because he looks hauntingly like my father whose passed on, who was sort of this tempestuous Italian guy; so, I felt like I was channeling him when I was designing Stromboli and that was fun. [Laughing] Of course, every guy has their reasons for designing the characters they want to do. Like I said though, that was our initial way of doing it, but now everyone wants in on the action so I have to keep these guys from going ahead and trying to design the whole pack for themselves. Now it’s like “No, no, no! You’ve gotta pick from the hat!†[Laughing]
It’s neat though, because we get together in a group and kind of critique each other and push each other to come up with the best design. Every artist has their own hand, there’s going to be aspects about what I do that are going to be different from Enrique or one of the other guys on the team, because we’re all going to have our own different takes. We want to respect that, and I think that’s one of the phenomenon of Vinylmation and the design aspect is that there’s a specific twist that each artist brings to it – to the point that people can identify what each artist brings to it, without even having to look under the feet and see the artist’s signature. I think there’s something as an artist, of course, we love all the attention we can get. [Laughing] We’re just totally always looking for glory and getting attention for our work, and this is one of those rare times where we get actually sign our names to something as individuals, and I feel like that’s also a nice thing to keep in mind is that everybody brings their own facet to the approach.
Geek: Is a series 2 of the Villains possibly underway?
Jim: I’m not at liberty to discuss the reality of that. However, it IS a good possibility. [Laughing]
Geek: Good, because all of us here at MTV Geek are kind of big superhero fans and seeing Syndrome from The Incredibles in Vinylmation form would be very cool…
Jim: Oh, is that your request? Okay, I’ll note that. [Laughing] Yeah, that’d be awesome.
For a wide variety and info on Disney Vinylmation products, you can visit: http://www.DisneyStore.com/vinylmation or just head to a Disney Store near you.