An Interview With Syco Collectibles' Tony Searle

by Andrew Reiner on Sep 12, 2012 at 10:25 AM

Why do you never see high-end licensed statues at the mall? Why make a statue of Steve Jobs? How does a licensed statue get made? We asked Syco Collectibles' senior product consultant and marketing and promotions manager Tony Searle for the inside scoop on how a licensed statue goes from pixel to plaster.

When working with a game license, do you sit down with the game’s development team to discuss characters and ideas?

Absolutely. Whilst we are given some free reign in terms of creative liberties, ultimately we strive to be as faithful to the source as possible. We actively liaise with various members of each game's team and relay back and forth concepts and ideas whilst assets and references are produced on demand; like Style Guides for example. We like to establish a relationship with the clients we work for and produce collectibles which resonate faithfully to the source, but we like to add our own little twists and surprises too, ensuring they aren't out of character for the collectible in question.

Has a licensee ever approached you?

They have. Two have made connections fairly recently so, unfortunately, at this time I can't reveal anything more, but stay tuned. In hindsight however, we do receive a lot of requests from multiple retailers and distributors to produce one time variants or exclusives of our collectibles.

Do game developers show you the game? How much access do they give you ahead of time?

Yes. Most of the franchises we opt for are games we personally are passionate about. We get provided with copies of the game to obviously get references and history on our collectibles and also receive a plethora of artwork, assets and references to assist us in creating the collectibles themselves.

Syco is creating Mortal Kombat statues at a rapid pace. Are you aiming to create a statue for each of the game’s characters?

Mortal Kombat is a license we knew we wanted right as the company entered its infancy. The games cast is so rich and diverse in terms of how they look, we felt they would be perfect to transfer into sculpt. We consider MK to be our flagship license and therefore want to cater to as many fans as possible. We are very aware that MK fans are ravenous and love to have an input in our practices. Given the franchise has over sixty characters, we obviously opt for the most popular and visceral looking characters first while throwing in an obscure character into production here and there. Ultimately, it is the fans who dictate which characters we create, it all comes down to demand. Sometimes though it isn't possible to create every single character from a given franchise, but if the demand is there and the viability is high, then we won't ever rule anything out.

You are working with Ubisoft on a number of statues. Any chance we’ll see Connor from Assassin’s Creed III?

We don't have anything to announce at this time, but we can't deny that it wouldn't be awesome to create the franchises newest protagonist. Who knows. We will just have to wait and see what we do next.

What inspired you to create a statue based on Steve Jobs?

Honestly? He was such an influential figure and we wanted to do something to commemorate him, plus we wanted to give something back, which is why we teamed up with the 'Make A Wish' Kids Charity. So we decided to produce an exclusive, limited run of the statue, to immortalize such a groundbreaking gentlemen and his legacy. Some may see it as a quick cash-in on his untimely death, but we like to think we haven't reached a cold, corporate stage yet and don't endeavor, too.

Outside of the licenses you have now, what is your dream property to work on?

Whoa, there are so many. I've always been a massive fan of Resident Evil. I know there are other peers who have worked or are working with the franchise, but seeing as I am a self-confessed hardcore fan of the franchise in its entirety; I really feel we could do some original with the license. Something dynamic and something that the fans would clamor for. Tomb Raider and perhaps Injustice: Gods Among Us would warrant some awesome looking collectibles, too.

Statues usually come out well after the game they are based on is released. Do you usually wait for a game to attain hit status before investing in the license?

It depends. Sometimes licenses don't always become available until the very end of the game's development cycle. Whether this is to detail leaks or whatever is up for debate, but I feel coinciding the launch of the game with a range of collectibles not only signifies uniform, it also strengthens both mediums of the franchise and results in that particular game having a stronger presence overall. If we were really passionate about a particular franchise, I don't think it'd hinder us going all the way with it if the game wasn't a massive blockbuster. You've got to stick to your guns and remember there are fans for everything, everywhere!

Why don’t major retailers stock statues? They have other high-end items and art, but we’ve never seen collectible statues.

This is a good question. I think that although the price is relevant to other items they stock, because it is such a niche market, they don't always have the expertise to understand what to look for when purchasing these type of products therefore essentially bottlenecking the market. With a bit of luck, in the future the major retailers will take a few cues from the specialist retailers.

Most statues are limited runs. After that initial run, how difficult is it to do an additional run? Do you shy away from this in respects to collectors wanting limited edition items?

It can go either way. We have to remember that part of the desirability of owning collectibles is the fact that they are either exclusive or limited to x amount of pieces. On the other hand, you have to factor demand into the equation. If 500 people express interest in a particular collectible but you only have 250 pieces, how do you compromise? We have had internal discussions about this a lot and have decided we can't always cave in to do a second production on every collectible, but on the odd occasion, our Scorpion and Sub-Zero statues for example, we've green lit a second production run. Why? Because the fans ultimately keep us in business and we pride ourselves on how interactive we are with our fan bases. So it's either seen as a reward to the fans who missed out the first time, or it can just be seen as catering to the heavy demand. We won't do it on all our collectibles, because if we did, it'd kill the prospect of it being "limited." In special circumstances we will roll-over and produce a second batch.

What happens to the prototype statues? Star Wars prototype figures are the premium collectible for Star Wars fans.

To be honest, all our prototypes are in our office. We have never thought of selling them. What we are going to do in the future is to make 10 Artist Proofs and number them AP1-AP2. These will be signed by the sculptor and sold on our website.

What upcoming collectibles can the fans expect to see?

We've almost completed our Vaas statue from Far Cry 3. We also have a statue from Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon in the works. For Mortal Kombat, we have Sindel, Cyrax, Skarlet, Noob Saibot and our Sub-Zero Vs. Scorpion Fatality statue. Images and more details of these collectibles and more will become available on our Facebook page and on our website when we can make them available.