asgardianboy
Super Freak
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2016
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So, what would be the technical advances you would like to see in the field of 1/6 action figures in the upcoming years?
Or what would be the evolutionary steps you think will most likely be taken in the 1/6 arena, whether we like them or not? Would they be qualitative or quantitative, evolutionary or disruptive, technical or commercial, economical or societal, universal or controversial?
The fact is that 1/6 manufacturers will have to pull new tricks off their hats to keep interest in the medium. What will they do? Any guesses anybody?
I have compiled the list below with some changes that came to my mind and that might eventually happen, just to get the debate started. You may of course propose your own (chronologically ordered?) list.
Make your bets, Ladies and Gentlemen!
POSSIBLE FUTURE CHANGES
--------------------------------
1) 1/6 is taken even more seriously: quality of detailing and finishing increase, including more frequent use of metal and other, expensive but more realistic and durable materials (real leather instead of potentially decaying pleather, finer and more sofisticated fabrics, etc) so that 1/6 finally catches up with 1/4 in terms of quality, reaching a point where no more detail can be crammed into the resulting figures. Example: a Boba Fett helmet can be a piece plastic painted so that it looks like weathered metal, or it can be an actual piece of painted metal which is then actually physically weathered. Same for guns and other accessories (see 2).
2) Technological advances and higher investment in tooling allow for a higher degree of automation all across the board, yielding lower production costs and more consistent quality. Chinese factory workers stop doing simple, boring, repetitive tasks with lower quality, made-by-hand results. Instead, they control machines or perform more intrincate, higher-added-value tasks in order to implement point 1.
3) Licensing terms in the toy industry evolves, so that licensors start providing licensees with upstream 3D models of props (which are originally designed with 3D SW anyway). By tapping into this high quality, original source of 3D data, sculpting tasks in prototyping are eased, costs reduced and accuracy sharply improved. This might also extend to head sculpts of movie characters, real or CGI-based, since actors' faces are routinely 3D-scanned these days in order to create special effects. Sculpting tasks for prototype 1/6 heads would turn into just "expression tweaking" of already rigged 3D models, or not even that as such tweaking could also be done upstream.
4) In licences where 3) is not possible (e.g. SW OT), technological advances in sculpting software (i.e. 2D-image-based 3D reconstruction) allow for a high degree of automation in the prototype sculpting stage, lowering prototyping costs and potentially leading to consistent improvements in likenesses.
5) Rooted, realistically-looking hair becomes commonplace in 1/6 heads, also for facial hair (even eyebrows). REMARK: this one is "almost" taking place right now, as more and more figures feature rooted hair (facial hair too).
6) PERS is improved upon and becomes commonplace, contributing to more flexible, expressive and lifelike figures.
7) Seamless bodies feature seamless wrists and realistically articulated seamless fingers with metal endoskeleton (no more visible articulations). Same with ankles and feet (feet can bend inside the footwear, for realistic kneeled poses; footwear is improved to allow for this).
8) Diversity is fully embraced in 1/6: fat, full-figured or skinny bodies of any ethnicity become commonplace, both male and female. It becomes easier to build figures with realistic bodies that don't look necessarily like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt or a porn actress. No need for "body sculpting" with fatsuits (good for characters that wear little clothing).
9) Sustainability starts being an issue in the world of merchandise and collecting. Materials and processes are reviewed, aiming at substituting them with sustainable counterparts even at the price of further increasing already high manufacture costs.
10) In spite of technological, organizational and logistical improvements aimed at cost reduction, the ongoing quest for higher quality and realism plus ever-increasing manufacture costs in China cause the average price of big-franchise, licensed figures to reach the $300 mark.
---------------------
RfC
m.
Or what would be the evolutionary steps you think will most likely be taken in the 1/6 arena, whether we like them or not? Would they be qualitative or quantitative, evolutionary or disruptive, technical or commercial, economical or societal, universal or controversial?
The fact is that 1/6 manufacturers will have to pull new tricks off their hats to keep interest in the medium. What will they do? Any guesses anybody?
I have compiled the list below with some changes that came to my mind and that might eventually happen, just to get the debate started. You may of course propose your own (chronologically ordered?) list.
Make your bets, Ladies and Gentlemen!
POSSIBLE FUTURE CHANGES
--------------------------------
1) 1/6 is taken even more seriously: quality of detailing and finishing increase, including more frequent use of metal and other, expensive but more realistic and durable materials (real leather instead of potentially decaying pleather, finer and more sofisticated fabrics, etc) so that 1/6 finally catches up with 1/4 in terms of quality, reaching a point where no more detail can be crammed into the resulting figures. Example: a Boba Fett helmet can be a piece plastic painted so that it looks like weathered metal, or it can be an actual piece of painted metal which is then actually physically weathered. Same for guns and other accessories (see 2).
2) Technological advances and higher investment in tooling allow for a higher degree of automation all across the board, yielding lower production costs and more consistent quality. Chinese factory workers stop doing simple, boring, repetitive tasks with lower quality, made-by-hand results. Instead, they control machines or perform more intrincate, higher-added-value tasks in order to implement point 1.
3) Licensing terms in the toy industry evolves, so that licensors start providing licensees with upstream 3D models of props (which are originally designed with 3D SW anyway). By tapping into this high quality, original source of 3D data, sculpting tasks in prototyping are eased, costs reduced and accuracy sharply improved. This might also extend to head sculpts of movie characters, real or CGI-based, since actors' faces are routinely 3D-scanned these days in order to create special effects. Sculpting tasks for prototype 1/6 heads would turn into just "expression tweaking" of already rigged 3D models, or not even that as such tweaking could also be done upstream.
4) In licences where 3) is not possible (e.g. SW OT), technological advances in sculpting software (i.e. 2D-image-based 3D reconstruction) allow for a high degree of automation in the prototype sculpting stage, lowering prototyping costs and potentially leading to consistent improvements in likenesses.
5) Rooted, realistically-looking hair becomes commonplace in 1/6 heads, also for facial hair (even eyebrows). REMARK: this one is "almost" taking place right now, as more and more figures feature rooted hair (facial hair too).
6) PERS is improved upon and becomes commonplace, contributing to more flexible, expressive and lifelike figures.
7) Seamless bodies feature seamless wrists and realistically articulated seamless fingers with metal endoskeleton (no more visible articulations). Same with ankles and feet (feet can bend inside the footwear, for realistic kneeled poses; footwear is improved to allow for this).
8) Diversity is fully embraced in 1/6: fat, full-figured or skinny bodies of any ethnicity become commonplace, both male and female. It becomes easier to build figures with realistic bodies that don't look necessarily like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt or a porn actress. No need for "body sculpting" with fatsuits (good for characters that wear little clothing).
9) Sustainability starts being an issue in the world of merchandise and collecting. Materials and processes are reviewed, aiming at substituting them with sustainable counterparts even at the price of further increasing already high manufacture costs.
10) In spite of technological, organizational and logistical improvements aimed at cost reduction, the ongoing quest for higher quality and realism plus ever-increasing manufacture costs in China cause the average price of big-franchise, licensed figures to reach the $300 mark.
---------------------
RfC
m.
