Page 67 - Star Wars Insider #188

BY ROYAL DECREE
07 in that figure,” Spina recalls. “He
saw the prop and not just the
character.” Spina was so impressed
by Riley’s attention to detail and
artistry that he reached out to him.
They became friends and business
associates quickly thereafter.
This appreciation for talent
and ambition extends to the
kind of artists Tom Spina Designs
and Regal Robot now seek out as
new recruits. The business runs
internships through local schools,
and hires some artists based on
how well they fit in with the team
during that training period. Along
with technical skills, Spina says he
also looks for the right “attitude
and potential” in the people he
employs. In other words, “What
would they be doing if no one was
08 making them do this?” he remarks.
If the answer is using their time to
fix Star Wars costumes and build
props for themselves, they are just
the sort of person that might wind
up under Regal Robot’s roof.
“As long as an artist has an eye
for sculpture,” Spina says, “they can
be trained in more technical skills.
“Most of the projects we do
involve some element of hand-
crafting,” adds Spina. That can
mean anything from traditional
clay-working to utilizing cutting-
edge digital tools, including 3D
scans and 3D-printed design work.
Spina references the Mandalorian
Skull Sculpture and Wall Plaque
released by Regal Robot as an
example. Artist Miyo Nakamura
09
06 Regal Robot artist Miyo
Nakamura sculpting the
large Mandalorian skull.
07 Artist Steve Richter working
on an early concept sculpt of
the skull plaque.
08 A limited edition of the skull
was cast in pewter.
09 Tom Spina recreates unlucky
bounty hunter Greedo, from
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).
“As long as an
artist has an eye
for sculpture,
they can be
trained in more
technical skills.”
based her sculpture on the symbol
on bounty hunter Boba Fett’s
shoulder pauldron, but the premise
of the finished artwork was to
imagine what the logo would
look like as a skull that had once
belonged to a real creature. She
created two versions, a small one
for the mini-sculpture and a larger
size for wall decor, sculpting both
from scratch. “The mold itself is
a work of art,” Spina says. “It’s all
hand-sculpted. It’s that beautiful
effects-style sculpting that I love
so much.”
Now that Regal Robot—one of
the few Star Wars licensees that
are allowed to do custom work—is
becoming better known, Spina and
his team are working on expanding
their output beyond home decor
and furniture and into sculptural
art and replica character busts,
with life-size statues and replicas of
maquettes and puppets used in the
movies. Exciting new products on
their way in 2019 include a replica
of the tauntaun maquette made
by Phil Tippett for The Empire
Strikes Back, based on the original
molds, and a life-size, FX-quality
Chewbacca bust.
Spina aspires to create hand-
crafted products with exceptional
detail, but says that what he
finds most rewarding is, “picking
customers’ brains about what
parts of Star Wars they are most
passionate about, and fi nding ways
to bring that to life for them.”
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