Page 85 - Star Wars Insider #181

Gentle Giant’s new R2-D2 monument is as big as the real thing,
yet takes its design cues from a much smaller source—the
original 1978 Kenner action figure!

W ORDS: ME G AN CROUSE

rom the movie What is the starting point for a up with an idea of what the end
screen, to the toy Gentle Giant sculpt? Is it different product will look like, and make
F box, to the display for something like this R2-D2 concept drawings that determine
monument compared to a statue
case of collectors,
the pose, size, costume, and the
the classic charm based on an actor’s likeness? environment, for example. The
of R2-D2 endures The processes can be wildly drawings are then passed on to
in Star Wars fans’ hearts, fed in different later on, but both start a sculptor, along with all of the
part by nostalgic memories of off the same—with us digging up reference material, and they get
inventing new adventures for the as many reference materials as we to work.
little droid with their own action possibly can to provide to our

figures. Now, those memories are artists. Basing a sculpt on an What was the process for R2-D2?

being rekindled in Gentle Giant’s existing action figure can be much For the R2-D2 monument, which is
new monument statute, which easier, because you can start with a scaled-up replica of a vintage

re-creates the original Kenner the actual figure and have that product, we started by sourcing a
R2-D2 toy—at a scale to match reference in hand. If the item is mint-condition R2-D2 fi gure from
the on-screen R2! based on an actor’s likeness, then 1978. Then, in order for our replica
Standing at over three-and-a- we rely on photographic reference to be as accurate as possible, we
half feet tall, with the simplifi ed and, increasingly these days, on disassembled it and painted all the
details of the 3.75-inch fi gure from three-dimensional digital scans of parts gray so that they were all
1978, Gentle Giant’s latest Life-Size that actor, and potentially their equally readable by a digital
Monument is the fourth in their costume and props. We then come scanner. It’s the part of the
vintage series, following on from
Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and a
classic stormtrooper. Star Wars “WE DISASSEMBLED IT AND PAINTED ALL THE
Insider spoke to Daniel Pickett, PARTS GRAY SO THAT THEY WERE ALL EQUALLY
Marketing Manager at Gentle
Giant, to learn about the process READABLE BY A DIGITAL SCANNER. IT’S THE PART

of re-creating a figure at such a OF THE PROCESS THAT WILL BREAK SOME FANS’
large scale, and the challenge of
replicating that clicking head... AND COLLECTORS’ HEARTS.”