Varner Studios at SDCC 2015

Last year, I wrote in depth about Varner Studio's display at SDCC. Over the last couple of decades, the company has been responsible for sculpting many toys and is now at the forefront of digital sculpting. At this year's show, they once again had an excellent display. Here's a look at what they brought.

In their display cabinets, Varner had a mix of figures sculpted by hand and digitally, as well as figures at the final stage of development and production.

 More after the jump:

Digital toy sculpting - the future is now

One of the pluses about SDCC is it lasts 4.5 days (including preview night), allowing attendees to take in quite a lot of the show. After checking out the big booths, attending panels, buying toys, and lining up for all of the above, you can still build in slack time for wandering the aisles. And this is where some of the best SDCC experiences can be had, especially if you take off your toy or art or comic or whatever "focus blinders" and take a chance to soak in something new.

One of my unexpected pleasures of SDCC 2014 was the Varner Studios booth, where I learned a lot about new trends in action figure sculpting. I even had a chance to try my hand at cutting edge toy design software.

The booth was populated by a knowledgeable and friendly crew who brought along an excellent assortment of their design work.

Most of the figures in the two cases were crafted the old-fashioned way - by hand. Varner clearly has a great relationship with Playmates, as the shelves were chock full of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles prototypes from yesteryear and today.

Also on hand were figures based on other properties including Disney characters, Star Trek, Austin Powers, The Simpsons, and so on. We'll continue after the jump with a gallery scroll through a number of these figures:

Wonder Festival Summer 2011 Part 6: Digital Toy Production

 

At every Wonder Festival, there are interesting sections dedicated to unique areas of the toy world: special exhibitions, museum pieces, etc. One of the best this year was an area focusing on digital toy production. There were booths showing software, 3D printing machines, laser etched works, sample figures, and so on.

I'm all for anything that makes an effort to break out of the box and leave it in the dust. Here are some shots from the section:

This huge figure was made by a company called S MIST. The parts were individually made with a 3D printer and then assembled.

The hair was intense!

 More after the jump: