Creative Beast Studio : interview of David Silva

FulguroPop – Hey David, you’re the talent and brain behind Creative Beast Studio, could you tell us more about who you are, please ?

David Silva – Sure! By the time I’d graduated art school in 2003 with a BFA in both Sequential Art and Illustration, I’d changed my focus from being a comic book artist to being a toy designer. My first toy design work would come about three weeks after graduation from McFarlane Toys, a relationship that would later allow me to learn toy sculpting. This lasted until spring of 2008 when I left to pursue an opportunity to sculpt at Hasbro. By 2010, I’d decided to work closer to home in New Jersey and began working at NECA as a full-time sculptor. This position would eventually allow me to get back into toy designing as well.

FulguroPop – Your Dinosaur toys are impressive, why did you choose to go with the 1/6 scale instead of the more classic 1/18 and 1/12 scales ?

David Silva – 1/6 scale seemed to be ideal for the raptors as it satisfies the paleontology crowd by being accurate to 12″ figures, but also interests the Jurassic Park fans as they scale nicely with 6″ figures. It also seemed like a good size for working in a lot of detail and articulation.

FulguroPop – They look insanely accurate and very different from the casual dinosaurs on the market. How much research do you do to design them ?

David Silva – I researched them as best I could using the information from various dinosaur websites, blogs, Wikipedia and also books. Fact checking between sources has also been helpful for deciphering what data is correct. As the project grew, fan feedback would become influential as well. This was my fourth go at sculpting dromaeosaurs so I had also researched this topic many times before.

FulguroPop- Which is your biggest passion, dinosaurs or toys ?

David Silva – Tough question, but I suppose even without dinosaurs, I’d still want to make toys. So if I had to choose, I’d say toys.

FulguroPop – What, in your opinion, was/is the biggest challenge of making your own toys ?

David Silva – All of the organization and coordination of the manufacturing process has been a big challenge. There are so many ways things can go wrong and it’s up to me to prevent every one of those things somehow. From the early tooling to designing the final packaging, every step requires a lot of time and quick learning. Getting the deco correct on each figure has been especially challenging since not only are the color schemes very involved, but I’ve also had to learn how to communicate my critiques in a way that the factory workers can adapt my notes to their own process.

FulguroPop – When and how may our readers be able to purchase the Beasts of the Mesozoic ?

David Silva – The first sets of figures are available now and include the Accessory Packs, Nestlings, and Build-a-Raptors. The main raptor figures will be available this Spring in March and more in May. I post updates on the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativebeast/beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure/updates and you can order from the BackerKit store here: https://beasts-of-the-mesozoic-raptor-series-action-figure.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/72904