I Left My Career To Start A Company That Makes Miniature Famous People!

“When life gives you Lennon...”

Originally from London, I've spent the past two decades living and working all over the world as a video game industry executive, working closely with major players on top brands and titles.

As with any pop culture topic in modern times, there is a variety of toys and collectibles tie-ins on the market featuring favorite characters—and the video game world is no exception. These range from simpler dollar store treasures all the way to high end, fairly realistic character figures designed for adult collectors. I found that the latter was especially popular in Asian culture, but has since spread to Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and beyond.

As a child of the 1970s and 1980s, I was an action figure fan. So as an adult exposed to these serious larger scale expensive figures in my video game industry circles, I came to appreciate those figures and became a collector.

Over time, I saw that the growing world of 1:6 scale collectible figures—from video game characters to major film and television characters and everything in between—began stagnating in terms of production quality innovation and related product details. Even the big players in this market, producing very expensive character figures from Star Wars and Marvel films, seemed to have given up on quality innovation, but kept on raising their prices all the same.

I experienced a moment of inspiration and decided to do something about it. Over two years of personal research into materials, creative development, production realities and financial considerations, I gathered several like-minded collectors from across the toy, video game and artist worlds and formed the core nucleus of Molecule8. We adopted a virtual office business model than spans the globe with key leadership in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles. Our aim was to introduce new and innovative approaches to the hyperrealism we ourselves wanted in our figure collections.

Then came the big question. “What character should we produce first to get the company up and running in the world market?” We had an informal meeting at the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago. Brainstorming for several hours, it suddenly struck us that our very surroundings were the inspiration we needed. When it was agreed that we would portray an iconic musician, it didn't take us long to also agree on producing a John Lennon tribute figure.

The next step was securing the rights to develop and mass-produce a museum-quality, limited edition 1:6 scale figure of the legendary John Lennon. There had been just a few mass-market John Lennon figures produced in smaller sizes in the past, but the quality level was very lacking. Those earlier sub-par figures made it more difficult for anyone to secure similar Lennon figure rights after that, understandably.

To our delight, our pitch to create something much more sophisticated, refined, and respectful of the Lennon legacy was met with very positive approval by The John Lennon Estate and Yoko Ono.

While preparing for full production, our reputation had already begun to spread. Other licenses were made available to us, such as the first-ever figure to honor Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, and other popular culture icons like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Taxi Driver, and Ghostbusters characters to be created in either 1:6 or 1:4 scales. As both pop culture fans and figure collectors, we couldn't have been happier about these new opportunities for the team. 

But of course our main focus at the time had to be John Lennon above all else. We were very honored to work with the world-renowned head sculptor Miss K.A.Kim. We were committed to doing it right or not at all. This approach also meant a series of challenging detours and delays to get the quality just right for final production. And final production meant all of the various aspects coming together, with so many detailed parts, finely tailored miniature clothing and designer packaging that must also all be approved by the licensor.

In the process, we were able to innovate certain technologies and develop a high level of detail that had yet to be seen in the 1:6 scale figure consumer product market. 

We’ve traveled a long road these past few years, but we've happily brought even more talented creative collaborators on board along the way. Now our entire team begins each day with a deep excitement as we approach the shipping date of the final John Lennon figure in April 2018. At the same time, we continue to pour our creative energy into the development of subsequent product releases for 2018 and beyond.

We've also stayed true to our core aim of producing the museum-quality level we've often wished for ourselves as figure collectors, and at the same time respectfully portraying and honoring some very special personalities in popular culture. We've done this in a way that provides greater value for money in this industry, and it's a success that all our fellow collectors can share in, now that this idea for starting Molecule8 Ltd is very much a reality. After only few years after deciding to take a chance on that, I can say it's all been worth it!

“When life gives you Lennon… you get Lennon made!”

More info: molecule8.com