Ok… so you’ve been lurking Toy Instagram, or more specifically #toyphotography, and you are feeling one or some combination of intimidation, intrigue, joy, and if you’ve discovered Jay Hernandez – downright disbelief; all of which is fair. While there are MANY Uber-talented artists out there like DarthDondada who not only stage incredible atmospheric photos, but also create elaborate set pieces and dioramas in scale with their figures. Not sure if you’re ready to take that kind of dedicated plunge? Enter Diorama Prints.
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Diorama Prints currently offers 18 different prints, most consisting of two walls and a floor, in scale with 6 and 7-inch figures, covering everything from seedy hotel rooms to abandoned space ships.
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The beauty of these super high-quality prints are that they are easy to store, not permanent, and incredibly easy to use. Simply trim the edges and tack them to some foam board or cardboard, prop them up in your light box or as the backdrop of your display, and you’re ready to go.
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Diorama Prints is giving burgeoning toy photographers a chance to dip their toes without much commitment – and it REALLY is that easy. We received a bundle from them and no exaggeration, had taken the photos you see here in about 45 min start to finish. You can see they work well with NECA, Hasbro, Jazwares, Storm Collectibles, and McFarlane Toys.
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The finish on the prints have a light gloss on them – which is great for basic lighting – and they’re on a great stock. Another thing of note here is that all of these shots were taken on an iPhone 12 and very lightly edited using the Lightroom app. Thanks to the folks at Diorama Prints for sending over these samples, we love them and can’t wait to keep using them with more figures in the future.
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Be sure to check out dioramaprints.com to see all 18 of their sets and get yours today!
Well wasn’t that something? The first of the virtual cons that ACTUALLY felt like a proper con – there were panels with interesting guests, product reveals, musical guests, and no technical mishaps to speak of. Since we’ve all been in the clutches of a global pandemic, many have tried to recreate the energy of a Con with varied degrees of success – Hasbro on the other hand has been doing with great success since they introduced Fan First Fridays a few months ago, culminating with the success of this past weekend’s event. Here are 5 highlights (in no particular order) of Pulse Con 2020.
The Guests
Often times getting to hear the inner workings of things from industry luminaries is part of what makes cons so special – Pulse Con was no exception. Whether it was hearing Frank Welker and Peter Cullen tell stories from inside the Transformers recording sessions (and of course, doing the voices live), Ernie Hudson talking about doing the Ghostbusters films, or a special musical performance (social distancing style) from Tenacious D, Pulse Con had a wide array of special moments to enthrall watchers in between the wallet-crushing product announcements. Speaking of…
Product Announcements and Preorders
Whether it was the Ecto-1, a look well into 2021’s Marvel Legends and Star Wars figures, the shock drop of Drizzt and Guenhyvwer, GI Joes, Power Rangers, or Transformers, there was no shortage of new products announced – and then made available for preorder same day. Most were available via hasbropulse.com and were easily obtainable – of course the store exclusives on Target and Walmart sold out almost instantly (sorry Joe fans).
The GI Joe Team
The Marvel Legends Team
Hasbro giving us a look into the future of products is always fun, especially when it’s the product designers themselves doing the talking. Big thanks to all of their hard work in making these awesome products.
Connecting with Fans
The #toycommunity is a massive online community that’s growing every day and Hasbro did not ignore that. Throughout the course of the two-day event, they took questions virtually, did live polls, and showed off toy photography (like you see above) and even crafted an entire “Mean Tweets” style segment cherry-picking some of the more, “flavorful” comments around the Marvel Legends product. This kind of engagement from a brand as massive as Hasbro is a great move – it makes the heavy-hitter seem more approachable, reachable, and shows that they’re listening. The virtual world is the ideal environment to tackle this too – given the disconnect our current world is forcing upon us.
Honoring Legacy
Two words: Mark Boudreaux. The legendary toy luminary retired from Hasbro earlier this year after giving us decades of incredible products – and even making something so iconic it eventually became canon. Twice during Pulse Con, Mark was given special segments detailing his Star Wars vehicle work and then his work on the Real Ghostbusters. It’s incredible to hear from someone as important as Mark, and I love that Hasbro took the time to really honor his legacy.
Crowd Funding
What do the Razorcrest and Heroquest have in common you ask? Three things actually. They are the next two Haslab projects over at Hasbro; they were both announced at Pulse Con, and they were both full funded in less than 24 hours. Yes you can safely back the 30″ x 20″ x 10″ Vintage Collection 1/18th Scale Razorcrest from the Mandalorian for $350 and join countless others enjoying the relaunch of HeroQuest for $100 knowing that you’ll get your product. With the exception of the 1:1 scale Cookie Monster (that can no longer even be found on the site) HasLab has been a great success for Hasbro bringing fans gargantuan products like Jabba’s Sail Barge, Unicron, and the Sentinel before.
Grab your Hasbro products on hasbropulse.com or start re-living Pulse Con 2020 below on YouTube!
