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 原文：
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010
A conversation with Howard Chan, President of Hot Toys - Part 1 by Joe David
Ok - the approval took longer than expected but finally I can produce the full transcript of my recent conversation with Howard, founder and President of Hot Toys!
It was a balmy spring afternoon when I made my way to Hot Toys HQ in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, a little before 3pm; I was quickly ushered to Howard's office by Ms Emily (head of PR) and as you can imagine I was NOT allowed to wander around their office unsupervised, and taking any pics was out of the question!!
Q: Why did Hot Toys make the decision to allow customers to cancel their orders
for the Iron Man Mark III (Battle Damaged Version) collectible figure?
Howard: We remain very proud of the final product with its many new enhancements
to the armor; unfortunately there were too many negative feedback from the “public”
in the discussion forums (which not necessarily come from the actual customers or buyers of the product) regarding the head sculpt and color scheme.
So we made the decision to allow those who feel they are not 100% satisfied to cancel their orders, in direct response to all the negative discussion in the forums. If we had not made the decision Hot Toys would have been accused of having grown “too big” or “arrogant” who does not care for the feelings of customers.
However, I stress again the final product is one that the Hot Toys team is proud of and I believe this has also been the opinion of the vast majority of the buying public as we had less than 50 actual cancellations in Hong Kong, but the truth is that we are still getting re-orders in after the final product released in the market.
Q: What is the nature of Hot Toys’ collaboration with Sideshow Toys (USA)?
Howard: We have established a close-relationship with Sideshow Toys since 2005, and we had the chance to collaborate with Sideshow at their 12 inches Clone Troopers projects. And Hot Toys also has the great opportunities to produce the T2 series and the Godfather collectible figures under our Movie Masterpiece line in partner with Sideshow Toys.
Q: Hot Toys’ last military product in the 1/6th scale was the pair of modern British soldiers. Have you abandoned this line and why? Is it due to resource constraints in having to produce the various movie licenses?
Howard: Yes and no; of course Hot Toys started in the 1/6th scale military genre and has been very successful. And yes, the nature of design, production and meeting the various demands in pursuing movie licenses is time and resource demanding.
And given the current time frame and our resources, we just feel we are better having to commit all our time and effort in doing justice to producing the very best in our movie license products; this is not to say we won’t go back to producing the military line sometime in the future; in fact we have already made many in the past that we are looking for something “exciting” before we return to this line. Also, some of the related movie licenses may have some military-related theme so that when we do produce them, we can draw on all our past experience and success.
Q: So is there anything planned in the year 2010?
Howard: This year we are bringing about the 1/6th scale newly licensed collectibles from the worldwide well-received movie Avatar, and the upcoming and long-awaited movie Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia. You may expect the collectibles of some of the characters from these great movies this year!
Q: Moving on to the Marvel license: does the current license only cover Marvel characters as released in the movies?
Howard: Yes, when we discussed this with Marvel that was the plan. Having said that we are aware of the various possibilities with Marvel characters whether they are in the movies, animation, comics or video games, and definitely Hot Toys would like to explore further the opportunities to make popular figures from the Marvel line.
But we only started with Wolverine Origins and Blade; there are still many Marvel movie characters that we can produce before we even start thinking of doing those in the comics or other properties. We are still catching up!
Q: On specific characters from movie licenses, will Hot Toys produce Commissioner Gordon (Batman), Iron Monger (Iron Man), Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)?
Howard: Yes. We have always planned to make Commissioner Gordon; initially we were informed that the actor (Gary Oldman) was not so supportive of the idea but our current understanding is that there is no such obstacle either from him or the main licensor so yes I can say that at some point we will be releasing a Gordon figure.
As for Iron Monger, it was always a case of cost issues and pricing, as you know it is a very large figure in 1/6 scale so to really do it justice and yet making it a price that will still be supported by the dealers and customers remain the greatest challenge.
Personally I want to see this made! But now given that Iron Man 2 the movie will be released soon and we are already committed to making a few characters from the new movie. We are also preparing a series of exciting promotional activities such as Iron Man exhibition in Hong Kong and Taiwan in Apr-May this year and a stream of exclusive privilege to our event participants. Therefore, from a timing standpoint we don’t know where to fit Iron Monger. But it remains in our development plans.
As for Jill Valentine, yes in speaking with our dealers and from what is discussed in the forums we know she is a very popular character so yes: I can say to her fans that you can look forward to Jill sometime in 2010!
(I must say the final approved transcript was not heavily edited and 90% complete; they did remove some specific questions I had posed to Howard regarding Sideshow products but otherwise the conversation was pretty complete.)
Q: Regarding your “DX” series, what criteria applies before a character gets the DX treatment? To be frank, your recent announcement for Michael Jackson “Bad” as the next DX figure took most of us by surprise.
Howard: It’s good that we can still surprise the public!
As you know we started the DX series featuring the new Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS); plus we make sure we give extra details and more accessories in the whole package.
Q: Have you already decided what will be in “DX04”? Any hints, whether it is a movie character or based on a real person?
Howard: Yes, we have decided on DX04 but I can’t tell you now! No hints, sorry!
But you can expect an announcement within the next 2 months. And, I believe this time you all will like the choice of character!
Q: Howard, I must congratulate you on Hot Toys incredible success in the 1/6th scale category; you must be very proud of how far you have come – has it been 10 years since you started Hot Toys?
Howard: Yes, this year we celebrate our 10-year anniversary; and we are planning to publish a 10th anniversary bible book and considering big-bang events in Hong Kong and Japan to celebrate with our fans and industrial leaders. Please stay tuned with us for update. Thank you.
Q: So what is your vision say in the next 3 to 5 years for Hot Toys? Will you explore in other scale categories for articulated figures? How about statues?
Howard: Firstly, we want to continue to maintain our present expertise in the 1/6th scale category and continue to produce products that excites the buying public. At the same time we are aware of the cost and pricing challenges, say when we introduce new techniques like the DX series.
As for other scales, I feel personally that the 1:6 line is best suited for representation of fine details with articulation possibilities, that collectors will support and is a good scale that meets both the “play” factor and dynamic sculpting and detail features. We will continue to cater to the collector market (as opposed to the mass market for the 3 ¾ inch line like Star Wars and GI Joe).
As for other products like statues, we will continue to explore, in speaking with our dealer network and design team and our OEM partners / suppliers, we will continue to challenge ourselves in making these exciting products; we are also mindful to not entering an existing market just for the sake of doing it for example Sideshow Toys’ Premium format line of statues, we don’t want to copy this and try to compete in this directly, and we are also not sure if our dealers will necessarily want to see this offering from us.
Oh, we mentioned earlier that Hot Toys turn 10years old this year in 2010, so we are already planning something special to celebrate this event! You can look forward to some special events and activity, like what I talked about just now, I can’t say too much now but watch for it!
Q: Thank you very much for your frank answers. Finally, something about yourself? You started out as a toy collector yourself right? Do you still collect toys?
Howard: Yes, I am still a collector but I guess the difference is now I am not so die-hard and not like “die-die” must get that one particular toy! The thing is I am surrounded by toy designers and toy enthusiasts everyday in the workplace – is like 24 hours a day I am in this business! So while I am still a toy collector, I remain first of all a toy lover myself and I get more satisfaction in my team producing a first class item than in owning and collecting something for myself.
What do you think guys ? Please feel free to question or comment; I personally find Howard easy going and one thing I notice - his enthusiasm for toys and collectibles shine through; although he runs a business, in his responses I get the feeling that he cares very much for the product and not just the $$ / profit, as when I asked him for his vision for the next 3 to 5 years, his first response was centered on producing excellent products, not growing sales or sales position. If the founder and creative director of Hot Toys have this motivation, we can be assured of greater things to come from Hot Toys.
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星期二，2010年3月30日
和HT总裁 霍华德陈的对话 第一部分。
好，双方达成一致比想象中所花时间更长，但最后我可以展示出我和总裁最近对话的所有内容。那是个惬意的夏日中的下午，当我决定去HT九龙塘总部的时候已经是差不多下午3点了，我由Emily小姐引荐，你可以想象在HT总部没有允许是不能拍照和走动的。
我：为什么HT做了能让客户取消钢铁侠战损订单的决定？
总（裁）：我们为战损的最终成品感到非常自豪，其中很多新部件，如盔甲，不幸的是有太多消极的来自公众的声音，关于头雕和颜色上色的问题。
所以我们做下决定，如果那些不是百分百满意的客户可以取消订单，我们为的是尊重论坛上的意见。如果我们没做这个决定的话，HT可能已经戴上了太自大和高傲，不关心客户想法的这个“帽子”了。
不过我再次强调，最终成品是HT小组其中一个自豪所在，而且我相信这也是大部分买家所同样自豪的，现在我们有少于50起真正的订单取消事件，但实施是在最终战损成品没上市前还是有很多客户重新订购的。
我：和Sideshow公司之间合作的内幕能说下么？
总：我们在2005年和他们签订了一个紧密合作协议，而且我们有机会和他们共同开发12寸星战系列的计划。HT和Sideshow合作也有很大机会可以生产好T2系列和教父系列。
我：HT最后的军事产品是那对英军双人组，你们有放弃这个军事系列的生产线么？请问为什么？是否是因为购买电影版权要花掉很多资源呢？
总：当然，HT做军事系列非常成功。是的，因为设计，生产和满足在购买版权时遇到的不同种类的需求是会消耗我们的时间和资源的。以现有的时间和资源来说，我们觉得我们更适合将时间和精力用在电影系列上面。但这不是说我们不会再做军事系列，未来的某刻，实际上，我们过去已经做了很多军事产品了，不过在我们回到军事系列之前，我们想寻找一些“刺激”的东西。而且，有的电影系列其实是和军事相关的，所以当我们做这些电影产品时，我们可以用上我们以前做军事系列的经验和成功。
我：那么2010有啥计划？
总：这一年，我们将会带来大量版权电影系列产品，如阿凡达，即将上映众望所归的钢铁下2，泰坦巨人和波斯王子。你可以期待手中的可动玩偶是这些电影中的主角，就在今年！
我：转移到Marvel版权上，是否现在的版权只囊括Marvel电影系列的人物呢？
总：是的，当我们和Marvel讨论这个计划的时候，我们意识到我们可以做很多Marvel人物产品，无论是电影，动画，漫画还是电子游戏中的人物。当然了，HT会发掘更多机会来生产更多有名的Marvel系列中的人物。
总：我们以金刚狼和刀锋战士系列为开始，在我们开始考虑生产Marvel漫画或其他系列中的人物前，我们仍然可以生产很多Marvel电影人物玩偶，我们任然在努力！
我：提到一些电影版权中特别的人物，HT会生产蝙蝠侠中的戈登警官，钢铁侠中的大反派和生化危机中的吉尔么？
总：对，我们已经计划生产戈登警官这个人物玩偶，一开始，戈登警官的扮演者不太支持我们，但是现在这一切都不是问题，在他本人和电影版权之间都没有任何问题，所以我可以说以后的某刻我们会生产戈登警官。
至于钢铁侠中的大反派，他可是会消耗大量物料和较贵，因为你想，这可是个非常巨大的1比6玩偶，所以生产他会有很多同行和顾客支持，同样也有巨大的困难。就我个人来说，我想看到这款玩偶的诞生，但是要提到，钢铁侠2快要上映了，我们之前已经承诺过生产这部电影中的许多新人物，我们也在准备一系列激动人心的促销活动，像在香港和台湾举行的钢铁侠展览会，大概是今年的4到5月份，将会提供给参与者很多独有待遇，因此，时间如此紧迫，我们不知道是否应该发行他，但是这个大反派角色是我们计划中的产品。
至于吉尔，我们和合作伙伴讨论过并且在论坛上得知她是很受欢迎的人物，所以我可以说，在2010，粉丝们能够看到她的诞生！
（我必须指出，这个采访记录没有完全编辑好，也大概只有90%的内容，当我问及和Sideshow公司会合作生产什么产品时，陈先生是有回避的，不过这次采访很完美）
我：至于你说的“DX”系列，请问哪些人物符合成为你们所说的DX标准呢？说实话，你们最近宣布将会生产MJ的“Bad”系列还是让我们很吃惊的。
总：我们觉得能让大众吃惊，这很好！你知道的，我们刚开始生产的DX系列中，是有可动眼这个系统的，另外，我们加入了更多细节和更多的配件给DX系列，这些都在包装里。
我：你已经决定生产“DX4”么？有没什么提示，是否是个电影主角或者是个现实中的原型？
总：是的，我们决定生产DX4，但是无可奉告！但是你可以在接下来的2个月中见到他们的身影，而且，我相信你们会喜欢那是电影人物的。
我：陈总，我必须祝贺你们在1比6如此多的产品上取得巨大成功，你们也必定为此自豪，HT创始至今有10年了么？
总：是的，今年是10周年纪念，我们计划发行一本10周年纪念册和很多震撼的元素，将会在香港和日本举行，和我们的粉丝和供应商共同庆祝，请密切关注
我：那你在接下来3到5年，为了HT公司，你有什么计划？你们会开发其他比例的产品么？比如雕像。
总：首先，我们要保持我们在1比6产品中的地位，然后继续生产能够让客户激动的产品。同时，我们发行DX系列中意识到了成本和价格的挑战因素。至于其他比例，我个人觉得1比6是适合较好表现可动细节的，这种比例能满足玩家“玩”的要求，和具有的可动和细节等特征。我们会继续做好这个市场的。至于其他产品，像雕像，我们会继续去探索，在和我们的伙伴，设计小组和供应商商量过程中，我们会继续生产这些有挑战性的产品，我们不会进入相关市场，比如Sideshow的雕塑系列，我们不想抄袭相关产品，而是想试着直接和他们竞争，当然我们也不确定是否我们的客户想看到我们生产出这些产品。噢，我早前提到2010年HT公司有10岁了，是哦一我们计划在今年做一些特别的事情，你们可以期盼将会发生什么，但我现在不能透露太多，期待吧！
我：谢谢你的回答，最后，讲一些你自己的故事吧，你是从一个玩具收藏家起步的吧？你现在还会收集玩偶么？
总：当然，我还是一名玩家，不过我想有点不同的是我不会像以前那样为了喜欢的玩具而特别死心期盼的想弄到手，我总是被很多玩具设计师和狂热的玩家包围，在我的工作地几乎每天都有，差不多24小时在工作！所以只要我还是玩家，我就会首先提醒自己，我是一个玩家，我为我的团队生产出一级棒的产品而自豪，不仅仅是我自己的玩偶 |
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发表于 2010-3-31 12:07
发表于 2010-3-31 12:09
楼主
发表于 2010-3-31 12:24
