Silver Fox Collectibles’ Darren Martin on bringing the characters of Twilight Imperium to life through high-end statues

Darren, thanks for making time. Before we explore your Twilight Imperium statues, for anyone new to Silver Fox Collectibles, talk us through what you do.
Silver Fox Collectibles was set up originally to work behind the scenes with some of the big collectors manufacturers, producing their 3D sculpts, print outs and handling project management.

We worked with Paramount Studios to create 25 full size Sqweeks for the Transformers movie, and the following year we produced 10 3.65-meter full size Bumblebee statues which were used for the marketing and promotion of the movie. One was used at San Diego Comic-Con on the Hasbro stand.

A few years later we decided to get our own license and produce collectibles for fans.

What sort of brands do you currently work with?
We managed to secure the license with Warner Bros for the Injustice series of video games. We’ve produced the first three statues in that range, with more in the final prototype stage.

They look great! Looking ahead, you’ve also secured a partnership with Asmodee around Twilight Imperium? What makes the brand right for you?
The characters are pretty cool and very diversified into their different factions. Also, through having a little bit of artistic license, I feel that the characters suit the collectibles market really well.

Not only do I think they will appeal to the fans of the games, but also to other consumer that like cool collectibles. We can also add lots of extra features, like light up functions, additional weapons and switch out heads.

Are there any characters in particular you’re looking forward to working on?
Obviously the Hacan Lion Warriors look really awesome; I’m excited to create a very dynamic and cool statue. It will also be fun to work on some of the really cool female characters from the Mentak Coalition, who are mercenaries, scavengers and privateers.

There are so many to go through, but our plan is to come out with three or four pieces for the first launch. Three 1/8 scale statues and one ¼ scale premium statue.

The in-game world of Twilight Imperium is one of the richest in board games. How did you get too grips with it?
I’ve been working with the design and marketing teams going through all the assets so that we can make the best characters and collectibles for the range. We want to make sure our collectibles are as close to the game artwork as possible.

On that, the characters in the game have largely only ever existed in 2D. What has that process been like translating them into the 3D space. Do certain characters have their challenges?
Sure, each character has its own unique challenges, but we are used to working with 2D references. We’re also guided by the creative team at Asmodee on any aspects that we need help on figuring out what something may look like, if we’re unable to grasp it from the 2D reference. We do have a little bit of artistic license we can apply to the designs of all the characters as they have never been made into 3D physical collectibles.

Last question! How do you fuel your creativity? What helps the team have ideas?
It’s hard to answer this question! I have always had a creative side and been able to create ideas and poses. Importantly, I’ve also been able to communicate that vision to our team of sculptors who are then able to create some really nice statues and dioramas.

Great stuff, thanks Darren – we look forward to seeing what you do with Twilight Imperium.