Over the course of 2005-2008, I assisted Art Asylum, designing production control art for various projects, most notably their Minimates line. This involved turnaround views for every part of the figure that was to be included in the final product, along with any surface artwork that needed to be applied.
Oh man, what a fun project this was. I was asked to see if I could develop a series of Minimates based off the Kellogg’s Cereal cartoon characters. Armed with complete access to the character styleguides, I really fought any suggestion of designing the characters with a “head-on” view, as they were never depicted as such on the cereal boxes. Instead, I wanted to be as true to the original character designs as possible. Some of the characters work better than others, and I wish Tony the Tiger could have been scaled up to the 2 1/2″ Minimate base, but what can ya do… It’s too bad retails never picked up the line. I think they would have been a fun, if unusual, addition to a toy shelf.
This series would have included:Tony the TigerSnap, Crackle & PopDig ‘EmToucan Sam and Ernie the Keebler Elf
While the photos shown here on the site represent the sculpted figures, it should be noted that I contributed the control art only. As with all of the Minimate projects, there were many talented people involved: production managers, sculptors, other designers… This figure was very much a team effort, and the finished product reflects the contributions of many individuals.
Special thanks to ActionFigs.com for allowing me to repost their photos here.
Designed May 2006
Featured in TOYFARE MAGAZINE, Issue #116, April 2007.
