Darren Epstein of Cards Inc. and Master Replicas – the two companies developing cards, toys and prop replicas for The Golden Compass film – has very kindly agreed to answer any questions His Dark Materials fans may have on their plans. What kind of products would you like to see in this field? What sorts of things would you not like to see? Any and all questions in the comments please, and we'll put them to Darren – who has visited the set and been hands-on with clockwork spies and the alethiometer – very soon.
edit: A lot of people are just suggesting items – can anyone perhaps think of some straight-up questions they'd like to ask?
i thought an alethiometer would be cool but i guess it wouldnt actually work..
umm no…subtle knives aren't allowed.
oh! maybe some sort of gameboy game or summin
Stuffed animal daemons!!! And action figures, of course. Ooh, life-size cardboard characters-I have one of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings ๐
Ok, that's all I can think of…
top trump cards and game boy games!!!
Board games(?)
CERTAINLY daemon stuffed toys! Little action figures are fun….probably wouldn't be a good idea to have a toy-Authority figure, though…..
Play Alethiometers would be fun, even if they don't really work. I know I'd like to see some fun little broomsticks and toy dirigibles/balloons…..those would be fun.
Definitely action figures of Mrs Coulter, PolarExplorer!Lyra, and some sweet armored bears. Thanks!
Glittercloud- what about a plastic subtle knife?
Action figures (duh), plushies, something similar to LEGO, replica objects, trading cards, and games!
I actually have a proper question, unlike this lot. Will Cards Inc and Master Replicas be supplying the posters for the movie, or will that go to another company? Or does the film company do posters themselves? Also, will the release dates for the merhendise be earlier in the US than the UK? Would be good if we didn't have to wait lol. Thanks.
(sorry for my bad english)
Do you envisage to make stuffed bears ? I want a Iorek, me, a soft teddy (with armour that can be dismantled) :laughing:
Without sounding negative, will the average HDM fan be priced out of buying products made by the two companies?
Have they and/or Darren read the books?
Anything they particularly like about the books or film which they intend to 100% replicate?
How will they avoid copying merchandise made for the stageplay?
Question: What stores will the toys/games come out in? The major general stores like Walmart or game/toy-specified places like Toys R Us?
Suggestion: Tarot Cards with HDM designs
Master Replicas made framed replicas of the swords from Pirates Of The Caribbean, so I'm sure they can make a Subtle Knife too. No need for plastic, Kristen. ๐
Feel free to discuss this in our forums, in this thread: http://www.bridgetothestars.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203677&highlight=
Please sell an alethiometers replica!!!! ๐
I think the should make
1.alethiometers replica
2.COSTUME REPLACAS!!!!
3.Daemon stuffed animals(and a moth or bird 1 that you can strap on ur shoulder.
And that is all i can think of now.
ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! ALETHIOMETER!!! PLLLEEAASSE!And maybe a gameboy game too..please let it avalible for nintendo!ooh!!make it for nintendo wii!!!
Darren is a fan, if I recall. And its some smart market research to ask these questions here. Just sticking to the first book/movie: althieometer replicas and stuffed daemon toys are clearly the most popular choices. You'll have to be careful considering that HDM is a more sophisticated franchise than HP; the stuffed daemons will have to look like more than stuffed animals, careful work on the eyes and facial expressions. A working model of the althieometer powered by maybe magnets or battery would be nice instead of some magic eight ball style mechanism. The best advice I can give is to design HDM 'toys' to be more like LOTR memorabilia rather than mass-manufactured pop culture toys because the current HDM fandom is cult-like and rather discriminating.
Question: What kind of cards are you considering? A magic style game? collectibles?
yeah it would be a bit weird if the cards were like pokemon or yugioh cards…"lyra uses her clay balls against the gyptians!10HP down!"..lol
Here are a few more questions:
Do they plan on making board games? If so on what are they thinking of basing it (ex. trivia or more like candyland, a plot based board game)
If they do plan on making character action figures, what characters do they plan on depicting?
Are the toys going to be marketed toward young children? Does the company think that is approriate considering the content in the books or are they just going to work around it?
If they have read the books, is there anything in particular they want to see reproduced? Anything they thing will be technically impossible (besides the obvious, like a working alethiometer or witch's broom) to recreate?
I dunno what else, but good luck with the interview!!!
Master Replicas is allowed to make real knifes. they made some for lord of the rings. i think the subtle knife is ok to make.
i wanna armored bear!!! :tongue:
Regarding human action figures, I'd like to know about how they will go about crafting the faces – and if they use a generic mold or if they will create molds based on the actual actors!
will you be making t-shirts and bags as well as all the cute stuffed polar bears? I'd like to see some stuff for the older kids ๐
* What's the one item that Darren wishes most that it was possible to make from the film (or book) that is too expensive/or technically difficult?
* What has impressed Darren the most so far about the filming of the story?
* Has Darren read the books? If so what is his personal favorite part of the story?
๐
What, in his eyes, is most challenging about making toys/cards relating to His Dark Materials?
If toys are to be made for Pan, seeing as he hasn't settled into his form until the third book, will toys of him have more than one version? Or will one of his more popular forms be taken?
Will there be any models of settings within the books? Ie Jordan College, the Gyptian Boat, Bolvanger.
Who will be the target market? With these type of ventures, children are normally the main market but His Dark Materials has a lot of fans of all ages. Will there perhaps be certain products aimed at older fans, for example like the Lord of the Rings The One Ring jewellery.
Will most products be aimed at viewers of the film or will there be any minor objects from the book that may not be widely noticed by cinema audiences that you would like to create?
Any dolls of Philip Pullman? :p
OMG Hikari that would be ace! A talking phillip pullman action figure would be uber and hilarious, for us seriously stalkerish fans of not just HDM but his other works too lol.
to what degree are the artists involved inspired by existing interpretations of some of the physical objects in Pullman's trilogy, e.g. book covers, promotional material, fan interpretations?
have historical inspirations for the things to be replicated been taken into context in the design of replicas? (or is this a set design thing separate from toy licensing… are you involved in any of that since you've been able to visit the set?)
how will you avoid the gimmicky nature of some film merchandise that some fans have expressed concern about? (good read: ceres wunderkind's pantalaimon perplex)
What sort of demographic will the company be aiming at? Do they see this as a similar market to LoTR with a lot of adult fans prepared to buy more expensive items?
And I know Darren may not want to answer this, but I'm curious as to whether there are any elements from the books (or rather, from the first book) that his companies envisages as being a particularly popular idea to merchendise? My money would be on the daemons as if the film is anything like the book a lot of people will come away wanting their own personal shape-shiftng soulmate!
I'd like a game (for PC or PSP) PLEASE! :p
and posters, t-shirts or something like that would be soooo cool!
Personally, I think you should make dr M.'s I shing thingy. That would be good! Oh, and top-trunks, alethiometers and binocular-amber spyglasses. KK!
Mogglemoose: The I Ching is real. They don't need to make it. And what do you mean by 'top-trunk'?
They should make out a whole entire line of Philip Pullman voodoo dolls, I think. ๐ Made of marchpane even, maybe.
Ooooh don't even get me started on Marchpane! That raises another question, I assume all sweets (candies), chocolates and things made out of marchpane that are HDM-like will be handled by a different company? Like those who do the every flavour beans from the harry potter books. Do you know at this stage who will be handling these?
Are there any drawings or models of the bears' armour?
Hate to be the unpopular vote here, but when I heard that the films were out of development hell, I had horrible fears of cute plushy versions of Iorek and the Daemons. ๐
(Though the Marchpane idea is brilliant.)
No!!!!!!!!!
Don't touch anything!!!
The last thing people need are HDM boardgames going around the place.
Could you make little collectable figures that don't look cheap? ๐
That wouldn't be so bad…
Question: If you make an Alethiometer replica, this seems quite likely, will you be able to move the pointers to symbols and will magnets react to make a fake answer? Also will you make a book to 'interpret' the symbols?
Thanks
Alethiometer.
Knife.(I'd totally buy an actual one, too!)
Armoured Bears.
model kits of locations/characters.
POSTERS. not joking, I would buy one of each.
Are there any predominant pieces of jewelery that were mentioned in The Golden Compass? (I can't quite remember)… I know that some pieces of jewelery were made for the LOTR movies–elven brooch, pendants, the One Ring– and I think that could be a big seller with the older audiences.
I meant to say earlier, but I've emailed off a collection of questions from here now. ๐
In terms of food/drink, what about a kind of drink called Tokay? In the story it is alcoholic beverage but since this is a children's film, they could make soft drinks or something.
oh pleeeease make a Alethiometer! I dont think plush daemons would work .. being that they would be just the same as a normal stuffed toy ! Action figures!! Lyra, gyptians (lord faa, farder coram, ma costa) serafina, coulter, asriel, roger, iroek, lee .. yer thts all i can think of! umm i think of some more soon!
Hi!
I’m getting married on september, and because we are both Pullman’s trilogy’s buff, instead of rings, we have decided to give each other an alethiometer.
We can wait after september, but do you have a date for the sale of the alethiometers replicas ?
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definately alethiometers!!!! i’ve been trying to make one but it’s really hard! please have a metal one that’s not too expensive though! i know i’m asking for a lot, but i think people would buy that.
i think you should make an amber spyglass, out of metal and amber coloured glass, that would be so cool! yeah, stuffed daemons would be popular. you should also make a game called something like ‘the golden compass; daemons’ where you get a vertual daemon. i think a lot of people would buy that, if theyre anything like me ๐ oh yeah an alethiometer is a definite must-have!
i have two binoculars at home and both of them are Bushnell brand, it is a really good brand:,.
Bushnells binoculars have the best quality when it comes to binocular optics :