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An Interview with Diorama Prints' Rachel Theron
418 Plays5 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik are joined by Rachel Theron of Diorama Prints to discuss toy photography, the creative process, and how Diorama Prints is helping to elevate the toy art created by the community on social media!
Use code "AIC" on dioramaprints.com to save 10% at checkout!
Follow Diorama Prints on Twitter and Instagram @dioramaprints
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. There we go. I love it. Such high energy. It's always a pleasure to be back in the virtual recording studio with you, Dave. I wanted to switch it up and just repeat things in case you missed it the first time. I just wanted to repeat things in case you missed it the first time. If anybody hit the fast forward button, now you're just catching it all. Yeah, you're just catching it all.
00:01:02
Speaker
Oh, man. All right, Dave, do you have a question for me before we get started today?
Guest Introduction: Rachel Theron
00:01:07
Speaker
I haven't put thought into this, but...
00:01:11
Speaker
I figure since it's springtime, my question would be, Eric, are you going to bury the lead this week? Unlike the seeds that many are burying in their yards right now to prepare for spring and flowers. That's where I was going. No, Dave, I'm not going to bury the lead. Gardening.
00:01:34
Speaker
Are we gardening this week? We have a gardening humor on a toy collecting show. Every new listener has already bailed. They just turned it off. Everyone's like, what is this? No, but of course, as you know, when we have a guest, I'm not going to bury the lead. And we have a very fun special guest with us today. The world of toy photography seems to grow stronger
00:02:00
Speaker
every day. And because the idea of professional lighting and elaborate sets can be a little intimidating to those looking to dip their toes into the world of toy photography, diorama prints.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, they're here to help. If you follow us on Instagram, you've likely seen us post about our recent sponsorship with them. They are our first sponsor. And they're amazing, high-quality printed dioramas elevating our fun pictures of crazed clowns and video games and Marvel superheroes and turtles and everything. Joining us today is Rachel Theron, owner of diorama prints. Rachel, thank you for joining us on Adventures in Collecting.
00:02:41
Speaker
Hi guys, thanks for having me. Hello.
00:02:44
Speaker
Hello. So thank you for taking the time to be on our show and thank you for sponsoring us, for sending us the amazing prints that you guys make. And we'll dive into that in a little bit. But before we get started on kind of the meat of the interview here, we ask all of our guests, what are you currently collecting?
Rachel's Collecting Interests and Recent Acquisitions
00:03:13
Speaker
Great question.
00:03:15
Speaker
Um, right now, I mean, in general, I kind of collect whatever looks cool to me. And after this past year, I'm super into like apocalyptic looking figures, and stuff like that. But most recently, I'm really into mezco. And I got my first Gomez figure. And you know, I always saw them advertised and whatnot, but never had it in hand. And I absolutely love it. So which one did you end up you got the one that they just put out?
00:03:44
Speaker
Not the one, not the gold commander. I have the one before that, the hazard squad, just the regular commander from the bodego box. I think it's from the fall edition. Nice. Yeah, it's almost like he's got the Robin's egg blue shirt on, right? Exactly. Yeah, love it. It's awesome. Yeah, I have been...
00:04:05
Speaker
Like, it's been tantalizing, all of the Gomez figures, because, you know, following, you know, the toy, especially the toy photography community, like some of the stuff that they do with those Mezco figures, like the D-amazings and the Darth Dandadas of the world, the photos that they take with Gomez are just, they're amazing.
00:04:23
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And the whole squad and, you know, I saw the pink skulls from way back when and Street Gomez and I love that he wears Converse. That's what got my attention at first. So I've wanted one for a while. And finally, I was able to get one, which was great.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's so interesting, like out of all of the things that, because Vasco has so many licenses, they make stuff for everything, but like every now and then they put out a new James Bond or Samurai or explore themed cockroach with an attitude and it just looks amazing.
Origin and Purpose of Diorama Prints
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, it works. You wouldn't think so if you read it on paper and you're being pitched this idea, you know?
00:05:07
Speaker
You'd probably be like, oh, I don't know about this, but it works and it's awesome. Yeah, it's always cool to see what new comes out. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I almost dipped my toe in the Mezco world with the Ghost Rider one that came out, but I was like, I don't know where I would put this or how I could appropriately display this.
00:05:31
Speaker
I'm still thinking about it. So with Eric speaking of all the photographers and all of the kind of worlds we've been taking the figures into, how did you get involved in the world of diorama creation?
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, I would say the seeds of it started in 2017 when I landed a client called Ready Sets. And for people who maybe don't know what or who Ready Sets is, they create these really immersive pop up diorama slash play sets.
00:06:02
Speaker
that are great for kids and toy photographers love them. And prior to working with them as a client, I had kind of heard about toy photography just in casual passing. I remember seeing some of Mitchell Wu's stuff. I think he had a picture and a magazine I saw. But that really introduced me to that whole community and all the different background environments and kind of the need for it as well. And so I always wanted to do some type of simple environment
00:06:31
Speaker
And when the pandemic hit and with all the closures and extra time on my hands, I realized I really did have all the tools and resources to give it a go. So that's what I did. And I wanted to create something that if the economy ever shut down again, it wouldn't be limited by a manufacturing plant and things like that. So I wanted something simple, something that people could use in whatever creative way they wanted to.
00:06:57
Speaker
And that's kind of how the diorama creation began. Yeah, and it's so interesting, because like we mentioned at the top, I know when we started the blog and the podcast and kind of the social media presence, I don't think...
00:07:19
Speaker
I don't think we ever thought we would be taking so many like creative and toy pictures. Like I think when we started, it was kind of like, okay, um, you know, the first couple of unboxings we did were, were literally that where it was like, you know, us sitting in front of a camera, physically opening the box and then just kind of holding the figure up to the camera and being like, look, this is how the elbows move.
00:07:45
Speaker
And then we quickly realized it was like, you know what, we should get light boxes. And again, all of this developed during the pandemic. And while we both live in New Jersey, we're separate. So we both have light boxes.
00:07:59
Speaker
And, you know, we started using those for the, you know, just kind of the detail parts of the, uh, the reviews. And then all of a sudden it was like, you know, watching these other guys pose, you know, the figures and stuff. And it started as just kind of like, Oh, I could use the light box and just kind of pose the figures and take pictures of them. And then like started buying accessories and it's like,
00:08:21
Speaker
Now I have a dumpster and a garbage can table. And then, you know, I started actually, um, you know, seeing the posts of the diorama prints and I was like, Oh, this would be perfect. Cause like, I don't have the space to build these awesome elaborate sets, you know, that that's when these people have. And plus I like.
00:08:40
Speaker
I'm not creative enough to do it. I'm not going to buy foam board and start carving bricks into things and getting airbrushes and start building these elaborate things. And it's amazing how well just a very, very 2D print photographs.
00:09:00
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. And seeing some of, I mean, what people create as far as dioramas with the foam board and everything, it's just absolutely amazing. And these are people that aren't environmental artists during the day and it's just a hobby for them and it's so cool.
00:09:15
Speaker
It's great seeing everyone's creativity using diorama prints, whether people are just starting out or they're more long on their toy photography journey. But in 2017, when I started working with ReadySets, I've just seen huge growth in the community since then. It just seems like it's exploded and it's fun. And I think it's a great creative outlet. And I think it definitely helped people this past year to stay creative, stay positive,
00:09:44
Speaker
and fill their time with something enjoyable. Yeah, because if you think about it, it just went from like this thing. Usually we would say like, OK, we're putting a diorama in the back of our case and, you know, just stacking up figures or posing them. And that's where they live all the time. But with this kind of need to do something, you really started to see that explode more so on social media than, you know, kind of out of the
00:10:15
Speaker
the storage areas of where we kind of keep figures permanently. And it's just like, well, what more can we do with this? And you really started to see just so many advances in the figure photography world. Instagram really lends itself to that type of photography too. I mean, all photography in general, but just seeing the community on there, it's so cool. And now everyone's setups on their shelves and everything, everyone's kind of up the ante.
00:10:46
Speaker
with how they've done that and it's just so cool to see. And that's the other thing too that's really fun about these prints and I haven't had, I don't have the space to do it, but using them as kind of like a permanent or semi-permanent fixture in the back of the display too is like totally, like if I was one of those, had the space to have like all of like the ditalfs out, right? You know, it would be so awesome to have like a turtle shelf and have the sewer behind it, you know, or
00:11:15
Speaker
you know, have like an evil dead or like zombie type shelf and have, you know, the cabin lining it. Yeah, absolutely. And eventually we'll all the shelving is the dimensions of them are a bit different. And I've seen people, you know, trim it down or adjust it to fit the shelves, which is great. But eventually I want to have a line that's just specifically for display. So there's more variety in the sizing and to make it a little bit easier for people.
Selecting Themes for Diorama Prints
00:11:43
Speaker
Well, speaking of variety, you've done a wide array of themes already with the prints in just the short amount of time that Diorama Prince has been around. How do you go into deciding the themes you're going to produce?
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's really a combination of things. One, I kind of see what's already out there. And of course there's always going to be popular themes in light of the popular action figures, you know, your city scenes, your sewers. And then I think of what's missing and what would be fun to shoot with. And I look at all of the different action figures out and I just get creative with what would make a great scene. So for instance, we have a cityscape, Bangkok, our Thailand scene.
00:12:29
Speaker
And a lot of people questioned doing it. This is before we released it and we're going back and forth about it. And it ended up being one of our most popular dioramas. And that was just inspired from traveling. Thailand just has a lot of cool stuff going for it. And I thought that would be a cool city scene. So it's really just a combination of what's out there, the popular action figures, and then maybe backgrounds that people need that they don't know they need yet.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, and it's cool too to see people kind of, like you mentioned before, customizing and retrofitting them. Like I've seen a couple of people have cut the doors and kind of prop them open for the spaceship corridor and for the cabin, have actually taken an Exacto and pried the door open a little bit and put a light behind it. And you really can kind of get mileage out, extra mileage out of them that way.
00:13:28
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And people have opened up the door for the Vegas motel and done different scenes. Especially when you have multiple dioramas, people set up all the panels differently to kind of create more of a 3D effect. And it's just so cool seeing everyone's creativity and
00:13:46
Speaker
And honestly, no matter the type of shot, whether it's just a simple setup or something more elaborate, I'm just always super impressed with people's shots. And it's, of course, wonderful to see people enjoying something that you created. Now, you talked about the different rooms. We've also seen different formats, corners, stacked, walls, and floors. What informs making those decisions into what
00:14:17
Speaker
I guess what diorama looks what way?
Design Considerations for Diorama Prints
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, again, going back to the pandemic and thinking of shipping and packaging and things like that, I wanted something that was pretty straightforward to send out to people. Originally, I was looking at the typical printer paper size, which I think is 8.5 by 11. Then we ended up going with 11 by 17 panels.
00:14:42
Speaker
And so it made sense to make three panels for that two wall pieces and a floor piece. And then we've been testing out the larger diorama scenes to see if customers like that, they seem to like that. So at this point, we're kind of testing out what works best. And maybe we'll find things that don't work as well. And then we'll pivot to something that works better. At this point, everyone seems to like both the smaller size and the larger size.
00:15:11
Speaker
The corner store, the city corner store was a pretty large piece. And so even though you can easily break down diorama prints and store all the foam boards in a closet or whatever, it still takes up quite a bit of space. So I think in general, we'll probably keep just a smaller one as our main offering. But yeah, at this point, it's just kind of testing and seeing what people like.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what I've found, again, playing with the amount of space that I have, because it's not a lot. And it's a small shared space that my wife and I both use, and is also right now part-time classroom for a virtual kindergartner. But what I've actually done is I haven't glued any of them down yet. I actually use the cardboard backing that shipped with them, and I blue tack them.
00:16:08
Speaker
to the cardboard. So I'll put the one I need up with the floor down in the light box, take my pictures, pop the blue tack off the back, stack them back up on top of the light box, and move on. It makes it so much more fun to work with because I can kind of pick and choose. There's no sense of permanence.
00:16:32
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, no. And it's really whatever works for people. You know, we offer some guidance, but we also say, you know, do the setup that works best, but you need some type of something rigid or sturdy to prop it against. Otherwise, you know, it might fall over. Yeah. But yeah, that sounds like a great setup.
00:16:50
Speaker
One of the other things that I've noticed about them, and especially kind of in the sewer diorama and the pictures you've shown with the cave, that's the upcoming cave, I love the fact that you include enough details, like little minor details to really kind of inform
00:17:12
Speaker
or suggest which figures you should be using with each diorama, um, without, without necessarily, um, drawing any, any copyright or fringe upon any, um, any, any, uh, IP is how, how do, how does that process kind of work out? Like, how do you, how do you figure out how you're going to tow the line, tell a story and still kind of maintain your own intellectual property? Really?
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, great question. Yeah, it's a fine line. And of course, we don't wanna infringe on any intellectual property, but we also wanna create great background environments for some of the most popular action figures. So with stuff like that, there's a lot of generic things you can include that gives the hints of who maybe should be there. But I also like to keep it a tad generic in the sense that other figures could be there.
00:18:06
Speaker
and keep it open-ended in that way so that people, I really just want people to use their imagination and do whatever works best because at the end of the day, the action figure in their photography is the center stage and I just want the background environment to complement that. But, you know, do I wish we had licensing and stuff like that? Yes, yes, I do.
00:18:28
Speaker
But in the interim of that, we put little hints there, but of course have to keep it somewhat generic. So has there been something yet where you've put something and been like, I think I'm going to take that out. Yeah. Is there a lot of editing? Absolutely.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. We go through a few versions of it. And I have two great illustrators that I've worked with for my main company. And so they're absolutely great. We work well together. And I have my little chicken scratches. And I just dump out all of my ideas. And they're able to make that come to a reality. And of course, we revise a lot in between the final product. But it's a pretty cool process.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah. And speaking of the process, before you had mentioned ReadySets and the fact that they're one of your clients and that you do work for them as well, what's the difference designing and detailing out for the diorama prints
Design Process Differences: Diorama Prints vs. Ready Sets
00:19:38
Speaker
versus the ReadySets projects?
00:19:42
Speaker
So it's really kind of comparing apples and oranges because they're such different products in some ways. They're both background environments, but ready sets is, I mean, it pops up into a whole immersive city scene, for instance. And I wasn't part of the design for the design process for their play sets, but I did the marketing. You know, I worked with the whole team. It was a small team.
00:20:05
Speaker
out in Dana Point, California. And their process, I mean, is super elaborate for all the details that go into it, the 3D rendering. And the way our process is, it's the simplified version of it. So it kind of includes all the similar steps, except we're making just three panels instead of, you know, a three foot by four foot
00:20:30
Speaker
a playset. But being with ready sets, I got to meet a lot of the toy community, got to work with a lot of people. And then that's kind of when some of the ideas started churning for, if I created dioramas, what would I want to create? And you asked earlier, where do I come up with some of the ideas? And one thing I forgot to mention is just watching movies or TV shows. So the cathedral, for instance, I was watching the most recent Bad Boys movie.
00:21:00
Speaker
And in the end, it's like this fiery inferno at the cathedral. Will Smith is shooting at stuff. And I was like, man, that would make an awesome diorama. Now, what ended up happening was just a simple cathedral, maybe out in Mexico. So it's the pared down version of that, but that's where some of the ideas come from.
00:21:25
Speaker
So you talked about just different ideas and kind of different inspirations. So if you can make one diorama theme tomorrow, what would it be? Some type of city skyline type thing or like a rooftop.
00:21:43
Speaker
I know we've talked, I've hinted at it in the past, but I would love for you guys to do an arena of some kind with people in stands. Yeah, an arena would be cool. A crowd would be amazing, just to be able to put behind a wrestling ring or something.
00:22:02
Speaker
Absolutely. And we do receive quite a bit of requests for that among other things. So that's definitely, you know, eventually I would love to do a lot more designs, but we have them come out incrementally since we're so new, you know, we're continuing to get the word out, but that would be a great scene.
00:22:21
Speaker
And speaking of the scenes that you guys offer, we've mentioned a bunch of the ones that are already out.
Upcoming Releases from Diorama Prints
00:22:30
Speaker
And you've shown off the dojo, which is coming, the cave, which you mentioned, and of course the New York City cityscape that are due out just in a few weeks, right? I think you guys are aiming for like May, June with those. Yeah, pre-orders will go up later this month or early next, and then we'll start shipping those out in June.
00:22:49
Speaker
So past those, what's on the horizon? Do you have any other, can you hint at any other ones that you're currently working on? Well, one other one that will be with the batch that you just talked about will be the spaceship armory room diorama. And we just teased that out on our Instagram stories, just a little snippet. The artwork is still being worked on right now. But that is supposed to go along with our spaceship corridor diorama that has been super popular.
00:23:17
Speaker
So this is the armory room within that spaceship. And then we do have a few more slated for later in the year, but you'll have to have me on again to tease those out. Deal. Yeah. But as far as just general future plans, we'd love to get into different scales, definitely 118, possibly 116. We get
00:23:40
Speaker
that requested a lot surprisingly. And then maybe come up with a type of package where all supplies or whatever is needed is just delivered to you just to save a step for the customer.
00:23:52
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, I love, you know, and again, you know, something that we've spoken about. It's doing 118 with the existing ones. It is possible. You know, if you play with perspective a little bit, I've been shooting some Star Wars, some vintage collection Star Wars figures on the Space Town one, and it's worked. I haven't had any issues yet, so.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, it looks great. And you did that Mars attack one, which I think is a super seven figure, right? Yep, yep. Looks great. Yeah, you would never know that that was a smaller figure.
00:24:26
Speaker
I mean, part of it is, again, the quality of the print. Because if you play with the depth of field, and I shoot everything on my iPhone. So I have nothing fancy in terms of camera setup. But the newest iPhone and some of the new Android phones as well, they have that double lens system. So you can really play like you would with a digital SLR.
00:24:54
Speaker
and blur the background a little bit and the fact that these three and three-quarter inch figures that they're making now have more detail on them than ever before like that that grief cargo the the vintage collection grief cargo one is like unbelievable it looks like a
00:25:10
Speaker
You know a real tiny version of him and especially once you start shooting and doing a little bit of editing and smoothing out on it It's you know, it works, but I would love I would love one 18th scale sets man I mean, that's that's the bulk of my collection is is three and three quarters Star Wars. So nice very nice. Yeah, well stay tuned and Dave before before we We wrap things up here. Would you would you like to do your your James Lipton your best James Lipton?
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, my best James Lipton is just me asking the question in my own voice. You know, I try to keep things, keep things on an even keel. The last question before we let you go. What is the weirdest or most special or both piece in your collection? It could be any, it could be two different things. One, the answer each one could be one thing.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, my most special is probably this little Optimus Prime figure I have that I've had since childhood. And so it survived the childhood purge of all your childhood toys, which I totally regret now because I had some GI Joes and other things.
00:26:27
Speaker
where I'm like, why did I do that? That's definitely the most special just because it's been around for so long. For my weirdest piece in my collection, I don't know if I necessarily have one, but I recently picked up on eBay, actually married with children, this little Funko set. And so people's reaction to it is strange. So, you know, they kind of look at me weird when I say it. So that might be the weirdest piece that other people think I have.
00:26:56
Speaker
I mean, it's one of those, we got into this on the last episode with Jonathan from The Loyal Subjects, but we're living in a world right now where anything can be a toy. Any property, any movie, any TV show, anything can be made a toy.
00:27:19
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Is it weird having Al Bundy as a minifigure? It is a little bit, but for some reason it sparked a little nostalgia of watching it when I was younger. If I watched it now, I don't know if I'd have the same opinion of it, but I'm going with it.
00:27:36
Speaker
I mean, that's one of those shows where every now and then I'll catch it on TV. And I remember we watched it a lot when we were kids, too. And every now and then I'll catch an episode. And it's one I recognize. And I just kind of get comfy and re-enjoy it. It holds up. Married with Children still holds up. No, that's good. That's good.
00:27:58
Speaker
So Rachel, before we let you go and let you get back to designing amazing prints for everybody to use, where can we find you on social media? Where can we find you on the internet? And is there anything else that you wanted to plug?
Diorama Prints Promotions and Podcast Credits
00:28:16
Speaker
For sure. Yeah, everyone can find us and come check us out at dioramaprince.com. And then we're on Instagram and Facebook under the same name. And I believe you have a 10% coupon floating out there. So everyone's welcome to use that. And, you know, free shipping.
00:28:32
Speaker
on orders over 35 in the US. When people reach out to us on Instagram or email, a real person always answers back. We love talking to our customers, so we hope everyone will come check us out. They haven't already. Yeah, use that code AIC to save yourself 10% on some awesome diagram and prints. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us on Adventures in Collecting this evening. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.
00:29:00
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:29:16
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:29:40
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.