Late Toy Show

Alan is a Creative Director and Motion Graphics Designer living in Philippines with his wife and daughter.

What led you into toy photography?

I grew up in the 80s and have been a fan of the Transformers and various 80s cartoons. I also grew up reading Marvel and DC comic books. After a few years of working, I started collecting Transformers toys first, then slowly moved on to Marvel and DC action figures.

For the first few years, I only bought and displayed my collection. It was only in 2017 that I discovered the ACBA and other toy photography groups on Facebook that I started to get serious into toy photography.

What's your motivation?

My main motivation for my photo scenes are movie scenes and comic book panels. I’ve always been interested in the behind the scenes features for movies, so it’s interesting for me to try and recreate scenes that I love.

What's your gear?

My camera is an old Panasonic GH2. I cycle between 3 lenses: a Panasonic 20mm 1.6, stock Panasonic 14-42mm, and a Meike 50mm 2.0. I have 1 ulanzi pro mini light, 1 small generic LED panel light, and the rest are standard LED cool and warm bulbs.

What does a typical photo shooting look like?

I’m very messy. I have a backdrop that’s held up by scrap cardboard stands. I have a couple of printed posters of skies — that I need to replace since they’re all worn out — as well as solid color felt and cartolina sheets. I also use cellophane as color gels for my lights. I have wire stands from generic GI wire that I can twist and turn so I can hide it from the frame.

I also use a lot of sticky tack to hold figures, effects, and stands in place. I also use some DIY diorama pieces like streets or ground surfaces, buildings, walls, etc. I also create effects like gun flashes, explosions, and energy effects from hot glue, cotton, and scrap plastic. Sometimes I use 3mm LED lights to further enhance those effects. I also have an ultrasonic mist-maker for some fog and smoke effects.

I’ve used Photoshop since 1996, and I did some editing on my early photos. But since I joined the ACBA group on Facebook, I’ve been challenged not to process my pictures and keep everything tangible and in-camera. I found it to be a very fulfilling and freeing experience, and I appreciate not needing to spend any time in Photoshop. Now I just do a little bit of contrast, color, and sharpness adjustments in the Apple Photo app for some post-processing.

Any advice for a beginner?

Get a lot of inspiration from Toy Photography groups and try to comment and ask questions about their posts and setups. There are a lot of YouTube tutorials on photography and lighting, as well as effects and diorama making.

But the most important is to just start shooting. I started by just putting toys on the table and just posing and experimenting with angles. I never thought I would go as far as using backdrops or even building dioramas. Start by using what you have at home, such as desk lamps, scrap boxes/cardboard, paper or posters, etc. It doesn’t have to be expensive at the start. Then you quickly find out what you need and find a way to either build or buy enhancements.

Eventually, you will find a style that you gravitate into. Right now, I love backlighting and giving my figures a harsh highlight outline. I try to give my photos a cinematic feel and avoid a flat and even lighting setup.

Who is your favorite toy photographer at the moment, or the one who inspires you the most?

There are so many like tyo_nugroh0, akirajo9, figuremaniashow (Harold Ruiz), inspiredbyandre, etc. Maybe for now, it would be loose.joints (Thomas Villacorta). All of them are on Instagram.

Finally, If you had to keep only one toy, which one would you choose?

Tough one. Probably Mafex Homecoming Spidey, and Mafex Tactical Suit Batman would be a close second.

Cheers 🤘