[ed: Kenny Wong made a name for himself with Brothersfree and is now pursuing his own projects through Kennyswork. Yevgeniy Shukhman had the opportunity to talk to Kenny about his newest 1:6 scale toy project, Copperhead-18: Dig. Enjoy this insightful interview. ]
Hi Kenny, How is HK these days?
this is question 1 right? ha ha!! Very busy for the upcoming exhibition in taiwan and Malaysia
for the launch of "Molly the Painter" Mobile game , where it has a conference about kennyswork, so I have to prepare for it. Another collaboration is copperhead x levi’s ( secret in this moment^^)
Kenny your work speaks for itself, would you please introduce yourself to our dear readers?
I’ve been a member of "Brothersfree" since 2000, after we have spent 5 years in the team work together, we established our own brand as well, and Kenny ‘s new company call "Kennyswork." I used to be a visualizer, illustrator, graphic designer, photo retoucher before I started character design. ‘Brothersworker" made me believed that I was born to be a character designer.
Please tell us about Brothersfree?
"Brothersfree" was bonded by 3 guys, Kenny ,William and Winson in 2000, our initial goal was to create our own work after years work of servicing clients in advertising agency. "Brothersworker" is the first and the most famous series of our creations, the interesting design was keep creating years by years and it was so lucky that we have attracted many international branding to have some collaborations during the years, like Levi’s , Heineken , Nikon, Lipton , Pringles , Nokia…. That’s why "Brothersfree" grow up very fast in these year.
Each figure you guys produced is not only an amazing achievement in detail, execution, design it’s also a wholesome character, how do you create them and where do they come from?
"Brothersworker" was inspired by the hard working builders we saw every time when we look out of the window, and the basic form of the character is based on people from Africa. They look tough and strong, and look as if they could bear everything, so that’s why we used them as the basic form of design.
Tell us about your new venture "Kennyswork" and how do you have time to be working on so many projects at the same time?
Yeah, it is really tough work for me, but the response to the new
works shown have made it worthwhile. "Kennyswork" seems to be a new
face of "Brothersfree", if I keep doing the same thing as what we did
before, it will be meaningless. The intention of "Kennyswork" is to
explore the new element of character design. I hope that people would
willing to wait to see what is going to come from "Kennyswork".
Molly is one of the breakthroughs for me this year.
Copperhead 18: Dig and Dark are your first toys from "Kennyswork". What do you think is different from "Borthersfree" figures?
The Copperhead-18 is based on a story from the future, it’s
science fiction more than just a life figure. Of course U may find some
"Brothersfree" feeling inside, of course since I sculpted it.
Tell us more about Copperhead 18? What do you think is fascinating about them?
They are really special for me, since I can make use of working with
Copperhead to tell people more about our existing planet, to love it,
to save it but to distroy it. If U want to know more about the story,
pls go to www.kennyswork.com and U will see more ^^ ha ha!!
Kenny let’s get into a bit of technical side of Copperhead-18: What type of body are they?
I use Hottoys 1/6 Scale Truetype Figure for the copperhead body, since it can pose for many difficult actions.
What materials were used to produce DIg? How Dark is different from Dig?
Copperhead-18 was made by …heart, ha ha~ Copperhead -18 is
actually made by many different materials. It has a metal Helmet,
Leather suit , injection body, rubber horse , plastic air-supply….
Dark and Dig are partners , but their characters are totally
different. Dark looks cool and smart at heart, very focused on every
mission. Dig is friendly , talkative, and he is so optimistic even
though his leg was lost during the mission.
When will Copperhead-18 be in sweaty collector’s hands?
The first Copperhead-Dark was released last year, and the upcoming Copperhead: DIG, hopefully in the middle of May will be OK!!
Will we possibly see another version of Copperhead-18: Dig?
You mean the one after DIG? Yes him 🙂 He is still in the deep deep
sea, I think the end of the year he will be flowing up from the sea, ha
ha.
What is next for "Kennyswork" ?
Pls tell me!!
[If you’d like to purchase Copperhead-18: Dig, Span of Sunset has a preorder for both the standard and special editions.
These toys are amazing. But the prices just seem amazingly high to me, $360 plus shipping for the more deluxe version. Am I wrong to think these prices should get you something OG then a multiple mass produced figure?
these pieces are well worth the money, they are hand made limited adition works of art
exceptional craftsmanship and detail
the price tag barely covers productiuon costs
Nice interview
I don’t doubt the quality and think they are incredible pieces of craftsmanship. But forgive me for being naive but why would a company, in business to make a profit, barely cover production costs? This seems like a poor way to continue to stay in business.
Doit for the publicity and the searching for bigger fish to fry like Nikon. pringles and canon etc etc. that is where these artist make the money. think of these toy offerings as colling cards.
And very good interview. Please make more regular efforts to conduct and post mr. Yevgenii loving how human touch of the chatting of two creatives comes accross.
I’ve finally been able to check out Dig. Truly amazing. These figures represent the pinnacle of 12″ figure’s, not only as a toy but most importantly as art. I noticed some people commented on the cost, but don’t balk at the price tag. Superior in every way: craftsmanship, original concept, and play value. Especially for those of you out there that are into Medicom, Hot Toys, and Sideshow.