Proto Monday >> Matias Vigliano Sentry

After a brief hiatus last week.  Proto Monday is back with an all-Argentinian double header featuring Matias Vigliano and his wife, Colorblok.  Matias  has helped create several designer toys as part of the DOMA collective including the incomparable Astronaut Jesus.  He’s recently taken time to focus on creating   Parquerama, a new  exciting universe of his own original robot characters.  Drawn from this new universe, the upcoming Sentry figure is Matias’s first original art toy and will be released by Kaching Brands at this summer’s SDCC.  With Sentry, Matias presents his more humanistic venison of ‘robots’ with a retro styled design.

We recently sat down with Matias to talk  about the Sentry and his Parquerama universe populated by robots of all shapes and sizes.  His lovely wife, Juliana (Colorblok), translated portions of this interview.

Please tell us a little bit about the new  universe you’re working on and how long you’ve been doing that.

It’s been a long time since I dedicated myself to creating graphic universes. This particular thing is about my love of robots but at the same time I always wanted to make robots that had a warmer quality — a more human quality. Not such a hard asian robot. So the [idea] was to make a more warm robot, a more human robot. You can see in many of the robots that they have a human quality or have a human face, like a human form. These robots serve specific tasks, but they also make mistakes.

You mentioned that the robots have a human quality.  They look like animals, is that intentional or are they supposed to be human? 

I leave that open to interpretation.  I likes that someone can make a comment like this and some of the interpretations [people come up with] are not intentional.  I likes the interpretation that it can be more of an animal. It is alive, it is not a machine.

Tell us about how you decided to name your new universe Parquerama.

Parquerama used to be a theme park in Argentina with rides.  An old park, it doesn’t exist anymore. A long time ago…  A very small park it’s not like Disney or something like that. Small, not very popular.  It’s kinda like a cult-thing. It was  in a little town outside Buenos Aires. 

Were you influenced by the look of Japanese robots ?

Absolutely. I’m a fan of Japanese series. When I was young I watched Mazinger Z, Macross, Astro boy, Tetsujin 28. These are the series that I saw as a child. Anyway, my style is also a combination of many things that wander inside my head.

Alot of the  Japanese robot series involve conflict – missles,
guns, explosions, and war are common.  Is there any conflict in your
universe?

No.  These are pacifist robots.  The Sentry’s
rockets are just for flying. They are peace keepers.  In the drawings,
they take action but the action is soft.  {this one} serves orange
juice to people.  This is Mr. Breakfast and he has a toaster as a head.

Tell us about the process of translating your 2D illustrations into a 3D figure.  

I
had the 3D figure in my head even though I draw 2D illusrations. So
from the beginning I already had an idea of what the 3D model would
look like. 

In making the Astro Jesus with DOMA, we used a very good friend, Ernesto Rodriguez,
to create the 3D model.  So I was very comfortable working with his
friend again on Sentry.  So the creation of the 3d model was done
locally, not in China.  The back and forth between myself and my friend
was very close, easy. 

How do you feel knowing that Sentry will be coming very soon?  Excited?

yes. For sure. I’m too excited.  It’s my first personal toy, it’s not a crossover or customization, it’s all mine.

[Thanks to Matias for taking the time to help us understand his new universe of robots, Parquerama.]