■Profile
Artist Name: LAS91214
Twitter: @las91214
Weibo: LAS91214本人
Country: China
Career: SF Comic Artist, Concept Designer & Mecha Designer
Major: Digital Entertainment and Derivative Design
■Art Gallery
（※Vol 1 TerepaInterview23vol1:Creative Interview with SF comic creator & deformation mecha designer LAS91214 TBC）
──── You have work with GCORES on Medusa and Titank, how did this project come about?
I knew GCORES when I was working on my comic "Armored Gull", GCORES had a partnership with "Armored Gull"s copyright holder to produce a series of products, so I learned about GCORES products. I had a good impression of their product design, this set the stage for our future cooperation with each other.
Later, I talked with GCORES since I working on new comic“BIRD/BINARY", both of us expressed regret that "Armored Gull" project did not materialize for various reasons, we desire to have new opportunities to work together. At that time we were on the same page for design language which is mainly develop, add art elements as additional, the product was born.
──── Did you consider the realizing as product and its playability when you designed the mecha?
Actually, I didn't think much about it at the beginning (lol), but I thought more about it after I had a lot of communication with project partners.
For example, although the“Medusa”seems to be an earlier product from its release time, but“Medusa” mecha design was actually completed after the Titank, so“Medusa”is more forms and playable than Titank.
Now I can communicate with partners any times, so we always consider seriously about mecha function and playable during the designing.
──── We see you've created a completely different design language for your heavy armor land mecha and airframes, how do you finding and implementing these two different mecha styles?
Design is mainly based on comic. Actually is not simply air or land to distinguish the mecha design language, it’s depends on what organization or position that mecha belong to in story.
For example, in the case of Medusa,“Medusa”is a mecha belonging to the villainous force "Gorgon", its not so realistic than to other mecha in story, because I set"Gorgon" as the "Super Technology" organization, their mecha will be design more unrealistic in order to show this point. On the contrary, Poseidon and Titank is designed for military, so the styling design will be more towards the appearance of the real vehicle.
──── The mecha Titank you designed and manufacturing by GCORES is very impressive with its transformed and combination. How did you conceive it and how much time did it take?
Actually, the original design of Titank was deformation mecha without disassembly, but later I learned about the material and cost during the design communication with GCORES, so I decided to make some trade-offs.
Because I’m a fan of Transformers toys which is really pursuit of deformation without disassembly(lol), but after communicating with many people in different circle of toys, I found a problem is: in fact, most people are not so good at playing deformation mecha.
various deformation modes「KALAVINKA」
This problem was particularly evident when release "KALAVINKA". At first I was prefer complex design to restore the structure, but I realizing and compromised to the reality.
Although it is a compromise, but I always think about how to deal with this structure to make higher value in the actual design and modification, these designs are mainly reflected in the“Medusa”. For“Titank”structure is actually more operation by GCORES, if you look carefully my original design with Titank you will find a lot of different with some details.
──── Through experiencing commercial project with various manufacturers, how do you think these experiences actually affected you?
In the past, when I was designing toys I tended to thinking of 'I only care about how much design concept that I want to expressed to be realized’ as a designer, but I didn't consider whether the actual product could be developed smoothly and how much it would cost to realize each step. I feel that I have grown a lot through I get touch with with manufacturers. Therefore, my design time is longer than before, ranging from a few weeks to a few months. Some people may think that it's making difficult and futile to think of things no need to responsible, but I think it's a kind of cultivate to "dance with shackles" as a designer. If you design at your own pace, you will only end up with something that is similar to the muscle memory of the past.
──── Tell us about the Japanese figure merchants that impressed you, and what do you admire about them?
I like Kotobukiya's HEXAGEAR series, which often takes me a long time to reorganize and assemble. I think the free combination and stable structure of the product concept currently is not available in other Japanese manufacturers. Their design style is also stand on trends to challenge what other manufacturers dare not do.
──── What are your medium and long term goals and development ambitions for the future?
At the moment, my goal is continue to serialize my comic "BIRD/BINARY" steadily, also I hope to continue to work with business partners for more new products to be able to develop this product IP and make it even better.
──── Thank you for to be interviewed, is there any words you like to say to your audience or other creators?
Thanks for you guys continuous support, I will design more interesting mecha models in the future, please stay tuned!
Chinese Version: SF原创作者&变形机甲设计专家LAS91214老师的创作访谈（下）
For LAS91214 latest works and commercialization plans will be announced on Hobby Terepa. Please stay tuned!
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LAS先生が手掛けたメカは、ホビーテレパオンラインショップにて好評発売中！ぜひチェックください！
