SILLY THING x Daft Punk x Medicom Toy

Having shaped the urban landscape within Hong Kong for almost a decade, SILLY THING has become a highly successful, multi-faceted entity, boasting a wide range of establishments including magazine publishing with MILK and MILK X Magazine, fashion retail with the THINK SILLY Store and the Undercover Hong Kong Store, animation and even video production. Adding to their impressive list of accomplishments are multiple coveted collaborations alongside some of the more renown companies in the world. Most recently, SILLY THING finds themselves working alongside Daft Punk and Medicom Toy, with the aid of creatives Pedro Winter/Michael Dupouy, on a set of 1000% Kubricks, molded after the the iconic French duo, Daft Punk. We had the chance to catch up with SILLY THING founder TK for a brief Q&A session regarding this highly awaited release and the rigors of getting such a popular project off the ground.

Interview with TK (Founder of SILLY THING)

How did you become involved with this project?

I was introduced to Pedro from Ed Banger through Michael (La MJC) when I was in Paris, a couple of years ago. At that time I was working on The Beatles project with Medicom Toy but I don’t remember exactly what we spoke about back then, yet somehow we came up with this idea of collaborating with Daft Punk. We met up with the band a of couple months later to officially start the project.

What is your role in this project?

I’m more like the curator of the project.

The Daft Punk outfit has become an icon throughout the music world, what are your thoughts on it?

I love the helmets.

What sort of elements were important into the incorporation of the design?

We tried to make everything as accurate as possible to the original settings, obviously replicating their helmets in such scale was the biggest challenge.

The set was originally supposed to release earlier this year, was there a particular reason behind the delays?

It was a really tough process producing the perfect helmets in such a large size, but thanks to Medicom, we are all amazed with the final result. Overall, I think we are on schedule.

What are some of your favorite music artists and styles?

I’m not a big electro guy, but the music from Ed Banger has always been one of my favorites.

Over the years, what have been some of your favorite 1000% MEDICOM TOY offerings, including both Kubricks and Bearbricks?

I think the 1000% of the UNKLE is still my favorite one, and of course The Beatles set we released last year. As for Bearbricks, maybe the carbon fiber one I did for a charity show last year?

Amongst your various collections, how high do toys rank? What particular reasons draw your interest in toys?

I don’t really collect toys anymore, but if I see something really catch my attention, I’d still get it.

How did designing this Kubrick differ from your experiences in the past, including The Beatles Kubrick set, the Chapel of Dawn Wrestling Elves and the Iron Man toy?

I think they are all pretty much the same. I explain what I want and how I want to do it, drawings & prototypes, samples back and forth, and so on, until we get the best result. The wrestling elves, with James Jarvis, from a of couple years ago was particularly the toughest one. The prototype testing took us a really long time to make right and make sure both of the characters could stand single footed. As for the Ironman, we had a lot of fun testing different levels of Grey on the body as well as playing around with the battle damages.

Do you prefer the realm of realistic toys over that of more surreal designs?

I kinda like both, it depends what the object is.

Are there chances we’ll see a SILLY THING in-house toy label? or will it be strictly collaborations going forward?

At this moment, we don’t have any plans of doing a full-on toy label, but we do have a toy division under SILLY THING. All the toy related projects you’ve seen previously were all produced under this part of the company. As for collaborations, if the timing and the ideas are right, we are always up for it.

Any last words?

I would like to thank Pedro and Michael for everything on this project, without their help, this collaboration would have never happened. And of course, a big thank you to Daft Punk. Be sure to check out the Cool Cats website for the exclusive pre-launch. I hope everyone will like them!

- SILLY THING
- TK’s Blog
- Cool Cats