Many collectors never consider all the work that goes into the action figures they love. There are dozens of people doing thousands of things to turn ideas into toys, and Big Chief has provided fans with a closer look at some of that process.

If you've always wondered how companies like Hot Toys, Sideshow Collectibles, or Enterbay create unbelievable head sculpts for 12-inch figures, you can finally see every step of the process in detail. Big Chief and Designworks Windsor have invited you into their studio to watch a pair of Doctor Who head sculpts being created from scratch. Even if you couldn't care less about the Doctor, there is still a lot to learn about the toy manufacturing process in the following engaging video.

Rhapsody in Who Director's Cut It is easy to forget, in an age of technological domination, that the skills to create objects of beauty and desire have not been replaced by computers and 3D printers and that there are still artisans at work, all over the world whose talents are unique and irreplaceable. This film follows the creation of two likenesses, by Designworks Windsor, for Big Chief's range of 1:6 collectible figures. See the processes involved in creating these figures from a raw lump of polymer clay all the way to the finished product.



A slight re-edit of a previous film after 'finding' more footage of the process.

It's incredibly fascinating to watch the iterative process that results in a final head sculpt. Not many figures are still sculpted by hand these days, and it's easy to understand why after seeing all of the trial and error that goes into the process. But there is something emotional and human in the slight imperfections of a hand-sculpted figure that's often lacking in perfect digital sculpt. You can see that even dull gray clay takes on a life of its own under the shaping influence of such talented sculptors.

We often get picky and critical as demanding collectors. So I appreciate reminders like this that show us how much love, attention, and dedication go into every figure that ends up on our shelves. Every figure we have is a privilege born out of this tiresome production process, and that's why we should appreciate them all!