In our first part of the coverage of yesterday’s Gentle Giant event at Forbidden Planet we were lucky enough to spend 20 minutes with the founder and president of Gentle Giant Ltd, Karl Meyer.

We asked Karl a number of questions including some which might have appeared contentious but Karl answered them with honesty and integrity, despite suffering from a cold, and gave us more information than we could have hoped for – let’s hope he doesn’t get his knuckles wrapped too much when he gets back to base!  Some of the things we talked about have to stay under wraps for the time being but as soon as we’re able to reveal all we will! 

JN: Welcome back to Blighty are you going to make this a regular thing every year?
KM: It’s good to be here, I’d like this to be – we’re planning, I love England, I love this store and it’s a good vibe so I don’t see why not.
JN: The UK fans really appreciate you bringing over UK exclusives as it gives us a chance to trade for some of the US and other exclusives.
KM: It’s a good thing and it’s good to get out and meet everybody.

Read on for the full Interview...

JN: We caught up with Jewell earlier in the week and she very kindly answered some questions for us and hopefully you’ll be able to clarify some of the answers she gave us?
KM: They know more than I do sometimes or maybe I’ll say something I shouldn’t say, I guess that’s what you’re hoping for?
JN: There’s been some criticism about the PGM club; were almost is November and the free gifts haven’t arrived yet – can you shed any light on this?
KM: It’s supposed to be handled and I’ll have to check out what’s going on with that and come back to you.
JN: Another negative, the last one for now, is that there’s always a delay in shipping items.  You’ll announce a product at Toy Fair with a Summer release but we won’t see it until the following Spring.
KM: This is something that a lot of fans ask about.  There are a lot of different reasons.  Sometimes the prototype is not done when it needs to be and it has to be done right and then things get pushed.  We have a lot of challenges with the factories in the Far East.  Things have got a lot tougher in Asia for all companies that do manufacturing, qualities have slipped, workforce is depleted and companies like Gentle Giant and others really need to have their own people over there eyeballing things and this effect the deadlines.  Gentle Giant is a small company and I want to get things out on time and I’d get frustrated having to wait and I appreciate that people do wait, it’s a fine balance.
JN: Talking about the manufacturing process can you go into how a bust is made, from conception to end delivery?
KM: Lots of people ask us that question and we’re putting together a book for next year that will cover the whole process.
JN: Empire Strikes Back seems to be an area that people are screaming about and three Mini Busts in particular come to mind – Snowtrooper, 4-LOM and Lando.  Jewell told us earlier in the week that you’re concentrating on Empire for next year so are we going to see these?
KM: It’s very likely...
JN: All three?
KM: Very likely...
JN: We’ve seen images of the new AT-AT Driver...
KM: Yes, that’s a really cool piece.  There’s lots coming from Empire. 
JN: Any Statues?
KM: Yes... but we’ve had to kind of kick things back from last year which was a big Celebration year and we were right on the border line of maybe putting too much stuff out and especially now the economy we don’t want to lay that all on the collector so we’re kind of back to basics on a set number of items which is kinda how we started out with just doing real high quality pieces and not being afraid to leave some money on the table.  It makes it tougher to get some but when you do get one you know it’s going to be more valuable than the other way round.
JN: I think collectors are a funny breed in that they want all of nothing.
KM: We had a lot of complaints because everybody had everything but we’re trying to make it so that the pieces collectors really want are available and we don’t get hung out to dry. 
JN: The new Clone Wars Bust-Ups! are a Toys R Us USA exclusive so does that mean that we won’t get them here?
KM: We’ll do our very best to bring them over here and make them available it’s in our best interests to do so.
JN: What about your other lines... the Wall-E products looks amazing and Lord of the Rings is being cancelled?
KM: People just aren’t buying it and we even put some stuff into manufacturing and we had to destroy some of it.  Maybe when the Hobbit comes out we can revisit it but it’s a real shame.  I’m a huge fan of Lord of the Rings and the fantasy genre – I actually prefer Lord of the Rings to Star Wars.  Growing up as a child Fantasy was much more important to me than Sci-Fi but as I get older things change.
JN: Does your Disney license cover the older films or just the newer ones?
KM: It’s just the newer PIXAR stuff for the moment?
JN: What about Harry Potter?
KM: Definitely – it’s sort of hits peaks and troughs to coincide with when the films come out but it’s a great property for us and we love working with it.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the films end.
JN: Back to Star Wars... is there one product you can tell us about that we don’t know anything about?  Maybe something that’s just been green lit?
KM: Well you probably know it all already but I might have a piece of paper...  Let’s see what particular sculpts they’re working on at the moment...

Mini Busts in Development for Star Wars: 4-LOM, Battle Droid, AT-AT Driver, Force Unleashed Good and Evil AFX 2 Pack, Snowtrooper, Hoth Han, Hoth Luke and Hoth Leia

Statues in Development for Star Wars: Stormtrooper, R2-D2, Battle Droid and Luke Bespin

In Production for Star Wars: Animated Obi Wan Maquette, Yoda Statue, TIE Pilot, Classic EPII Clone Trooper Blue PGM Gift, Holiday Cody and Star Wars Chess

Note: Karl mentioned quite a few other things as well but we’ll leave some things for Toy Fair and beyond!

JN: Star Wars Chess – is it still coming out?
KM: It has to, it’s so late and we’ve put so much into it and it’s really cool!
JN: So everything we’ve been talking about is there except for Lando, although Empire is very well represented.
KM: I don’t see how we can’t not do Lando, he’s cool!  We did a Lando in Skiff Armour but we need to do a classic Billy Dee Williams Lando too.
JN: Are you doing any work on the new live action TV series yet?
KM: It’s too early although the word is that the scripts are some of the best Star Wars stories to ever be told and we look forward to working with LucasFilm as we’ve done in the past on the other films.
JN: Have you seen the Clone Wars film and the new TV Series and what do you think?
KM: I liked it, my kid loved it – we went to the premier and we made all those big life sized maquettes.
JN: We think the Gentle Giant product range is really awesome; thanks for spending some time with us again and coming over here with some great exclusives.
KM: Thank you!

This was the second time we’d met and interviewed Karl and he remembered Adam and me.   He’s a great guy that cares passionately about the products he produces, no matter what other people may think.  We thank him for his time and look forward to seeing him again soon.

Karl Meyer Interview: Copyright 2008 Jedi News, Forbidden Planet and Gentle Giant Ltd.  No part of this interview can be reproduced without prior written consent from Jedi News.