WIRA
In the spirit of Matt’s amazing and wonderful work of art, I was inspired to add my little creation from about 2 years ago.
The concept I drew was for a shoe company mascot. While working as a freelance design director in Hong Kong, we had a client who wanted to create a memorable icon for their new children’s footwear line. WIRA means “Hero” in Malaysian. In my deranged biased mind, what better represented this than a chubby waddling robot?
So after creating the concept and most of the shoes ( picture Asics Tigers meets Accupuncture cupsole skate shoes.) , we had the fun task of creating some of the Point of Purchase displays. The iconic image of Mazinga Z’s and Tetsuwan atom’s cross section placed itself firmly in mind, and soon we found a manufacturer/modeling company who could make it out of the materials we wanted, complete with light up eye.
Meet WIRA!
Love him.
Like Gamera, he is the friend of children everywhere.
We eventually also made a non transparent free standing version PVC “machinder”.
A 3d animated commercial was also made in house. I had a whole family of Wira’s ready to go.
This was one of the most gratifying projects I had the pleasure of executing. It was one of the first times that I got to be a kid again and incorporate it into my day job. Making one’s own toys, as many of us can attest is indeed the best drug on earth.
