Hi
More images from my toy photography archives....
The first one....this was a catalogue panorama shoot for the "ZERO HOUR TOY RANGE" for Bluebird Toys of Swindon .
It was also used as a poster that Toy Shops could display.....and it also was used further as a giveaway item to customers.....a big set six feet wide and seven feet deep....The model set was built at my studio in Lancashire in 1990 for the pictures for this range of toys.
The range was released in the USA by Mattel Toys and they received my pictures .....the first time my work went over the pond to the USA .
Second image....."Transformers Armada" Range....from Hasbro Toys.....This image was used for the Children's Comics publicity....appearing in Marvel Comics Transformers Comic and others from Panini Comics UK .
Third Image...."Mighty Max"....from Bluebird Toys in Swindon UK...I completed two photo shoots for the range which included model set photography.....with the range being very small figure items I had to use macro lens , closeup lens and the full bellows extension on my Mamiya 6x7 cameras to capture the images .
These images appeared everywhere including the Argos Catalogue's .....across the UK and abroad.....
More archive images in a few weeks.....hope Moonbasers enjoy looking back on these....
Best regards
Richard Dixon
TPD STUDIOS LANCASHIRE ENGLAND .
Blimey, it looks like you maxed out on the number of toys it's physically possible to get in one shot in that Zero Hour scene Richard.
ReplyDeleteWow, that Zero Hour set is massive, and very impressive.
ReplyDeleteGreat images, Richard. We're you allowed to keep the toys you photographed, or were they on loan for the shoot?
ReplyDeleteZero Hour was a much overlooked range. Ive only recently finished collecting all the sets! A cracking little range. Bill
ReplyDeleteHi everyone....very much appreciate you looking in....and your comments...Zero Hour....was my second venture into the "Toys Industry"....it followed my introduction project M.A.S.K. at Kenner Toys UK .
ReplyDeleteThe work commission was only supposed to be a small set of pictures to complement what Bluebird had done in a studio in London to launch the range to the Trade .
When they saw my "demo" pictures..twelve in number they overnight decided to change everything with what they were going to run with.....in one week I had re-vamped.....and ramped up a complete advertising program for them on the range....Catalogue shoots....full page advertising across the children's comics , display sets for shops....and everything else in between....the Range was a hit....Woolworths piled in with the orders...Hamleys took a big display set of mine....and I was sent in on the TV advertisement to help the film crew with the model set for the commercials for the range....I had arrived in the Toy Industry....the rest was my history....I loved it....
Building big toy displays ,I loved those , including the Toy Fair one's at Earls Court and harrogate in those days....my imagination went into overdrive....all the toys in the photography shoots were prototypes.....the toy fair stuff were production models....following on from Zero Hour my life changed....Hasbro came calling.....thats another story I will relate soon...Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS UK....
Hi Mish......your comment on the number of toys in the poster shot....that brought a smile to my face....when I was asked to create something to show the whole range in an action shot....I really had to think carefully as the Zero Hour Toy Range covered Army , Navy and Airforce vehicles....and their were two MonoRail Trainsets....the concept I came up with....an attack on a Scorch Bomber Base would be the basis of doing something....then added the various vehicle s in mini dioramas around it.....the finishing touches of aircraft flying over the set completed the image...a 50mm wide angle lens on a Mamiya RZ67 camera captured the 6x7 negative / and transparency images ....the flying shots were done with thin thread , suspending the aircraft from two lighting booms over the set....the thread was painted to match the backgrounds - something I learnt from the great Mr Meddings of Century 21 ...when I was learning things in my younger days....Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS UK .
ReplyDeleteHi Tony K....your question about the toys and their photography....for Zero Hour they were usually prototypes we used....so they always went back...production samples stayed with me....some were pre-production examples it depended really on what was available for publicity pictures....some of the advertising material was done to very tight deadlines - as design of items into production and then to get publicity stuff for retailers showings ready was always pretty hectic.....I was kept busy for six months on Zero Hour to get the range ready for pictures etc....the Toy Fair model sets...a twelve foot wide landscape set and a six foot wide one were done in two weeks ...with another for Hamleys in London taking further week to do....hard work sometimes but a lot of fun !! Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS .
ReplyDeleteWow! Your Zero Hour set is absolutely the coolest thing I’ve seen in years! As a kid, I would have died and gone to heaven… SFZ
ReplyDeleteThanks SFZ....appreciate you looking in on these pictures....my journey over the years through "Toy Photography for the UK Toy Industry" has been me living a boyhood dream which came true..... it was real for me and its been fantastic....very proud to be one of those people who brought children's imagery of toys into magazines and shops across the UK in the eighties , nineties and 2000's...and very soon into children's comic books with a project six years in the making....SEASTAR 5....will be showing more of this very soon...keep watching Moonbase....Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS UK .
ReplyDeleteLots of action - I'd love to be a kid and have that Zero Hour setup. Great photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed and Bettina for looking in on my archive photography....appreciate your comments...Regards Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS UK .
ReplyDelete