Recently I was in my raving fanboy mode discussing the superb Bruce Lee figure from Enterbay which is based around his appearance in the movie Game of Death. Brian Harrison is a huge fan of the great martial arts movie master and as well as promoting the Bruce Lee Club UK (a perfect webspot for fans to share and keep up to date with new material) he also writes for Combat magazine. He recently conducted an interview with the Korean sculptor Arnie Kim for Combat, discussing the painstaking detail and attention he puts into his figures and his own admiration for the iconic Lee; we’re very grateful to Brian, the Bruce Lee Club UK and Combat for allowing us to reproduce this Q&A recorded during Kim’s session with the Hong Kong press:
Q: Why do you specialize in making Bruce Lee figures? Are all the Bruce Lee likenesses in his movies being done in figure form?
A: The reason being I’ve been a big fan of Bruce Lee since childhood; he’s not only influenced the public with his movies or in the martial art’s field, his influence and impact are very deep and personal to me. Because of my utmost admiration for him, I ended up making many of his figures, plus, he’s is a very handsome guy, LOL!
Q: How do you make these figures? Will you make other characters in the future?
A: There’s currently no plans for other characters, I want to concentrate on making my Bruce Lee figures a success first. To achieve the realism of the likeness, being a huge Bruce Lee fan, I’ve seen each and every one of his movies so many times, I’ve memorized all his facial expressions, gestures, even his facial scars. I believe not many people have figures with all these details in mind, perhaps it’s part of my secret of making the Bruce Lee figures.
Q: What do you think of the Hong Kong figure scene?
A: Of course there’s Michael Lau, Eric So, Brotherworkers are my favourite figure makers, I think figures from Hong Kong are made more towards the pop art cultures, and it’s different compared to my realistic interpretations, but I think if opportunity arises in the future, I might be thinking of exploring designing figures in that style as well.
Q: The Korean culture has been influencing Asia in a big way in recent years: do you think toy creation from Korea will be the next big thing following the popularity of its movies and games in Asia?
A: Currently, figures in Korea are still not very popular, the market in Korea compared to Hong Kong or Japan is quite small, many movie figures are sold as promotional items for movie releases. This does not really satisfy me; also the quality of the figures are not up to par compared to figures from foreign countries, but it’s getting better. Hong Kong being Bruce Lee’s hometown, and by finding a Hong Kong based company for the figure release seems even more reasonable and meaningful to me.
Q: Out of all five Bruce Lee movies, which movie is your favourite?
A: For movie characters, my favourite is “The Way of the Dragon”, that’s when Bruce Lee was at his tip top shape with his physic and character.
Q: Have you been to Tsim ShaTsui? Did you see the Bruce Lee Bronze statue? (you can see this on this guide to Hong Kong – Joe)
A: I did, I think it’s beautiful like a piece of art, adding the nice cityscape at night in the background making it even more special.
Q: Do you personally collect figures?
A: Sure! I collect most if not all the Bruce Lee figures, I also collect figure characters from other movies; I probably have a few hundred figures in my collection at home.
March 6th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
This first figure is a masterpiece, and while I’m looking forward to seeing Arnie’s future Bruce Lee’s I for one am praying Enterbay will get the licences they need to release some of his other work. His Harrison Ford as Indy has to be seen to be believed.