Kaiju Battle Exclusive Interview: Dopepope The Designer Of The X-Plus Irys

Yesterday we posted about the  X-Plus Irys figure design and the man behind it, Dopepope, now we had the privilege to ask him a few questions about this awesome calibration.

​Check out the interview below and his Artstation and DeviantArt pages (links at the bottom), and a big thank you to him for his courtesy.

Kaiju Battle: How did you and X-Plus come together to work on the Irys figure? 

Dopepope: A representative of X-Plus reached out to me via email. He mentioned they saw my work on Artstation and were very impressed with my kaiju work. They offered me a project right then. 

KB: Did you have a choice in the monster you would do?

DP: No, they had IRYS in mind from the start. 

KB: Were there any requirements in designing the figure (size, stance) from X-Plus and did X-Plus direct you to do a design based on something specific?

​DP: They wanted a movie accurate model, something that would be more proportionate to the suit, and a stance that would be possible for the suit actor. They provided wonderful reference for the model. Ultimately the model needed to be approved by Shûsuke Kaneko, the director of the film ‘Gamera 3 : The Revenge of Irys’. So, no pressure there, lol.

KB: Will the figure be made direct from your digital version or will it be sculpted traditionally based on it?
​
DP: I’m not exactly sure. I do think they’ll 3D print my digital file, use it to create molds. But there can always be unforeseen circumstances that require something to be re-worked traditionally. But that’s speculation.

KB: You have done some commissions and such that are meant for 3D printing recently, is this something you may get into yourself directly or will you stick with designing them only?

DP: I’d love to eventually create my own kaiju designs for production. I have several ideas for some cool monsters. Having them be released by X-Plus would be amazing, but maybe my own company would be pretty cool too. I do work with a few other designers and companies tho. So, we’ll see. 

KB: Is there a possibility we will see more of your designs getting released as figures down the line from other companies like X-Plus?

DP: Recently, at the 'Son of Monsterpalooza’ convention in California, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Mr Gee, the owner of X-Plus, and it seemed to open up doors for us to work together on projects in the future. I’m very eager to do just that. 

KB: Do you have any favorite monsters or particular designs you have done, that you would want to see in figure form?

DP: I do have a Shin Godzilla concept that I would love to see as a large statue. I’ll be looking into how I can get that manufactured. Let's hope that works out. it’s very cool.

Dopepope on ArtStation here.
Dopepope on DeviantArt here.
Thanks to John from Kaiju Addicts for a couple of question suggestions.