Inside the Customizer's Studio: eclipseGRAFX, Part 3

Today is an exciting day for the eclipseGRAFX brand, as he is 'relaunching' his BrickLink store with new custom offerings. When I first discovered Victor online, he was offering amazing custom lightsaber hilts (still does as a matter of fact). Over the past year he has made a strong effort in getting his business off the ground. In fact, I think he has a lot of promise which is part of the reason I wanted to have him participate in this interview series. Today we'll be discussing some of his aspirations and what he has in store at his...um...new store...

You've started to sell some of your custom creations on BrickLink. Do you have aspirations to build up your own customs operation? What have been some of the challenges you've faced in selling your work?

"Opening my own 'brand' would be great. It has been on my mind and I have been trying to take it step by step to raise the money and product line to do so. The main challenge to get the business going is capital (i.e. money). I have many plans for the business and a few product lines that I want to get out all at the same time when I make my grand re-opening.

The main challenge I faced selling my work was pricing, because all the hilts are crafted by hand the price per hilt was too expensive. Not many people bought them. Now one of my projects is to finish 3D modeling and get them made by an ABS/3D printing company."

During the time of our correspondence, Victor has partnered with fellow community member Imagination Customs to bring new items to his store. Victor has been seeding Flickr with a sampling of the products he intends to sell (products that should be on his BrickLink store later today). We discussed the new venture and the dynamics of having a new partner...

"One of the benefits of having Imagination Customs on board is the accountability. Though it's me mainly doing the pushing, now that I have someone working with me I also feel obligated to do my fair share. One thing we discussed when we first started working together is trying to hit as many genres as we could. Each month having a major focus on one or two themes. Themes will be influenced by video games, movies, books, comic books... pretty much anything that has characters in it will be looked at to draw inspiration from.

We are currently working on some World War 2 figs and Star Wars figs (of course). Future lines that will be seen will include different military/armed forces type of figs. Star Wars will always be a main source of interest for me since there are so many different types of characters in the Star Wars universe - it just offers so many different challenges to tackle. We will also be hitting comic book heroes/villains and cartoon characters when possible. Really we intend to cover as many bases as possible.

We will also be offering the lightsaber hilts and eventually mass producing them. Some designs will be exclusive to the figure they were designed for. When mass production happens individual requests will still be taken to designs personal sabers. We are also getting glow in the dark blades soon to go with the hilts.

We are in contact with a printer to offer some high quality printed parts and this line will also grow as we get more funds. My vision for this is to eventually offer fully customized and printed figures. The cost for this is large so I have to settle for parts at the moment that can help us get to that step.

Another product line we are working on are decals to customize your own "unique" figure. We don't want to divulge too much on this project just yet but we hope to have it ready by opening day.

There are ideas that just get birthed from working on other figures. One such idea are my 'bullet' grenades that I recently posted. We decided to offer these seeing the interest that sprung from it.

And lastly, we will offer personal requests to make figures. Currently I am working on an Emile figure which should be showcased before the store opens.

We enjoy doing anything that has to do with minifigures and offering high-quality products that leave the customer wanting more. Which is the most important thing about this whole endeavor. Offering high-quality figures and customs for the customer."

Lots of exciting things to look forward to from Victor and Imagination Customs! Check out everything they have to offer on the eclipseGRAFX BrickLink store a little later today.

Tomorrow we will finish out our interview series by talking with Victor about the current state of the customization community and what his personal 'dream' project happens to be. Make sure you come back tomorrow, you may be surprised...