A Sit Down with Sculptor David Dann: Creating a G.I. Joe Figure

Children of the 1980’s, and the parents they dragged down cavernous toy aisles, are no strangers to the 3.75″ G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line by Hasbro. If you ever saw the hundreds of action figures and vehicles lining a toy aisle, scattered around a house or hiding in a yard, sculptor David Dann had a hand in creating a few of them.

David was in the right place at the right time, and new the right people, to become a contracted sculptor for Hasbro for G.I. Joe and other properties, such as Inhumanoids and Visionaries.

We had the opportunity to ask David about his work on G.I. Joe and other properties. His answers provide insight into the creation of a G.I. Joe action figure and advice for future aspiring sculptors and toy designers.

How did you first get involved with Hasbro and the GI Joe brand?

Mutual friends introduced me to Bill Merklein, one of the toy industry’s great sculptors. I majored in figure sculpting in college and had done a couple of large sculpted dioramas for the Field Museum in Chicago in 1981 before coming to New York City, and my friends knew Bill was looking for sculptors who could work in small scale. He had just started working for American Bank Note, the company that pioneered white light holograms, and they needed additional sculptors for their rapidly expanding holographic division (their holographs used 1-to-1 scale models as subjects).

Bill took me out to his favorite restaurant in Chinatown and we hit it off, so he got me work with ABN and I started making models for holography. Bill had been creating originals for the military miniature market, but he had also started working for Hasbro around that time, creating production models for their 3.75″ G.I. Joe line.

One thing led to another, and Bill soon introduced me (via phone) to Ken Ellis, the guy at Hasbro who was in charge of the G.I. Joe freelancers (which may, at that time, have only been one — Mr. Merklein!). On Bill’s recommendation, Ellis decided to try me out. This would have been in early 1985.

Were you aware how popular the G.I. Joe brand was, especially as a toy line and cartoon series, when you took on the assignment of sculpting the “Rescue Trooper” aka Lifeline in 1985?

I was very familiar with G.I. Joe, because my younger brothers had the original 12″ figures when I was a teenager. The cartoon series came along in later years and I wasn’t really aware of that. But I was aware of the reintroduced 3.75″ Joes because I would see them for sale in toy stores and other retail outlets. I myself never played with the figures as a kid — they didn’t come along until I was in my teens. Too late for me!

Can you walk us through what materials and direction you were provided by Hasbro, and how you began the sculpt? What challenges were there?

The character I first did for Hasbro was originally called Rescue Trooper (I never heard it referred to as Lifeline until later). My best recollection is that the company sent me Xeroxes of the figure’s concept art, front and side views rendered in line with some shading and a good deal of detail. Though these drawings were more cartoony than they were exact depictions, they were to scale and were a pretty accurate representation of what the final figure had to look like. I do remember thinking that the artist who created them (whom Bill said had been working for Hasbro forever) would never make it in the comic book world — to me, his work wasn’t all that good.

Hasbro also sent me plastic pieces called “bucks.” These were prefab joints for the figure’s arms, legs and neck, and forms for the feet. They were to be incorporated into the various parts I was to sculpt so the figure would fit together in a standard way. I think they also may have sent me a few sample figures and a cast of a head or two. But that was all.

As far as direction, there wasn’t much. Ellis simply told me to follow the drawings, and then asked that I send them one or two of the completed parts so they could assess the quality of my work before having me complete the figure.

Because the figures had to be sculpted at 200% of the final figure, the work took a lot longer than it would have if we had been working 1 to 1. I built the Lifeline pieces using traditional techniques I had learned in college, but that were somewhat unorthodox for toy modelling. While most sculptors would model the figure directly, building on the bucks using Sculpey or some other conventional modelling material, I created the parts in plasticine, an oil-based clay that does not harden, and then made plaster waste molds of them. These I would fill with epoxy putty which, when hardened, I would break out of the molds and finish with a fine sanding, adding additional details as necessary.

I learned about the epoxy putty from Bill Merklein. It was his sculpting material of choice, and I’m eternally grateful to him for introducing it to me. Made by Epoxybond, it’s commercially available as Plumber Seal and is intended to be used as a 2-part putty for sealing leaky pipes. But it’s a remarkable modeling material, too. It can be thinned to a paste with water, can be shaped and smoothed using a wet paintbrush, dries to a stone-like hardness and can be fine sanded to a marble-like smoothness. It’s too hard for many sculptors, but I found it extraordinary for creating convincing detail and superb finishes. If you know the quality of Bill’s sculpting, you know the capabilities of this unusual material. For me, products like Sculpey don’t even come close.

As for the challenges, they were mostly in learning to work with the bucks and in creating details that, when reduced by half in the final figure, would still read clearly. That was tricky. Hasbro advised me to exaggerate the various pouches, zippers and straps on Lifeline so they wouldn’t fade when they reduced the sculpt.

With the Hasbro Visionaries action figure line you started doing hologram work. How was that process different than a traditional design?

It differed in that there were no bucks necessary and the models were sculpted at 100% (because in white light holography reducing or enlarging the image is not possible). The pieces also did not need to be sculpted in the round because their backs would not be visible. They also had to be foreshortened severely, because the depth of field in white light holography is effectively only about 3/8″. Finally, the models had to be painted in shades of grey — no colors — with chiaroscuro exaggerated to create the illusion of depth. Hasbro sent me a single drawing for each sculpt without any direction whatsoever. But I knew the process well, having done numerous sculpts for ABN’s holographics division by that time.

You also worked extensively on the long-running Starting Lineups line. Were those sculpts based on specific athlete photographs, or was there your own interpretation added?

Hasbro would send a number of photos of the various players to be sculpted, and I would create generic portraits, not necessarily based on any specific image. I’d then send them the heads and they’d return them with suggested modifications if they felt the portrait did not resemble the player sufficiently enough for buyers to recognize them in the final figure. Usually I got them right the first time around. But a few came back — I think Muhammad Ali was one that took a few attempts. One thing that was interesting — the heads were all done at 100%. Hasbro by that time had given up making originals twice as large as the final piece. Good call, as far as I was concerned!

You worked on head sculpts for GI Joe pilots Lift Ticket and Strato Viper. In the case of a head sculpt, can you already see the rest of the body or are you working off concept drawings only?

Drawings only, as I recall. I’m pretty sure I never saw the figures, either as prototypes or as finished product.

In 1990 you worked on version 2 of Zap, the original bazooka soldier. That job required extensive revisions to your original sculpt. What do you think triggered the revisions if your original sculpt was based off of specific requirements?

As I indicated above, Hasbro had asked that the original figure’s details be exaggerated so that when reduced they would still be prominent. I took that seriously when creating Zap, and I guess I went a little overboard! So they sent back the figure and had me make some of the accessories a bit more subtle. They also asked that I make the face look younger and modify the helmet. They paid for the changes, so I guess they didn’t entirely blame me for the problems.

After Hasbro in the late 1990’s you went on to do extensive holographic work. I’ve even heard you had a hand in the infamous Visa card hologram. What can you tell us about working in that arena?

Holograms took off in the mid-’80s after Bill Merklein did an eagle that famously made the cover of National Geographic. He did several other important holo sculpts, including the initial Visa dove, but then decided to concentrate on G.I. Joe and other toy lines for Hasbro. I took over doing all of ABN’s holographic modelling, doing hundreds of sculpts for them from 1984 to about 2004, and also for Polaroid and other smaller companies. I did additional versions of the Visa dove, including a few that even had movable wings, and the McDonald’s store on the all-hologram cover of National Geographic.

One of the most enjoyable jobs I did was the series of Spider-Man anniversary covers for Marvel. For Hasbro, as mentioned above, I did many of the sculpts that were used in holograms for the Visionaries series.

Making models for holograms differs from toy work in that the pieces are usually very small, often less than an inch across, are sculpted usually in relief rather than in the round, and must be painted. For many artists, those requirements posed a challenge. But I seemed to manage them pretty well.

Nowadays action figure are designed in computers. Do you feel like physical sculpting is becoming a lost art form?

No, definitely not. Machines may be very good at the mechanics of figure making, but I’ve yet to see 3-D printed piece that had real life to it. A good sculptor can bring a character to life, and a great sculptor can create a character that will take your breath away! No computer can do that.

What advice would you give a young designer trying to get into the toy business today?

Create a portfolio of your own characters — your best work. If you’re a sculptor, make a number of highly detailed originals of your own creation. Go to Toy Fair in New York, visit the various toy companies, see what other artists are doing and show your stuff.

Also seek out professionals like Bill Merklein, visit them and see how they work. They’ll know who’s who in the industry and may be able to introduce you to the right people.

Success in this business depends largely on how skilled you are (unlike in the fine arts realm where promotion is everything). If you’ve got real talent, even though the field is highly competitive, you’ll go far. Good luck!