Whaleontology - Designer Toy Set

Art Director / Design Manager

Working with Tom Whalen always feels a little different, mostly because he's one of those rare illustrators whose style is instantly recognizable the second you see it. He's built a career on bold, stylized pop art for brands like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Mondo, but Whaleontology marked his first time designing actual toys rather than illustrating them, which meant my job as Art Director and Project Manager was helping translate something that lives beautifully on a poster into something that has to hold up in three dimensions, on a shelf, from every angle.

The set itself is pure Tom: Gentleman Rex, a dapper T-rex with a cape and cane; MosasARRR!, a swashbuckling pirate mosasaur; and Brachionaut, a deep-space astronaut brachiosaur exploring a galaxy he was never built for. Getting his linework and proportions to survive the jump from 2D concept to sculpted resin took a lot of close collaboration on form, since the things that read as charming on paper don't always translate directly into something sculptable. The Brachionaut's helmet dome ended up being the detail I'm proudest of on this whole set, getting that rounded glass canopy to feel lightweight and clean while still housing all the character in his face underneath was a genuinely fun problem to solve.