Gnomon Star Wars Day Celebration! Inside the Sideshow Studio: Making Pop Culture Collectibles
Time
Thu, May 1, 2025
7:00 – 9:00 PM PT
Location/Platform
Dell Stage @ Gnomon Campus + Twitch and YouTube
May the Fourth Be with You (a few days early)! Join us on Thursday, May 1st, on Gnomon's Dell Stage and our Livestream feed for a special Star Wars Day celebration with Sideshow Collectibles.
Go behind the scenes of one of the industry’s most iconic creators of premium pop culture collectibles and discover how their team brings fan-favorite characters to life—piece by piece. Plus, don’t miss your chance to enter a raffle for exclusive product giveaways, courtesy of Sideshow.
For more than three decades, Sideshow has helped shape the modern collectibles industry, producing more than 50 meticulously crafted pieces each year from their campus in Thousand Oaks, California. From design and sculpting to costuming and paint, every collectible is touched by dozens of hands before it reaches a collector’s shelf.
This Star Wars–focused evening will highlight the artistry behind collectible creation, with a step-by-step look at how Sideshow’s team brings characters from the galaxy far, far away to life:
- Anna van Slee, VP of Business Development
- Will Harbottle, Key Artist (Sculpt)
- Tim Hanson, Key Artist (Cut & Sew)
- Bernardo Esquivel, Key Artist (Paint)
Attendees will meet key Sideshow artists and learn how their creative paths led to careers in the world of high-end collectibles. Whether you're curious about career possibilities in commercial art or want to learn more about the process behind collectible development, this is a chance to connect directly with some of the artists who make it happen.
Don’t miss this chance to ask questions during a live Q&A, connect with other artists, and enjoy complimentary pizza for in-person attendees. Campus tours with a Gnomon representative will also be available before the event. If you can’t make it to campus, the event will livestream on Gnomon’s Twitch and YouTube channels. The livestream will be available to watch as VOD on Gnomon’s YouTube channel once the event concludes.
Sideshow Collectible Raffle:
Speakers
Anna van Slee
VP of Business Development
Anna bridges the worlds of creative and finance at Sideshow, formulating partnerships that yield authentic and creative collectibles – and also make good business sense. Anna and her team liaise with licensors to negotiate and preserve the creative vision of the Sideshow artists.
Tim Hanson
Key Artist (Cut & Sew)
Tim Hanson has been working as a Cut and Sew artist with Sideshow for over 17 years. In his youth, with an intense passion for all things fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero, he dreamed of becoming a comic book artist, animator, or special effects artist.That started to change once he got behind the sewing machine at the age of 16. What began as a fun exploration and hobby flourished into something deeper, more detailed, and more fascinating than Tim could have imagined. From fabric selection to pattern manipulation, to experimenting with various textiles and printing, costuming for collectibles an exciting world to be a part of.
Will Harbottle
Key Artist (Sculpt)
Will Harbottle has been a sculptor in the toys and collectibles industry for over 25 years. He was one of the earliest adopters of digital sculpting in the business, and hasn't stopped learning and growing since.
Bernardo Esquivel
Key Artist (Paint)
Bernardo Esquivel is a senior painter at Sideshow. He has been at Sideshow for 20 yrs. His role as painter is primarily building and painting the prototypes used for solicitation and the paint master copies used for the factory to replicate for production. He also takes care of any pre-production samples that might need some paint changes from our factory partners.
Sponsored by
Gnomon events are sponsored by Dell.
Dell Precision has over 25 years of innovations, driving the work of power users, designers, and creators. The Precision product team works directly with customers and strategic partners to deliver the most reliable and powerful PCs from Dell. The intelligent performance is driven by AI-based software, Dell Optimizer for Precision, and the professional-level components, such as Intel® Core™ and Xeon® processors, fast memory (including ECC memory options), scalable storage, and professional graphics from NVIDIA that drive many of the creative applications and workflows, as well as exclusive technologies such as Reliable Memory Technology Pro and, patented thermals and the Dell Optimizer.
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