The 50th anniversary ofJawsis no small event, and the hit film is getting quite the merch drop from Mondo to celebrate its milestone. Included in this release is a vinyl statue ofJaws' iconic shark antagonist, with a heap of customization to boot.
Jaws' impact on cinemacan’t be overstated, with many critics crediting the film with kickstarting the summer blockbuster era. While the film’s shark antagonist is rarely shown in full, the clever directing of the picture has nonetheless instilled a fear of the apex predator into generation after generation. Game Rant sat down with members of the Mondo team, including senior creative and product development director Hector Arce and senior creative art director Peter Santa-Maria, who spoke more about the process behind bringingJaws' central monster to life in soft vinyl.
Jaws 50th Anniversary Vinyl Figure Explained
A Customizable Vinyl Shark
Within this merch drop for the50th anniversary ofJaws, Mondo included a soft vinyl figure representing the film’s aquatic antagonist. A 16"-long sculpture of the shark, Mondo’s statue also comes with a number of accessories and scenery parts. Not only does the shark come with a twisted-up shark cage and a deflated raft, but a huge number of extra accessories—even the decapitated head of Ben Gardner. A gored leg, shark bait, ropes, spears, barrels, a cable, and a scuba tank can also be found within the set. Fans will also be able to swap out the shark’s head for a scarred version.
Arce spoke more on this addition to thecelebration ofJaws' history, going into the customizable aspect of the figure. The soft vinyl shark comes with a variety of extra parts, all of which can help fans display the statue their way.
“We are all such huge fans of Jaws that, once given the opportunity to make a collectible, we really wanted it to be an undeniable celebration of the movie. This needed to feel and look like Jaws, encapsulating all the huge moments in the film that revolved around the titular shark. We also wanted to have a lot of fun with this collectible, something that brought a bit of the edge of the movie while still putting a smile on your face.
With that, we decided it’d be a lot of fun to have parts of all of Jaws’ victims in his mouth, making them removable and adding a bit of a play factor to this piece. In the end, at Mondo we’re huge fans of everything we put out, and as fans sometimes one movie reference isn’t enough, or in my case may not be the only way I want something to be displayed. Allowing the customer to have the freedom to display this however they want is part of what makes it special.”
Creating the Sculpt
Further, Mondo also provided a Q&A that contains statements from designer James Groman and sculptor Brandon Gash. These excerpts shine a light on how this piece ofJaws' 50th anniversary bashwas a collaborative effort, with Groman speaking highly of Gash’s sculpting efforts:
“Jaws was a true team effort, with myself starting the digital sculpture of Bruce and all the accessories, and Brandon Gash taking up the reins and bringing them to an incredibly polished finish. I was still relatively new to Zbrush at the time we were sculpting the Jaws piece, so it was a pleasure to hand off the sculpting finishes to someone of Brandon’s incredible talent. The figure is all the better for it! Bravo Brandon!”
This lines up with the additional comments from Santa-Maria about recreatingthe shark fromJawsin soft vinyl. Santa-Maria stated, “James Groman developed the concept, Brandon Gash sculpted it, and then the sculpt went back to James to paint it! The result speaks for itself—but I’ll add that I’m blown away every time I see it.”
