Going to the Dark Side With Delta Star of Reprolabels.com

You may not have heard of Reprolabels.com, but they provide a fabulous service to the fans of our favourite Robots in Disguise. Providing the fans with the opportunity to acquire sticker sheets, the good folks at Reprolabels revive a lost art from the early days of the Transformer toys: applying stickers to improve their design and, overall, making them just look cooler. One of Reprolabels most well known contributors is Delta Star, who has kindly agreed to give an interview with yours truly.

Darth Bombshell: For those fans that don’t know, how did Reprolabels come to exist?

Delta Star: Reprolabels.com was the name we decided on after selling stickers from “Delta Star’s Reproduction Stickers” or something similar. We had been selling stickers for about a year. It really just started when I decided my Micromasters needed symbols too. I had more made than I needed, so I started selling them online. Then people kept asking for other stickers. Turned out there was another guy making them at the time, so people were already familiar with the concept. What amazed me, and kept me going, was how unbelievably helpful people were.

Darth Bombshell: What do you find so special about stickers?

Delta Star: I’ve always been involved with computer graphics. I used to make video games in my spare time. I was also very interested in freehand drawing, but lacked the ability to draw on paper. I’m a left-brained person, so I am much more at ease with drawing on screen, especially when the task is to recreate fine detail. Designing sticker sets is just a perfect use of my specific skills.

Darth Bombshell: You mention on your website that your stickers are made “on the same color material as the original labels.” How exactly do you do this?

Delta Star: I can’t take credit for that – it’s just the state technology has reached. Without boring you with particulars (I could talk about printing for hours), the equipment we use can not only print onto any color material, but can also print in any imaginable color. If we need to print metallic colors or even white ink, we can. We can even print mirror chrome, which freaks some people out.

Darth Bombshell: What I’ve noticed is that the prices you set for your stickers vary widely. I assume that this is because of the overall cost in producing the set required for the character, but what other influences, if any, are a factor?

Delta Star: There are many influences that can affect cost, such as the number of colors involved, as well as the cost of each color. For simplicity’s sake, we don’t factor those in when pricing. We only consider the size of the sheet. There is a formula we use to calculate pricing and it is strictly based on the surface area of the product.

Darth Bombshell: I find the fact that you carry stickers for the Binaltech/Alternator figures rather interesting, especially in the case of Jazz, Wheeljack and Prowl, since the stickers make the characters more “cartoon accurate”. What was your motivation to do this?

Delta Star: I was not motivated at all. I think I had pretty much made my mind up not to do it. Then Colin (from TransformersCon) said it would be a good idea, and lent me his BT Hound. I almost gave up again, thinking nobody would buy it. Luckily Mike Spector was looking for a project to work on, so I gave him that, and he did a great job for us. Customers really love the BT sticker sets now.

Darth Bombshell: I noticed that you have Maximal and Predacon stickers. Did you do this with G1 toys in mind, or is it because you have a secret desire to do stickers for Beast Wars era figures?

Delta Star: I just thought some people might want to convert their G1 toys into Maximals and Predacons, is all. There may be a BW upgrade set in the future, though.

Darth Bombshell: I also noticed that you have COBRA stickers, as well. Did you do this to diversify for both Transformer and GI JOE fans, or did you do it for those fans who like to kitbash Transformers into GI JOE vehicles?

Delta Star: Simply because people were asking for it. We do really want to diversify though. (Anyone have any ideas?)

Darth Bombshell: How do you think that your efforts have been viewed by the fandom?

Delta Star: I only hear from my customers, so from my perspective it looks like people really appreciate it. But I know there are those who resent it too. People have told me I’m ruining TF toys. I don’t personally understand that, since I’m sure nobody is removing good vintage stickers to put reproductions on. Still, people are entitled to their viewpoints.

Darth Bombshell: You’ve also started to do stickers for other non-Transformers products such as Zoids. Any other non-Transformer products you might be interested in doing stickers for?

Delta Star: Any and all. There is nothing more important to us right now than getting into other toy lines. Transformers are great, but it’s never good to put all your eggs in one basket.

Darth Bombshell: Your miscellaneous section includes stickers to make characters such as “Evil Jetfire”, “Marlboor Wheeljack” and Micromaster Devastator. What other custom sets have you thought of doing?

Delta Star: We have a great set made by Justin Goguen that simply hasn’t seen print yet. It’s meant to make PM Optimus Prime look more like G1 Prime. It’s truly brilliant, and I can’t wait until people get to see it.

Darth Bombshell: Your policy states that you’d accept suggestions from fans on what sticker sheets to do. I wonder how far this policy goes, in that I have to assume that some stickers would be too expensive to produce. With that in mind, out of the ones you have done so far, what sticker sheets would you be interested in doing in the future and, conversely, what sticker sheets could you choose not to do due to circumstances like the aforementioned cost dilemma?

Delta Star: Well, we could never make a sticker set that would cost more than the toy itself. That would defeat the purpose. So if a collectible item sells for $10, in mint condition, nobody would ever want a $12 sticker s set to go with it.

As for Transformers, though, there are no circumstances like that. We mean to reproduce all TF stickers eventually.

Darth Bombshell: Thank you for your time, Delta. Don’t forget to check out Reprolabels.com for all your Transformer sticker needs.

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