Our Business
DESIGNER COLLECTIBLES
1st Step have worked tirelessly hand-in-hand to bring together Manufacturers, Artists/Designers and Exclusive Distributor to showcase the future in designer collectibles. We will continue to commit our efforts to bring more talent, products and content from around the world where design meets destination.
GATE TOYS is a platform created for aspiring designers to help turn their visions and concepts into marketable collectibles. As the logo conveys, our team serves as a helping hand that opens the gateway to the global market, turning ideas into actual prototypes and products, making dreams come true.
Understanding start up funding has always been a major obstacle for designers to materialize their visions, GATE TOYS was created specifically to facilitate the process of turning concepts into actual products.
GATE TOYS can help designers finance the initial development and production cost, we aim to help empower many more talented designers to realize their visions
Calvin’s Custom is the personal customizer and designer brand of Calvin Lo. Calvin has been customizing 1/6 scale action figures since 2000 and began accepting commissions from around the world since 2012, better known for his Conan the Barbarian (decommissioned in 2016) and SWTOR Darth Revan custom pieces (last batch of 10 in production), with over 300 pieces of one an only custom made piece creations made for collectors from around the world.
In mid 2017, Calvin was invited to produce his original design custom bike under the working title “MOTOTERMIN8TOR”, after a year of development, the project has gone on to KICKSTARTER and was successfully crowd-funded under project the title “MOTOPSYCLE:mGT” with associated 1/6 cyborg skull face headsculpt and futuristic weapon set under the title “BORGHEAD” and “GUNRUNNER”.
In 2018, Calvin is in collaboration with Toytally Rad Creations, LLC to launch a new line of original design 1:18 action figures under the brand Almighty Collectibles.
Principal Ethan Chiang is a “kid-adult” obsessed with arts and toys. He was a busy working man in the first-half of his life. Serendipity brought him to sculpture and prototyping, which later ignited the “maker” spirit within his heart and enabled him to find a toy designing brand with the expectation of integrating art concepts in to toy creations.
STUDIO SUNDOWNER was formally founded in 2014. It dedicated itself in creating one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable “art toys”. Since its founding, it has been invited into numerous international exhibitions and conducted crossover collaborations with well-known brands. The original meaning of SUNDOWNER means the hot wind of California, wanderers, the warrior’s dance performed by Maasai of Kenya, and name for a kind of cocktail. Just like the versatile meanings of SUNDOWNER, we hope to design unconfined, versatile and creative products in order to bring about different perspectives to art toy creation.
In Dec 2005, Winson Ma started his own figure company “Winson Classic Creation”. In fact, early in 2000, he was already active in the design industry. He worked with friends to found the figure brand “Brothersfree”. He was one of the creative directors. Now, Winson accepted the invitation from Polar Museum Foundation as the art director. He aims to promote the protection of our environment
WCC has six own trademarks, including Apexplorers, Apexworkbot, Firespecter, Necoco chocolate cat, Polarla and Artdol Family. These 6 labels have participated in many major exhibitions and crossover with different renowned international and local brands. Winson’s works have won numerous international and local awards. He also held countless forums and talks about designs in colleges and universities.
In 2005, the Apexplorers figure was brought to the Antarctica to shoot promotional photos for the first time. In 2007, he was elected as The Ten Outstanding Designer Award. In 2009, he organized the Hong Kong Art Idol Figure design competition. In 2010, he was elected as the president of the Honk Kong Society of Illustrators for a term of two years;
In 2012, he became the first HK designer to cooperate with the world’s largest online retail site “Taobao.com”. Apextaobao was born as the first Taobao figure with ape features.
