Meet the Chinese Stan Lee obsessive who is a superhero to Marvel collectors
- Sichuan man quit his job in advertising to adapt model comic book figures, earning a living from his hobby
- The Marvel Comics enthusiast even earned an endorsement from Stan Lee himself
Since his heart was captured by a small and delicately made Iron Man, Jason Wang Jin from southwest China has been in love with models of Hollywood superheroes.
Not content with simply owning hundreds of these collectibles, Wang has gone further by modifying them in an effort to make them look more like the versions in the films. This has earned him a reputation as “the closest man to Stan Lee in Chengdu”.
“I think I am more than modifying movie character models,” said the 35-year-old, whose passion for drawing and for comic book publishers DC and Marvel began in childhood. “I prefer to call what I’m doing a visual-art expression of dreams.”
Model collectors who bought these toys – usually made to 1:6 scale and sometimes costing more than 1,000 yuan (US$145) – would grow dissatisfied with their uniform style, and ask Wang to adapt them in line with their vision.
“Some collectors want to make their model look much older, some want to paint blood or injuries on the model’s body, some want weapons to look damaged like in the movies, and others dislike the cement-like hair and want it to look more realistic,” Wang said.