Lion and Pan's Diablo Toy Motorcycle

Lion and Pan's Diablo Toy Motorcycle

What sleek and beastly vehicle would suit the refined tastes of the Lord of Terror? Designers Lion and Pan have come together to share their Hell-forged toy motorcycle in this week's Artisan Showcase!

Recently Taiwanese community manager Broodlisk interviewed these two passionate designers about their Diablo-themed motorcycle. Lin WenXian (also known as Lion) and Pan WenZhong (also known as Pan) won the excellent work prize in the 2013 KYMCO Motorcycle Design Competition with their “DIABLO” design, and Broodlisk interviewed them to understand how Diablo came out from our screens to become a running motorcycle on the road.

Q. Please tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Lion: I am called Lion. Both of us are graduates of Dayeh University, and our major was Industrial Design. The reason we chose to create DIABLO was the brainstorming of us and our German teacher, Johann Geiger.

Pan: I am called Pan. The first time we made a connection with KYMCO was when we participated in the first KYMCO Design Competition last year and I was dragged into entering the game by Lion. We actually got some experience from the competition because Lion won first prize, and that gave us the motivation to enter the second Competition this year.

During the whole discussion, we tried to search for some young elements because our target group is between 18 to 25 years old. It happened that the most popular news was all about Diablo III and e-sports back then, so we made up our minds to use DIABLO.

Are you ready to ride?


Q. Could you explain more details about how you put DIABLO on this motorcycle?

Pan: First, we collected a lot of research about DIABLO to analyze the design language. For example, the front brake of this motorcycle must clamp the wheel, so we imagined that as Diablo’s claw and we made it look like powerful claws are clamping the front wheel. The next part was the front end of the motorcycle, and the first thing came to our minds was Diablo’s head. We also made its horns into the rear-view mirrors. We can see a lot of hard and sharp triangles on Diablo, and we used the concept of those special triangles to slowly build the whole body of the motorcycle.

Lion: Looking at the head, you can see where the triangles are used.

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Can you see the claws and head of Diablo?

Pan: Well, the original design of the motorcycle was more complicated, artistic and organic, but or teacher, Geiger, thought it was too much because there were too many unnecessary designs. So, we kept simplifying the design. Also, you can see another part with lots of curves. We got that part from Diablo’s muscles. The reason we used it is so that the motorcycle doesn’t look too hard.

Q. Then why did you leave so much space under the backseat?

Pan: That’s because the road conditions of Taiwan are so “smooth” (laughter), and we designed a “motocross for city” which provides great shock absorbing effects when riding in the cities in Taiwan.

Lion: From the back of the motorcycle, you can see that the whole thing tilts a little forward, like people tilt while running, which makes its orientation appear forward-leaning. We hope that people will look dominating when riding it. We also created a virtual 1 to 10 scale character we called dummy to see how “dominating” it would be.

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It was designed according to the local road conditions in Taiwan and incorporated a "green" concept.

Q. What are the 2 bottles on the both sides of the motorcycle? They look like some kind of accelerators.

Lion: Those are fuel cells filled with hydrogen, and they will emit water when it is transformed into electricity, because hydrogen becomes water after combining with oxygen in the air. The chlorophyll battery we used last time was more complex because it transformed chlorophyll into electricity and we needed to refill the water to charge it.

Q. Did you learn all this in school?

Pan: Basically, you need to know a lot of different technologies, but you are required to gain more information if you want to do something different.

Lion: Well, we learned all of this information by ourselves. The range of industrial design is very wide, and includes art, design, technology, mechanism, engineering, and materials.

Q. Are you going to attend any other design competitions in addition to the motorcycle design competition?

Pan: To be honest, I just attended the“Make it Real! Aivia Esports mouse design competition” award ceremony a few days ago and I was one of the finalists.

Q. What’s your procedure for attending competitions?

Lion: Um... we have some drafts first, and discuss the concept with our teacher. Later, we draw some pictures about it, and we don’t make models until we are chosen.

Pan: Actually this procedure is not only for competitions. Whatever we do, we start with drafts and designs, and we won’t do definite models until we confirm the look or shape.

Q. When did you guys begin to play the Diablo series?

Lion: The first Diablo series I played was Diablo II, and I bought Diablo III right after it was released. I think Diablo III is fantastic! Not only the game production, but also the characters created by the American artists are marvelous! My friend bought the Diablo III collector’s edition, and an art book is included inside. I always borrow that book from my friend because I think their creative process is very cool. I think Blizzard Entertainment Taiwan can also ask our teacher to cooperate in developing some creative Diablo merchandise.

Pan: You know, I have had certain “special” ability in video games since I was a child, which is I’ve lose in games all the time. That is why playing games is rarely an option for my entertainment. However, on the artistic side, the creation of characters, and even the animated video for Diablo really appeal to me and make me stay in the game. Frankly speaking, I hope to see it on the big screen one day.

Q. It’s a nice idea to hold a competition, but can there be too many industrial design competitions for students to take part in?

Pan: There are tons of competitions, but students are all willing to attend these competitions. If a competition is related to video games, I think they will be more eager to get in because they will get a lot of responses. The award can be divided into product-oriented or design-oriented, which gives competitors different directions to consider how their works will be when designing. However much the prize is, we intend to take part in those competitions in which the themes are more interesting because we can expand our thoughts and show our abilities as much as possible to compete with students from other schools.

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Ride DIABLO and dominate the night!


Q. Last, give some words to those rookies who also want to bring the concepts from games into industrial design in a fashionable style!!

Pan: By transforming virtual games into real objects through design, designers can make people feel these things are fashionable because people can really touch and use these objects in daily life. When you are using these objects, you will be like, “How cool!” and that’s where fashion comes from.

Lion: Call and meet Johann Geiger! (laughter) My major was mechanical engineering, and I was totally an amateur on these art works. I improved a lot after following him to attend competitions handle cases, and accumulate experience. His teaching is really special and he also keeps updating his thoughts all the time.

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This is Lion and Pan's original DIABLO motorcycle!

Do you want to be someone like them who bravely goes forward to achieve your dreams? Do it now! Working hard and accumulating experience is the only way to become a master of your craft!

What do you think of Lion and Pan's Diablo motorcycle design? What other Diablo characters do you think could use a snazzy ride, and what do you think they would look like? Let us know in the comments below!

Are you an aspiring artist or artisan? Make sure to share your creations with us in the Community Creations forum!