Marvel-ous!
Adventure Lab Photo Booth from Apple Industries Shipping Now
With one of the hottest licenses in the world, Apple Industries’ latest Face Place photo booth is certainly a head-turner for superhero movie lovers and comic book devotees alike.
Marvel Adventure Lab, which was made available at the end of March, is not only a unique photo booth due to its sought-after international license, but because of its capabilities – far different from any previous Face Place offering.
“It’s an experience rather than just a photo booth,” said Allen Weisberg, CEO and founder of Apple Industries. “We are integrating a lot of features from the Marvel comic books to turn this photo booth into something into more exciting.”
One such thing is the Marvel video that starts when someone uses the photo booth. With that interactive element in mind, the unit also uses the voice of Jarvis, the butler character in the Iron Man franchise, to guide users through every step of the experience.
Of course, the experience of a photo booth is ultimately the photos, and Marvel Adventure Lab puts its spin on that aspect too.
The machine prints 6”x10” products featuring characters from the Marvel Universe like Thor, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man and more. But not just that. Users are among the Marvel giants – able to choose to be placed on a comic-book-style cover or in a story with their favorite characters.
“You look like you’re a part of a Marvel adventure,” Weisberg explained. “It’s amazing because we have access to so many assets from Marvel.”
The Face Place team designed the comic-book-inspired covers and stories with the direction of Marvel’s style guides, working closely with the publishing company on the final products. “Once we’ve created the artwork, Marvel is reviewing every single asset,” he noted. “It’s a collaboration between Apple Industries and Marvel. They love the concept and want to be involved very closely.”
The booths showcase Face Place’s active segmentation process, an in-house technology that gives users a cartoony, comic-book-like appearance – transforming the original photo (which is cropped to fit the templates) through a series of filters applied to it.
There are currently 48 total templates available – 24 covers and 24 stories that feature the various Marvel characters. “We are working on new ones so it will be constantly auto-updated and refreshed,” Weisberg said.
Since the machines are internet-based, operators will get access to the new templates as soon as they’re released. Still, the creative process takes some time, so Face Place plans on keeping ahead by focusing on trends like Marvel movie releases to keep the booths fresh.
And if the blockbuster films are any indication, Marvel Adventure Lab is poised to be a massive success. Marvel had three of the highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office in 2018, including Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War coming in the top two slots – grossing a collective $3.3 billion-plus worldwide (nearly $1.4 billion domestically).
Since the photo booths are rooted in comic books, it’s worth noting that Marvel has a 30 percent share in the market with Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America among the best-selling comic books of all-time.
Apple Industries debuted the prototype machine at the 2018 IAAPA to gauge the response and were overwhelmed by the interest.
“We were so pleased,” Weisberg said. “People were lining up just to be able to use the booth.”
The final version – measuring 68” x 44” x 110” – was shown at the Amusement Expo and began shipping soon after.
“This is perfect for FECs, bowling alleys, movie entertainment centers, theme parks, retail locations – basically anywhere.” With a license like Marvel and an innovative photo booth concept, that’s not hard to believe.
More information about the company and their other offerings is available at www.faceplacephoto.com.
