 |
| Always wanted to have one of these in your collection? I did and I do. How about have 3, 7, 100? |
Before I
start I must add that there’s nothing too exciting on the horizon for my taste,
that is. You may be excited about the newest Prime 1 figure, per example. So what’s to
write about? The statue collecting is not a cheap hobby. Besides that, you
never have enough room because you never know when that (or those) new
figure(s) will appear to enchanted you and make you empty your pockets once
more. It’s endless.
I believe
the future of collecting to me will be when the statues will be built from the
ground up in 3D programs and you’ll buy the blueprint and print your own
perfect figure in your house 3D printer that does all the painting and
everything else. Make no mistake, the future of statue collecting will be virtual/digital.
You buy the model, you print and paint it yourself, or better saying, you'll
let your affordable 3D printer take care of all the job. I believe you will
even be able to customize the painting like the tone of red of a Daredevil
statue or if instead of red you prefer the yellow costume, you can customize it to be the yellow
version Daredevil or you can even print both. You will choose if your new Hulk
will be red, green or grey and so on. I believe modders will be able to change
a 3D original model itself adding features or correcting things they thing are
not okay. They will be able to add more details and even resell the modded
blueprints on eBay or elsewhere. To me that will be the end of collectibles as we know them. The end of limited edition industries reigning supreme. It will be the era of customization. There will be artists that will create from scratch all new figures as already happens today (the difference is that today they take care of the production of the pieces, not only the creative part) and sell the blueprints of them.
I believe Japanese manufacturing is already all mechanized or almost completely. It is virtually humanly impossible to paint every single piece with the same degree of precision in minimum details as they’re doing nowadays. Even Bowen used 3D software sculpting back in the old days. My Spider-Man Museum says this in the box. There will be so much variety and so many independent talented artisans out there one won't know what to choose. When there isn’t any more space to display figures I’ll be obliged to stop. As I throw away the boxes of the figures I’m 100% sure will be part of my collection I won’t even been able to resell these to get more room if I get bored with some piece. What didn’t happen so far, thank God. I still look with marvel at my first figure, a Bowen Man-Thing statue. It’s indeed still one of the more perfect and beloved items of my collection. And I hope it continues to feel that way.
I believe Japanese manufacturing is already all mechanized or almost completely. It is virtually humanly impossible to paint every single piece with the same degree of precision in minimum details as they’re doing nowadays. Even Bowen used 3D software sculpting back in the old days. My Spider-Man Museum says this in the box. There will be so much variety and so many independent talented artisans out there one won't know what to choose. When there isn’t any more space to display figures I’ll be obliged to stop. As I throw away the boxes of the figures I’m 100% sure will be part of my collection I won’t even been able to resell these to get more room if I get bored with some piece. What didn’t happen so far, thank God. I still look with marvel at my first figure, a Bowen Man-Thing statue. It’s indeed still one of the more perfect and beloved items of my collection. And I hope it continues to feel that way.
I believe
virtualization will achieve a level when you will be able to scan a sold out
piece and replicate it at home. And people will sell this 100% perfect copycats
to those who don’t own the statue. You will see. Sooner than you think. And you
will value much more the collection you have at home. I’ll most certainly will. For the sake of nostalgia. And studios as they work today will have a hard time to adapt to the new market as much as the music industry did.
I one word, think of Deviant Art but in 3D, to be printed in 3D. That's sort of what the future of collecting will look like to me. Or maybe it doesn't happen so openly, maybe it will continue under the radar as commissioned works happen today, through forums and Facebook groups disguised as demonstrations of works in progress, portfolios and things like that. To keep things under licensers radars but with much more talented players all working copyright free because it will be impossible to licensers to track them all down.
I one word, think of Deviant Art but in 3D, to be printed in 3D. That's sort of what the future of collecting will look like to me. Or maybe it doesn't happen so openly, maybe it will continue under the radar as commissioned works happen today, through forums and Facebook groups disguised as demonstrations of works in progress, portfolios and things like that. To keep things under licensers radars but with much more talented players all working copyright free because it will be impossible to licensers to track them all down.
And yes,
I'm a romantic old fashioned guy, I'll miss limited edition figures. I still buy CD's for Christ sake! But, on the other hand, I also believe in the TechnologicalSingularity! You can read here my take on the future of the universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment