LEONARDO – SIDESHOW AS ITS BEST

I’m not a big fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but Sideshow hit the bullseye with its new Leonardo figure. Apart from the base that it’s a bit too simplistic for my taste and in comparison to the statue, everything in Leonardo is spot on. Is a tour de force of Sideshow does best: let the imagination of its talented team run wild and bring a different personal view of a character. 

Great work, Sideshow! :D

The perfect balance between the more “turtlish” style with the cartoon flair is spot on. And it shows all over the comiquette. The more salient scales give the character a less comic and more edgy style. While the head brings the traces of a real turtle but with a lot of personality and great facial expression. The color pallet and overall painting work of the intricate scales and shell are flawless (hope the final product is up to this prototype). I look at the pictures and the only thought that crosses my mind is “TNMT should look like this since the beginning!” 

It’s like Sideshow had reached my “platonic” view of the characters and materialized it on a statue. It’s a marvelous piece and it’s a shame I won’t be able to afford it as this work is all Sideshow is about to me: creative, full of personality and movement views of our beloved characters. Congratulations to the team who pulled this one off. And to the happy new owners, of course.

COOLER THAN SIDESHOW NEW DEADPOOL PF?

So darn cool. I wish I could afford the two... :/

I couldn't believe another statue would surpass my hype for SS Deadpool PF, but it happened. Here it is:

Sorry Deadpool, but this guy won my heart.

Prepare your pockets he is rather expensive

A mix of Jim Lee and Simon Bisley is what I see in this statue.

COMMISSIONED WORK? WHERE? I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT...

And I didn’t until I discovered these Facebook groups and start to dig in. Ah, this is a post for noobs like me, so experienced collectors are welcome to trash me. :P

With the exploding popularity of Collectible figures, ZBrush 3D sculpting software and 3D printing a market is emerging, the commissioned works. What is that? That is the beginning of the future as I mentioned in the article “A Look into theFuture”. Collectors gather and commission a project of a statue the way they always dreamt of (but was and will not be ever released) to a professional independent sculptor. Using the new 3D tools in most cases (or not, some still work the old fashioned way) they produce the pieces in ultra-limited quantities to this small closed group. Generally, reliable people so not to alert the licensers about the infringement of copyrights, since the majority of the projects are from pre-existing characters. Sometimes the artist creates a 3D software sculpture, put on sale and if there is demand, they go on and produce it but always at limited quantities. You may be a part of a Facebook group about collectible statues and never realize that this is happening but it’s there.

Commissioned ultra-limited Magneto.

And the market is not limited to commissioned full pieces. You can commission a new head for your XM Thanos, per example, or commission a repaint of a Sideshow Collectibles Red Sonja since Sideshow’s work didn’t please you and you wanted more realism and blood to the piece. You can commission a repair on your broken big Red Hulk leg that didn’t survive a move to a new home and so on. The collectibles figures hobby is an increasingly wider market that opens the doors to a great variety of services that professionals or semiprofessionals are sinking their teeth in.

Commissioned Thanos head.

In other words, a newborn secondary market, independent and copyright free is emerging, surfing in the growing tides of collectible figures hobby. It’s a very low profile activity because no one wants to get sued by Disney or Warner Bros. It’s more like a fan service that the fan couldn’t get any other way. As I said, you don’t get commissioned editions of hundreds or thousands of pieces, the max is something around a hundred pieces (and is rare to get to this amount, usually it’s just a couple of dozens). Many times is just one piece to one specific client. It varies but it never gets too big in order to avoid get undeserved attention from licensers.

How the contacts happen? I most cases, people share their portfolio on social networks as a clue to interested people who can than contact the professional privately to arrange the job. Many times, an intermediary is put in between professional and client and does all negotiation so to protect and cover the artisan or so I suppose it’s the case (maybe it’s just because artists don’t like to deal).

What is most impressive to me is that very often the quality of the work (being sculpture, being paint job) equals or surpasses the quality of standard industry. And so the prices. Such limited pieces and customized jobs are extremely expensive due to production costs that cannot be diluted in high number editions, the artisanal manufacturing and the uniqueness of each piece. According to a fellow collector, there are commissioned statues that can go as high as $15,000; even more! It all depends on the artist reputation and the size of the edition, not to mention the complexity and size of the piece (usually ¼). It's good to mention that there are artists that freely create their own pieces (in 3D software) an then put them on sale when they have something presentable. 

I hope I can pay this guy.

I’m gathering money to see if I’m able to get at least one commissioned piece to my collection. (Of course not one that costs much more than 1k!) If you want one, keep your eyes opened; look for works in progress, 3D rendering posts, paint job pictures and things alike. People sharing their work. He/she could very well just be sharing their productions for praise or maybe there’s something deeper there. Dive in. You may discover marvelous pearls hidden. Just look at the images in this post!

SIDESHOW’S NEW BOLD DIRECTION OR CAWABUNGA! MORE TURTLES!

Sideshow is taking a new bold step in its story and one I’m very glad they’re taking. They started to reinvent franchises’ characters giving them a totally new look. It started with Masters of Universe franchise, then the Ralph McQuarrie's reivented Star Wars key characters and now with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Their take on the green guys is the coolest among the enormous variety of TMNT available on the market today, as seen by this newly released photo of Leonardo. They tried to approximate the face of Leo to the one of a real turtle yet maintaining the cartoon feel and giving it a lot of personality on both the expression and pose. I like it a lot.

Two things I disliked about the picture that I hope to be solved when developing is finished: the right arm and the head have noticeable spaces in between them and the body. I guess these two parts will come separated from the figure. No problem about that, since the joints are unnoticeable. They’ve made an excellent job on Daredevil’s head and I hope they fix this by the time of launching. Other than that, I love the cartoonish realistic look of Leonardo and am very hyped about this collection. (Even though I’m saving my money for Deadpool…but, hey, dream is for free, huh?).

I hope Sideshow continues to pursue this trail and try to do it with more franchises. I would love to see an alternate take of a Marvel figure (like XM fantastic take of Batman Samurai). But, then again, I think is ask too much from the licenser. Even though the aforementioned Deadpool takes some artistic liberties from the movie or comics character. Let’s just wait and see.

I like how things is going on Sideshow (creatively speaking!). On the other (dark) side, (besides inflating prices and huge edition sizes) I do not like the repaint step they took: besides the regular R2-D2, now there’s an unpainted and imperial painted one. The same figure with different paintings, this is ludicrous. Not to mention the repainted premium print formats of DC girls. And divide the X-Men Premium Art Print in two and selling like new products?! These are a low blows!

IF YOU WANT TO AMP UP YOUR COLLECTION…

I recently learnt many things about collectibles. I believed there were no better statues than Sideshow’s and that all statues were solid. However I was mistaken actually. Do not get me wrong here. I still love some of the pieces from Sideshow and won’t cancel my orders of He-Man, Skeletor and Dark Phoenix, I still find them marvelous statues. The reality though is that Sideshow pieces nowadays are made of a thin – and I mean really thin – layer of a cheaper resin than polystone and are not the best in the market. I learnt no figure ¼ and up is solid, all of them are hollow or the shipping costs would be through the roof. But…

If you go to the top league in collecting be prepared: you will have to have very deep pockets. Do you think Sideshow Avengers Hulk cool? Take a look at Cinemaquette’s Hulk. Just the base is a piece in itself with severed Ultron’s minions sculped to the last detail. The hair of Hulk is actual synthetic hair implanted, the statue is casted in high quality translucent resin to give the impression of skin, it has acrylic teeth and the paint job is impeccable. The piece is a real monster with 32 height x 40 width x 36 depth and come in two boxes, one for the base other for the Hulk.  Now we come to the really monstrous thing: the price. One of Cinemaquette’s 500 Hulks will cost you $ 2,980.00 plus more than $200.00 for shipping. The perfect Iron Man, with an almost Hot Toy precision of Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) face costs $2,500 and the shipping is almost $250.00. By the price of the shipping you can deduce these are sturdy figures that Sideshow thin layered figures. So are you willing (or are able) to pay $3,000 plus on one statue? I would love too but I can’t. And to tell the truth the statue is not five times better than Sideshow Avengers Hulk... Just three (the hair makes such a huge difference)! ;)

You can low your scale by a half going to XM Studios where you could get (if it wasn’t sold out) a Darkness statue for $1,500. You can find cheaper figures like Iron Man Mark XLII for $800. Still out of my league and the sculpting, to be sincere, is on par with Sideshow (if not subpar). But hey, you’re getting cold cast porcelain figures.And hey, I must admit the recent projects they`re working for look pretty amazing but, hey, they're just projects, need to see the final product. And yep, I just saw Magneto and Daredevil and they`re pretty cool too. (Even though I prefer my SS classic Daredevil, but I'm biased!)

In this range is also Prime 1 Studios. Excellent quality overall, made of polystone, but not so cool franchises. The price tag is more affordable, about $700-$1,200 apiece. Did I have to say that’s out of my league too? Oh, I’ve forgot there’s Prime 1 movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for “just” $575 apiece, the price of a Sideshow Hulk figure.

And there are many more studios I’m unaware of making expensive high quality figures to be sure. So what’s the point of this article?

In one word, to amp up your collection, you must be rich, which I’m not. I value time over money not vice-versa. Sideshows figures are getting better every day in terms of sculpting and painting, what is getting worse is the “cheap is better” manufacturing process and the inflated prices. As I said, I believe Sideshow’s Daedpool PF will be the last statue I’ll ever buy. I was planning buy Blanka from Pop Culture Shock too, but nobody is buying what I’m selling on eBay so I don’t have the money!

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One last thing, First 4 Figures has evolved the quality of their products quite impressively. The new Dark Souls character got me awestruck. And the price range is the same or even lower than Sideshow. It's a pity they only get game franchises so far. But that's their niche. 

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES HOLLOW INSIDE?

A journey from suspicion to certainty...

I was talking to a fellow collector who just got his first Prime 1 Studios figure (a TMNT Raphael from the last movie). He said that the statue was so heavy that two of them would weigh the same as his wife. We were talking about price and quality and I’ve mentioned the Sideshow Skeletor PF statue as an example of an extra quality statue for a reasonable price (given nowadays prices). He then said that the figure must be hollow inside because no 1/4 statue would weight just 15 lbs (6,8 kg) and lol on me. The commentary bothered me. It never crossed my mind that my Sideshow Statues would be hollow inside.

I didn’t believe it (even though I’ve never had a Prime 1 Studios 1/4 figure in my hands to compare) but looking for the weight of Prime 1 Studios statues in Sideshow’s site I was astonished to discover that none of them has the weight on the description.  That bugged me. Even if it didn’t prove Sideshow statues were hollow it was suspicious not to put the weight of Prime 1 Studios pieces.

But you know something? Even if it Sideshow figures are hollow it doesn’t bug me that much because I know Sideshow it’s the most recognizable collectible figures brand today. And they may have a super quality control for their products. If it’s feasible to do hollowed parts of the statues without losing quality and durability, why would I bother? If it’s a way to keep the costs low and make figures more accessible I’m more than happy with it.

Even though I would prefer to know them to be solid. Which they can be, after all, my fellow collector is not an expert. He just found Prime 1 Studios figures heavier than Sideshow’s but he was also comparing a massive almost Hulk size piece with a normal one.

All I know is that he is now a Prime 1 convert. And I’m still a Sideshow collector and fan. To be honest I find Prime 1 Studio figures too bulky and static, heavy and without personality (with few and far exceptions), whereas Sideshow pieces are full of movement, personality and life. But one cannot deny the quality of a Prime 1 piece, it’s just fantastic (by the pictures I see, I must add, since I never saw one face to face in my life), better than Sideshow in many regards. But then again, my heart is with Sideshow. Hollow or not hollow. I just wish they stop rising their prices. Sideshow is by far the studio which prices raised the most in the last couple of years. The new Deadpool PF may very well be my swan song from collecting. Depending on the price. I hope it comes around $ 450 because I can’t afford a Prime 1 price statue.

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Addendum

Sideshow community confirmed: Sideshow Collectibles statues are hollow but bulky enough to handle shipping and handling (most cases). Beyond that, other companies does the same, so I've learnt it is a common market practice to make hollowed figures with size bigger than 1/6. With the exception of Prime 1 and other top tiers maybe (or theirs is less hollow, who knows?).

The naked truth: hollow Joker base filled with spare parts to give it weight.
Also a common market practice according to another experienced collector.

Addendum 2 (things get worse)
A fellow collector and restaurateur say he's repairing a broken Sideshow Red Hulk that came with an ultra thin layer of polystone on the knee, so be careful when manipulating your collectibles, folks. 

A quote from the restaurateur: "what I'm saying is.....they have a high dollar product that is made as cheap as possible. Paint jobs are questionable and castings are crap." [note of the editor: comments about Sideshow]

Even so, what can I do? I just love their figures... :(

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Addendum 3 (unbelievable) 
This video got me impressed on how thin the polystone layer is or, put in another way, how hollow is the statue:

I don't know but I guess if Sideshow does this being the most famous brand on the market today, everybody does it to a greater or lesser degree. All I know is that I'll handle my polystone figures with extra care from now on. In times like this I miss Bowen Studios... if their figures weren't also hollowed... :/

Addendum 4:
I've saw a video of two guys mounting Cinemaquette Hulk and by the sounds of the video one can realize the statue is clearly hollow too. Judge youselves.

Addendum 5 (thanks to Bum J.):

Addendum 6 (thanks to Vittorio G):
Nothing is lost after all, as explained by fellow collector Vittorio G. from Statue Collectors Facebook group (which I recommend):

“...First of all, you start talking about Prime1 and the weight on their pieces, but their 1:3 Batman weights around 20-24lbs, which means the body is hollow to some degree.

[…] the real point is not about the quantity of material, but the density of it, which makes the statue harder or easier to break. There are materials that are incredibly thin and yet incredibly tough to break, like the fiberglass used on Rhino comiquette.

"Polystone" can mean everything and nothing, you'll see that some statues have incredibly sturdy parts (i.e. the spikes on the Diablo Overthrown armor, the weapons on the Fury of the Beast) and some other statues have the same parts done with shitty and fragile material (i.e. the spikes on Arthas, the weapons on the latest Conan PF).

And just because it was mentioned, XM pieces are done with cold cast porcelain, which is an incredibly sturdy material, much more than standard polystone. Which is why the breakage % on XM pieces is substantially lower than on other statues, especially on smaller parts like hair.”

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I would like to know if possible the opinions of members of this community about this issue. Does any manufacturer make solid figures? It's really common practice to do hollowed statues? And about cramming hollow figures with spare parts, is that common? Does Sideshow Collectibles quality control really sucks? Want to hear from you folks, you know the market way better than me!

HOT TOYS – SIMPLY THE BEST

You can ague which is the best: Sideshow, XD Studios, Weta, Pop Culture Shock, Project Triforce, Prime 1 Studios etc. Each one produces fantastic to not so fantastic pieces, each year, each one with its own set of franchises etc. The market of collectible statues is diverse with several triple A players and it’s up to the collectors to choose their favorites. But things change in the realm of sixth scale articulated figures. Even though there are competitors in this segment too, good ones indeed, no one can argue Hot Toys is by far and wide the best studio in the world. No other studio can capture the likeliness and the details of the characters (actors?) it portrays like Hot Toys. They work is simply astounding and unparalleled in the industry. Not only the heads but the full outfit (or armor) of the hero is perfectly translated to sixth scale with plenty of options of configuration, movement and display. The Hong Kong studio is above and beyond any competition. CEO Howard Chan says they hardly can keep up with the demand, Iron Man (and all variants) being theirs best seller product.

One needs to realize that these “toys” ain’t cheap. With great quality comes great costs and a Hot Toys figure can range from $150 to $400 depending on the size and the level of work involved on the production of the piece (not to mention the vehicles). Even so almost every new model goes sold out in a matter of months. The team commanded by sculptor Yulli and painter JC Hong begins the process of crafting a movie character, per example, while the film is still being made. They have early access to production pieces, proofs of concept to deliver the models by the time the movie is ready to go to the cinemas. And even so often the perfectionism and care of the team lead them behind schedule.

The secret to be the leader of the pack is simple, according to Howard Chan: “we seek the best in the world and hire them”. Easy said than done. But no other strategy can explain the supremacy of quality and success that Hot Toys enjoys and its capacity of grab the best franchises on the market. The competitors are getting better but so is Hot Toys, which means that the gap between them and the others will take some time to get crossed.

Who really wins with this is the collector that keeps receiving the best “toys” with the newest technology available and best craftsmanship on the market to pose and expose like trophies at home.

FIGURE PAINTING VS. SUN – POP CULTURE SHOCK ANSWERS

I’ve always been worried about my statues get sunlight, then, through the miraculous world of cyberspace, I had the chance to ask directly to the manufacturer about the eternal dilemma: figure painting vs. Sun. Here’s the answer:

My take to this answer is that indirect sunlight exposure will not damage the painting, and if does it will take several years to do so. My collecting room (which happens to be my bedroom) has one window. So as long as I keep my figures away from the window I won’t have to worry about discoloration. What are your thoughts about the matter? 

I GUESS I JUST LOVE POLYSTONE

Still unique

When you think your statue is one of a kind limited edition and then you see the assembling line one has to think all that harder to keep that frame of mind. But regardless the number of copies, yours is unique. Mine feel unique despite this image because it’s still a human process. And humans tend to even slightly vary the stroke of paint or the intensity of a shadowing work or whatever. (But not that much because that’s a standard set and one can’t deviate from this.) I look at my Sideshow Daredevil and it seems unique to me even though once he was on a huge table with a thousand like him. This one is mine and it’s numbered, and is sold out, hence limited. But seeing that image above steals a bit of the glamour of uniqueness from the figure. 

To be extremely honest and contradictory it doesn't steal that much because the assembling space looks so artisanal that you feel differently from what you would if you were seeing a mass market product assembling line. I like the artisanal aspect of our hobby, it’s what, besides the quality of the end product, separates a limited edition collectible from a Walmart toy. This and the weight of polystone. Yes the weight of polystone has a great deal of giving the statue it’s value and uniqueness. Yes, I guess I just love polystone.

INFLATING PRICES

I could cost $100 less. If  I was launched a year ago.

One thing that annoys me as much as scares me is how quick the prices of figures are increasing. Even figures with huge editions of 2500 units are hitting the $500 benchmark. I know collectible figures are a growing expanding market but this inflation of the prices will scare away lots of potential costumers both veterans (in a lesser degree) as newcomers (much strongly). I’m somewhere in between these two extremes and I confess that I had to decrease the number of statues I buy per year from three to two. This year I’ll order only one because I can’t afford to lose the statue (is the new Deadpool PF from Sideshow) and because I’m saving to reform my bedroom so I can expose my humble collection. Even if I wasn’t save money I wouldn't be able to buy three, four figures per year anymore for the single reason they became too expensive to me. I’m not a rich guy and collecting these figures never was a cheap hobby but now it’s becoming ridiculously expensive. Take the new Master of Universe Sideshow line per example: He-Man came out for $400. Skeletor and Evil-lyn a couple of months later came out for $450 and $440 respectively. It’s a huge inflation. Or the Dark Phoenix with an edition of 2500 pieces for $ 500. I believe that if it were just one year ago the same Dark Phoenix would cost no higher than $400.00. It’s becoming unbearable to me. I had to give up of Ralph McQuarrie’s Boba Fett, lose 42 bucks NRD in order to guarantee my Dark Phoenix. If things goes this way, by the end of the year a PF figure will cost 700-800 dollars and I won’t be able to buy anymore statues. I’m on my toes about the Deadpool statue, I hope it comes in the line between 450-500 bucks, otherwise I’ll simply cannot afford it what would be very frustrating since I love the character and I think the statue is turning out very well. Maybe I’m being delusional here and the prices are not growing but I’m pretty sure they are when inflation in US is almost zero. I would like to know your opinions. The only way to stop this is when the sales start to decrease abruptly due to the high costs of the pieces. Then they will rethink their marketing strategy or lose all the medium to low budget costumers like me. The worst part is as this is a piece of “art” there’s no way to regulate the prices, only the powers of demand and offering. It’s a pity to alienate this great part of the public that save every penny to buy a new shinny figure of their beloved character but that’s exactly what’s happening and will happen even faster, the faster they raise the prices.

Addendum July 7 2016:

Why is the figure of the left 450 cheaper than the one on the right? Two words: studios' extortion.

The most crying example for the argument of this post came out this week: the Voltron Statue from Sideshow Collectibles. About the same size and as nearly detailed as the Galactus Legendary Scale statue from the very Sideshow Collectibles, it will be launched by astounding $ 1,250.00 whereas Galactus, a couple of years ago, was priced $ 799.99. Given the size and detail, the two should be priced around the same plateau (even though I think Galactus is a much cooler and detailed piece) but look what happened in a couple of years: two products of the same league, so to say, have over 50% raise in the price while US inflation doesn’t get nowhere near as that or the country would be in total jeopardy. This is the studio stretching the line to see until we’re going to pay for one figure from them. It’s outrageous and I hope the line snaps soon. Even though I believe it unfortunately won’t. There’s too many rich people that really dig this hobby.  And then again the low budget collector won’t be able to get a Voltron he/she always dreamt about home. Shame on you Sideshow and on all the other studios doing the same price practice.

COWABUNGA! WHAT A COINCIDENCE!

Exactly one week after I published a post about Sideshow selling Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles from all eras, I receive the following e-mail:

Such a coincidence, don’t you think?

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF COLLECTING

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 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.

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.