MAQUETTE IS SS NEW NAME TO OVERPRICED PIECES?

I warned you last year that Prime 1 Anti-Venom for $860 wouldn’t do any good to the industry. So here we are at 2017 with one 1/4 figure from Sideshow selling for astounding $1,2k. Sideshow apparently found a new venue to make us swallow overpriced figures. They simply call them “Maquettes”. If you happen to like one of the Maquettes showcased on SDCC17 (Iron Man Mark III, Swamp Thing and Alien Queen) you are in for a bittersweet taste when the figures and their prices be revealed. Looks like Maquette is the “deluxe” line of the company, what frees them to put Prime 1 1/3 scale prices (or more) on 1/4 pieces, what is just preposterous. I may be wrong and Thanos is an exception, along with Voltron’s Maquette $1,250 price tag. However, two are one too many Maquettes to call it a coincidence. I think Voltron due to its size and complexity is an expensive piece to produce but it doesn’t justify the overwhelming price. Let alone Thanos which seems a very simple piece to produce. I’ll give you that he is big (as Thanos should be) but the price is much bigger than any reasonable scale. It’s not an 1/3 scale figure. It doesn’t come close. Well there is the throne, one may add. But with or without throne the price is simply too expensive for a 1/4 scale figure. So don’t buy it and shut the f* up, one may reply. Of course I won’t buy it, I don’t even like or know much about the character to justify such immensely abusively inflated price. But I won’t stop complaining. It is my right as a Sideshow fan to point when the company is being greedy and unfair to its customers.

Come an get me if you can face my artificially inflated price.

So I’m scared with the term Maquette and what it may mean, if people buy these pieces, to the other lines of the company. Per example, how much will the new Wolverine PF cost? The last Wolverine, still available on the site, is up for $480. It has quite an elaborated base, not too far from the mechanical Sentinel hand the new one is on, though the hand is a bigger base. Let’s see the prices of the new figure. Sideshow cannot allege the price (if much higher) is due to the license of the character nor the complexity of the figure, since they’re on par with the Wolverine they’re selling right now. The only thing left to blame is the rising production costs in China. However, First4Figures doesn’t seem to have the same issue (one can only wonder why) since they’re new Metroid Varia Suit 1/4 Exclusive figure (with lighting features all over the body) costs $429. So who is to blame? In my opinion (in the case the new Wolverine comes for a much higher price than the last one and the prices of the new Maquettes hit around 1k) is Prime 1 and it’s 1/4 line, since their price plateau for this line is stratospheric. One can argue that Prime 1 quality is unmatched, that the quality control is virtual flawless, that the Witcher’s bases are very cool and all… but $860 on Anti-Venom? This opened the door to Sideshow overprice their Maquette line. This will make the new Wolverine cost a lot more than the old one imho. This will make my beloved Swamp Thing to be no less than $800, though is not a complex character to produce, just big (so I still dream for a $700 price tag). But Swamp Thing is not 1/3 big to be priced as such. Prime 1 showed the way and Sideshow is gladly following, hitting hard the average consumer of their products. Deadpool Heat-Seeker for $700? Come on. Lady Deadpool for $675? Come on twice. Hulk and Deadpool LSB for $980? Without ES? When the marvelous mixed media Joker LSB costed $700 an year or two back? Come on… Not to mention the ArtPrints that jumped from $90 to $180 only god knows why….

Sideshow Swamp Thing will be the last statue I will buy in my life. Depending on the price. Only because is my all-time favorite character. I never imagined somebody would do a 1/4 figure of him. And a marvelous figure at that I must admit. At first, I was shocked with the bold, daring art direction but grew to love it with passing of time and more images revealed. I just wonder how much it will cost… And the 1/3 Swamp Thing from Prime 1, for that matter… If their prices are somewhere near I’ll get extremely pissed.

On a side note, I know I said I would quit with the last figure I bought but I would never imagine Sideshow to do a Swamp Thing. Never crossed my mind. And now that it is coming into fruition it happens in a market with artificially inflated prices. So inflated I might not be able to afford it. It’s almost ironic if it wasn’t tragic. And yes, I assume I’m addicted to collecting and that will be hard to let go the habit. However, Sideshow forces me to do it and may well force many others too. As the last bastion of affordable 1/4 comics-based pieces, Sideshow is falling short…

Sorry for my broken English I’m a self-taught English speaker and not a good one at that… :P