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.
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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.
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