BLOG STORY

As I guess nobody will ready this post, as I’ll only put it on my small Facebook group. I can talk whatever I want, it feels a bit like a shrink.

The blog dies in the end.

I got retired earlier in life after sequential breakdowns followed by severe depressions (this is the lighter and shorter version of the story). As a result, I have a lot of free time. Since I collect figures and statues and like to write, I decided to create a blog about statues, in English, even though I’m Brazilian and a Portuguese native speaker who learnt English through videogames, movies and songs; in other words, poorly. But, as I was doing nothing but going to the rehab center at mornings three time a week and to the shrink once a week at the afternoon, I dared do create this blog. (Was also a bit bored about my PS3, movies and my Portuguese blog, that is all about me, me, me…)

Well, after I started and had a few posts, I decided I had to publicize my new blog somehow because I was not talking about me - a subject nobody cares - but about statues and there should be a public for that. I wanted to earn some money with AdSense (dream on!) and thought of Facebook as a means to to spread the word about it.

Facebook suddenly turn out to be a game changer in my life since I met a pulsating community and learnt a lot. About the figures (I believed all statues to be solid, mind you), about the market, about the customs market, you name it. 

Then, a given day, I looked at my Faux Bronze Silver Surfer statue and decided to see if Randy Bowen had a Facebook account and, to my surprise, he had! I, more kidding than less, tried an interview with him. To my complete astonishment, he agreed. So we did the interview and I felt extremely good doing it, albeit a lot intimidating at first. It was an instant hit (given my blog proportions).

Motivated by this first unexpected success (in all senses, after all I talked to the “the man”, a thing I imagined impossible), I decided I would look for more people to interview. As I think Sideshow’s Skeletor statue one of the best ever created, I looked for its sculptor, Matt Black, and turned out he was a very approachable guy (as all the others I interviewed after him) and granted me the interview. So I went on, and, guided by I fellow community member, I began to interview who he thought to be the best sculptors out there. I started to track them down one by one and all, even though with some understandable delay - or delays - all were very friendly, even owners of companies.

Meanwhile another horizon had opened to me and I couldn’t resist to look into: the customs market. I bought myself a custom figure with the rest of my savings (because customs pieces are extremely expensive) and wanted to discover more about the people involved in the customs scene. By being untied to the licensors, the customs market produces extremely creative and unexpected visions and versions of the characters we love. I wanted to know more about the several roles in it, which I discover to work like a small-scale emulation of the big market. And then I went to look for people to interview, what turned out to be much more difficult than I ever imagined. But I dive in in the project which resulted in four articles with several interviews about the subject (to me, my best work so far). Of course, it didn’t generate as many hits as the big shots interviews but I long forgot the possibility of turn the blog profitable since, until now, after almost 50 thousand hits I earned merely $13.02. But as the thrill of doing this is the beginning (the contact with someone you admire or are interested about) and the end (when the article is read by as many people as I can possibly reach), I didn’t mind (much) the response to my customs arc was underwhelming and keep on going as I do up until now. 

To be completely honest I got really frustrated by it but it didn’t demotivate me. I was sure I did a good work, the best I possibly could regarding the evasiveness of people who makes part of the customs scene. So I was fine with myself and with a sense of accomplishment about the hard task I put upon me and, at the end, that was what really mattered.

Today, people to interview are becoming scarce, since I covered most of the Market with an obvious tendency to Sideshow Collectibles, since I’m a fanboy of them. I don’t know for sure about what I will write once I finish with the interviews but I will come up with something. Right now, I am trying to broaden the scope of the interviewed, which up until now were (aside the customs) mainly focused on sculptors and company owners. Those last came as a gift because I didn’t mean to interview them intentionally, exception being PCS’ Jerry Macaluso - another great guy –, who I purposely went after, following a suggestion of my friend. The contact with the owners always happened this way: I just tried to contact someone through the company’s Facebook page to answer the interview and instead of some PR guy, I got the proper owners to return my questions, what was amazing to me and a big honor as much as a big surprise as they were as humble as every other interviewed of the Market. It was harder to deal with a customs producer than with the owner of XM Studios the number one spot of my top 10 list of most popular posts by a far and, I imagine, unbeatable margin. I guess the only people who could beat him would be Sideshow Collectors owners but they are aiming to high because they’re very, very low-profile. Even so, I still sent private messages to the persons I imagine them to be - after a thoroughly internet search - but they never ever saw the messages and most certainly will not reply since I put too many edgy questions on the posts for them to answer.

I guess I did a bad thing regarding Sideshow, since now they got the interviews to be reviewed by somebody up in the hierarchy in order to folks there to answer. I bet this censorship was my fault but. on the other hand, I can’t give me such an important role as to influence the ins and outs of Sideshow Collectibles, the greatest statues manufacturer on Earth. But deep inside I still think it was my fault. I just hope they answer the two interviews I’m working that seeks to broaden the perspective about figures creation beyond sculptors. I hope that the interviews pass the censorship or at least the geatest part of them. There are two more persons I want to interview from there and then I’ll call the day with Sideshow. In fact, as contradictory as this may sound, I would interview the whole crew if I could, but I don’t think I will be able to. 

Interviewing is so much more fun than just write about some statue. However, I guess sooner it is what I’ll begin to do. Just wait and see me trash the new Deadpool PF from Sideshow! Hahahahahaha.

Summarizing, this blog is the best thing I’ve could ever done to myself. It gave meaning to an otherwise kind of meaningless life. Get in touch with this fantastically talented, intelligent and humble people, write about something I truly love and still earn a cent or two a day for doing so is being in collector-who-likes-to-write’s heaven. Even more when an article is read by a lot of people. The feeling of doing something that I love and sharing this with the reader is of truly profound joy to me. I couldn’t ask for more. Well, maybe a girlfriend, I’m also working on it (not as much as in the blog but I am)!

Well, folks, this was my try to make an already long story short. Congratulations and thanks if you read this nonsense this far!

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Allow me an afterthought: I realize, seeing how the last interview I posted had going down quickly on every major page thread, that people on the statues groups doesn’t really want to read, they only want to see pictures of statues, so I’ll never get read properly nor the interviewed get the attention they deserve. It’s a pity but it’s the truth. And I can deal with that. Only feel sorry for the guys who had to stop their works or take part of the weekend or another free time to answer my questions to the said fans.

Another thing that amazes me, but doesn’t bother me too much (as my Facebook group is secondary to my blog) is why the members posts their things everywhere minus in my group. I know I only have 250 members average (and don’t know how to expand the public beyond that) but these are 500 more eyes to see their posts… sigh… but that’s okay too; I can do it all on my own. It’s not as cool as it could be but it’s what I got and as I said earlier, apart from the girlfriend, I’m having the time of my life doing this whole thing and hoping somebody, somewhere, will enjoy it as much as I do.