EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SIDESHOW MAGNETO

Magneto by Sideshow is probably the most anticipated pre-SDCC figure. Sideshow sure chose one of the most beloved characters from Marvel universe to portrait. However, will it be on par with the stiff competition around Magneto? Official and custom figures of the character abound, one cooler than the other. Let’s get the grail of all Magnetos, the XM version. It is almost impossible for Sideshow to beat the base created by XM. They nailed it in their first attempt with an incredibly detailed and creative “throne” that depicts all the power of the magnanimous character. Apart that, they created a very cool vision of Magneto's uniform. The only thing that left to be desired was the head sculpt (which is still XM’s weak spot imho).

Sideshow (also in my opinion) is the best on the market regarding head sculpts but they’re not that good with bases. They don’t come even close to XM in that aspect. Every XM base is almost a piece per se. So the base must really excel everything Sideshow did so far in order to beat XM effort. Not that all Sideshow bases are lame. I can cite Alien King’s base with its army of little aliens as a pretty impressive one. Thanos throne is very detailed as well. And the new Red Sonja base is cool too. But all the others are not far from conventional and work as mere supports to the pieces. So I believe this is the biggest challenge Sideshow Magneto will face. I’m very curious about the base. I don’t believe solemnly the use of techniques like translucent resin and leds will do the cut. It must be something impacting, eye-catching and strictly linked with the character background. In one word, the base must be impressive. As I said, a challenge.

Other thing that will make the difference is the pose of the statue. There are pretty powerful poses out there (from Bowen to customs) that were spot on portraying Magneto’s powerful presence. Sideshow is very good at poses… when they want. They make dynamic strong poses, exactly what Magneto deserves. It will be difficult to escape from a floating Magneto, but it’s a difficult task to avoid repetition here as the majority of the portraits of the character is floating. I don’t know how they are going to solve this and I’m just as curious to see which majestic powerful pose they will pull for the figure.

One thing that concerns me seeing Bowen terrific job in representing Magneto’s floating cape is that Sideshow goes for mixed media and use cloth to make the cape. I believe it to be the wrong step to do with this specific character especially considering what was done before. I don’t think that put the positioning of the cape in the hands of the consumer with wired cloth to be the wisest idea. I think everybody is waiting to see grandiose regarding the cape, lots of details and movement in a sculpted cape not a cloth one.

Finally, the uniform. They can go classic and reproduce the comic version and that’s okay, but it would be so much more interesting if they did a “Masters of the Universe” take on the uniform, the same way they reimagined He-Man, Skeletor and so forth creating a fresh, much cooler look to them. Magneto could use the same creative process.

One thing that nobody will like about the statue will be the price. I’m guessing it will come for around $1k depending on the size of the base. No lower than $800 is my bet.

My last bet is that it will come with two switchable parts, one being the head, the other being one of the hands (to be the EX version plus). Or maybe they could go different from habitual and offer three head sculpts (long hair and with or without the helmet) and offer one of the heads as exclusive. That would be interesting. 

Now it’s just a few days to uncover the mystery surrounding this so hyped figure. I would like to hear comments about what do you expect Magneto to be.