Comments On Collectible Figures: WRAP-UP OF SS ONLINE COMIC CON

(Obs.: I stopped with the updates because is everything online on Facebook and Sideshow page. Next year I'll cover just statues. 1/6 action figures are far too many to keep track and I don't collect them. The only one I have is the b&w Nicholson Joker.)

So far so good. As always a lot of expected appearances came out but, differently from last year, a bunch of very special novelties gives Sideshow’s 2017 offerings a new taste.

To begin with, my most anticipated piece (probably ever, since he is my all-time favorite character) Swamp Thing Maquette got everyone by surprise. Definitely not a mainstream character, but a DC cult classic nevertheless, I have high hopes about this one. I guess sky-high hopes. Lol. For the little was shown, I believe they’ll be making a Sideshow take on Swamp Thing while sticking to the bases of his most famous incarnation, the Alan Moore John Totleben saga. What more could I ask? It just sounds perfect to me. One thing that worries me is that the base seem to be big what may affect the overall price of the piece. I just hope it fits my pocket once it is released (which I wholeheartedly hope occurs after I finish paying my Hulk LSB!). I also hope that the Maquette designation not to be a new name for overpriced statues in Sideshow jargon. That would be a low blow.

Looks different yet familiar. And he have ears! The base seems big enough to affect the price,
this worries me.

Another surprisingly new addition to Sideshow line up is Danger Girl’s Abbey Case based on J. Scott Campbell art. I never heard of this series but I’m a bit off comics nowadays. Anyway, to those who loves Campbell art style, the statue portrait is looking very accurate and will certainly please the fans. It is a PF, so expect it to have a presence.

Not less surprising, was the announcement of Heavy Metal’s Taarna. A character I also never really heard about but that seems to be a cult favorite is arriving and the preview picture shows a pretty face, horrible hair casting and a sexy outfit. It’s another PF with niche collectors on sight.

Now going mainstream, we had nothing less than three Batmans revealed. It must be some kind of record, even though all versions are very different in shape and size. First there’s the 1/6 Classic Batman, followed by what seems to be a completely new line of Batman characters named Gotham City Nightmare Collection, which sticks to the name and portrays a scary half-bat Batman as its opening piece. The alternate head is a vampire-esque portrait that have nothing to do with Batman as we know it. Very curious indeed. Last but not least, on the contrary, Sideshow revealed the Batman Legendary Scale. I wonder with Sideshow current price frenzy what legendary price this piece will have. The number of Batmans raises to five if we count the just released Iron Studios Batman Black Version 1/3 statue (pretty cool) and Hot Toys Batman Battle Damaged. Just wow. These are a lot of Batmans to be announced in one month! Maybe too many...

Apart from Batman, a new Batgirl was revealed as well as Joker and Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad Movie. All of them PFs. Sideshow was never good in portraying real-life characters (no one beats Hot Toys on that) and Harley Quinn, which is already for PO, does not look like Margot Robbie at all, Joker was smartly displayed from the back so we don’t know his likeliness to Jared Leto. It would be much better if they made some missing villains for their Batman comics line instead.

A partnership that has being fruitful to Sideshow is the one with Legacy Effects. The team of companies are bringing three pieces to SSDC: Alien Queen Maquette (which I believe will be proportional to Alien King so they can make a happy nice couple) and two life-size busts, Stormtrooper and Boba Fett (which fans found to be neckless). Looks like Sideshow is investing again in this format since with these two there will be four busts available in less than a year (Deadpool and the just released Hulk to be the other two). Speaking of Star Wars, fans cannot complain of being left aside. Besides the busts, they’ll get three new PFs, Stormtrooper, Captain Phasma and K-2SO. The latter will also be portrayed in astonishing life-size scale! I just wonder why, but Sideshow rarely shoots to miss, especially on a so costly piece, so there must be a demand for such monstrous statue. (Update: yet another life-size figure was announced: the Death Trooper. Looks like Star Wars fans have plenty of room in their houses.)

SW fans will also get two new 1/6 figures, Stormtrooper Commander and Grand Moff Tarkin. I guess all the pieces there are still on pre-order state will make an appearance at SDCC as well so there’s plenty of Star Wars to satiate the both light and dark sides of the force.

As I said, monstrous.

Stormtrooper life-size bust

Still on 1/6 front Sideshow will bring Hot Toys Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor Gladiator Version from Ragnarok movie. Perfect portraits of the actors is the least we can expect from these announcements.(Update: Hot Toys are also bringing two new characters, Major Valerian and Laureline, from the Valerian franchise, which I admit never heard of)

One last Maquette was revealed from a character who has the most variants of figures in history, Iron Man, now on Mark III suit. It looks cool and all but they look so similar to me… Let's see what the Maquette designation means to this figure. I'm very curious about that.

And less than a year from her last statue, Red Sonja reappeared on a new PF completely different from the previous, not so muscular, not angry but yet sexy, voluptuous and powerful. I found the figure adorable and if wasn’t for Swamp Thing I would definitely get her. I may very well get it in the long run. No one knows. It all depends on launch windows.

With Lady Deadpool, looks like Sideshow is trying hard to get some attention to the piece with two cool add-ons, switchable heads (masked and unmasked) and the option of having her kicking a missile or Headpool. But probably all of this is also to make her look like she worth the same price as Deadpool Heat-Seeker, absurd $700. Also, to heat-seek to attract the ones who bought Daedpool into buying her as a companion piece.

The finished applied Lady Deadpool portrait.

Now the two most expected figures of Sideshow at SDCC: Magneto and Wolverine. By a far margin, Magneto is the most anticipated figure to come from Sideshow and the one that’s been kept in most secrecy. The only thing we got to see so far was the helmet which many regarded as Jim Lee’s style. Wolverine was partially revealed in the snippets below, suggesting his base will be a sentinel’s hand what leads one to think, since it is being considered by many as a companion piece to Magneto, that the latter will have some sentinel-themed base as well. I am not expecting much of Magneto because he is not a character I particularly care about. I thought by the pictures of Wolverine that he looks more like a XM statue than a Sideshow one but the head sculpt(s) probably will set things apart as Sideshow generally excels in this part.

(Update: both Magneto and Wolverine proved to be huge letdowns - for me at least. See and judge for yourself.)

Now, what I was saving for last and astonished me as much as Swamp Thing: Sideshow will be bringing at least eight new Court of the Dead figures at once to SDCC! Apart this, Sideshow revealed a bunch of life-size apparels used by the characters. I guess I have to kneel and thank to the heavens I’m not a collector of this line, otherwise I would be feeling blessed and cursed at the same time. There’s no way I could afford them all. Especially Odium that seems to be the biggest PF statue ever made by Sideshow. It's almost a 1/3 scale statue and very bulky. I wonder if there are fans enough of the series willing to buy the apparels though. Only if they plan to make cosplay of the characters I think. But looks like there are real fans that are pretty engaged in the mythology of the series that maybe would want such pieces as decorative items. I really don't know. The only one I've got so far was Malavestros but am highly interested in Proxxil it seems like a terrifyingly cool companion to Malavestros. Let's wait to see the price of this piece since Court of the Dead is know for being quite salty regarding prices. Even though is a IP own by Sideshow, so no royalties to pay foi image usage. Quite ironic the most expensive line of the company be the one with zero royalties to pay don't you think? (Update: if that wasn't CotD enough for one Con, Sideshow decide to go both big and small with the line, launching a 9 feet tall Death Supreme statue and 9 inch "Prestige Statuettes" of the three faction leaders, Xial, Kier and Gethsemoni)

Totally monstrous. Wow. Who the heck will one of these at home?

There’s one last thing I didn’t get. It was Evil-Lyn Classic Statue announcement. It is said that will be the companion to He-Man and Skeletor though there’s no He-Man and Skeletor Classic Statue in Sideshow line to speak of. This is a big mystery to me. I just wonder what this figure is and where does it fit.