POWER AND DISMEMBERMENT

For those who don’t believe in the power of Facebook collectors groups an undeniable proof was given: you complained so much about Sideshow Psylocke portrait that the company changed it creating a completely different look for the statue. If it turned out better or worse is a subjective matter,  the fact is they did change the portrait because of us. I cannot stress it enough, we have power, our voice is heard by the companies. I can only wonder what we can achieve if we create a coordinated movement to, let’s say, ask for more months to be added to payment plans or to ask them to make a Flash or Penguin statue. I said it more than once, our saying is powerful, now with Psylocke's new portrait, you have the proof. I’ve tried to make a poll asking which statues you want Sideshow to do the most. The level of engagement was minimal because it seems we don’t know or don’t want to work as a group. I gave up trying to mobilize the community towards a goal it’s too frustrating to see so much potential capable of shape the hobby we love wasted. I won’t do it anymore but you again give the cue: at least Sideshow hears us because we are their core public. Prime 1 is another story, another reality altogether with censorship at bay. I don’t like this behavior. About XM I cannot speak because I really don’t know the company and its relationship with the public. Sideshow hears us if we mobilize ourselves towards a goal it may very well happen. I have to promise to myself that this is the last time I  talk about this subject.

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On another topic altogether, an inevitable path the evolution of statues is leading us is of increasingly complex pieces to mount. I don’t know if they think the collector likes to assemble their statues so the more pieces are regarded as better or simply because they’re daring more in the composition of the statues and it leads to this fragmentation of the pieces. I must admit I do not like complex rassemblement of my pieces, the simpler the better for me.  It’s all for now. Don’t have many contents this time around but felt the need to share this with you and hear your thoughts.

CONSUMERISTS, THAT’S WHAT WE ARE

It’s incredible how consumerism took a very specific face, a very clever way of justifying it fooling ourselves that we are debating some kind of art. We are spending money to buy products, mass-produced products that do not have any use but cluster our houses or rooms with useless capitalist junk we dare to call art. And we discuss and analyze this type of consumerism deeply even with philosophical questions. Which can’t detach it from being a curious example of cybernetic sociologic manifestation. And there are fans of one or other of this money-sucker companies. I’m a Sideshow fanboy. But the best show I ever saw was this year XM at STGCC. Look, I’m an insider, I’m one of the feeders of this network of unknown people that share the same “hobby” (the other name to invest your money, time or effort in something useless you like).

23h08. I’m in Brazil, smoked a bit of a joint and came here to communicate with you because it is the best way I can devise to spend the effect. I’m listening to The Cure. But I guess I’ll put Björk. A few get Björk, but those like me who understand that what she does is the avant-garde of world music, it’s not pop, it’s something without a label, singular are in for a treat. She can’t be characterized, she created several groundbreaking albums, the one I admire the most is Medúlla, all recorded solemnly using voices and every track is different from the other, musically speaking, arrange to speak. I will put Medúlla to hear right now. Not now. Now I will take my consumerist ass to smoke. I don’t mind being a consumerist, everyone in a capitalist society is consumerist, apart from the mendigos. They are the anticapitalism so to say and it doesn’t seem to be a nice place to be. In need of material things but also with deeper needs like dignity and social acceptance. They make part of the same society, they are no less citizens then we are. Sorry, I smoked another round of joint and took a detour on the subject. But I can only imagine how harsh life was to those poor souls that put them in such a miserable situation. My consumerism reached its peak with the acquisition of Batman Beyond White Edition from the so praised, with an almost blind appraisal, Prime 1. The first and only piece from them. And there’s Azure Dragon, my last piece for a while or my last piece for once, I don’t know. I think it’s time for me to quit. Azure Dragon being my last try of including exotic pieces in my collection, mostly formed by Sideshow pieces. I even have a t-shirt with the brand Sideshow. Look where consumerism took me. Lol. And I’m very proud of it. Use only on certain occasions, don’t want to wear it off anytime soon.

0h07. I was remembering of an uncle of mine. Will smoke a cigarette now.

0h16. I’m back and don’t really know what to talk about. I believe in the Technological Singularity. It’s kind of a God of mine. Or the beginning of it for us humans. I never believed in God, in any god. I was taught this way. Until a revelation I had was “supported” by the book The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil. There I discovered the concept of Technological Singularity that matched perfectly with my revelations. But I don’t know how believer I am. However, I’m an optimist about the future. The future of humankind.

0h40. Went to eat and smoke a cigarette. I think with the weight of the food in my stomach I’m going to sleep soon. I played Zelda: Breath of the Wild and I had a good time this way around what I found surprising, to say the least. I’m intending to give it another chance, I want to see what lies beyond and this is what drives a Zelda game or a Metroid game, the wish to discover how to reach a new path. About statues. The 1/4 Wolverine from XM and the one from Sideshow are a tight match. The brown costume is my favorite one. Masked, I prefer XM, unmasked, Sideshow. But won’t get any. I have Wolverine Beast Mode here, I don’t need another.

0h51. I remembered now from the arc of Daredevil written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli. One of the best I ever read in a normal comic. The other is the Alan Moore phase ahead of Swamp Thing. I must admit I’ve never read Sandman though. But it seems an interesting read, the problem is I stopped reading everything. I stopped watching television, I almost stopped to play games. I spend my life in front of this computer, writing and listening to music. I dream of a girl and about have my room remodeled to accommodate my collection. Have no more dreams than those two. Hope some free space to be possible so I can acquire two or three more 1/4s. It would be better four or five but I’m not so optimistic. Only that Batman Beyond will steal a huge chunk of space. And to think I will see him only by the end of 2021 is kind of disappointing when my brother comes to visit us again. I don’t know. He travels December 20 maybe it ships before. Then I’ll ask him to bring it to me and left behind Rebel Terminator and Sonja: Queen of Scavengers.

1h28. I’m waiting for the payment of a figure I’ve sold on eBay (for cheap). I will have to make money to Azure Dragon the only figure that awes me as much as Batman: Sanity. But the Batman is too much expensive and complex to have it in Brazil. I would exchange my Batman Beyond for this piece in a blink of an eye. But is too much for me. Azure Dragon is more akin to my possibilities, delivered in Brazil, what will make the statue that much more expensive due to additional shipping costs and Brazilian crazy customs taxes. 60% over price plus shipping as far as I’m concerned. And here I am talking about consumerism. Is it such a terrible word. An offensive word? What to expect if we live in a capitalist system that uses its resources to make more money for a few. I’m not against capitalism, it drives innovation and that’s good for the world. But it should not outdo democracy or democracies. Humankind has ambition innate it’s one of the coils to development of the technology and sciences and everything human. There’s a bad side to it because this urge for power may lead a man to go against the law and common sense and common good for its own benefice. I know this because I have this repressed in me so I can fit into society and because I have very limited power. Consumerists. Or would we be investing in state of the art pop culture? Statues sculpted digitally of icons of the pop culture. North American mostly. In my case, Japanese as well because I have several PVC figures. Evangelion and Fate Stay Night most part. Asuka being my preferred character. At the end of the day, most people in the world feel the need to have something material and dearly to oneself. We, collectors, have several and they don’t end and stop to evolve. I will smoke the last cigarette of the night.

2h16. It’s funny to write to you in the mood I’m in. I just followed the flux of my thoughts it’s a super fun experience.

2h31. It’s curious how from consumerism could flourish a vibrant, positive, friendly community of people from all around the globe. Mostly men, but I can spot new women coming to this world, to this addiction that must be very well tamed.

I’m a consumerist and feel ashamed of that. If I allocated the money, I spend in those figures to help serious humanitarian causes I would be causing a positive impact on the world not only on myself. Well, that’s what I felt like to say after smoking half a joint. 

XM ON STGCC – INNOVATION FOR ELITE COLLECTORS

I have to take my hat off XM. They’ve put up the most impressive show. Better than Sideshow at SDCC and that’s saying a lot coming from an auto-proclaimed Sideshow fanboy. While Sideshow invested in portraits that are more realistic as the differential, XM truly innovated creating never before seen daring dioramas. Though there was plenty of average statues to the average collector (many very, very cool) the showstoppers were really geared towards top money collectors with plenty of space. Even though I believe, one of the best ones will be affordable to the average XM collector, the Hulk Transformation, a very inventive take on the hero, marvelously executed as Doctor Banner is detached from Hulk, making several ways of display possible. And they delivered one of the best Hulks sculptures I ever saw.

As I said, aside from Hulk Transformation the show wasn’t short of dioramas, some gigantic, all fantastically detailed and painted (a feature the XM highly praised QC will certainly deliver). I have no doubt that what was shown on the floor will be exactly like the piece you will receive at home. If they don’t improve it. XM seemed not to be afraid of alienate part of their customers from its more innovative – and massive – pieces. And there were several. Batman Shogun was one of them, a statue with a horse where the horse makes a big difference unlike Prime 1’s Wonder Woman on horse IMHO.

 The incredible Hulkbuster and its capacity to accommodate a 1/4 scale Iron Man coming out of him allowing for a variety of display options is impactful as well. And big.

The megastructure that is X-Men versus Sentinel diorama (which I don’t know why didn’t impress me as much as the ambition of such project) but is sure to please the deep-pocketed fans.

Finally, the diorama that stole the show due to its concise (so to say) size and surprising harmony of design: Batman Sanity. To display so many characters at once in such a constricted space and with elegance was no small feat. To me, the best sculpture ever released by XM. The only piece that I would truly own from the company, even though I know I will never have the means to. Because I can’t. I’m the average collector. And I know many won’t either. Affordability and displayability don’t seem to be a concern of XM as they sure are to Sideshow (a quality that I like about SS).

XM set or create a new standard with their dioramas. I don’t know where they go from here, how the industry and the collectors will react to what they shared. But I believe was the best expo I ever saw in my collector's life. There was something for everybody, everything impressive. Almost everything, I disliked the Red Hulk (just plain ugly, especially on the back) and the 1/3 Captain America failed to impress me (even though I love how the scales on the uniform turn feather-like in the shoulders of the statue). I still think that regarding portraits, Sideshow tops XM but only in this aspect (apart from being easily available and more affordable in the US where my brother lives). This show may be a game changer to the industry, especially if XM manage to sellout these crazy dios, which I’m certain they will. Hobby is about to get even more expensive I guess (albeit I thought the prices to be reasonable for what one will get, which isn’t the case with Prime 1 insane pricing and sometimes with my beloved Sideshow). 

Wanna see Sideshow top this base on their upcoming Juggernaut.