FIGURE PAINTING VS. SUN – POP CULTURE SHOCK ANSWERS

I’ve always been worried about my statues get sunlight, then, through the miraculous world of cyberspace, I had the chance to ask directly to the manufacturer about the eternal dilemma: figure painting vs. Sun. Here’s the answer:

My take to this answer is that indirect sunlight exposure will not damage the painting, and if does it will take several years to do so. My collecting room (which happens to be my bedroom) has one window. So as long as I keep my figures away from the window I won’t have to worry about discoloration. What are your thoughts about the matter? 

I GUESS I JUST LOVE POLYSTONE

Still unique

When you think your statue is one of a kind limited edition and then you see the assembling line one has to think all that harder to keep that frame of mind. But regardless the number of copies, yours is unique. Mine feel unique despite this image because it’s still a human process. And humans tend to even slightly vary the stroke of paint or the intensity of a shadowing work or whatever. (But not that much because that’s a standard set and one can’t deviate from this.) I look at my Sideshow Daredevil and it seems unique to me even though once he was on a huge table with a thousand like him. This one is mine and it’s numbered, and is sold out, hence limited. But seeing that image above steals a bit of the glamour of uniqueness from the figure. 

To be extremely honest and contradictory it doesn't steal that much because the assembling space looks so artisanal that you feel differently from what you would if you were seeing a mass market product assembling line. I like the artisanal aspect of our hobby, it’s what, besides the quality of the end product, separates a limited edition collectible from a Walmart toy. This and the weight of polystone. Yes the weight of polystone has a great deal of giving the statue it’s value and uniqueness. Yes, I guess I just love polystone.

INFLATING PRICES

I could cost $100 less. If  I was launched a year ago.

One thing that annoys me as much as scares me is how quick the prices of figures are increasing. Even figures with huge editions of 2500 units are hitting the $500 benchmark. I know collectible figures are a growing expanding market but this inflation of the prices will scare away lots of potential costumers both veterans (in a lesser degree) as newcomers (much strongly). I’m somewhere in between these two extremes and I confess that I had to decrease the number of statues I buy per year from three to two. This year I’ll order only one because I can’t afford to lose the statue (is the new Deadpool PF from Sideshow) and because I’m saving to reform my bedroom so I can expose my humble collection. Even if I wasn’t save money I wouldn't be able to buy three, four figures per year anymore for the single reason they became too expensive to me. I’m not a rich guy and collecting these figures never was a cheap hobby but now it’s becoming ridiculously expensive. Take the new Master of Universe Sideshow line per example: He-Man came out for $400. Skeletor and Evil-lyn a couple of months later came out for $450 and $440 respectively. It’s a huge inflation. Or the Dark Phoenix with an edition of 2500 pieces for $ 500. I believe that if it were just one year ago the same Dark Phoenix would cost no higher than $400.00. It’s becoming unbearable to me. I had to give up of Ralph McQuarrie’s Boba Fett, lose 42 bucks NRD in order to guarantee my Dark Phoenix. If things goes this way, by the end of the year a PF figure will cost 700-800 dollars and I won’t be able to buy anymore statues. I’m on my toes about the Deadpool statue, I hope it comes in the line between 450-500 bucks, otherwise I’ll simply cannot afford it what would be very frustrating since I love the character and I think the statue is turning out very well. Maybe I’m being delusional here and the prices are not growing but I’m pretty sure they are when inflation in US is almost zero. I would like to know your opinions. The only way to stop this is when the sales start to decrease abruptly due to the high costs of the pieces. Then they will rethink their marketing strategy or lose all the medium to low budget costumers like me. The worst part is as this is a piece of “art” there’s no way to regulate the prices, only the powers of demand and offering. It’s a pity to alienate this great part of the public that save every penny to buy a new shinny figure of their beloved character but that’s exactly what’s happening and will happen even faster, the faster they raise the prices.

Addendum July 7 2016:

Why is the figure of the left 450 cheaper than the one on the right? Two words: studios' extortion.

The most crying example for the argument of this post came out this week: the Voltron Statue from Sideshow Collectibles. About the same size and as nearly detailed as the Galactus Legendary Scale statue from the very Sideshow Collectibles, it will be launched by astounding $ 1,250.00 whereas Galactus, a couple of years ago, was priced $ 799.99. Given the size and detail, the two should be priced around the same plateau (even though I think Galactus is a much cooler and detailed piece) but look what happened in a couple of years: two products of the same league, so to say, have over 50% raise in the price while US inflation doesn’t get nowhere near as that or the country would be in total jeopardy. This is the studio stretching the line to see until we’re going to pay for one figure from them. It’s outrageous and I hope the line snaps soon. Even though I believe it unfortunately won’t. There’s too many rich people that really dig this hobby.  And then again the low budget collector won’t be able to get a Voltron he/she always dreamt about home. Shame on you Sideshow and on all the other studios doing the same price practice.

A LESSON ON CREATIVE DARING STATUE POSING

I don’t know who the character Hatsune Miku is. Apparently she’s a singer, a popstar of something along these lines. I don’t know if she is from an anime or manga. Yes, she is Japanese. And yes I bought a figure of her. Not, of course, because I’m a fan of Miku but for the incredible pose of the statue. She is “performing” some kind of contorting dance, that resembles something tribal, primal, with her curling fingers like she is in some kind of trance. Yes it is a static statue but oh, with so much movement you almost can imagine her performing the strange dance. Did I mention the two pigtails with extremely long hair, also full of movement? Yes from the point of the finger to the point of the hair this figure is all movement. And I don’t know how the Japanese does this, the anatomy is perfect, even though in a Japanese proportionality way (in this case no so distorted as is common on anime figures, but very near real human proportions). There’s nothing out of place as it happens with almost every Sideshow figure, per example, every time they try a more creative pose. I don’t know who was the daring Japanese that allowed a figure in such strange pose go into production but I owe him/her thanks because it is simply the best more daring pose I’ve seen in a figure so far in my life. A true lesson that thinking out of the box can yield astonishing results. That’s why I’m so excited about the new Deadpool PF from Sideshow. From the early preview, besides the extremely detailed outfit and overall model, was the daring and full of movement pose that caught my eye. And (again) from this early half body image preview it looks like that this time anatomy proportionality is ok. Which makes me very happy and gives me faith that Sideshow will invest in more inventive poses for their new statues. Miku dancing figure showed that you can achieve stunning results when you move away from the formulaic an expected path and goes to new unexpected ventures. A lesson other studios, not only Sideshow could take advantage of. To be honest I don’t think Sideshow is the worst case, they occasionally try something new and they always try to give movement to its creations. To me the worst case is Prime 1 Studios. Every male character they launch appears to be in the same position or with little to no movement whatsoever. I know it sells because it seems so very cool Batman all erect standing in such imposing and static pose. But, come one, it’s time to shake thinks a bit, make him jump, crouch, run at least (all this poses have been explored by Sideshow I have to admit) but I think is too much for Prime 1 guys. And they’re Japanese, the same land that conjured dancing Miku. Such an irony. Or should I say agony? Well, Prime 1 doesn’t bother me too much; I don’t like their bulky modelling style and I don’t have the bucks to pay or space to display so gigantic pieces.

My point with the dancing Miku post in short is: don’t be afraid to dare. Be it on the poses, the expressions, the materials, I don’t know. Don’t be afraid of doing differently. Miku figure went sold out in less than a week on Tokyo Otaku Mode where I've ordered her. People like different approaches, things out of ordinary, things extraordinary. Go after this. And you’re going very well.


Addendum: I've researched a little bit further and the Hatsune figure dancing is based on the art of a famous Asiatic artist named mebae (hence the name of the figure being Hatsune Miku: mebae Ver.). Here are what I believe to be the base illustration for the figure. That's a good reason for such a daring pose: a daring concept artist that wanted to do something different with the character he was maybe commissioned to illustrate. And then again congratulations to Max Factory for embracing the concept so faithfully. On a side note this figure has been restocked on Tokio Otaku Mode in case you got interested on her.