I was asked
to write an article commenting the SDCC, even though I’m miles away from there.
My font of reference was the internet, mainly Facebook groups – a great source
of information –. There were so many statues, action figures and whatnot that
if I would cover every picture I saw I would be writing here ‘till the next
SDCC. So I decided to focus only on statues, specifically the ones that caught
more my attention. It’s a highly subjective article so fell free to criticize
and comment.
First, if
there was a character that defined this edition of the San Diego Comic Con it was
Batman. Greatly because Prime 1 Studios brought 4 or 5 versions of the hero to
the show and Sideshow brought three more (not to mention other companies).
Second he was the one to get the most characters of his universe launched by
the big companies.
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| The show was his (or theirs) |
The things
I was super excited to see (Prime 1 doing 1/4 scale figures and Sideshow
Deadpool PF) were big letdowns for me. But I’ll get into it at the right time.
Let’s begin with the Batman avalanche that assaulted Comic Con.
The Dark
Knight that caused more hype was exactly Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns
statue from Prime 1. As all Batmans from the company, this piece also has 1/3 but
for a refresh it isn’t in a museum pose (even though it’s a not so cool pose). Altogether
is a pretty cool piece and the sculpt was based – as the base and the bruises
suggest – on Batman after the fight with the leader of the Mutants gang from
DKR. I like the statue very much apart from one little big detail: his face is so
deformed on one side by the bruises that it is difficult to make sense of what his
face really looks like. I just hope they launch it with a second unbruised (or
less hurt) head that resembles Frank Miller’s rendition of the hero.
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| Strange pose, strange face, huge hype. This came out of nowhere. |
But for me,
the greatest Batman of them all was also from Prime 1: Batman Beyond. I became
a bit disappointed because it wasn’t bluer as on the preview images. It ended
up black and gray which is much less cool than the bluer of the yester version.
Nonetheless the level of details of this piece is nothing short of amazing and
the size helps a lot in cause an impact. It’s on museum pose, which I don’t
like much, but in this case fits the character perfectly making him extremely
imposing. I’d never seen this Batman before because I stop reading comics
around mid 1990’s and I have a PS3, therefore never played Arkham Knight game,
but it’s an extremely creative take on Batman; it looks like a cyborg Batman of
sorts. I don’t know, I just wished it stayed bluish.
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| Oh, if he was bluish like the preview it would be so much cooler... |
I’ve
changed my mind about the best Batman of the show! I completely forgot the
coolest Batman of them all. I don’t know who’s producing this but King Batman
is an absolute masterpiece. You see that it’s a labor of love, every single part
of it painstakingly detailed and painted and he has this huge spread bat wing
severed by battle that is freaking cool. It’s an incredibly impacting figure,
violent and vicious, barbarian figure. It’s another Batman version I’ve never
seen before. And one I won’t forget. It’s a pity I don’t have money or space to
display it as the wing seems to be really big and the price should be as big as
the wing.
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| Visceral |
There were
yet another curious Batman lurking away from the spotlight that grabbed the
attention of some fans. Entitled Batman Red Rain it’s a dark exquisite
rendition of Batman that certainly will please fans with a more artistic vision.
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| Dark gray and orange and very weird. Sure to capture the attention of artsy guys/gals. |
Still on
the Batman universe, there were several of partners and villains of the cape
crusader on the show floor. Sideshow Bane caused much hype among the fans
(obfuscating even Prime 1 Deathstroke) while I preferred Killer Croc from
Sideshow and Two-Face from Prime 1. Sideshow also brought women companions for
Batman, as Black Canary, Catwoman, Huntress and Cheetah. Of all the DC girls I
would stay with Black Canary with her pinup pose and sexy expression. A prove
that sideshow is really improving in doing women’s faces and expressions. None
of the DC girls, to my taste, were match to the Marvel’s female team headed by
Dark Phoenix and Captain Marvel.
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| Just like the comics. Just like the fans love and hype! |
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| Cooler than Bane in my humble opinion. You can hate me now. |
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| DC babies. |
Speaking of
Marvel I had my greatest disappointment of all time with Sideshow Collectibles
when I saw the completed figure of their new PF Deadpool. It was like “take the
cool, sleek, preview image we’re been teasing for months on our site and turn
into a ridiculous carnival”. And so they did. Made an horrible base, simulating
apparently the beginning of an explosion, Deadpool dodging a missile, a bullet
in slow-motion coming out of the gun and the katana cutting a grenade in half.
With that horrid translucent material all over it. I couldn’t believe my eyes
when I saw what they did to my most eagerly awaited figure of all time. I
thought by that preview picture that nothing could possibly go wrong with this statue. I couldn’t be more mistaken. Every part of the figure that was not
shown turned out a big mess. I know the Deadpool spirit is to be a bit
ridiculous but make a ridiculous statue due to that. C’mon... Well, on the
bright side, I don’t have the money to buy it anyway because I bet with all
this bells and whistles they put and the hype over the figure it will cost
around $600.00. And even if I had 10,000.00 I wouldn’t buy this ridiculous
piece of junk Sideshow made of a fantastic Deadpool sculpt. I wish all that trash
was removable, one could put if one wanted and if one – me – doesn’t want,
throw it all on the garbage. If it was like this, I could think about buying it
even if with that overly ugly base. Oh, I put all my frustration out. Feel so
relieved now. At least Sideshow was bold enough in turning a thing of beauty in
something pathetic just to follow the more humorous facet of the character…
clap, clap, clap… Wanna know who designed that. Very curious to know. Oh, and don't get me wrong, I loved the movie! Saw it twice!
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| Exploding (I guess) floor, cut grenade, missile, slow-motion bullet? Take all that off and I'll take the figure. |
On the
Marvel front, beyond Dead-bleargh-pool the great novelty was the Hulk vs.
Wolverine diorama. That came out of nowhere and looked cooler than I thought.
It’s not my type of statue but it has it’s presence. Wolverine is top notch,
Hulk not so much. As Hulk is the biggest part of the diorama it’s a no go to
me. I prefer to save money to buy the Hulk of the Hulks, the old Sideshow
Incredible Hulk PF…
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| Good Wolverine, strange Hulk, the worst possible way. Ok, I'll pass. |
Like I said
on the girls front, Marvel goes very well. Besides already cited Captain Marvel
and Dark Phoenix, Marvel counts with Gamora and Angela (the last being a bit
without personality, between her and Black Canary I think I would pick the DC
character).
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| Marvel gals (missing: Dark Phoenix) |
Beyond this
what really caught my attention on Sideshow booth were the animals (and vegetal) available there. First, the reinvention of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that looks simply stunning, the way the turtles
always meant to be.
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should look like this since the beginning! Cowabunga! Spot on. |
Second but
no less important are Rocket and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. They look
absolutely fabulous and Groot is really big and awesome. They seem, as Gamora
more based on the comics than in the movies and I like that. I like that
overall on Sideshow. Generally the create their own vision of the character but
always based on the comics. Of course always appears a PF from Avengers or
Captain America flicks here and there but the majority is based on comics.
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| Comics fidelity. Nice. Very Nice indeed. |
Another
statue that generated much hype was Sideshow Predator from the first movie. I
particularly don’t collect statues from movies, but the fans was crazy about
it. It’ll be a best seller no matter what price they put on it. (What is bad
for the industry and when I say industry I say my wallet.) Cinemaquette (or ECC
I never knew the difference) had their own version of the Predator which may
cost a small fortune. I’ll put them side by side so you can compare both, remembering
nobody know if sideshow exclusive for this Predator is the head without helmet
or not (but one can’t imagine any other exclusive item for this piece)
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| Sideshow or Cinemaquette (ECC). You or your pocket decides. |
Oh, the
entering of Prime 1 on the 1/4 market was a thing I thought would come to raise
the level of this segment of statues but their fourth scale Superman from
League 52 is just meh. The skin has Prime 1 special finish is there, the
details are not as detailed as their 1/3 counterparts and the glossy finish
that suits well the big third scale boys because mixes and balances with lots
of opaque parts does not work very well on the Superman. For now, there’s
nothing Sideshow or XM should worry about. But I still believe is just for now.
Once Prime 1 gets the hang of the thing the 1/4 market will never be the same.
By talking about changes in the market, in my interview with Randy Bowen he
hinted he would or could make a partnership with one of the companies from the
market. May we hear something about it on Comic Con? I can’t hardly wait and
hope so. I wish it was with Sideshow because of ancient distribution
partnerships that happened between the two companies. But one never knows.
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| Perfectly uninspired. |
I’m not on
action figures and I said I wouldn’t comment about it here but must I confess I
saw two pictures of the golden Stormtrooper that got me drooling.
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| Oh, so shiny... so pretty... |
Another one
that had the same effect was Gremlin’s Gizmo going Rambo. The details of the
figure are amazing you can swear the finger are real, not to mention the cute
face with those two big lively eyes and the ooze dead gremlin behind him. If
the figure comes with it (the dead gremlin) I would seriously consider save
money to buy it.
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| Marvelous! |
There were the
Darth Vader invasion also at SDCC. He was there in all possible sizes, the
bigger the Vader the more statue-like the pose. 1:6, Premium Format, Legendary
Scale and 1:1 versions were available depending on the size of your pockets. I
was astonished that there were 3 Star Wars 1:1 available: the aforementioned
Vader, Boba Fett and a Stormtrooper. Looks like Star Wars fans houses tend to me
more spacious than that of most other collectors. I didn’t see any Darth Vader with
an alternative head without helmet but they weren’t showing the pieces with
their respective exclusives, so there’s still hope.
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| I forgot to mention the 1:1 bust. Sorry, too many Vaders to remember. |
Last but
not least, there was the release of Court of the Dead jester Malavestros. I
knew this was coming because every time a CotD character gets the spotlight is
because a statue is coming and with the jester was no different. What I couldn’t
preview was the incredible statue it turned out to be. I couldn’t care less for
Court of the Dead but this statue entered on my most wanted list. The effect of
the magic he is doing is not short of astonishingly whimsical. And the
character per se is just fantastically sculpted. Not to mention the base. The
color pallet of the figure is different from the dark tones from CotD
characters what gives it a fresh feel almost like it was painted with watercolor.
It’s the one figure that substituted my disappointment with Deadpool mess. A
show stealer, in my opinion. Would love to know who sculpted and who colored it.
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| Along with King Batman, Malavestros the statue that stole the show. |
Iron
Studios was the only one to bring Spider-Man to the floor as well as a Civil
War flick statue, Falcon (part of an enormous 1/4 diorama they will be launching
along this year and the next). It was the first appearance of the Brazilian
studio on a SDCC. Hope more to come.
And I didn’t
even mention the full return of Sideshow to terror movie characters with
nothing less than Jason, Freddy Kruger, Leatherface, and the woman from
Helraiser! I didn’t mention because I don’t collect horror figures but fans of
the genre got pretty excited by the news. I don’t collect busts too and there
were several the only one that grabbed my attention was the Cinemaquette Freddy
Kruger, very expressive and extremely similar to the movie character. Many didn’t
like the base but it resembled me the place where Kruger was burnt. And there
was the corridor in the middle with a silhouette of Kruger at the end. Pretty
awesome if you ask me. But I don’t talk about busts.
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| Sharp. |
Well there
were of course more figures, dozens more statues to comment but the post would
become too extensive for anybody to read. Therefore, I stayed with the ones I
thought most significant from what I saw on the net and finish remembering you
that it’s a highly subjective article and that you’re free to comment otherwise
and share your thoughts about whose figures stole the show. Thanks for reading
and if you interested on the people who actually make this pieces of pop
culture art I invite you to read a series of interviews I’m doing with key
people on the industry:
More interviews
to come after SDCC (I hope!).
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