HOW IT FEELS TO BE BANNED :(

I am feeling really bad by being banned from a group of fellow collectors (I rather not to mention the group). They banned me for posting a affiliated link. I know, my bad. Should know the rule. Was stupid. But I am even sadder because they doubted I was indeed a collector. So I’m here to tell the two reasons because I don’t post pictures of my collection. First, most part of it is in my brother’s house who lives in US and from where he brings me one statue every time he comes to visit us here in Brazil (when he can bring one at all). Second, because my room is not prepared to display my statues, so I keep them in the boxes.

I don’t collect solemnly resin statues. Most of my collection is comprised of PVC figures, especially Evangelion, but not limited to that. I like Saber from Fate and Chun Li and other videogame characters. Since maybe more people don’t believe I collect I will enumerate the resin figures I have in Brazil and US and on PO.

BRAZIL:

- SS Daredevil;

- SS Captain America Allied Charge On Hydra (regular);

- SS He-Man (exclusive);

- Bowen Silver Surfer faux bronze;

- Bowen Man-Thing;

- Bowen Spider Man (museum);

- Diamond Selects The Thing;

- Gentle Giant Babydoll (artist proof);

- Beast Mode Wolverine (custom).

I don’t know if it counts but I have a 1/4 Rei by Volks hand painted. Have two other hand painted pieces and one Asuka on bike in the works by Yeti Art. Not to mention all the PVC girls.

US:

- SS Captain Marvel (regular, unfortunately);

- SS Boba Fett Ralph McQuerrie (exclusive);

- SS The Thing (movie maquette);

- Bowen Symbiont Spider-Man (museum);

- Silver Surfer chromed (kit from Phillipines).

- Zombee ZTC-Cat Woman (not the super-hero but a woman dressed like a cat)

I don’t know if counts too but I have a Hot Toys Jack Nicholson Joker apart several other PVC figures and three Black & White Batmans (only zombie Batman is in Brazil, I guess)

POs:

- SS Killer Croc (exclusive);

- SS Malavestros (exclusive);

- SS Hulk life-size bust;  

- Project Triforce Goliath (waiting forever for this one).

In a nutshell this is my humble collection. I know I don’t have any grails, no XM or Prime 1 but I’m quite happy with what I have. I may be forgetting some statue that’s on US but it’s pretty much it. I’m not ashamed that most of my collection is comprised of PVC pieces. I happen to like them and afford them, plus they’re beautiful and sexy. Sorry for the bad pics, my cell phone is old and I’m a terrible photographer.

It hurts when people doubt you. So I felt like I needed to share part of my collection with you. One day, maybe next year I’ll do a reform in my room so it can accommodate my collection properly. Once it’s finished I’ll do another post I hope with better pictures that these ones. Maybe with a couple more statues from US. In the meantime, I’ll write about the figures that grab my attention even if I don’t have the money to afford them. I’m pretty forked now that I ordered the Hulk bust but was a character I needed in my collection and I think the bust is quite fabulous. I just don’t know how the heck I’ll bring it to Brazil, since I guess the box will be bigger than allowed to go as luggage on an international flight. But that’s a problem to the future. Now I’ll have to learn to live without access to one of my most beloved collectors group. I made a mistake but was accused of so many things (especially of being a false collector) that I feel a bit heartbroken. But so is life with ups and downs. You don’t know how much these groups are important to me. I’m a retired guy, who has as hobbies to write a blog about figures (and one about my life, in Portuguese), collect figures and visit these vibrant Facebook communities. I left my home, my room, very sporadically. I guess it’s one of the effects of bipolar disorder, I’m becoming increasingly antisocial. But, that is okay because I’m happy where I am and with what I have. Sorry for this outflow, is that my soul is a bit heavy due to the denial. Denial isn’t a good thing to receive and takes a while to settle down in one’s mind. On the bright side you got to know my collection. I know it’s not much but it took me almost a decade to amass it. Now I’ll take a looong brake until my next statue. I need to save for my room’s reform as well as pay this three POs I have left. I’ll maybe loose the opportunity of getting the new SS Magneto, but, let me tell you: I’m not really excited about it at all. I’ll write my impressions when SDCC comes. I’ll finish this post here. Until then, folks! Best wishes and happy collecting.   

P.S.: sorry for the terrible English but I’m a self-taught English speaker and not a good one at that.

P.S.2: just out of curiosity to prove I didn't born to be a grail guy, here are some pieces I've sold:

- Bowen Jocasta Chromed Version (n° 8 of 25)
- SS Deadpool with chicken
- F4F Samus Varia Suit (first version)
- F4F Skull Kid (first version)
- SS Hulk Avengers (first edition)
- Bowen Gladiator Hulk 
Yes I regret I've sold them. Very. Much. 

PRIME 1 MAKING 1/4 FIGURES?! TROUBLE AHEAD, SIDESHOW AND XM (AND ALL THE OTHERS)!

Times they a' changin’ to Sideshow and XM since no other less than Prime 1 Studios will enter the 1/4 market and what's more important with DC and Marvel licenses. Below, the image of the new 1/4 Superman statue study from Prime 1.

In my humble opinion, pretty cool, perfect digital sculpting, nice outfit but, as everything Prime 1 does it lacks personality, soul, life even though it was made in partnership with Sideshow (as I heard it was). Though, if these pieces heritage the same production quality of their big brothers, Sideshow and XM (and all quarter scale manufacturers for that matter) will be in big trouble and will need to raise their production quality a lot so they can stand a chance against this new though adversary on the 1/4 arena. Who wins is the collector because more competition means price wars, overall improvement in the quality of the products and other details as consumer service, rewards etc. I believe that if this line of Prime 1 products be launched at SDCC it will steal the show, not only because of the quality intrinsic to the figures but for the relevance and impact it will have on the market. Especially if the prices are akin to Sideshow's.

Besides being a Sideshow fanboy I must admit I’m very glad and very excited to see Prime 1 Marvel and DC 1/4 scale statues officially announced. I think it is the launch I'm looking for the most at SDCC. This will only enrich the market as we're bound to watch from the better possible place a clash of titans to see who makes the better statues for the better price. Times they are a' changin’ for the best. Sideshow and all others will have a hard time trying to match Prime 1’s quality control and attention to detail but they'll certainly try (or they'll languish) which means good news to all of us. I can't hardly wait for the fight to begin.

I must admit the Green Lantern pose is pretty cool. Congrats, Prime 1

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.

SIDESHOW VS THE OTHERS

I begin to understand why Sideshow Collectibles is the actual Darling of polystone figures on the Market. No other studio has the quality of finishing in casting and painting as Sideshow, besides creative modelling. Prime 1 Studios, is a good contender but doing such gigantic pieces it gets easier to do a good finishing. Although, for my taste, Prime 1 Studios creations are overall too “bulky”. Even the recent Harley Queen. I imagine if they get to do a Hulk statue. I bet it would weight 400 lbs and looks like the Michelin mascot painted green! Hahahaha.

Too bulky for my taste. And too big too.

I was very excited with Tweeterhead’s Batman & Robin 1966 series version but I saw a buyer picture of Batman and the finishing of the leg looked like cement not to mention the painting of the cheeks. I big disappointment, mine go straight to eBay without even open to see the pieces up close.

Look at Batman's arm finishing

Another disappointment was with Project Triforce Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Collector’s Edition statue. I looked awesome on the promotional pics. I still think the concept of the piece phenomenal; instead of going the easy way and put Faith on a gravity defying badass pose jumping from some building, they chose to synthetize the story of her life in a diorama which shows a sad little Faith girl on one end and the actual freedom fighter she became on the other end separated by a cracked glass. Very emotional and out of the box design. Bet it used in game 3D models to build the figure. Everything looked perfect, so perfect in fact that I ordered one at Triforce (I liked the first Mirror’s Edge very much). But then I saw some fan pics took from some fair and the painting job is just lame. Gone were the mat tones from the promo pics since all the blacks and reds of the finished product are shiny, glossy, ugly. Besides this the painting finishing looked sloppy. Another one that goes sealed to eBay. I’m on my toes about the Evolve’s Goliath I’ve pre-ordered last year and will come in October, if everything goes fine with the production (as they haven’t gone until now). At least the Goliath is all shades of grey and is a huge piece there isn’t much room to painting ruining this one so I hope I’ll get a stunning massive monster for my collection. So no glossy shades of grey on the Goliath pretty please Triforce!

 

The promotional image

The real deal

I’m not saying Sideshow is perfect. (Hot Toys is perfect but I don’t like action figures). Far from that. But Sideshow is evolving very fast and things I didn’t like about their figures are changing. First of all the face of female characters. Apart from one Red Sonja figure, I never liked any female face Sideshow did… until Batgirl, Captain Marvel and principally Dark Phoenix arrived. Before them all faces looked the same, now they’re trying to give each female figure a different yet beautiful face and it is working very fine to me now. I’ve preordered Dark Phoenix solemnly because of her face. It’s so beautiful yet so normal it looks somebody you know or could cross on the street. Even though I hate transparencies effects on my statues I accepted that PVC fire “phoenix” (so ugly and mediocre, an excuse to make her fluctuating) just to have that face.

This face... oh, this face...

The girls’ faces is a big evolution to Sideshow. They’re getting more creative on the poses as well. Not all, I must admit. The Masters of Universe series (both He-Man and Skeletor are five stars to me) poses are improved copies Pop Shock Culture He-Man Show statues, even the bases are similar. But the new Deadpool has a hell of a cool pose I’ve never seen before. So slowly Sideshow is moving away from improving poses from older studios and creating their own. Of course Deadpool is a character that gives the sculptor a lot of freedom but so is Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Panther and all these acrobatic heroes. Hope to see more creative poses from Sideshow, even though I must admit no studio I know take risks with poses. They all go for the cool heroic pose. After all you cannot take many risks when a limited edition piece is so expensive.

Looks promising...

Talking about pricing, one more thing about Sideshow and all the others collectible figures studios. I know it is a fast growing business but you shouldn’t have fast growing prices of your figures this way. It’s absurd a figure with a 2500 copies edition to cost $500. Of course with such a huge quantities of figures produced the costs are watered down, instead of growing. But I believe things will slowly change as more and more quality players enter the ring. Iron Studios from Brazil is one of the newcomers and the quality of their productions is improving fast. I wouldn’t mention but one of the more expensive and worst studios out there is First4Figures (with rare exceptions). They are much better than at the start, but they have a lot of ground to cover if they want to survive beyond their Nintendo exclusivity license.

Meh.

So besides its flaws Sideshow is a studio I - and I believe all collectors - grown to love and trust. It’s not too heretic to say it’s the new Bowen Studios when the subject is polystone images in terms of dominance and fame. Hot Toys dominates with all merits the realm of sixth scale articulated figures. And PVC figures is the business of Japanese, they’re master in anime PVC figures and I love to see what they’re doing with Western-side statues like that Harley Queen seated on a ball from Kotobukyia (if I’m not mistaken) that is simply the most beautiful Harley Queen figure I’ve ever saw (and I saw a lot). I ordered the black & white limited edition of this figure to go along with my b&w Batman figures and am completely in love with her.

Hot!

Well that’s enough for a first post. I would like to hear your comments.