Sideshow premium format AP

[Frooster]

Hello all I was looking to buy a statue but I see the seller has it listed as artist proof. I'm new to sideshow statues and have not heard of this AP. Would this worth buying since it's not numbered. Also would the value be less too?

[Mister H]

AP means little to nothing. Artist’s Proof. Some fellas dig it though.

[VS1976]

PCS had been handling them out as it was nothing. I’m more inclined these are extra replacement statues that are left over and needed to be sold. Putting an AP would be the easiest way to do it.

[mmk123]

an AP is kind of cool to have and I have sold a few AP statues for a little higher price because it was an AP but I would say that they are not worth paying the extra money for unless it is the the only one you can get and there are no others available.

[IcedDog]

Artist proofs are well known in the art print world, but I didn't realize there were APs for statues. There's the prototype of course, and paint masters are made for the factory, correct?

[Frooster]

Thank you guys for the information. It's good to know that it will have the same value if not more than a numbered version. I went ahead and purchased it, will update when I receive it.

[Frankierock]

I have had a couple of SSC AP statues before. If I’m not mistaken I think this is the Statue that the factory’s go off so they see how the Regular ones are painted. So you may get a cleaner paint job overall. Plus it’s a very low run of AP’s. But as far as value it should not be that much higher than the regular version unless it’s signed off by an artist on the base.
I’m not 100% sure if some companies use this tactic as marketing for there leftovers as mentioned above, I do know that Sideshow didn’t do that when I got mine, due to the fact I got 2 AP statues from them a month or two earlier then the normal release window. But that was a long time ago so who really knows now.

[dechirico7]

APs are usually production pieces that companies have made for VIP. I don't think they vary in quality, just an incentive they have for those involved, like the artists etc. They are also limited, not many are made. They are not considered part of the main production ES.

[dao2]

It depends.

If it's a PCS piece it essentially means nothing, the cards were signed by Jerry I believe but otherwise it is exactly the same statue.

I'm not aware of Sideshow making APs available to normal customers in the last few years and I am unsure if they do this however often licensors will require a number of the product for promotional and such purposes, these could have been labelled AP. They are also generally functionally no different than a production piece other then being available before general release. For example I saw a chronicle terminator head at a theater near me once before it was released.

Now for some very old sideshow pieces there are actually some artist samples/proofs released out in the wild. These are actual production samples send to SS from the factory during production. They can have paint differences and especially material differences. The couple I've seen (and the one I own) have superior paint to production pieces but might also not have some paint changes that were done to a production piece. There aren't a ton of these though and I'm not even sure if they've included these in their charity auctions for the last few years (off the top of my head it was just old and rare pieces but I didn't pay that much attention to their more recent auctions).

There may also be replacement statues labelled AP, but I have not seen one so I am unsure.

[Tbolt]

There was an artist that used to work for SS, maybe Olaf Hartvigson that was selling off SS AP pieces awhile back, so, yeah, I’m assuming those on a project at least back in the day probably all got one, same as when they send them to the actor they license. I got an AP from someone in Hollywood but the seller wouldn’t tell me who. Wasn’t signed or anything and just seems like a regular run piece marked AP to me.