Batman Premium Format (2024)

[Hobbyist]

For an American company like SSC doing Americana like Batman, one would think that they are in the best position and should be the best in the industry.

Unfortunately, it is not the case at all. The best Batman statues (comic style) currently come from P1, a Japanese company, and XM to some extent, a Singaporean company.

What is wrong with SSC, really?

[Phoenixblazes]

Originally Posted by Hobbyist

For an American company like SSC doing Americana like Batman, one would think that they are in the best position and should be the best in the industry.

Unfortunately, it is not the case at all. The best Batman statues (comic style) currently come from P1, a Japanese company, and XM to some extent, a Singaporean company.

What is wrong with SSC, really?

Because the US is the so called land of the free, and their artists are free to do whatever they want. And of course they think they know best. Both qualities of the American mindset.

Asian companies just care about one thing; making money.

Sideshow highly promotes their artists. Many collectors will buy a particular piece that they originally had no interest in otherwise, just because of the artist involved.

Whereas for Prime 1, most of the time, collectors could care less about the Statue Artist as Prime 1 don’t usually make a fuss about it as they just sell their pieces based on the IP and Comic Artist and more or less follow the source material.

Either option can work, but obviously Sideshow’s is more prone to critiques because of the many liberties they take with the source material. And many collectors, because of Sideshows position of being the more budget friendly supplier have no choice but to suck it up.

[Biggunz]

They should probably just cancel this. Hope it goes to waitlist already

[Hobbyist]

Originally Posted by Phoenixblazes

Because the US is the so called land of the free, and their artists are free to do whatever they want. And of course they think they know best. Both qualities of the American mindset.

Asian companies just care about one thing; making money.

Sideshow highly promotes their artists. Many collectors will buy a particular piece that they originally had no interest in otherwise, just because of the artist involved.

Whereas for Prime 1, most of the time, collectors could care less about the Statue Artist as Prime 1 don?t usually make a fuss about it as they just sell their pieces based on the IP and Comic Artist and more or less follow the source material.

Either option can work, but obviously Sideshow?s is more prone to critiques because of the many liberties they take with the source material. And many collectors, because of Sideshows position of being the more budget friendly supplier have no choice but to suck it up.

I tend to agree with you.

At SSC, the sculptors seem to be in charge for the most parts and they clearly have maximum artistic freedom to come up with their own interpretation of a given character, be it Batman or the other ones.

They rarely (never?) faithfully follow the artwork of any artists, say Alex Ross, for their statues. They take inspirations from various artists and try to mash them together and make it their own.

That's why it's always possible to see multiple influences on a single statue they have created. The headsculpt may look a bit like the work of this artist and the body may look a bit like the work the that artist.

The result could be great when it miraculously works out for them. When this approach is not working out, the statue would look more like a poor knock-off than a work of art, which seems to happen more often than they'd like.

With SSC, creating statues is an artistic endeavour of their sculptors and painters rather than a well planned, well controlled and well executed product development of the company.

It's great if a statue turns out to be a financial success. If not, the sculptor and painter would shoulder most of the blame. SSC, as a company, doesn't seem to have full control over the outcome.

Asian companies like Prime 1, XM, QS and IS, etc. seem to have a completely different approach. They really laser focus on giving what their customers want and trying hard to satisfy the demand.

That's why they are such big winners in the business. SSC was a mainstream hobby company decades ago before those Asian companies arrived to the scene. Now it is a just small potato on the sideline, it seems.

[Phoenixblazes]

Originally Posted by Hobbyist

I tend to agree with you.

At SSC, the sculptors seem to be in charge for the most parts and they clearly have maximum artistic freedom to come up with their own interpretation of a given character, be it Batman or the other ones.

They rarely (never?) faithfully follow the artwork of any artists, say Alex Ross, for their statues. They take inspirations from various artists and try to mash them together and make it their own.

That's why it's always possible to see multiple influences on a single statue they have created. The headsculpt may look a bit like the work of this artist and the body may look a bit like the work the that artist.

The result could be great when it miraculously works out for them. When this approach is not working out, the statue would look more like a poor knock-off than a work of art, which seems to happen more often than they'd like.

With SSC, creating statues is an artistic endeavour of their sculptors and painters rather than a well planned, well controlled and well executed product development of the company.

It's great if a statue turns out to be a financial success. If not, the sculptor and painter would shoulder most of the blame. SSC, as a company, doesn't seem to have full control over the outcome.

Asian companies like Prime 1, XM, QS and IS, etc. seem to have a completely different approach. They really laser focus on giving what their customers want and trying hard to satisfy the demand.

That's why they are such big winners in the business. SSC was a mainstream hobby company decades ago before those Asian companies arrived to the scene. Now it is a just small potato on the sideline, it seems.

If not for their control of licenses, their position would be even worse. But that combined with their more competitive pricing will always keep them in the game. For as much as people like to complain about pricing, they’re still vastly cheaper than their competition.


I preordered their new Wolverine which is maybe bigger than 1/3 scale for $820 USD retail. But at the same time I also preordered the Queen Studios 1/3 scale Hulk for $4,400 USD retail. And as I order from local Australian stores, their pricing can fluctuate up quite a bit from those retail costs for those non-Sideshow promoted pieces.

[Ink]

Originally Posted by Phoenixblazes

If not for their control of licenses, their position would be even worse. But that combined with their more competitive pricing will always keep them in the game. For as much as people like to complain about pricing, they?re still vastly cheaper than their competition.


I preordered their new Wolverine which is maybe bigger than 1/3 scale for $820 USD retail. But at the same time I also preordered the Queen Studios 1/3 scale Hulk for $4,400 USD retail. And as I order from local Australian stores, their pricing can fluctuate up quite a bit from those retail costs for those non-Sideshow promoted pieces.

Once Sideshow balked at taking out XM from the start, I knew they were done. They have zero desire to be at the top of the mountain

[moyiori]

Originally Posted by Phoenixblazes

Because the US is the so called land of the free, and their artists are free to do whatever they want. And of course they think they know best. Both qualities of the American mindset.

Asian companies just care about one thing; making money.

Sideshow highly promotes their artists. Many collectors will buy a particular piece that they originally had no interest in otherwise, just because of the artist involved.

Whereas for Prime 1, most of the time, collectors could care less about the Statue Artist as Prime 1 don?t usually make a fuss about it as they just sell their pieces based on the IP and Comic Artist and more or less follow the source material.

Either option can work, but obviously Sideshow?s is more prone to critiques because of the many liberties they take with the source material. And many collectors, because of Sideshows position of being the more budget friendly supplier have no choice but to suck it up.

Great post, but folks are also forgetting that marvel has there say in the final product yet thinking SS does it all and that's the final say so.

Ya some of SS liberties can be frustrating but also makes it so that a fair amount come out great. Ya everyone will have clunkers tho, like this one the portrait just doesn't work for me.

Just because something is comic based doesn't mean it will translate into a great looking statue. That and P1 has the same portrait on all Batman statues plus i won't do 1/4th, XM batman portraits are all average/passable at best, but the over all concepts take more risk on being bigger is suppose to be better.

I don't go with what's more budget friendly, I go with what I like the best, SS for the most part is what I prefer, cause the others eat your real estate like you own a mansion, and portraits win me over more than a big base.

[Tbolt]

The people that get off on hating on SSC are out in full force in this thread.

This piece isnt even that bad. Its also just one of many versions they have made of the character.

[c9y3r0]

Originally Posted by Phoenixblazes

Because the US is the so called land of the free, and their artists are free to do whatever they want. And of course they think they know best. Both qualities of the American mindset.

Asian companies just care about one thing; making money.

Sideshow highly promotes their artists. Many collectors will buy a particular piece that they originally had no interest in otherwise, just because of the artist involved.

Whereas for Prime 1, most of the time, collectors could care less about the Statue Artist as Prime 1 don?t usually make a fuss about it as they just sell their pieces based on the IP and Comic Artist and more or less follow the source material.

Either option can work, but obviously Sideshow?s is more prone to critiques because of the many liberties they take with the source material. And many collectors, because of Sideshows position of being the more budget friendly supplier have no choice but to suck it up.

I might be mistaken, but this isn't just about SSC...

[moyiori]

Originally Posted by Tbolt

The people that get off on hating on SSC are out in full force in this thread.

This piece isnt even that bad. Its also just one of many versions they have made of the character.

Ya I agree it isn't as bad as folks make it out to be on here.

Hating on SS is easy because they been around so long, and there 1/4th dominance. People like to doom on SS but they are still holding strong even with lower ES, but so is everyone else. SS still has there distribution to keep profit coming in, while the others don't.