Is The Hobby Dying?

[xforce]

Originally Posted by majestic1

Randy Bowen is widely regarded as one of the finest sculpters in the business and is the father of the comic book statue collectable industry.
By the way how many 15 year olds do you know who could afford to buy Bowen statues ?

Your trolling is getting more obvious with every post you make.

You said it all

[xforce]

Originally Posted by forps

Sideshow created this hobby....PERIOD. Bowen was producing "toys". NO WAY this hobby could get as popular as it is today with Bowen-style sculpts only. 80% of the collectors would stop buying anything with the rather chilidish sculpts of Bowen. Bowen "statues" are good when you are 15-20 years old. When you reach 40 years, NO WAYYYY....Sideshow gave the needed REALISM in the sculpts...Realism = JUSTIFICATION to buy something and be able to put it in your house without your wife/girlfriend/ friends freaking out.... The test was Skeletor from Sideshow vs Skeletor from PCS. 90% of collectors bought a Skeletor from Sideshow (1/5 scale) whereas at the same time they thought. NO WAY i will buy Skeletor from PCS, its toooooo "toyish"....Skeletor from Sideshow gave the chance to 90% of the collectors (35-40-50 years old) to buy a character from their childhood but with a more "modern" or better said, a "grown-up" look.

Skeletor from Sideshow looks like a "statue", PCS's looks like a "toy". This is the truth and this the reason why Sideshow sold out 2500 EXs and soon 4000 REGs. The usage of Stepan Sejic's art was an excellent move! It gave us the chance to buy something related with MOTU and simultaneously not oozing a "toy-vibe".

If all companies produced Bowen-style sculpts and used the Bowen-style paint schemes, the hobby would be 1/10 of what it is today. Sideshow GOT the true needs of collectors. Sculpts a bit more realistic rather than comic-goofy looking to be able to buy them when you over 15years-old and you have social life....

Simply as that. Sideshow gave realism, they gave us mixed media, they gave us 1/4, 1/2 etc scales, gave us a handful of licenses (not only Marvel or DC).

Sideshow created this hobby. PERIOD.

Back to the conversation, you should read my previous post. The hobby is going to stall and then go downwards in 1 year from now. The smaller "players" (XM, PCS, CC) should be ready and i advise them to cut some "slack" before the storm. Their licenses are too "poor" in a long-term basis (MK or SF for PCS and dino-related for CC) and they must find other "niche" markets. From the 3 smaller companies, PCS is better equipped, cause Jerry himself can sculpt muscular men and male anatomy like noone else on this planet. PCS should concetrate in that area.

ECC has zero problems (it allures the "elites") and Sideshow with Prime1 are clever enough to cooperate and obliterate the competition, they are not idiots to compete with each other till death...Cooperation is the key for them to dominate the market....

Is this literally the dumbest post ever?

Founded in 1992, Bowen Designs is a company dealing in the creation and sale of entertainment-based collectible statues

Sideshow was founded in 1993

I am over 40 and prefer my Bowens over sideshow most of the time. Bowens are comic accurate, everyone forgets these characters are COMIC BOOK characters.

I cant believe I was bated into responding to this obvious troll post but I HAVE to defend Bowen

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by forps

So you are all right and i am a troll, a jerk, an idiot? Ok. Lets see...(before i start, lets say thanks to god, Sideshow "listened" to forps or better said the market and gave us an ENORMOUS Thanos, full of details, with modern touch and realism and complicate paint schemes. Thank you god - if you exist! Thanks for making Sideshow following the "forps way").

Sideshow and Adam West Batman.It is the ONLY 1/4 Adam West Batman in statue form. Edition size ? 750 ONLY. Where are the buyers? Even the Arkham Knight variants from Prime1 sold 4-5000 pieces in 1/3 scale! The reason why a MARVELLOUS sculpt from Sideshow such as Adam West 1/4 didnt sell ? The costume looks GOOFY and OUTDATED. PERIOD. PERIOD. Attention! I have po'ed 1 for my 2nd mancave (my strictly personal mancave). But NO WAY this statue goes in my main mancave. Its toooooo goofy looking, its not appropriate for a man @ his 40-50es.

Skeletor Sideshow vs PCS Skeletor? 6500 vs 600 edition sizes?

Hot toys Batmobile 1966. It was teased 4 or 5 years ago? Hot toys is not releasing it, cause it got burned by the sales of the 1/6 figures. It is TOO outdated and goofy looking for our times guys.

The new Avengers line from Sideshow. Look @ Iron man or Captain America. Too bland, too comic-looking = A DISASTER for Sideshow. Sales and es around 500 !!!

Nostalgia is good, Bowen is good with their childish sculpts and paints, but with Prime1 killing it or ECC giving to the collectors realism, NOBODY is going to fork out 500dol or more for an OUTDATED sculpt or something lacking in details....Bowen was good for that time, but we have entered a new era.

The market "speaks" for itself, not forps, the jerk, the idiot, the troll....

(explain to me the POOR sales of all outdated statues or figures or why Hot toys is not releasing 1966 Batmobile or why Sideshow got destroyed with their new 1/5 Avengers line and then we can speak about Bowen.

From around 50 people i know collecting and they are collecting "hard" - multiple statues per month, only 6 or 7 of them have Bowens in their collections, this is around 12-14% of the market today. Another 10 or more had Bowens and sold them, once Sideshow got in the game or the new companies. They simple state to me, that NO WAY they are returning to Bowen and the "toy" looking stuff.

Sideshow created this hobby. If only Bowen produced stuff, NO WAY successful businessmen or other people outside of the hobby would buy Bowen-style "toys" to put in their homes having a SOCIAL LIFE.

Skeletor showed this in extreme. How people swarmed in order to buy something "grown-up" looking from MOTU. At last, something they could put in their homes and doesnt look 100% like a toy!

Adam West, Skeletor, Batmobile 1966 or the new Avengers line from Sideshow are some examples. Collectors nowadays want

1) Big sculpts
2) Complicate sculpts
3) MODERN looking-sculpts and portraits
4) Realism
5) Paint schemes more complicate than ever

Sorry guys, nostalgia is good, but Sideshow cant afford to listen to 10-20 people here. You-we are only 3% of their customer base. And their 97% customer base wants NO-bowen style statues. Simple as that.

Sorry guys. Forps is telling the truth and what the market looks like today, i know some of you love Bowen or simple sculpts but Sideshow, Prime1, ECC etc, should listen to the MAJORITY of their customer base, not 10-20 people in this forum. Now you can mock me as much as you like. I am not going to say anything bad for you, i love you all...You are fellow geeks!!)

If you honestly think Statueforum only represents 10-20 statue collectors...well, that number isn't even close to being accurate. If you understood statistical analysis, you would recognize that StatueForum's membership size offers one a large enough sample size, at least in regards to more serious statue collectors, to be able to infer quite a bit about the more serious collectors out there that aren't members of StatueForum. In other words, your severely downplaying the information that can be gathered from this forum and its members opinions.

What this forum doesn't give you is a good statistical analysis of the not so serious statue collectors out there or the ones that buy just a few statues here and there and then call it a day as most people who take the time to join StatueForum and partake in the discussions on a regular basis are going to be more serious about the hobby than your average joe statue collector or the collectors that just buy a few statues and call it a day. So this forum would not be a good source of information on those collectors as the sample size would just wind up being way to low.

Still, your severely underestimating the value of the information that can be gotten from boards like this as you think that information is only relevant to the people in here. That is not the case. 3% may not sound like much but that is actually a very nice sample size when it comes to statistical analysis and again that info can be used to infer quite a bit about the more serious statue collectors out there that are not members of StatueForum. So the opinions in here reflect a much larger portion of the market than your realizing. I can't give any specific figures as I don't know what percentage of the market is made up of serious collectors vs not so serious collectors, but I do know that there are a LOT of serious statue collectors out there that are not members of StatueForum (I know 2 myself) so again, I also know that the opinions in here reflect a much larger portion of the market than you think it does.

As for your opinion on what is or isn't acceptable for a "man cave", that is nothing more than subjective opinion. Nothing more and nothing less and there is no right or wrong when it comes to subjectivity. So just because you think its goofy to dispay an Adam West Batman does not make it so. That is just your opionion on the matter. I can just as easily say that it isn't goofy and my statement is just as credible as yours, regardless of the number of people that believe either side.

As for why the Adam West Batman hasn't sold well, or any other statue for that matter over the last year, that could easily be for lots of different reasons other than it being "goofy" to most people. The most relevant is the fact that it was released during a period where a CRAPLOAD of other amazing statues were released and people's priorities were for other statues. I guarantee had that Adaw West Batman been released 2 years ago, I would have ordered one in a heartbeat, but since I already had over 20 pre orders on the books, I couldn't afford to add him. Tweeterhead's Newmar Catwoman was from the same period and it sold very well.

The biggest problem with this post, and many of your other posts, is that you have a lot of opinions that you deem as facts. You think you have it all figured out, why particular statues aren't selling well, what the market wants or doesnt want, what is or isn't aceptable in a "man cave", etc. Their all just opinions, nothing more and nothing less. I have seen absolutely zero legitimate data to back up any of your claims. And to run around thinking your subjective opinions on matters are absolute facts is incredibly naive.

[forps]

OrangeCrush

You are probably the best regarding the hobby in this forum. But you are mistaken if you think that Sideshow could survive in the current market if it produced Bowen-style stuff. Sideshow would go under in 1 year at MOST.

All of you have not read my early post here where i explained the MAJOR change that happened in our hobby 6-7 years ago. This new breed of collectors hate - simply said- HATE something looking toooooooo toyish or goofy. If Sideshow produced a Thanos like the last Bowen-style from XM, it could sell at most 1000 pieces.This MODERN LOOKING, full of details, balanced between comic and movie-accurate Thanos is going to sell over 5000 pieces.

CASE CLOSED.

Adam West could not sell even as Lady Maria from Bloodborne, for gods sake. WAKE UP. I know at least 20 collectors who never even played a SINGLE VIDEO GAME in their life but po'ed Lady Maria DAY 1.

The market today wants

1) Big sculpts
2) Complicate sculpts
3) MODERN looking-sculpts and portraits
4) Realism
5) Paint schemes more complicate than ever


Check out the new Rambo from PCS vs the Cammy. Rambo will easily be a GRAIL whereas the new Cammy from PCS looks like a statue from the past, too goofy, too plain. It looks OUTDATED. It will sell (you know, a.s and females sell in this hobby) but in the aftermarket it will plummet. PCS 1/4 sales are bleeding

And OrangeCrush i have an Adam West po'ed but i will NEVER, NEVER exhibit him in my main man-cave. Sorry guys, it looks too goofy and outdated.

The current market with prices @ 600d or 700d or even 1000d is throwing the OLD collectors (the Bowen-maniacs or the collectors of 300d statues) out. The current market prices can be sustained only by the new breed of collectors. Successful businessmen with SOCIAL LIFE (we should stress this) who simply HATE the tooooooooo toyish vibe some "statues" have.

Nostalgia is good, but Sideshow would go bankrupt in 1 year if they listened to some guys here and not taken the "forps way"

Deathstroke was a DISASTER as well as Killer Croc (Killer Croc due to the puny height, Deathstroke is a plain, dull, OUTDATED statue). The new Thanos on throne is the way to go (the "forps way" or what the MARKET DESPERATELY WANTS).

Realism, big sculpts, plenty of details, modern scuplts, balance between comic accuracy and realism.

As far as the situation in the hobby goes, you should all read my FIRST post in this thread. I have said it all. Case closed.

10% ECC (the "elites"), 70+% of the market Sideshow + Prime1 and 20% at most for all the others ( XM, PCS, CC, EFX, HCG etc).

From the above companies, CC is in danger. The pool of dino-maniacs is going to dry soon, the quality isnt there, the QC of this company is poor.

XM should continue the Bowen-style and the ES around 500-600. It simply cant compete with Sideshow or Prime1 either talent-wise or financial-wise.

PCS should focus on Jerry's excellence when sculpting big muscular men. They should focus on his area of expertise. Their female sculpts are rather naive and plain looking (the king of female sculpts is Sideshow, no conversation here please), the MK license is simply dying, the SF license alone cant sustain PCS. Rambo or Akuma 1/3 is the way to go for Jerry and his team. Jerry and Martin Canale. The 2 best sculptors of male anatomy worldwide. PERIOD.

[SONICobra]

[majestic1]

[Josh-a-tron]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

If you honestly think Statueforum only represents 10-20 statue collectors...well, that number isn't even close to being accurate. If you understood statistical analysis, you would recognize that StatueForum's membership size offers one a large enough sample size, at least in regards to more serious statue collectors, to be able to infer quite a bit about the more serious collectors out there that aren't members of StatueForum. In other words, your severely downplaying the information that can be gathered from this forum and its members opinions.

What this forum doesn't give you is a good statistical analysis of the not so serious statue collectors out there or the ones that buy just a few statues here and there and then call it a day as most people who take the time to join StatueForum and partake in the discussions on a regular basis are going to be more serious about the hobby than your average joe statue collector or the collectors that just buy a few statues and call it a day. So this forum would not be a good source of information on those collectors as the sample size would just wind up being way to low.

Still, your severely underestimating the value of the information that can be gotten from boards like this as you think that information is only relevant to the people in here. That is not the case. 3% may not sound like much but that is actually a very nice sample size when it comes to statistical analysis and again that info can be used to infer quite a bit about the more serious statue collectors out there that are not members of StatueForum. So the opinions in here reflect a much larger portion of the market than your realizing. I can't give any specific figures as I don't know what percentage of the market is made up of serious collectors vs not so serious collectors, but I do know that there are a LOT of serious statue collectors out there that are not members of StatueForum (I know 2 myself) so again, I also know that the opinions in here reflect a much larger portion of the market than you think it does.

As for your opinion on what is or isn't acceptable for a "man cave", that is nothing more than subjective opinion. Nothing more and nothing less and there is no right or wrong when it comes to subjectivity. So just because you think its goofy to dispay an Adam West Batman does not make it so. That is just your opionion on the matter. I can just as easily say that it isn't goofy and my statement is just as credible as yours, regardless of the number of people that believe either side.

As for why the Adam West Batman hasn't sold well, or any other statue for that matter over the last year, that could easily be for lots of different reasons other than it being "goofy" to most people. The most relevant is the fact that it was released during a period where a CRAPLOAD of other amazing statues were released and people's priorities were for other statues. I guarantee had that Adaw West Batman been released 2 years ago, I would have ordered one in a heartbeat, but since I already had over 20 pre orders on the books, I couldn't afford to add him. Tweeterhead's Newmar Catwoman was from the same period and it sold very well.

The biggest problem with this post, and many of your other posts, is that you have a lot of opinions that you deem as facts. You think you have it all figured out, why particular statues aren't selling well, what the market wants or doesnt want, what is or isn't aceptable in a "man cave", etc. Their all just opinions, nothing more and nothing less. I have seen absolutely zero legitimate data to back up any of your claims. And to run around thinking your subjective opinions on matters are absolute facts is incredibly naive.

Actually, if you look at the forums size, you'd think that it would give a large look into the collectors views but if you look at actual participation in the forums, not the number of members but those who actually participate, you'd see that the numbers are actually far fewer than most realize.

[spriggan]

I do believe that the number of people joining this forum is a good indication of number of people collecting statue, after all the forum is about state collecting. There are many reasons why some members don't want to participate.
This discussion seems to veer off from the original topic. Some people may like products from one company more than other companies. It is completely fine since the beauty of a statue is in the eye of beholder. Personally, I like statues from Bowen design, but I also like those from SS and other companies.
I don't think this hobby is dying because if it is, there won't be that many companies offering products like we have right now. For me, the price they are asking is the biggest deterrent from keep buying statues. With the cost of living that keep rising, I prefer to use my money on something else.

[Walls]

Originally Posted by forps

The current market prices can be sustained only by the new breed of collectors. Successful businessmen with SOCIAL LIFE (we should stress this) who simply HATE the tooooooooo toyish vibe some "statues" have.

Nostalgia is good, but Sideshow would go bankrupt in 1 year if they listened to some guys here and not taken the "forps way

These have got to be two of the single most amazing things I have ever read here. Lol

So basically, since I have hair down to my ass and have never worn a suit I can't affard to play "the Forps way"?
Dude you seriously need to put up or shut up at this point.
I have NO problem posting my collection, even though I'm not one of your supposed "new breed" suits with a SOCIAL LIFE, how about you?

You are one of two things, a spoiled child or a spoiled
man child. Lol

Probably never even read a damn comic book..

[AvoTaco]

hahaha this is pretty entertaining. guess my life is doomed for not following the ' forps way '