I appreciate the response. I imagine if you have friends at sideshow they must be aware that their prototypes are often much better then their production. If they're not they're clearly deluding themselves.
For example I took issue with my masked predator bust, it was missing all of the nice weathering and paint work that the prototype had, and even worse the damage mark was now a perfect circle drawn with a stencil with little squiggly lines coming out of it. It didn't even look like damage anymore but instead some sort of symbol put on the mask.
Here's an image to illustrate the difference.
Their response about this:
"Please know that our products are each individually hand crafted and hand painted. There are no two pieces that will be exactly alike. Since these pieces are hand painted, there will be minor variations and imperfections from piece to piece and this is considered normal. After reviewing the picture you have provided, we do not see anything that would be considered out of the ordinary"
This is clearly just a copy and pasted support response. That's not minor variations it's head and shoulders above in terms of quality. I showed an image of 5 busts and sideshow's proto to just random people in my office and I never had anyone say that the SS didn't looked better.
I understand there will be some hit in quality in china produced statues, but there are limits. And instead of acknowledging this SS support just plays dumb so they don't give you a full refund.
Enough -----ing about Sideshow though, sorry :P Thanks for clearing it up. Threw my hat in so it's 1 closer and I hope it gets funded!
Cthulhu Premium Bust by Dominic Qwek
Who knows? It could be your first Kickstarter! 
