JND Studios: Mera 1/3

[67L88Stingray]

Originally Posted by Silas Loki

Can be, all I'm saying, is that this is pretty much nothing special for a statue company. They put out a product, some like it, some don't.

Honestly, all the fuss and tantrums makes no sense to me. It's a luxury item, no one needs to buy. Every product ever made has its admirers and detractors. Is Ferrari redesigning its cars because Joe Bloggs is raising complaints, is Rolex changing its Submariner because of feedback?.....the list goes on.

And even here, on this Mera thread - look back over the pages, look at the comments and the usual negativity towards JND's product....until now, the piece is out, the tyre kickers have found something else to complain and moan about, and it's all smiles and congratulations......

People worry too much about things they have no control and influence over. The Arwen piece has an edition size of 1000, but I only need to care about the one that comes into my collection, I don't care what happens to the remaining 999. If they sell, great, if not, great.....

Stop the Arwen damage control already, nobody is buying it. Good companies do listen to their customers. They did a much better job on Mera than with Arwen so there was no overwhelming "usual negativity", and what there was seemed mostly directed at Amber not the statue.

If you only really cared about your own piece as you claim, you wouldn't be on this save JND's reputation crusade every day.

[Silas Loki]

Originally Posted by 67L88Stingray

Stop the Arwen damage control already, nobody is buying it. Good companies do listen to their customers. They did a much better job on Mera than with Arwen so there was no overwhelming "usual negativity", and what there was seemed mostly directed at Amber not the statue.

If you only really cared about your own piece as you claim, you wouldn't be on this save JND's reputation crusade every day.

"save JND's reputation" - from who?.....you?

Dude, both you and I are completely insignificant to JND. If you believe my, or your opinions, have any influence on JND's reputation (positively / negatively) - you need to get out more.

[RemydaGambit]

Kinda ironic that so far, this looks like JND's best piece.
I saw a video where they said most people in Asia never really saw or tuned in to the trial, so since asian collectors are the major player of JND, I think this is a hit for JND.
Taking Heard's personal issues aside, this is a stunning piece.

[pdenham]

So after sobering up, I've taken a second (more like twentieth) look at the costume paint on the production sample, and damned if I can figure out WTF JND was thinking.

With the prototype paint scheme, something seemed to be lacking to me in comparison to the Infinity bust.
I assumed it was because the bust was rocking more of a blue aqua, where as the JND was basically green, with some gold titles keying it even lighter in some areas.

I was initially happy to see the production piece emphasizing more bluish tones. And TBH, I was happy to see it jazzed up a little.
I also figured some of the paint must be so iridescent, that those gold/yelllow-lime tiles(scales) are only looking that way under certain lighting- or else picking up background atmosphere color.
I'm realizing that isn't the case now.

The JND is a riot of hues and values that simply aren't present on the actual costume. I think they are only further exacerbated by the smaller scale.

The pics below are screencaps and photos of the costume on display, contrasted with the screenshots of the production statue from the video.
I've included swatches to show the more limited range of hues/values on the actual costume, versus JND's artistic license approach to expanding those on their statue.

I don't know if this bugs anyone else who has this on order. I'll try to keep an open mind until it's in hand and I can see it under typical lighting in the room- but right now I'm thinking I'm going to end up painting over some of those lighter titles to give it a slightly more consistent, less chaotic look.

[Cmac]

Originally Posted by pdenham

So after sobering up, I've taken a second (more like twentieth) look at the costume paint on the production sample, and damned if I can figure out WTF JND was thinking.

With the prototype paint scheme, something seemed to be lacking to me in comparison to the Infinity bust.
I assumed it was because the bust was rocking more of a blue aqua, where as the JND was basically green, with some gold titles keying it even lighter in some areas.

I was initially happy to see the production piece emphasizing more bluish tones. I also figured some of the paint must be so iridescent, that those gold/yelllow-lime tiles(scales) are only looking that way under certain lighting- or else picking up background atmosphere color.
I'm realizing that isn't the case now.

The JND is a riot of hues and values that simply aren't present on the actual costume.

The pics below are screencaps and photos of the costume on display, contrasted with the screenshots of the production statue from the video.
I've included swatches to show the more limited range of hues/values on the actual costume, versus JND's artistic license approach to expanding those on their statue.

I don't know if this bugs anyone else who has this on order. I'll try to keep an open mind until it's in hand and I can see it under typical lighting in the room- but right now I'm thinking I'm going to end up painting over some of those lighter titles to give it a slightly more homogenized, less chaotic look.

They'll tell you it is "their interpretation".

Translation: after you have paid your deposit, the factory in China will make drastic changes to the production piece and you better accept it or lose your deposit. Just to validate that it is only you who has this problem, be sure to visit their Facebook group who will tell you that the issue is you and not JND. Once said Kood-Aid has been administered, pay off the piece, accept delivery, and be happy knowing that you have an inaccurate depiction of a movie costume.

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by Cmac

They'll tell you it is "their interpretation".

Translation: after you have paid your deposit, the factory in China will make drastic changes to the production piece and you better accept it or lose your deposit. Just to validate that it is only you who has this problem, be sure to visit their Facebook group who will tell you that the issue is you and not JND. Once said Kood-Aid has been administered, pay off the piece, accept delivery, and be happy knowing that you have an inaccurate depiction of a movie costume.

Based. Clearly the gold scales on the suit should be black, not sure why they did that. Thankfully this is a small discrepancy that can be corrected with a paint job. Still sucks that I have to do that with a 2.5k statue.

[Silas Loki]

Originally Posted by pdenham

I don't know if this bugs anyone else who has this on order. I'll try to keep an open mind until it's in hand and I can see it under typical lighting in the room- but right now I'm thinking I'm going to end up painting over some of those lighter titles to give it a slightly more consistent, less chaotic look.

It doesn't bug me, and I wouldn't repaint it. I like their "interpretation" - BUT! Considering this is supposed to be a movie accurate piece....I think you have a valid reason to gripe. Just bear in mind, if you cancel now, you will lose your deposit....but, if you pay the whole price, you can return it for a full refund - according to your consumer rights. So, all is not lost.

Originally Posted by Cmac

They'll tell you it is "their interpretation".

Translation: after you have paid your deposit, the factory in China will make drastic changes to the production piece and you better accept it or lose your deposit. Just to validate that it is only you who has this problem, be sure to visit their Facebook group who will tell you that the issue is you and not JND. Once said Kood-Aid has been administered, pay off the piece, accept delivery, and be happy knowing that you have an inaccurate depiction of a movie costume.

this is why I personally HATE when people ask these companies to make changes after the release. It's bad enough when they make changes off their own back, but the outcome is exactly the same if said companies bow to "public" pressure to redesign a piece that is already "sold out". So far, I'm only aware of one company that has communicated up front the changes they made - InArt - The Batman. However, that's a 1/6 figure that wasn't "sold out" - so most people (at least those who hadn't already pre ordered) had an opportunity to decide if they liked the change or not.

I'm ok with this Mera piece, but that's just my opinion, but I can fully understand if people feel they've been a victim of "bait and switch".

[67L88Stingray]

Well, if they can't get it right the 1st time, they should take some pointers from those who obviously have a more discerning eye. It's pretty stupid to say we shouldn't ask to make changes to a piece after release when we don't get to see it until it is released. When exactly are we supposed to critique it?

Oh, and please remind me again which of these JND pieces has really "sold out" already so they can't possibly upset buyers and improve them.

[pdenham]

Originally Posted by Cmac

They'll tell you it is "their interpretation".

Translation: after you have paid your deposit, the factory in China will make drastic changes to the production piece and you better accept it or lose your deposit.

It's funny that in Daniel's video, when talking about the improvements made to the skin paint apps, he starts by talking about collectors having to get pieces repainted and how JND are striving to improve their techniques to such a degree that their buyers will never need to do that.

Given the price point, and just how complex and time consuming the suit painting is, I assumed they were doing these bodies in-house in Korea.

If these were done in China, and these colors reflect more of a combo of slack oversight and the factory making it's own adjustments willy nilly, that would both make sense, as well as being very aggravating. Regardless of how you may feel about the end result here, it goes against the basic tenets of the company goals they overbearingly state in every marketing video they make- accuracy and quality control.

It's clear that changes were NOT made to be more faithful or screen accurate, so it's either JND being capricious, or more likely a Chinese factory bungled it and JND is spinning the result rather than going back to formula. Daniel claims in the video that changes were made in the painting, but he "can't see the difference" from the prototype to this production piece. Really, Daniel?

[pdenham]

Originally Posted by Brandon

Based. Clearly the gold scales on the suit should be black, not sure why they did that. Thankfully this is a small discrepancy that can be corrected with a paint job. Still sucks that I have to do that with a 2.5k statue.

Even with the prototype, the "wrong" part of the suit was the gold/lime green tiles. There are no lighter hued tiles like that anywhere on the screen costume.
I don't know where they were getting that from- and now they stick out even more because they went darker on the other colors.

While they are in the areas that should have been black (or a very deep navy), I think there are too many darker areas on the suit now to change those to black. It's clear they weren't attempting to replicate any screen accurate patterns ( which would have been difficult if they used several different hero suits in the film, each with their own slightly different patterns). So if anyone wanted to replicate a more screen accurate look, they'd have to repaint the whole thing from scratch.

If I do end up repainting it, I'd try transparent colors first, to step down those lighter values, and skew them more towards aqua rather than gold/ light green.
Even though I'm fairly confident with an airbrush, this looks like a job for a small flat brush.
Along with a lot of patience.

Originally Posted by Silas Loki

It doesn't bug me, and I wouldn't repaint it. I like their "interpretation" - BUT! Considering this is supposed to be a movie accurate piece....I think you have a valid reason to gripe. Just bear in mind, if you cancel now, you will lose your deposit....but, if you pay the whole price, you can return it for a full refund - according to your consumer rights. So, all is not lost.

I don't know if that's Spec's policy- and the special circumstances with this one might put a kink in that anyway.
I'm not yet to the point where I feel like I want to cancel- and there's always a possibility I may actually like the changes in hand. As Brandon says, this is a more or less easily correctable issue in a way that other, equally substantial things are not. Would be aggravating to do, but it is do-able.