Just wanted to start a discussion and see other people's thoughts about recent happenings regarding Sideshow.
Other companies will be mentioned of course, but I don't want this to turn into a flame war or a "Sideshow vs the world" thread.
Just keep it civil and express your opinion using your brain, there is no "right" opinion here, only food for thoughts.
My main goal is to understand if I'm the only one feeling in a certain way and if there are some pieces I'm missing in the puzzle, anything I say may very well be wrong, I've just done some homework and I'll try to back up my statements with reliable sources.
First of all, a little review on some of the most famous licenses and how they are going (or seem to go):
MARVEL
Extremely slow pace with announcements and lackluster reveals (Jean Grey, Emma Frost, to mention two).
XM is killing it in the Marvel comics, where Sideshow is on a negative streak.
Gentle Giant is outperforming Sideshow in the Marvel movies, speaking of quality. Sideshow is redoing Cap and Thor, while characters like Nick Fury, Hawkeye and Loki have never been even hinted at. This is... weird.
Amazing Spider Man and Guardians of the Galaxy announced, never showed anything and now lost in the mists, it looks like Sideshow doesn't have the rights anymore. Alex even hinted in the Ask thread that for GotG, Gentle Giant and Hot Toys are doing them... basically pushing customers towards other companies.
Igo stated that Marvel gave the license to XM without even warning Sideshow.
The whole Iron Man Maquette line looks like a rush to grab the money for movies that are years old before people decide they prefer the future Age of Ultron armors.
LOTR/HOBBIT
LotR lines are dead and Weta locked Sideshow out for The Hobbit, or so it appears. Sideshow butchered the 1/6 maquettes line herself, also.
ALIEN/PREDATOR
Alien/Predator is in a limbo, only busts and masks. No real competition here, so there aren't many comparisons to make... but still, it's not like interest is not there. Maybe they are just waiting to see how the P2 Maquette performs? Alex said that "something" is coming, probably early 2015.
XM stated that they looked into Alien/Predator license and that if they didn't find agreements for all the other licenses they were looking for, they would have taken A/P (but looks like they found other licenses).
STAR WARS
Star Wars, another limbo. Slow pace, few reveals (yeah, I know, Boba and Vader 2.0), but a lot of interesting projects announced and then vanished (Mythos, McQuarrie). Again, no real competition here.
DC
DC, one of the few licenses looking healthy and steady. Still, no competition here in 1/4 scale.
TERMINATOR
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole license always had lackluster productions, so no real news here. Also, no competition.
TRON
Dead, killed by the first release.
PROMETHEUS
Most likely, dead.
AVATAR
Dead.
CONAN
Most likely, dead. Alex said that there are no products expected under this license, even if the FotB and Sonja sold very well (the Undying not so much). In the meanwhile, ARH has a whole Conan line. No wait- TWO lines. One generic and a Frazetta line that also includes Conan. Another license that Sideshow owns, but can't seem to use properly.
This is a recap with the thoughts I have. I may be wrong, as I said, but it looks to me that Sideshow is losing the grip on more than a few of their licenses, or somehow can't keep the right pace to give each license the right amount of commitment. In the meanwhile, other companies are showing up and filling the gaps that Sideshow leaves.
Also, add to this the usual secrecy under which Sideshow operates and that makes a collector's life uncomfortable: how are we supposed to plan our purchases if we don't even know if a line/license is being followed properly?
Then, add also the recent issues that derived from this secrecy/lack of communication, like the PVCgate.
And then, add the old same arguments that always surface about increasing ES, free falling QC and shady tactics like fake low quantity alerts and ES bumps. Basically Sideshow put herself in a position where EVERYTHING they do is questioned as legit or not.
I know that many here will say that Sideshow has never been so economically stronger - but is this true? It may be true now, in the immediate, but what about a year from now? What if a company shows up with a Star Wars license and starts pumping out amazing SW pieces? Or Alien/Predator pieces?
It's bitter to say but when I began collecting, I expected consistency and I expected SS to be the landmark of my collecting habits.
It may be just me but I don't see the point of committing to a line, spend my cash, plan my purchases if I can't have my collection completed with the right amount of commitment profused into it. To me, it seems like Sideshow is slowly surrendering some of their licenses, both directly (like TRON, who was literally killed) or indirectly (like Marvel, with lackluster offerings and QC flukes).
I just want to know if others share this feeling, or if I'm being over pessimistic. What I know for sure is that it's getting easier and easier drop Sideshow pieces in favor of other companies' pieces.
Share your opinions please guys, I'm very interested.
PS: I'll be away all day so I won't take part in the thread until later, hopefully I don't come back to find it locked
---UPDATE---
Quote:
Originally Posted by risingstar
If it was one person overseeing everything, then yes, SS has its hands in too many pies, but I don't think that is the case with Sideshow. I'd like to think that as the playing field becomes more competitive, we'll be seeing more attention to detail.
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(I'll add this piece to the first post)
QUALITY CONTROL
This is one of my main concerns.
In the Man of Steel thread, Igo said that the customers weren't warned by Sideshow about the change from polystone to plastic because "Sideshow herself discovered only last minute, when everything was said and done". This, is a fact.
And, this leads to two scenarios:
a) the above statement is false, and Igo deliberately lied to us.
b) the above statement is true. Switching from polystone to plastic is not something you can do from a day to another. Also, the MoS PF also had quite a long delay. This implies that, for months, NOBODY checked how production was going.
If this conclusion doesn't alarm you as a customer, well, you must have zen-like peace of mind or have so much money to waste that you don't care where it ends.
I just asked to Alex about the matter and I hope to receive a clear answer. On the argument, I'll add what I know: first of all, if the (b) scenario is true, this would explain the hit and miss quality of Sideshow pieces. Basically, all is in the hands of the factory, Sideshow just receives the production pieces and distributes them.
Now, I'm not saying factories are unreliable - but consider these facts. We know that XM guys inspect themselves the chinese factories. They live in the area, it's easy for them. They make you pay a premium for QC, so right, that's it.
But recently, Jerry from PCS mentioned he hired someone to fly to China and check production periodically, and he said he himself is going to check (especially for his 1:3 line). I don't recall PCS having striking QC flaws in the last pair of years at least.
ARH also mentioned that they had a trip to China.
It's clear to me that having someone supervision the production process is a key step, otherwise companies like these wouldn't bother so much about it.
What I, as a customer, really need to ask myself is: is Sideshow doing the same? Hopefully Alex can shed some light once and for all.
DECLARATION OF INTENT
First of all, this thread is mostly about the current and future situation about Sideshow's statues production. I think that given the cirumstances and mixed feelings that people expressed recently, it could be useful and interesting to have a thread in which anybody can express his thoughts about the present and future of Sideshow as a company.
I want to make clear, this is NOT a place for fanboy-ism (either side), just a place to share opinions and help each other having a better view and better expectations. Something that may be extremely clear to me, may not be as clear to someone else. Someone may have informations that I don't have, and he may want to share with the others to give a better insight.
It's not a place where people come to "be right" about a matter or the other, or a pissing contest. This is in the Sideshow area but definitely embraces the whole hobby and various companies, comparisons are inevitable (and necessary) and I think they grant lots of constructive criticism, which in my opinion is extremely important in a forum.
Most important thing: if I, or other users here "waste" our time expressing our opinions and writing walls of text, it's not because we hate Sideshow and we want it to fail. On the opposite, we do it because we hope it can somehow help the company and I also do it because other users can enlighten me on aspects of Sideshow and its business that maybe I don't take into account when I form my opinion or come to my conclusions. Those who just think to post here to defend a side or the other without constructive criticism can very well avoid to post at all.
