1/6 Hot Toys - MMS276 - Commando: John Matrix Collectible Figure

[drfeelgood]

The way hot toys does things is strange at the best of times. The Robocop twin pack came out a few months before this and looked outstanding! The likeness to Peter Weller is a home run! I'm still tempted to buy it to be honest. But back to this guy. He's expensive at 250 dollars, the proto pics looked fantastic and nailed it. The final figure came out and its all over the place, he looks just about passable in a few pics while in the majority looks like a fat faced Arnold stunt double covered in Vaseline. With Skywaker and Mcfly it was the reverse, a few bad pics while the majority looked fantastic. I will wait for the videos and reviews of this guy before considering a purchase again. The only reason I keep coming back to the idea of buying him is he's somewhat of a grail figure.

Hot toys needs to be careful, classic movie figures are its bread and butter, its what keeps the dollars rolling in between new films. If it puts out half assed efforts between each Marvel film its going to start feeling the strain. Not every Marvel film is a massive hit that's for sure, Antman looks luke warm at best. I bet they got Paul Rudds likeness down to a fine T though lol

 

[Snake Plissken]

I'd say the MMS238 is just as bad in the softness department, i was never sold on the HS for this even the proto looked a bit weird

It was the start of the big head Arnolds.

 

[TheClipperKing]

 

[BruceLife]

Clipper has spoken! This figure looks great on video already IMO as usual photos really letting the figure down. Almost as if the photos were of another figure.

 

[BadMuthaDude]

Wow. Looking forward to the review, ClipperKing.

 

[BruceLife]

You can already hear the people who cancelled their pre-orders and lost their money tightening the noose

 

[Snake Plissken]

You can already hear the people who cancelled their pre-orders and lost their money tightening the noose

 

[Preshea]

Some valid points made on all levels in recent pages but I do have to say that though yes factors such as in hand, lighting, etc can sway opinion. This doesn't look amazing like it did.
Im really struggling to understand how is it that as mentioned the Alex Murphy sculpt (for example) looks as good as it's proto with the same level of detail and such but this particular figure doesn't?? I look at images of that sculpt that are over lit and perhaps poorly taken but the sculpt still looks fanstastic and I conclude it will be better in hand.

Same company and therefore I imagine it would be the same process, no?
So I really don't understand how that works. I love the hobby but it's beyond frustrating to try to stay in it when you see the promo announcement images, we're are all blown away!.. they have months to a year to improve and develop it further and then we see a disappointing end result like this that doesn't add up.
Even companies like DAM toys have consistently done better with their mass production sculpts matching their proto types. IMO I think they are just as good as most of what Hot toys puts out now, but hot toys being hot toys gets the popular licenses. Being considered by the majority as the leader in 1/6 they should do better.

 

[BruceLife]

Of course they won't admit they feel a bit foolish for making the rookie mistake of having a breakdown over pictures

 

[BadMuthaDude]

Some valid points made on all levels in recent pages but I do have to say that though yes factors such as in hand, lighting, etc can sway opinion. This doesn't look amazing like it did.
Im really struggling to understand how is it that as mentioned the Alex Murphy sculpt (for example) looks as good as it's proto with the same level of detail and such but this particular figure doesn't?? I look at images of that sculpt that are over lit and perhaps poorly taken but the sculpt still looks fanstastic and I conclude it will be better in hand.

Same company and therefore I imagine it would be the same process, no?
So I really don't understand how that works. I love the hobby but it's beyond frustrating to try to stay in it when you see the promo announcement images, we're are all blown away!.. they have months to a year to improve and develop it further and then we see a disappointing end result like this that doesn't add up.
Even companies like DAM toys have consistently done better with their mass production sculpts matching their proto types. IMO I think they are just as good as most of what Hot toys puts out now, but hot toys being hot toys gets the popular licenses. Being considered by the majority as the leader in 1/6 they should do better.

I wonder if Hot Toys uses more than one factory, especially since production has gone way up. They've always been up and down with the final product in the 3 years since I've been collecting. I can only speak from my experience though which is mainly been Terminator and Batman collectibles. It's hard to say what goes on during production but with the amount of stuff on their plate, I'm not surprised that the less popular licenses will be given less attention.

 

[DBoz]

Hot toys needs to be careful, classic movie figures are its bread and butter, its what keeps the dollars rolling in between new films. If it puts out half assed efforts between each Marvel film its going to start feeling the strain. Not every Marvel film is a massive hit that's for sure, Antman looks luke warm at best. I bet they got Paul Rudds likeness down to a fine T though lol

I disagree with this assessment. Even though classic movie figures are where the MMS line started and got them going, I would say that Marvel in general and Iron Man in particular are currently HT's bread and butter. These will most likely be replaced by Star Wars over the next couple years and will continue for the foreseeable future. While I like the classic movie figures and want to see more, I don't think it will hurt Hot Toys if they stop producing them.

 

[BruceLife]

I wouldn't say Alex Murphy is quite as good as proto but it's pretty damn near.

 

[BruceLife]

I disagree with this assessment. Even though classic movie figures are where the MMS line started and got them going, I would say that Marvel in general and Iron Man in particular are currently HT's bread and butter right now. These will most likely be replaced by Star Wars over the next couple years and will continue for the foreseeable future. While I like the classic movie figures and want to see more, I don't think it will hurt Hot Toys if they stop producing them.

Totally agree. In fact they could probably just live off supplying Iron Man figures to Asian sellers. The queues for those at HT base are unreal!

 

[BadMuthaDude]

Star Wars will most definitely be their consistent moneymaker regardless of the state of film releases. I've mentioned in another thread that I'd like to see them drop the Terminator licenses so a smaller company can give them the care they deserve. The same goes with other licenses. I don't think they can really focus on the smaller, cult classic stuff anymore.

 

[BruceLife]

If you think about it they've got so many Star Wars figures they can do from all six films and the new ones that I agree it'll be Marvel and Star Wars and now DC too as the bedrock of the business

 

[Plastic Bateman]

I'll happily eat crow on this and say it looks a lot closer to the prototype there.

Of course that begs the question of why it looks so terrible in the HK blogger photographs. The jaw and eyes look completely wrong in those pics, yet they look fine in that video...

 

[Frank Jaeger]

It does look better in clippers video. It's more akin to what it will look like in hand and on the shelf

Everything is just so smooooth

 

[Snake Plissken]

It does look better, but it's still got that textureless tone to it and the different hair from the proto.

 

[2littlemoney]

i dont know why so many people hated it. the head sculpt may not be as sharp as the prototype
but its definitely not bad at all. and is an improvement over the previous one. with price just 83%
of a plastic iron man figure, you've got tons of accessories to play with. not to mention the muscular
body specifically designed for john matrix. look at his bicep, its awesome!
i can say i have no regret getting this figure.

 

[Snake Plissken]

And again, it looks soft here.