@Mr. Awesome
I get where you’re coming from. And given my own personal history of collecting HT since the beginning…I can tell you that they absolutely have the ability of capturing an actors likeness to a T…but they don’t for several reasons. Some you’re already familiar with just by being in the community.
1-JC Hong, their lead art director pretty much has ‘final’ say on how a sculpt looks. 99.8% of the sculpts he over saw have the same-y look to them all. Idealized-as in minimize what could be perceived as flaws. Any asymmetrical features visible on the actors face will either be minimized or just not exist on the sculpts. And paint apps…well, to this day, post InArt, their portraits still have this tanned, waxy, shiny look to them all.
2-there has NEVER been ONE figure in HT 20 year history where we ALL unanimously agreed is awful. Even ones that are EGREGIOUSLY AWFUL, like the smiling AntMan figure…bro we still have those 2-3 members on these forums that looked passed the ugly as sin portrait and picked it up anyway! If that’s not enough to convince you that HT can literally get away with their many anti consumer practices…
3-as mentioned before, they can totally get likenesses down, but choose not to. Save these incremental improvements for the next planned 2.0s, 3.0s, exclusive variant, sdcc **** you variant…rinse and repeat. They KNOW people will buy it regardless.
Lastly…you and I are pretty much on the same page: this looks NOTHING like SLJ. You’re also wise to their anti consumer ways with intentionally holding back certain things like a 99.9% likeness or meaningful accessories for future releases.
And yet you choose to buy Mace. Complain all ya want about crappy likenesses, they’re still getting your money.
THAT is why they continue doing what you and I hate.
Mind you, I’m not calling you out or anything. I’m just pointing out this vicious cycle between company and consumer. You want to send them a message right? Start here. You hate it that much? Don’t buy it. Hell, I ain’t. And I really want a Mace in my collection.
If you still go through with your purchase, I won’t think less of you (i speak as if my opinion matters lmao
please don’t mind me)
But just remember how and why they get away with things like this.
I’ve passed on so many HT figures that have been announced recently. The one that literally made me say out loud “wtf is that?” was the artisan Dark Empire Luke. I like that iteration of Luke from the comics. And Luke is my fav character. But you couldn’t pay me to PO that dumpster fire. It’s ugly as sin.