12 Inch Figure Environments

[Buttmunch]

What happened to the 3rd one? Did Lucas make them pull it for looking too Star Wars? I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm guessing they are holding that one back for the Shocktrooper next week. This week was more Indy themed to go with Henry Sr.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I like the polystone choice, but I'm sorry, even with polystone they could have gotten the product under $60 if they took a view of marketing these well to get one in almost every Indy collector's hands.

$50 for this thing in lightweight materials would be even more of a rip off than $90 in polystone. If its going to be some cheap plastic material Mattell or Hasbro could plunk these out at $5 a piece.

 

[ortiz344]

Id hardly call those environments, id kinda call them mini pedestals, an environment needs to be bigger

 

[scottbuckets]

I think they look great but as stated 100 times ahead of me... Price = no. Maybe other retailers will be charging less? Gonna keep my eyes open.

 

[Darth Madden]

I really wish these had been about $50... dang.

 

[FLOSI]

So has ANYONE pre-ordered these? I'm a big NO... Assuming the Space theamed one is also 89 bucks it'll be 0-3.

 

[crasis]

These most certainly could have been offered for half the price were they not polystone.

And the real bear of it is... they'd pretty much LOOK the same!

Again, Sideshow just has some kind of hard-on for the material. It's great for statues, but absolutely not necessary for everything.

I've been saying this since the Han in Carbonite fiasco. There is NO REASON to make everything out of polystone, other than jacking prices up needlessly. Ridiculous. These went from a "wow, cool idea!" to "never in a million years would I pay so much for so little." WTF, Sideshow??!

 

[BadMoon]

I've been saying this since the Han in Carbonite fiasco. There is NO REASON to make everything out of polystone, other than jacking prices up needlessly. Ridiculous. These went from a "wow, cool idea!" to "never in a million years would I pay so much for so little." WTF, Sideshow??!

Tell that to the Boba PF thread.

Guess Sideshow is damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Again, though these are too pricey IMO.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Tell that to the Boba PF thread.

Guess Sideshow is damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Again, though these are too pricey IMO.

I believe there is a difference between a PF and non-licensed dio. You'd expect some heft to a licensed 20"ish statue you paid almost $400 for. SS explained their reasoning which is fine. Not that polystone is more valuable than plastic, but holding the PF Bobba you can't help but feel a little jipped.

These dios don't need to be polystone. Don't know about you boardies, but I wasn't expecting polystone. What I don't understand is why SS doesn't use these boards to gather some info. It's not like they are TMP where the boardies make up a small percent of their market. If you collect SS then you have to be aware of this site and sideshow's. You can't just walk into a general brick and mortor store and buy their product anymore. A quick, "How much would you be willing to pay for..." and, "Polystone or plastic? They can then run numbers and find what would be cost effective and what wouldn't. I know that doesn't guarantee sell outs, but they wouldn't be any worse than where they are now.

 

[Captain Britain]

Is polystone an expensive material? I thought the tooling was the major expense in toys, and these hardly require any. Take away the lack of licensing fees and I can see why people think they are too expensive.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Is polystone an expensive material? I thought the tooling was the major expense in toys, and these hardly require any. Take away the lack of licensing fees and I can see why people think they are too expensive.

Don't know about cost for polystone, but how are these more than than the idol environment?

 

[Darklord Dave]

I really don't think these could be anything but polystone - rotocast would have resulted in soft edges and wouldn't be solid enough to be a firm base, and I was never satisfied in the heft of the foam Freddy furnace.

But for this price I would expect something a big larger, maybe with a back wall. The Triad piece was about $90 I think when it first came out and has a floor and back piece.

I've ordered them but I'm interested to see them in action at SDCC though.

 

[galactiboy]

I guess I'm just not that into the who diorama idea... love Jabba, but in general I prefer to just have figures displayed on shelves.

 

[denryanj]

Several online retailers, such as Alter Ego comics, already have these up for pre-order at around 80.00 bucks ( if anyone is looking for a bit of a discount off the Sideshow price).

 

[aussieinnyc]

I really don't think these could be anything but polystone - rotocast would have resulted in soft edges and wouldn't be solid enough to be a firm base, and I was never satisfied in the heft of the foam Freddy furnace.

Rotocast has come quite a long way - they're getting it to hold some really sharp details now. They could also go with regular injection plastic, I've got to confess that I don't understand the need for collectibles to have "heft". As far as I'm concerned, they're designed to look good on a shelf and if two products look identical, but one is half the weight and half the price, the cheaper way is the way to go. But each to their own!

 

[IrishJedi]

Tell that to the Boba PF thread.

Guess Sideshow is damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Two separate things. The problem with the Boba Fett PF wasn't the change to plastic, but that they still charged the premium polystone price for it.

 

[crasis]

Two separate things. The problem with the Boba Fett PF wasn't the change to plastic, but that they still charged the premium polystone price for it.

THANK YOU! A crucial fact that most fans (and perhaps Sideshow themselves!) seem to ignore: the problem with Boba wasn't the plastic – it was the price remaining the same as if he was polystone. The huge negativity campaign that erupted as a result made it seem like all high end collectors/Sideshow buyers are anti-plastic. That's a crock! This ridiculous perception may be a deciding factor for SSC when designing a new piece. "Uh-oh, remember Boba? We need to make sure these things are as heavy and brittle as possible to retain their perceived collectibility and high-end status." GARBAGE. Seriously, do you people weigh your collectibles when they arrive? In all my years of collecting, I've seen and purchased incredible pieces made out of "cheaper" materials. There is NO REASON for everything to be made out of heavy, brittle, EXPENSIVE polystone.

 

[T-mex]

THANK YOU! A crucial fact that most fans (and perhaps Sideshow themselves!) seem to ignore: the problem with Boba wasn't the plastic – it was the price remaining the same as if he was polystone. The huge negativity campaign that erupted as a result made it seem like all high end collectors/Sideshow buyers are anti-plastic. That's a crock! This ridiculous perception may be a deciding factor for SSC when designing a new piece. "Uh-oh, remember Boba? We need to make sure these things are as heavy and brittle as possible to retain their perceived collectibility and high-end status." GARBAGE. Seriously, do you people weigh your collectibles when they arrive? In all my years of collecting, I've seen and purchased incredible pieces made out of "cheaper" materials. There is NO REASON for everything to be made out of heavy, brittle, EXPENSIVE polystone.

...it's not the materials that necessarily dictate the price point. As far as the manufacturing costs go Polystone is actually the cheaper route. Polystone is cast in silicon molds...pretty simple and straight forward. As long as the piece can be cast in one piece. Most bang for your buck as far as production goes.

As soon as you go "roto", or ABS...then you get to spend some real money. Roto = metal molds/electroplated molds, as well as complicated production issues (undercuts, size, etc). ABS = Steel cut molds, expensive right out the door. These also have their own production issues. There is a reason you don't see detailed, large, one piece ABS products. Less bang for your buck as far as production goes.

I don't think SS made their decision based on the Boba Fett "Freak Out". Come on...$80 for a diorama base? I don't see the issue.....would be nice if it was cheaper, but I am pretty sure SS wants to stay in business as well as offer something new to the collector.
You can compare these to the Triad bases...but, in my opinion...the Triad bases look very "toy-like" compared to these. At least these bases will be able to hold a couple figures without falling over....and look good doing so.

If you are familiar with the "Garage Kit" hobby....you know that a Urathane resin diorama base will cost you more then $80 for sure...and you will still have to clean it up, and paint it! I can see that hobby snatch these bases up no question asked.

T-Mex

 

[toystales]

I pre-ordered the "Anubis" environment. However, considering the size of this environment, I think $90 is a bit too much. If it had cost $50 a piece, I would have ordered the "Shrine of Dagon" as well.

 

[crasis]

...it's not the materials that necessarily dictate the price point.

I've seen similar products produced in materials other than polystone that have gone for MUCH cheaper prices. So all the other collectible and toy companies that produce textured bases out of different materials are somehow taking a massive financial hit when they charge peanuts for their stuff? Hell, my wife's old ToyBiz Deluxe Talking Gollum toy comes with a nice convincing rock base environment. Not bad for $15-20 (which includes electronics, and a poseable action figure... so the base really cost maybe $8). And she recently bought a nice resin (I believe) frame that truly resembles an old gothic castle stone texture for $3. I held it up near my extremely overpriced Han in Carbonite base and Jabba's Throne and found it difficult to tell the difference in texture from a visual standpoint.

Come on...$80 for a diorama base? I don't see the issue.....would be nice if it was cheaper, but I am pretty sure SS wants to stay in business as well as offer something new to the collector.

Yes, $80 for a diorama base. I am most certainly going to complain about that! If you don't mind throwing massive wads of cash at Sideshow for something so little, I guess we'll never see eye to eye. I have a hard time understanding the justification for the "more money spent = perceived high end" line of thinking. As it stands, there is NO reason to charge that much for a small base for your figures. A mini diorama should not be the COST OF AN ACTUAL FIGURE or more. If Sideshow really wanted to "stay in business" as you put it, and make a truly marketable product, they would have devised a way to keep costs down on these. I, like many fans, was extremely excited by this line...until I (we) saw the price point. These would have sold like hot cakes otherwise.