Admiral Piett 12" Official IMAGE THREAD

[Deak Starkiller]

Yes. Hudson is a Mormon. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

[MaulFan]

Didn't know that. He's got a look on his face though, "Game over man."

 

[MaulFan]

I was going through ROTJ and noticed the Imperial with Piett in this shot kinda looks like Paul Reiser The "Hudson" connection, 6 degrees of Bill Paxton.

 

[Indiana Fett]

I was going through ROTJ and noticed the Imperial with Piett in this shot kinda looks like Paul Reiser The "Hudson" connection, 6 degrees of Bill Paxton.

That's TOO funny. It really does look like him!

 

[Deak Starkiller]

Oh my 2 Imperial Officer Dads!

 

[JustinLuck]

Fine, understood. Some people actually do rip on Justin with serious intent about his nitpicking, so I just responded as I did to prevent a battle from ensuing because things have a tendency to explode from his comments from time to time, as recently happened in the Indy section.

Yeah, watch out everyone. One more post from me and this thread might go nuclear!

Thanks Sean for your helpful answer, as always. I appreciate that you understood the intent of my question and realized I wasn't trying to instigate with nitpickery as some would like to believe.

I love you too Pix.

 

[jedibear]

nitpickery

Ah, Justin...ever the wordsmith....never boring, sir...that's for sure,

 

[abake]

Got my Piett yesterday, no pics yet, sorry, but a few thoughts.

Overall it's a nice figure, but being such a "basic" figure, small flaws become very apparent.
I have the feeling that with complex figures, with a lot of wow factor, it becomes easier to absorb little flaws and accept them as the due for such intricate details and research, but when you have a very basic type of figure...

So let's start with the body.
This is my very first regular Prometheus (the other were all the armoured kind), and I was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty tight and very well articulated. The hips are a bit floppy, but it's really no biggie. The body does seem to have a propensity to slouch however. It's difficult to make it stand up very straight, which is fine for Piett, but I was wondering if that is inherent to the design, or maybe mine suffers from scoliosis. The puny shoulders are a bit of a bother and they don't help Piett look very snazzy in his regal Imperial Uniform. Love the hands and the gloves! Top notch.

Head-sculpt.
Well... I'm not sure I can see Piett there. The sculpt is very nice, but I don't think it really captures the nuances of Piett's facial structure and expression(s). Maybe it's the paint apps. Which brings me to another point. I remember way back when Medicom was the only manufacturer producing figures with skin toned plastic and very basic paint apps to enhance only certain details. Most collectors were quick to deem it cheap, toy-ish and basically crap. Now HT is doing the same and SST too, and all of a sudden it's the second coming of Christ...
Anyway. Back to the head sculpt and the paint apps. The color is very off for Piett, he always looked pale and pasty, with dark circles under the eyes. None of that is present, so basically, although very clean, the paint apps are pretty bad. Or maybe "wrong" is the better word.
What paints have you guys tried when repainting these types of heads?

Uniform.
Again, with such a simple figure, the costume/clothing/uniform becomes extremely important. And I think Sideshow did well. The velcro closure is a bit off on mine, but a bit of water treatment was enough to rectify that. The jacket has a very clean cut and the pants look great. I do think the shoulders aren't working too well, they fail to give Piett that square military look, and only enhance the narrow look of Piett's shoulders.
But, overall, the cut and tailoring are pretty good.
The cloth cap works fine for me, the plastic one is way too large.
The boots are soft in the detail, but they look good and are nice and soft, allowing for posing.
The guns and belt look great, with the usual leather and detailing.

So, overall, I think Piett is pretty cool, but I think it fails to really convey Piett to me. Looks more like some generic Imperial Officer, a bit like Praji and very nice to have next to Vader.
Or maybe not.
Because Vader is so ridiculously HUGE that all figures look tiny next to him.
But that is the subject for some other post.

 

[MaulFan]

I remember way back when Medicom was the only manufacturer producing figures with skin toned plastic and very basic paint apps to enhance only certain details. Most collectors were quick to deem it cheap, toy-ish and basically crap. Now HT is doing the same and SST too, and all of a sudden it's the second coming of Christ...

I think it can be argued that HT and SSC aren't as "cheap" looking as Medicom. The Medicom humans I've gotten have had a pale and unrealistic skintone color, which I think is where the "cheap" argument comes in. All the Hot Toys figures I've gotten with the heads being cast in flesh tone have had a healthy skin coloration to them and even some having a mix of reds worked into that give a sense of variation, and even Piett's head and flesh hands have a realistic look to the coloration to me. The only thing really keeping Piett's portrait from looking lifelike are the eyes, they're painted clean, but something about how they're painted keeps them looking more figural.

 

[abake]

Good point, but I'm not sure it's working as well as one would wish.
They have evolved what Medicom was doing for sure, but sometimes I feel I miss the good old days of painted heads.
Still, when it works, it works wonderfully, as is the case with Dutch.

 

[galactiboy]

What surprises me is how Sideshow can do such a nice job on a figure like Gandalf... and then put out something pretty basic like this or the paint work on the 1/6 Indy.

I know Gandalf has a more defining characterisits to play up, but still the paint work and even casting color of the head was far superior.

 

[MaulFan]

What really surprised me with Indy is that his head looks painted, not cast, I don't know if that was done to help the painting on of the 5 O'Clock shadow or what, but I was surprised to get a painted looking head on a Pro figure.

Gandalf has been the best human skin in the past few years, but I think Piett came out second best to him, and Belloq and Toht look of the same quality.

 

[abake]

The color of the casting is what still eludes both HT and Sideshow (as well as Medicom, although I like the ROTJ Vader, and while very pale, Luke's color didn't bother me back then) IMHO.
Gandalf is too rosy and both Vito and Piett are too dark.

 

[galactiboy]

What really surprised me with Indy is that his head looks painted, not cast, I don't know if that was done to help the painting on of the 5 O'Clock shadow or what, but I was surprised to get a painted looking head on a Pro figure.

Gandalf has been the best human skin in the past few years, but I think Piett came out second best to him, and Belloq and Toht look of the same quality.

Guess I need to look at Indy closer... mine looked cast and very plasticy. I guess it could just be bad paint?

Except for the eyes being a bit dull I thought Gandalf came out amazing... just wish they could keep the quality similar to that. Clonobi was okay, but the skin just seemed to uniform.

 

[MaulFan]

Guess I need to look at Indy closer... mine looked cast and very plasticy. I guess it could just be bad paint?

Except for the eyes being a bit dull I thought Gandalf came out amazing... just wish they could keep the quality similar to that. Clonobi was okay, but the skin just seemed to uniform.

My indy is the same, I just assumed it was probably because of a paint used that had a glossy finish to it, maybe it's casting material, it just seemed surprising with Gandalf, the Hobbits and Clonobi to have Indy be so different in casting material. His head is also heavier feeling like it's resin and not softer plastic like the cast heads, even makes a loud sound if you tap it against a table top like it's resin. Had it been made lighter, I think the floppy head issues may not have been so big.

Clonobi's an overall nice portrait, I find the skin could be a hair more matte in the finish though, it's not Indy shiny, but it's not Gandalf/Piett matte either.

 

[galactiboy]

Yep, its the shininess that I'm not fond of. The sculpt is excellent on Clonobi and the paint work on the hair is some of their best... just a little let down by the skin. But, still an excellent figure.

Hopefully as they are working out the kinks on the new bodies, they'll continue to sort out the paint/casting issues. And... for the love of all that's plactic, get rid of the dot!!!

 

[MaulFan]

And... for the love of all that's plactic, get rid of the dot!!!

I believe they have, there's no dot on the KOTCS Indy, the proto images on SSC's site and the one at Comic Con are dot free.

As for the skin, Piett, Toht and Belloq all seem to be the same, so I think they've gotten consistency down at least in the finish and having every figure look the same in quality, but there is room to figure out ways to mix in reds and things to vary the coloration a bit, but even HT hasn't done too much with that, only a few figures really have it so far.

 

[galactiboy]

That's good to hear... and I agree a little extra color mixed into the casting will go a long way to adding to the realism.

 

[MaulFan]

Here are the photos I posted in the Dot campaign to show it. Maybe it's just the complexity of painting in his squinty old man eyes, but I'm hoping that it's a start to ceasing the dot.

Victory could be ours

I just realized, Crystal Skull Indy appears to have no doll dot

 

[thenammagazine]

I believe they have, there's no dot on the KOTCS Indy, the proto images on SSC's site and the one at Comic Con are dot free.

As for the skin, Piett, Toht and Belloq all seem to be the same, so I think they've gotten consistency down at least in the finish and having every figure look the same in quality, but there is room to figure out ways to mix in reds and things to vary the coloration a bit, but even HT hasn't done too much with that, only a few figures really have it so far.

I've noticed that as well. The TrueTypes (regular and narrow sholdered) seem to have it, but the others (black aside), including their licensed figures, don't.