Poggle the Greater
Freaked Out
jason2885 said:
I am very proudly a SW geek and it was said jokingly.
The quote about others making comments about how those of us who complain that the onslaught of multiple $60+ figures (that many feel aren't worth that price) is too much on our wallets while they still live at home was not.
If anything, the ones who do the most bashing here are the cheerleaders who attack anyone who says anything negative about SS. I have all of the SW line so far and am pleased with all of them except lipstick Anakin and even then I'm happy to have the Sith Ani to take his place.
I do however see a disturbing trend with SS increasing prices, pumping out WAY more figures than they originally said at the beginning and frankly it stinks of greed to me.
If I were someone who made 6 figures a year, sure it'd be no problem to buy all of these figures but I'd say it's a safe bet that most SW collectors aren't doctors and lawyers. Of course everyone can say "well SS is a company and companies want to make profit" but they are not Wal-mart and from the impression they give off, they want to be seen as "fans who listen to fans" and want to make good products that are the best, most accurate collectibles on the market for a reasonable price.
They now seem to me like a company that did fairly well but have now tasted wealth from the new ownership of the SW license and are now trying to milk the hell out of it. I hope I'm wrong but after seeing great figures for $50 start to morph into "inclusive" figures with $30 accessories (that look like cheap pieces of plastic that should have been the exclusive item) and tiny $35 PVC creatures that could have been included with an already overpriced larger PVC creature that costs $120, I'm starting to lose faith.
Leia Bouush worth $60...sure.
Great head sculpt of Carrie Fisher and a complicated costume made from scratch with perfect detailing from the film.
Generic headed soldier with very simple fabric costume for $60...no.
Not to mention it seems Plo Koon is nothing more than a new head and hands thrown on a very slightly modified Mace Windu costume....for another $60.
One look at any pic of his costume from the film and it's obvious SS has it wrong and doesn't seem to really care because they're just going to kit bash him with Mace's costume to save money. How could they also not even get his saber color right when it's the only color he used in every shot of the films? How much research are they even doing now in between trying to pump out as many as possible? Are the accuracy of the characters going to suffer in the mad rush of trying to produce as many figures as possible?
I read a quote the price increase was because of the cost of his head and hand sculpt? Yeah, right.
Kit Fisto had an even larger head sculpt and new hands, not to mention a 100% accurate costume for $5 less.
Even his box had to be larger which I'm sure should have added to the cost but it didn't. Probably because he was sold while SS was still "testing the waters" and selling the figures for as cheap as possible trying to get as many new SW collectors new to them (like myself) as new customers. Now they know they can put out any character they want and charge any price and it will sell out.
Again, I've been pretty pleased as a new customer to SS but they have very obvious issues that need to be addressed and the fact anyone who brings them up is instantly pounced on my jlcmsu and the other regular "SS can do no wrong" people is BS.
They should be shipping the figures double boxed like 99% of every other collectibles company without charging us another $8 for a $2 box and a couple of air bubbles.
They should be pacing out the figures better instead of slamming us with so much stuff you have to be rich to afford a complete collection.
If a figure is way more complicated to produce like say Vader, Fett or Queen Amidala then I'll gladly pay way more than $60 for them but the fact they could sell a great figure like Luke for $50 and then what is little more than a $20 GI Joe figure for $60 smacks of greed. The fact they then sell 3 variations of it is just insult to injury.
I wonder if they only have the license for only a limited few years and they are trying to make as many millions as possible off it in case they lose it.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if Hasbro is watching the huge amount of money they are making and take it back in a few years and try to make a better (even though they would never touch SS's) SW 12" line of their own again.
I hope SS keeps the 12" license forever but agree with other that they are going to end up shooting themselves in the foot by the way they handle it and in the end just turn collectors away by it. I've collected every 3 3/4" Hasbro figure made since 1995 and I know I've gotten almost discouraged enough to stop altogether when I've gotten really behind getting them. My best buddy stopped totally when he got sick of not being able to find them all. It is true that of any license, SW collectors are true completists and SS WILL lose many customers if they make it too difficult for a large many of us to get them all.
I came here to talk about these figures and voice my opinions like the rest of you. Feel free to read my posts from the beginning and you'll see they have been far more positive of the figures than negative. The problem here is that as long as you're going along with the SS can do no wrong attitude, you're loved by all but the moment you say something negative you get attacked.
This place seems to be a safe haven for the people who can't take all the criticism at rebelscum and want to have a boring Care Bear land where everyone just posts about how SS is the most flawless compnay in the world and all their porducts are perfect.
Well, like many here have said, if mediocracy suits you then more power to you but some like myself want these figures to be the best they can be and if none of us voice our displeasure with things then we'll all have to suffer with mediocracy.
I think most people here seem to be rational cool people except jlcmsu who has to be the biggest hypocrite alive. He's all rolling smilies and LOL comments when he's replying to posts praising SS but then all "you're a %$#* idiot and a @!#$% fool" if you say some that's not.
The fact he's just some grown adult who still lives at home yet feels the need to play board nazi and decide whose opinon is or isn't valid speaks volumes.
Dude, you need to get out of your parents house, stop living on this and rebelscums boards and grow up a little and then maybe you can bring something to the table that has some substance instead of just making 50,000 posts of buttkissing drivel and attacks towards others who actually have an opinion.
If I'm correct that this isn't a place where you can speak your opinion, good or bad, without jerks like him and a few others attacking me for not being just another "SS cheerleader" then I'll gladly make this my last post and move on.
I'll continue to try and collect this line and continue to go about my life. I only came here because I know the SS people listen to us here and the opportunity to directly interact with the company making the figures I'm collecting is too great to pass up.
