Fett Undressed

[kodiak8658]

Would you be pissed if you bought a Mercedes from a Mercedes dealer, and then after signing the paperwork - he says "BTW - it's got a Kia engine. But it still LOOKS awesome, right?".

The ME generation would say, 'You don't have to buy it.' or 'Just cancel your order.' This doesn't help those that were highly anticipating Boba and were highly disappointed about the final product materials and perhaps future PF statues made of lesser materials with the same PF prices. Look at the difference between Boba and Darkness. A $25 price difference and a world of difference in the quality.

 

[kodiak8658]

Well, according to what was said in the blog the armor was done in plastic because of shrinkage rate during the molding process. The body was done to keep the same rate as the armor.

The museum says we should be tolerant. Yes....the museum...the museum says.

 

[revilal]

The only mistakes made by Sideshow was using a plastic body and not lowering the price a tad.


Using ABS for the armour was a good decision from a 'delivery' point of view since fragile pieces are regularly subject to breakage and SS would be looking at a huge replacement cost.

Lets face it, some people return/replace their pieces even if there is a slight chip behind the cape that no-one will ever see, and as generous as SS's customer service is, people will tend to take advantage of it. SS may well have taken this into account.

So lets assume 50% of the 4000 run were returned due to broken polystone pieces.
Thats 2000 returns, costing SS the shipping cost, plus the cost to reproduce another 2000 and then hoping for no breakages this time. Do the math.

SS got it spot on using ABS for the armour, and it would have been an irresponsible business decision had they not.
Anyone who doesn't like this, then go and use the money for another PF or wait for another PF Fett to be announced at another company.

If you're unhappy about the cost for a plastic body on the other hand, I can totally understand your frustrations, and vent away.

 

[kodiak8658]

The only mistakes made by Sideshow was using a plastic body and not lowering the price a tad.

I know there are countless posts in numerous threads about Boba Plastic. To sum it up....

Sideshow started production with the intent to have a polystone body. After having problems attaching pre-made ABS plastic armor, they decided to change the body media to all ABS. They were unable to lower the price because of already accumulated production costs; starting off with polystone instead of going with ABS from the start. That was definitely a mistake by Sideshow's production team.

Their next mistake was that they sold out the item without mentioning the media change. From the first day Boba went on sale, the description of the product didn't include what media was being used. All were so excited, they assumed the PF figure would again be polystone. Sideshow didn't mention polystone, but they didn't mention ABS either.

Their next mistake was waiting until Boba was arriving at their warehouse to tell people all this. It was a smart move from a company's prespective to avoid a mountain of return shipping costs and attempting not to leave a bad taste in the collector's mouth when they receive an ABS instead of polystone statue, but a dumb move in the fact that some people were disappointed while others were downright outraged at this late delivered information. A customer service and company image nightmare.

Now there is a great debate of polystone vs. ABS, and several people canceled their Boba order anyway. They had previously not listed the media for the upcoming Darth Maul PF, which may have indicated they were considering ABS, but those thoughts were squelched by the tremendous negative feedback they received from Boba Plastic. Now Maul's description has been updated to include polystone as the media.

Now you're up to date. I'm counting 3 major blunders so far.

Oh yes, in addition, several people have received Boba with cracked or broken polystone bases and broken rangefinders. Not what you'd expect from a PF with a price over $300.

 

[MaulFan]

Your quick fix doesn't help the fact that people will still feel ripped being charged PF prices for an 18" action figure with no articulation. This piece was long awaited for many. How many more long awaited characters will be a disappointment? Just because you're finished with the debate, doesn't mean all of us are. If your tired of reading or posting about it, by all means don't.

I'm not trying to end debate, I was just interjecting logic which apparently is eluding some people. If you went to a car dealer and he quoted you a car and you thought it wasn't worth their price, would you still drive it off the lot and spend your ride home saying you got ripped off, of course not, so if you feel the Boba PF is a ripoff, what's to debate, don't get it, save the money and get something you feel is worth every penny it costs, just seems logical to me instead of a dog chasing it's tail debate.

 

[The Josh]

This has been reiterated in many threads but it breaks down to this -

Because they are using ABS for all the parts they have to do a steel injection mold rather than the standard silicon mold used for polystone. These steel molds are 10s of thousands of dollars, especially for something as large as a 1/4 PF body. While ABS is a slightly cheaper material than polystone, the cost savings of using ABS is more than offset by the necessity of creating steel molds.

So true Dave. The process for making this figure was much different than any of the other PF pieces they have made to date. Therefore raising the cost on a piece that if you look at materials ONLY should cost less. It's these types of things that despite things looking like they should cost less just doesn't work out that way.

Example being the Darkness PF. He's all polystone which means they can use the normal casting process so his price is pretty much normal. Where as if they have to use a brand new mold for Boba which ONLY ADDS COST to his making his price goes up despite the materials being used. I should say goes up because of the materials being used.

In the end as I've said before I'd rather SS do something like this and get me my piece intact and looking good than try for a material that didn't work.

 

[master-obi-wan]

Well I recieved my Fett - now I am a completist and have every other exclusive piece in this line - Boba is my favorite character so this piece is the one I have been most looking forward too. That completist part of me and the fact this is Boba Fett however could not justify this piece. Whenever I opened one of these PF figures up my reaction was always wow - and I took some time to really appreciate it. I opened Boba and picked him up and my first thought was what the heck is this? I set it up and along with all the other complaints that have been mentioned even the stand was sub par in my opinion. I mean I tried to push Boba onto the pegs and the base bent in - that is totally unacceptable. There is no reason the base had to be made of some sort of plastic too. I am very happy for those that like their statue but after trying to like him for a couple of days he is now gone.

 

[IrishJedi]

Well I recieved my Fett - now I am a completist and have every other exclusive piece in this line - Boba is my favorite character so this piece is the one I have been most looking forward too. That completist part of me and the fact this is Boba Fett however could not justify this piece. Whenever I opened one of these PF figures up my reaction was always wow - and I took some time to really appreciate it. I opened Boba and picked him up and my first thought was what the heck is this? I set it up and along with all the other complaints that have been mentioned even the stand was sub par in my opinion. I mean I tried to push Boba onto the pegs and the base bent in - that is totally unacceptable. There is no reason the base had to be made of some sort of plastic too. I am very happy for those that like their statue but after trying to like him for a couple of days he is now gone.

Yeah, I've been hearing about the top of the base being soft plastic, too. That is just beyond cheap, imho.

Is there no end to the bad news surrounding this product?

 

[Nightwings]

I have no complaints. He's an excellent likeness and nothing on mine is broken or limp and the neck pivot is completely covered on mine. As for the price it can't be that bad since I've seen several sell on ebay in the last week for $400US.

 

[the Doctor]

all ss starwars 1/4 scale pf's are overpriced and the edition sizes to high
making it cheeper on ebay..thats one thing but i dont see a difference with boba and an oversized action figure...plastic and clothing...its very confusing....

who would collect 1/4 starwars action figures and how much would they be worth paying for???

 

[El Roranous]

I have no complaints. He's an excellent likeness and nothing on mine is broken or limp and the neck pivot is completely covered on mine. As for the price it can't be that bad since I've seen several sell on ebay in the last week for $400US.

Your antenna is a bit limp...don't worry it happens to every one

 

[user 1190]

I know there are countless posts in numerous threads about Boba Plastic. To sum it up....

Yes and 90% of them here are from you and I have a feeling you don't even have it.

 

[Nightwings]

That's not an antenna, it's a range finder, and Boba's RF moves from vertical to horizontal just like it does in the movies. Some people may have one that isn't snug enough to sit horizontal infront of his face but mine is capable of any position along the axis without moving.

 

[user 1190]

Yeah, I've been hearing about the top of the base being soft plastic, too. That is just beyond cheap, imho.

Is there no end to the bad news surrounding this product?

It seems like the base had a rubber coating on top. I will admit it seemed kinda odd.

But its for safety, you don't want Fett slipping a slick base now do you.

 

[El Roranous]

That's not an antenna, it's a range finder, and Boba's RF moves from vertical to horizontal just like it does in the movies. Some people may have one that isn't snug enough to sit horizontal infront of his face but mine is capable of any position along the axis without moving.

Sorry if you took it offensively, it was meant as a joke.

Look into it for deeper meaning...

 

[Shai]

who would collect 1/4 starwars action figures

Star wars fans of course..they buy anything...

 

[IrishJedi]

McHaleyArt on SF modified his Fett (his is the one that was taken apart which started this thread).

He changed the pose and repainted the helmet, belt weathered the armor a bit more, etc.

IMHO, it looks a gazillion times better:

It's amazing how much his repaint "fixes" the proportion problems with the helmet.

After seeing these pics, I will definitely get one when it hits near the $200-220 range. Then I will make these very same modifications (I'll also add weight to it and fix the kinked hoses, which are also just ridiculous on SSC's part).

 

[Bannister]

McHaleyArt on SF modified his Fett (his is the one that was taken apart which started this thread).

He changed the pose and repainted the helmet, belt weathered the armor a bit more, etc.

IMHO, it looks a gazillion times better:

It's amazing how much his repaint "fixes" the proportion problems with the helmet.

After seeing these pics, I will definitely get one when it hits near the $200-220 range. Then I will make these very same modifications (I'll also add weight to it and fix the kinked hoses, which are also just ridiculous on SSC's part).

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DouglasMcc]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agreed ... that pose is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than Sideshow's choice. And the helmet looks better too. You need to hired this guy quick SSC!

 

[Kookie]

I received my Boba Fett this morning, here are my impressions.

Positive:

-Highly detailed armor and clothing. I can understand the need for the armor to be plastic, it was so thin it would certainly break during shipping or over the life of the statue.

-The box utilized space much more effectively, making it smaller than even the Han and Luke box. I'm glad to see Sideshow is taking storage space into consideration with all the PF figures one collects.

-The paint application was very nicely done considering all the weathering effects needed.

Negative:

-The antenna on mine flops forward and I had to use some clear tape wedged into the space to make it stand up.

-The statue didn't fit very nicely on the base. There is a small gap between the foot and the base and won't go down no matter how hard I push....does anyone else have that problem?

Overall...I'm very satisfied with the statue. I'm a Star Wars fan but not a Boba Fett fanatic so this piece is perfect for me as a representation of the character.