Heath Ledger Joker Customs

[Nick D]

I'm not comfortable calling John greedy, considering he offers the best value for money in in the custom world at the moment.

Yeah, $300 for a scupt is pushing it, but he makes up for it with his painting / rooting price.

I guess it might be his way of discouraging people from taking it to someone else.

I’ve never talked to John, but the $100 markup while knowing this Yi Xie sculpt for $210 was in the works doesn’t make much sense. If you’re upset about that, why not match that price, stick to your original price, not charge way more?

This guy is asking for $210 flat
with shipping due in three months.

 

[roan]

Yep, I paid $270 USD for the sculpt Heise made, Dai’s was $305 USD but I got a refund. $300+ for a blank sculpt does seem greedy.

Well Dai makes them by hand, which is far more difficult so I can understand his pricing.

An extra run of 20 altered sculpts is better than the sculpt getting sold to Hot Toys for mass production.

Completely agree with that. I honestly can’t stand that sculpt anymore, I have seen it too much.

Will order soon.

You’re not waiting to see it painted first?

 

[Nick D]

Completely agree with that. I honestly can’t stand that sculpt anymore, I have seen it too much.

Yeah it’s going to be worse by the time all of the orders are out there I imagine. It’s a good sculpt,
I just like seeing small runs. After these three “sleepy” sculpts, I don’t want to see the concept anymore.
I feel it’s reached its evolution.

You’re not waiting to see it painted first?

Nope, will look good. Some sculpts you can just see it. Yi Xie’s Penguin sculpt with the grin is unbelievable.

Will likely be sold out in a month also, so don’t think I have the luxury of waiting for the sample to be shown, unless I get Heise to show me it early which he’s done before.

 

[Scout Trooper]

I’ve never talked to John, but the $100 markup while knowing this Yi Xie sculpt for $210 was in the works doesn’t make much sense. If you’re upset about that, why not match that price, stick to your original price, not charge way more?

This guy is asking for $210 flat
with shipping due in three months.

I don't think it makes sense either.

I don't understand his rationale. Maybe he feels upping his painting / rooting fee is riskier for his business. But he knows there's demand for the sleepy sculpt (maybe less now that everyone else is doing it, and recasts (unfortunately) are available).

 

[Scout Trooper]

But I agree. The sleepy concept is losing its novelty with all these variations being made.

 

[roan]

Are we even certain that Heise's coming back? He said he might after he's caught up with his commission work, but just last week he told me he's lost the passion for this, which doesn't bode very well.

We’ll have to see I guess. Hoping for the best, I would love to own some work by him.

 

[roan]

He can’t paint the sample fast enough though.
Really want to see it.

Me too, I’m actually pretty excited to see it painted.

 

[Nick D]

But I agree. The sleepy concept is losing its novelty with all these variations being made.

I’m personally happy we now have three variants,
in such quick succession at that.
Not drawn out. These three runs will be swooped up quickly. But yes recasts unfortunately will spoil the fun.

- 15 Units No Teeth
- 20 Units Teeth
- 20 Units Mouth Closed

Not many for custom. Still won’t be a boring sculpt to see.

 

[Scout Trooper]

We’ll have to see I guess. Hoping for the best, I would love to own some work by him.

View attachment 741392
View attachment 741393

Me too. I tried to offer him something other than Joker (Blade Runner K) to see if it spikes up his interest. But no cigar.

 

[Nick D]

@intothevoid

 

[Wor-Gar]

So now we’ll all have one without teeth showing, teeth showing and closed mouthed. Should be interesting. Someone is bound to get all three.

Where’s Wor?
@Wor-Gar

I do like this new one. I like the teeth bared. More threatening. Head will need to be forward.

I think I still like the original sleepy best -- the slight open mouth, haunting look, like he's considering how to cut you apart.

But its nice to have options.

I'd also like to see it painted up. It's so silly, these renders can easily be colorized to give an idea of what it might look like painted. Sometimes I feel like they duck that on purpose.

Decisions... and even more decisions...

 

[Wor-Gar]

And where is DiostaR....? He's at home... watching his sculpts! Haha!

Seriously, today is the delivery day. Did he get them? Is he in Heaven? Is he in Hell? Are the sculpts everything he wanted them to be?

Fingers crossed for him...

 

[Nick D]

I’ve been wanting a Ledger
with teeth for a while now.

Having canceled my Artisan DX33, as well as altering my JND order from Type B to Type A, this will be my best shot at securing that. I’m really interested in a cleaner paint app for this.

It looks great here.

 

[DiostaR]

I’ve never talked to John, but the $100 markup while knowing this Yi Xie sculpt for $210 was in the works doesn’t make much sense. If you’re upset about that, why not match that price, stick to your original price, not charge way more?

I'm pretty sure he didn't know tho.

I will let him know about y'all feedback, I think it will be interesting for him.

I'm not comfortable calling John greedy, considering he offers the best value for money in in the custom world at the moment.

He's really not, his painting/rooting fees in 2024 were 200$ and 270$ for 2025.
In custom standards it's a steal.
He could easily bump his prices of a few hundreds, I think that if you compare with Yuan it would be fair.

And where is DiostaR....? He's at home... watching his sculpts! Haha!

Seriously, today is the delivery day. Did he get them? Is he in Heaven? Is he in Hell? Are the sculpts everything he wanted them to be?

Fingers crossed for him...

They got delayed !

 

[Nick D]

If he didn’t know then that makes it a bit different,
but the price increase makes up for that extra sculpt being made by Yi Xie.
At least it isn’t a bunch of recasting flooding.

I personally can’t wait for this version, I’ve been kicking myself for not securing a clean makeup with teeth look. Would be happy to have this and Heise next to the Yi Xie 4.0 & JND.

 

[Nick D]

Too bad we can’t see another Kato run.
Need the waistcoat, was made so well.
Still weathering my purple coat.
Will look similar to Owen’s.

 

[DiostaR]

I hope so. At least he’s not completely quitting the hobby like he intended.

Yeah, no hate towards John, but his “new” sculpt kinda feels like a money grab. All he did was close the mouth, added another $100 on top and increased the addition size.
I haven’t seen many go for $300 or more apart from some Balloon Man sculpts.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the price is not final as it's not up for sale yet, I shared your feedback and the others to him, we'll see what he does with it..

For the sculpt he actually resculpted the mouth completely, and he did other touch-ups on the nose and the ears.

Ambrosial sold his last sculpt from the "laughing" penthouse scene more than 500$ while the actual price was closer to 300/350$ either because it was the last one or because he sold it to someone overseas, I'm not sure.
That's what I call a money grab or at the very least a bad mentality.

John is not like that, I've been talking to him for almost a year now and I believe that he's not doing this to make money and profit only.

I know you don't mean anything bad with your post but it still makes me a little sad to read that so I had to reply.

 

[DiostaR]

Oh and if he does make 25 of them then it's a decrease in edition size because there's 35 units of the "Sleepy" V1 head.

 

[Nick D]

Oh so

- 35 V1
- 25 V2
- 20 Yi Xie Teeth

80 total isn’t bad for a run of variants. There’s about to be thousands of the Ambrosial sculpt around in comparison.