Hot Toys DX Bespin Luke Skywalker

[sithlord13]

Lone Ranger, iron man mark 3212, tron, suckerpunch, blade 3, Noland from predators, the exlendables, the list goes on and on. Hot toys is no stranger to making a lot of pure garbage, me? PT figures would be a huge step up to all the aforementioned crap.

I really would strongly like an EP2 Padme, EP 3 Anakin and Obi Wan. Not at the expense of a proper HT Leia, obi Wan, Emperor, chewbacca or Han Solo, but I'd really like all three.

The problem with the prequel trilogy is that there are as many moments of brilliance as there is utter embarrassments, often in the same movie. That being said I have a certain affinity for them and certainly hold revenge of the Sith at least on equal par to ROTJ as a film.

Agreed. I want a great padme - ep2. Can Ssc do it possibly now but you know ht would smash the sculpt.

Pt wise if I had to have one figure to represent the three it's anakin ep3. I have a great custom but want a ht quality one as well. So hot toys hurry the f&@k up. Lol

As for the prequels themselves? I'm glad they exist and there are some brillant touches with in it. Could they have been better? Yes should they have been better? Hell yeah.

Lucas screwed the pooch with the whole anakin as a baby start, that and not showing enough reason for anakin to fall. I would also have preferred the clone wars to be either two clone armies or clones as the bad guys like zahn alluded to in his trilogy.

Stover did well with his novel to help the former and the later was touched on by dark horse.

But hey I could go on for a long time ...

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Logic would suggest that SW is still on their radar - the issue is when, of course. What they're going to make is still really a mystery. Whether they've thrown out a hint, tidbit, clue or otherwise, plans change.

PP's obviously right about their release patterns; film release dates don't seem to be a concern to them these days.

As I mentioned in another thread - they'll surprise us, they've done it many times now with their other licenses..

 

[CaptnRex]

Well hurry up and surprise us Hot Toys.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Use hot toys bodies and have them do the portraits.

Current mounting evidence is pointing to Sideshow slowly out-doing Hot toys in terms of portraits/head sculpts. Hot Toys has not yet produced a sculpt that's better than 80% accurate IMO - they all have flaws. I'm not expecting SSC to be perfect either, but honestly, their new Hoth sculpts, at least in prototype form, look more accurate than anything Hot Toys has ever done.

Incidentally, their collaboration on the figures you mentioned were stated by multiple others here on the forum to have been with regards to the bodies. If their relationship is close, it's not out of the realm of possibility that SSC could use the same factories as Hot Toys for final production. Production quality in China is all about dollars spent and having someone on site to make sure everything is up to your standards.

For perspective, I like both companies and have mostly Hot Toys in my collection at the moment. I don't care which company makes a particular figure/license as long as it's very high quality. Hot Toys and SSC currently make the best mass-produced product, head and shoulders above everyone else, including Medicom. Both HT and SSC are showing significant growth strides over the past couple of years pulling them even further ahead of everyone else. Although we already have, I don't think it's necessary to compare these two companies with regards to the likelihood of HT releasing another SW figure.

So your arguement is they shouldnt sell pt figure because people like yourself thought They were crap,

No, that's not my argument at all - where did you get that from? My argument is that clearly Hot Toys only SW figure seems to have been a very slow seller compared to their other figures. That they have clearly (for reasons we can't confirm) let their "1 a year" schedule for SW lapse by what will soon be 2 years. That SW PT is not as popular among people with disposable income for this hobby as OT. That it's nowhere near as popular as the majority of other stuff they're doing. That it's not as cult-status as much as the other less popular stuff too.

Hot Toys must have some kind of arrangement with Johnny Depp to produce a figure of everything he does. I can't explain the Tonto otherwise.

 

[Invictus Sol]

Current mounting evidence is pointing to Sideshow slowly out-doing Hot toys in terms of portraits/head sculpts. Hot Toys has not yet produced a sculpt that's better than 80% accurate IMO - they all have flaws. I'm not expecting SSC to be perfect either, but honestly, their new Hoth sculpts, at least in prototype form, look more accurate than anything Hot Toys has ever done.

Incidentally, their collaboration on the figures you mentioned were stated by multiple others here on the forum to have been with regards to the bodies. If their relationship is close, it's not out of the realm of possibility that SSC could use the same factories as Hot Toys for final production. Production quality in China is all about dollars spent and having someone on site to make sure everything is up to your standards.

For perspective, I like both companies and have mostly Hot Toys in my collection at the moment. I don't care which company makes a particular figure/license as long as it's very high quality. Hot Toys and SSC currently make the best mass-produced product, head and shoulders above everyone else, including Medicom. Both HT and SSC are showing significant growth strides over the past couple of years pulling them even further ahead of everyone else. Although we already have, I don't think it's necessary to compare these two companies with regards to the likelihood of HT releasing another SW figure.

I think Raymond has a point in that Trevor Grove has done other phenomenal sculpts for SSC before and they've been somewhat ruined by the factory paint apps.

That said, I'd agree with you, too, that SSC does appear to have really upped their game if we take all the Hoth prototypes at face value, along with stuff like Grievous and Raynor. All of it is a nice surprise and way better than I was expecting from them. Hopefully they knock the paint out of the park for production. That'll silence a lot of the criticism and comparisons between Sideshow and HT.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

They also seemed to have slowly over the course of the last few years, corrected the 'bobble head' syndrome that a lot of their earlier human figures had.. which is definitely a good thing.

 

[Raymond F.]

There's no doubt about it that they are slowly correcting issues but slowly is the key word.

The Trevor portraits on the hoth figures look great especially Han, and if they were scaled to hot toys and the paint came out exactly like that there's no way one couldn't display it beside hot toys luke and not bat an eye.

Unfortunately we all know they won't come out looking like that.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Unfortunately we all know they won't come out looking like that.

No one knows any such thing. If you know something about SSC's current factory contracts, then please back up your comments. Because otherwise, WE GET IT. You prefer Hot Toys to SSC - you don't need to keep pounding that drum.

 

[Pixelpiper]

a point in that Trevor Grove has done other phenomenal sculpts for SSC before and they've been somewhat ruined by the factory paint apps.

I know where you're coming from, but I'll also add that Grove has also produced some sculpts that were simply under par, such as Don Draper (non-SSC granted). Sideshow's Indy (he did that one too right?) has more wrong with it than just paint application. There are others. As talented as an artist is, in this line of work you have to also give much credit to art direction. A great production figure requires a great team to see it through.

If it's not clear that Sideshow have altered their process (they've explained this verbally already), then at the very least it should be clear that they've decided to step up their production value. You can't possibly compare the latest products and previews from SSC to what they were producing in the past. They've got the licenses, they've got the industry contacts, they've got the money and they can hire whomever they want as well as oversee production anywhere they want. It's all about direction and management to keep everything firing smoothly, and it looks like SSC are taking this very seriously.

At the end of the day, give me any current figure from each company and for every fault someone finds in the SSC example, I'll point out one in the HT. They're both great companies at producing great products - they both miss the mark by varying degrees from release to release. No one is perfect, no one will ever be perfect. Material scaling cannot achieve perfection because you can't alter molecular structure nor physics. And portraits are not living organisms and will likewise never precisely match the ever changing subtleties of someone's face. The biggest mistake one can make is judging a company's future solely based on their past. I'm sure we can all pick our favorite examples of this.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

..portraits are not living organisms and will likewise never precisely match the ever changing subtleties of someone's face.

Good point.

A lot of folks fail to grasp that.

 

[Raymond F.]

How can you possibly back up that they will look like that based on every single sideshow release in the history of the company as up until this point no product has ever come close to looking like the prototype. I'd say my statement has more validity than yours. Neither statement can be proven true or false until the product is released however logic and history can allow one to make an educated guess on what probably is going to happen. Take obi wan for example, one could not argue obviouse improvements made but the paint application and quality was severely different than the nice painted prototypes. This is independent of the sculpt, which clearly was even still lacking in terms of everything from likeness, to realism to scale.

The best thing sideshow has going for it is Trevor, no one can really pick apart his portraits, in many cases sculpt and likeness wise it beats out most hot toys efforts, but the truth is that sideshows shoddy production often overshadows the sculpts he does for them.

And yes I do know something about SS factory and production, I know that the prototype painters are given the opportunity to give some pointers personally to the factory in paint application but that's as far as it goes, they have no control over anything else, if this changes than great. Sideshow can prove us all wrong. It has nothing to do with preference it's a straight up fact that sideshow prototype to production is not as consistent as Hot Toys or many other of the Asian based 1/6 companies.

It's why Sideshow should stick to what they do well, especially since they think they can ask hot toys prices for quality that quite frankly is not up to that standard.

 

[Raymond F.]

And I do agree with you that sideshow has the lisences and the money to have production overseen wherever they want, what they showed looks promising but it's not the first time something's looked promising in the prototype stage.

I'm not saying its an impossibility more like an improbability. I hope sideshow proves us wrong because at this rate Hot Toys will not offer up a respectable Star Wars collection.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

I'm keen to see how their production Cmdr Wolffe turns out - that's not far away..

Generally speaking - if they want to stay in the game, they have to improve.. so you'd think they'd have that as a basic mantra. Hoth Han & Luke seem to indicate that..

 

[Pixelpiper]

How can you possibly back up that they will look like that based on every single sideshow release in the history of the company as up until this point no product has ever come close to looking like the prototype.

I'm saying give them the benefit of the doubt. Since the figures are not yet in production it's unknown precisely what will be in every retail box. I didn't make any statements that cannot be backed up, only that by the examples set over the recent history of production and prototypes, that Sideshow is demonstrating a desire to up their game. Incidentally, most of the Sideshow figures I find to be weak, were also as weak in prototype form, not simply done in by bad factory paint. Hot Toys and Sideshow both have examples in their portfolio of all these issues.

The exception I have with your position is that you believe it's impossible for Sideshow to improve, while I believe not only is it possible, it's probable. As an example of industry progression, you only need to look at the absolute junk Hot Toys was producing years ago, compared to what they do now. You've seen their Rocky figures, right? Yeah, they make Mattel look like they're on top of the world. And more recently look at all their Iron Man stuff - the armor is great, but who's that bearded guy playing the part of Tony Stark? It's most definitely not Robert Downy Junior. Latest example, Selina Kyle with flavors of Hathaway, but by no means actually looks like her with or without the mask except in very dramatic lighting with lots of shadows. I still have the figure arriving on Tuesday though, because I believe it's a great piece despite the weak sculpt and paint app, and poorly produced mask accessory.

 

[Raymond F.]

Hey as I said in ALL FOR sideshow improving. If Hoth Han an Luke come out looking like that they will be hard to pick apart, I air on the side of skepticism, I kind of was intrigued with Obi Wan but when i saw the final result was glad I didn't blindly buy. Though I liked his hands and got several sets of them for other figures.

If they do indeed claim to have improved their production means then lets keep our fingers crossed that the proof will be in the end result.

 

[3phase]

Got a good deal off a mate that only wanted the other figure so I got this one.
Only problem is it only came with a left closed fist so i might see if I can get an open one to hold on with or I might be able to open up the one I have somehow.

 

[Rorywan]

Current mounting evidence is pointing to Sideshow slowly out-doing Hot toys in terms of portraits/head sculpts.

Could you post some of this "mounting evidence" please?

 

[Pixelpiper]

I'm not your wife nor your mom - you can go look for yourself - it's only plastered all over the board and this very thread. I really don't like to repeat myself.

 

[Rorywan]

I'm not your wife nor your mom - you can go look for yourself - it's only plastered all over the board and this very thread. I really don't like to repeat myself.

really just

 

[Travis Baumann]

At SDCC they showed Commander Wolf, Malgus, and Grievous which were all stated as being production pieces, exactly what we will get when they ship. All utilize new production methods (separate eyes, hair, and heads which will at the very least makes sure there is not paint bleed around the hairline and eyes. They are also using a method on the eyes more like HT which gives them a bit more life-like sparkle).

I think they all looked good. I already have Malgus ordered and I am on the fence about NRD on Grievous so might get the Non-Exclusive but they both looked great (I know only one of those is human but for the record they all looked great in person).

I have huge optimistic hopes for Han as he looked great, Luke I felt not quite so much but still acceptable. I wont be getting Wolf as I have too many clones as it is but I would say their new production method (which was not present on Obi-Wan) looks to be upping their game significantly.

As for the HT Catwoman... well I like her sculpt, it does look like Anne Hathaway depending on how you position her, I do however have some serious beefs with the costume and especially the mask/goggles construction... Headsculpts are only a portion of the figure we pay for and SSC has upped the frabrics/quality of their costuming as well (Bossk has a really solid outfit, Obi Wan I liked everything but the damn light up saber that is four times too big in diameter).