I've been watching his page, waiting for his verdict. Based on the Sam Flynn Tron figure he has listed at £225 (compared to Sideshow's $299.99) the $250 Indy plus his delivery fee may work out around the same price as FP.co.uk.
I emailed one of the Chinese sellers on Ebay out of interest, and was assured not to worry about incurring customs fees as, "I am tax avoidance expert."
With the free delivery taking 40 odd days, and the likelihood of customs and postal handling charges, I'd rather go for a UK supplier.
Hope this high pricing is just Lucas' greedy cut, and not going to be the Hot Toys norm...
You obviously want this to be a near perfect figure and are not willing to compromise with what we've been shown. But most folks aren't perfectionists and are not going to hold out hope for an absolute, perfect figure. That's not being an "HT fanboy," necessarily.
Many think this is "good enough" to justify buying. It will be a nice complement to the Sideshow version, even if it is flawed. Hot Toys probably will tweak it a bit, but if not, it will still be a nice figure, particularly when posed in the right angle with the right lighting (as we have seen with some of Plastic Enemies' pics).
If folks really weren't willing to compromise, then they will behave as you apparently are and not pre-order. And if enough people do this, then Hot Toys will get the message one way or the other. But compromises are made by most collectors. If not, I don't know how you could accept a single Sideshow Joe, as nearly all of them have issues of some kind. I'm not a "Sideshow fanboy" because I buy their Joes, though. I like the characters and the figures are good enough, so I buy.
Having said all that, I'm not completely satisfied with this figure and I'm not sure if I will keep my pre-order or not. But, I'm leaning toward keeping it for the reasons I say here.
Something else that bothers me about the HT figure are the stripes on the soles and heels of his boots. If you look here:
https://www.indygear.com/igboots.html
you can see that there aren't any. The best Alden's I've seen (I haven't seen the Newline ones.) are the Hasbro ones. Repaint them the right colour and they look great.
CHEERS!
For $250, I expect him to look a hell of a lot more like Indy. If he were checking in at the HT average of $150 or hell, even more accurately the DX price of $180, I wouldn't be _____ing. But at $250, this "good enough" isn't. And the fact that many are preordering with "faith" doesn't send HT any message other than, "Wow, look at all the preorders. Guess he's a hit!" Thinking otherwise is blatantly naive.
If you're looking at the figure while it's facing 30 degrees west, in a rising eastern sunlight with the curtains half shut and your eyes closed, yeah, it might be a "good enough" Harrison. But for my $250, he needs to at least top the Sideshow sculpt and wardrobe. And simply, he doesn't.
As I said previously. If this figure was checking in at the regular DX price, I'd take it with a grain of salt. But you gotta understand, HT pimped the hell out of this and made it the main display at a toy show, slapping together an "almost" Harrison sculpt and a wardrobe that looks like they guessed off of black and white pics and memory. And to top it off, they slap a $250 price tag on it. Only a fool would think this isn't setting a precedence for future DX releases. And with HT being the best ****** 1:6 maker in the business, to release this, for this much, is an insult at large. Dropping $$$ on the preorder only shows blind faith and dedication. Hoping it will improve, sends no other message than, "This gets my money because it is good enough."
Thanks for telling HT that Indy's perfectly fine.
As I said previously. If this figure was checking in at the regular DX price, I'd take it with a grain of salt. But you gotta understand, HT pimped the hell out of this and made it the main display at a toy show, slapping together an "almost" Harrison sculpt and a wardrobe that looks like they guessed off of black and white pics and memory. And to top it off, they slap a $250 price tag on it. Only a fool would think this isn't setting a precedence for future DX releases. And with HT being the best ****** 1:6 maker in the business, to release this, for this much, is an insult at large. Dropping $$$ on the preorder only shows blind faith and dedication. Hoping it will improve, sends no other message than, "This gets my money because it is good enough."
I was a little bothered by them too, so I did some research on the net; the HT boots look just like brand new Aldens. Do a search for Alden 405's and you'll see. Indy's are old, weathered and beaten, so the sole colouration isn't so prominent, but they looked like the HT ones to begin with. On the Indygear page you linked, you can just about make the stripes out under all the dust and dirt. I'm pretty pleased with the HT boots, and with some weathering I think they'll look fine.
For $250, I expect him to look a hell of a lot more like Indy. If he were checking in at the HT average of $150 or hell, even more accurately the DX price of $180, I wouldn't be _____ing. But at $250, this "good enough" isn't. And the fact that many are preordering with "faith" doesn't send HT any message other than, "Wow, look at all the preorders. Guess he's a hit!" Thinking otherwise is blatantly naive.
If you're looking at the figure while it's facing 30 degrees west, in a rising eastern sunlight with the curtains half shut and your eyes closed, yeah, it might be a "good enough" Harrison. But for my $250, he needs to at least top the Sideshow sculpt and wardrobe. And simply, he doesn't.
As I said previously. If this figure was checking in at the regular DX price, I'd take it with a grain of salt. But you gotta understand, HT pimped the hell out of this and made it the main display at a toy show, slapping together an "almost" Harrison sculpt and a wardrobe that looks like they guessed off of black and white pics and memory. And to top it off, they slap a $250 price tag on it. Only a fool would think this isn't setting a precedence for future DX releases. And with HT being the best ****** 1:6 maker in the business, to release this, for this much, is an insult at large. Dropping $$$ on the preorder only shows blind faith and dedication. Hoping it will improve, sends no other message than, "This gets my money because it is good enough."
Thanks for telling HT that Indy's perfectly fine.
Totally agree, Nam.
People were up in arms about Sideshow's Indy, which was the best at the time. And that was only $90! People still complain that $90 is too much for Sideshow's Indy because of the bad paint, poor body and inaccurate clothing and accessories. Now we have a $250 figure with a bad sculpt, poor body choice and inaccurate clothing and accessories created by the top high-end toy manufacturer around and half the people here think it's "good enough"?
What's odd is, seeing what they've done to Indy, I don't even want them to go anywhere near Star Wars.
I've been thinking along similar lines lately. A Han Solo figure that doesn't look like Harrison Ford? No thanks.
That Arab disguise just proves that no matter how much I want the sculpt to improve, I'm buying the figure just for this outfit.
That's as it should be.
I'm sure most who preordered have done so with the expectation that HT will "fix" the sculpt and make it better. But I fully expect at least half of those preorders to be cancelled because something newer and better gets offered between now and then. Batman stuff or Terminator stuff most likely.
I'm quite sure this Indy will turn out fine, I'm not happy with the sculpt yet & a few other things which have all ready been mentioned but Arnie Kim did say there still working on it & there not let me down yet, so I'm going to give HT the benefit of the doubt. If it does turn out to be a disappointment then it will just end up on eBay.
For $250, I expect him to look a hell of a lot more like Indy. If he were checking in at the HT average of $150 or hell, even more accurately the DX price of $180, I wouldn't be _____ing. But at $250, this "good enough" isn't. And the fact that many are preordering with "faith" doesn't send HT any message other than, "Wow, look at all the preorders. Guess he's a hit!" Thinking otherwise is blatantly naive.
If you're looking at the figure while it's facing 30 degrees west, in a rising eastern sunlight with the curtains half shut and your eyes closed, yeah, it might be a "good enough" Harrison. But for my $250, he needs to at least top the Sideshow sculpt and wardrobe. And simply, he doesn't.
As I said previously. If this figure was checking in at the regular DX price, I'd take it with a grain of salt. But you gotta understand, HT pimped the hell out of this and made it the main display at a toy show, slapping together an "almost" Harrison sculpt and a wardrobe that looks like they guessed off of black and white pics and memory. And to top it off, they slap a $250 price tag on it. Only a fool would think this isn't setting a precedence for future DX releases. And with HT being the best ****** 1:6 maker in the business, to release this, for this much, is an insult at large. Dropping $$$ on the preorder only shows blind faith and dedication. Hoping it will improve, sends no other message than, "This gets my money because it is good enough."
Thanks for telling HT that Indy's perfectly fine.