1/6 Hot Toys Stormtroopers Deluxe Version MMS514/515

[TaliBane]

Yeah, true, I do get the slightly friendlier vibe from those. It's weird, from across the room I thought the Rogue One helmet looked great, but the closer I got that aspect became more apparent.

I actually quite like the ROTJ figure as a whole for what it is too, but the one I really prefer or want on display and in my collection is the ANH, just wish the helmets were a bit improved.

The HT RO helnets always look like child or teen stormtroopers to me - softer features, big eyes. Yeah sort of cute with doey eyes.

Here's a question, if Disney does in fact own an original Stormtrooper suit, why did they not scan it, at least the helmet, 3D print new ones, and use them in their new OT films and shows? Why waste time and resources creating something that's close but still off?

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Maybe people like their stormtroopers (and Vaders etc.) clean, symmetrical and idealized and not the wonky, asymmetric, bumpy and sorta roughly finished things often seen onscreen.

We're well and truly in the era of 3D scan n' print, yet the old ways seem to persist. But... Look at the GG jumbo vintage figs - they are supposedly 3d scanned from the vintage figs yet side by side with the Kenner figs there are clearly a lot of differences and not just minor clean-up.

 

[Chronos1919]

 

[jkno]

Here's a question, if Disney does in fact own an original Stormtrooper suit, why did they not scan it, at least the helmet, 3D print new ones, and use them in their new OT films and shows? Why waste time and resources creating something that's close but still off?

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Maybe they don't know about accuracy, maybe they don't allow it, or maybe simply they don't care. People will buy these collectibles no matter what. Hence the discussions here and on other places. No figure or statue made so far is 100% accurate, and it is still bought by fans. And not just Star Wars, but Terminator, Predator, Aliens, Star Trek, Iron Man etc. Some try to improve their figures to a certain degree, but in the end it will not be perfect, not even in their own eyes. It's good to have an eye for details, but if that affects your life, then it might be something you want to think about on long term. There is a difference between the fun of finding accurate things, and the crazy obsession about that. Even RS Prop Masters made their first run of Hero helmets too narrow - we are talking about 1:1 helmets and RS Prop Masters, not Sideshow or Hot Toys. And there are other similar examples in 1:1 prop world (helmets, sabers, blasters, props, studio scale models etc.).

 

[Somerset]

Good luck with your brow strips, boys!

Was any reason given previously as to why the digital files and subsequent casts didn't remove the brow strips? I would have thought that there must be some suitably thin material tubing, wiring or trim out there that could be stuck on, which would give a nice clean line and allow people to match whichever screen trim they liked? Painting onto the sculpt seems like the tricky option there!

 

[ZE_501]

Was any reason given previously as to why the digital files and subsequent casts didn't remove the brow strips? I would have thought that there must be some suitably thin material tubing, wiring or trim out there that could be stuck on, which would give a nice clean line and allow people to match whichever screen trim they liked? Painting onto the sculpt seems like the tricky option there!

The providence of the original Shapeways file is reputed to be a scan of a helmet, probably a replica(?) rather than screen-used.

I?ve considered sanding the brow trim off and replacing it with a strip of styrene for a sharper finish. Doing so will take even more careful work as resin is a pain to work with.

Years ago the Medicom stormtroopers were sometimes modified on this way to make them look more ANH style, I think ? except in that case the trim was painted white and covered with a new black strip, not sanded off.


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[TaliBane]

Maybe they don't know about accuracy, maybe they don't allow it, or maybe simply they don't care. People will buy these collectibles no matter what. Hence the discussions here and on other places. No figure or statue made so far is 100% accurate, and it is still bought by fans. And not just Star Wars, but Terminator, Predator, Aliens, Star Trek, Iron Man etc. Some try to improve their figures to a certain degree, but in the end it will not be perfect, not even in their own eyes. It's good to have an eye for details, but if that affects your life, then it might be something you want to think about on long term. There is a difference between the fun of finding accurate things, and the crazy obsession about that. Even RS Prop Masters made their first run of Hero helmets too narrow - we are talking about 1:1 helmets and RS Prop Masters, not Sideshow or Hot Toys. And there are other similar examples in 1:1 prop world (helmets, sabers, blasters, props, studio scale models etc.).

I had a blast doing a deep dive into stormie town - sounds like some people take it too far and it's not fun anymore.

I absolutely love doing this - I got a diploma in Bossk-ology (and a figure that's way more accurate than the Sideshow) from it, currently doing a degree in Power droid/gonk and Ugnaught studies, and will soon be beginning studies on a rebel fleet trooper and returning to Luke's snowspeeder outfit (which I already have a diploma in.) Then it's on to taller Ewoks!

It's a ton of fun - I even found the original source of what some of the parts are, like the guy who traced the side panel of the Carbonite block to the Volvo dashboard. I mean who else would know that the tiny wrench on Bossk's chest has "King D!ck" stamped on it? (yes, it really does, and what a GREAT nickname for Bossk.)

At the point it affects your life, becomes a maddening exercise in OCD or just about being a world expert on nothingness (that's how the general public views that Volvo/Carbonite panel revelation) or whatever then people really should stop as you say.

Was any reason given previously as to why the digital files and subsequent casts didn't remove the brow strips? I would have thought that there must be some suitably thin material tubing, wiring or trim out there that could be stuck on, which would give a nice clean line and allow people to match whichever screen trim they liked? Painting onto the sculpt seems like the tricky option there!

Yeah, it's not a bad idea, though it might be a bit tricky to get the strip (which would have to be quite thin, so might not be rigid enough to hold a straight line strongly) to glue down straight. But at least it would then be a wavy strip like what some of the helmets have anyway, and I like the idea it would be an actual strip like on the real helmets.

I may try that, though I found I can gently take a scalpel to the painted strip and it does remove any slight black overpaint and gets it perfectly straight. I thought it might scratch the sprayed white but that wasn't the case.

Keep in mind, I think the original sculpt came from someone else on Shapeways then SoloBones made changes (ie it was not his 3D sculpt), so changes like no strip weren't really possible. That would have been awesome if it came with a glue-on strip.

Maybe Carsten/TMG could think about some kind of u-shaped strip for his upcoming helmet and remove the 3D sculpted strip (I haven't checked but I assume it's sculpted on.)

 

[jkno]

I had a blast doing a deep dive into stormie town - sounds like some people take it too far and it's not fun anymore.

I absolutely love doing this - I got a diploma in Bossk-ology (and a figure that's way more accurate than the Sideshow) from it, currently doing a degree in Power droid/gonk and Ugnaught studies, and will soon be beginning studies on a rebel fleet trooper and returning to Luke's snowspeeder outfit (which I already have a diploma in.) Then it's on to taller Ewoks!

It's a ton of fun - I even found the original source of what some of the parts are, like the guy who traced the side panel of the Carbonite block to the Volvo dashboard. I mean who else would know that the tiny wrench on Bossk's chest has "King D!ck" stamped on it? (yes, it really does, and what a GREAT nickname for Bossk.)

At the point it affects your life, becomes a maddening exercise in OCD or just about being a world expert on nothingness (that's how the general public views that Volvo/Carbonite panel revelation) or whatever then people really should stop as you say.

 

[ZE_501]

I think part of it comes down to whether you enjoy the modelling aspect of the hobby, which customizing crosses over into, or just want to enjoy the toy iterations. I guess they?re both valid and like Sergiu said, people buy these no matter what.

I really enjoyed my forays into customizing and screen accuracy obsession for a long while ? my favourite past projects were the customized Marmit sandies I did years ago; but at some point I got a little bored of the personal quest for accuracy. It may come back some day, or it may not.

(Which is not to say I don?t appreciate it.)

A lot of the freelance work I?m paid to do has involved modelling and fine detail work, so it kind of makes sense that after 9 hours on the bench I don?t feel like picking up the tools again.


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[TaliBane]

View attachment 493549

You've obviously given this a lot of reflection but by the look of that, I'd recommend taking a break.

Seriously - if it's up to the eyeballs and feeling like that, just go cold turkey for a while then come back in a few months or a year.

I think part of it comes down to whether you enjoy the modelling aspect of the hobby, which customizing crosses over into, or just want to enjoy the toy iterations. I guess they?re both valid and like Sergiu said, people buy these no matter what.

I really enjoyed my forays into customizing and screen accuracy obsession for a long while ? my favourite past projects were the customized Marmit sandies I did years ago; but at some point I got a little bored of the personal quest for accuracy. It may come back some day, or it may not.

(Which is not to say I don?t appreciate it.)

A lot of the freelance work I?m paid to do has involved modelling and fine detail work, so it kind of makes sense that after 9 hours on the bench I don?t feel like picking up the tools again.


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These are interesting insights - "obsession" coming up. It's key to understand first and foremost this has to be fun for you, and a hobby that takes your mind off regular stuff like work, career, family issues etc.

If it's become another ball and chain, then something has to change. the minute I'm dreading picking up the dremel or researching one of these hobby projects, it's time to move on or at least walk away for a while like you did.

I also think there's the old saying that the things you don't like most about other people are the things you don't like about yourself come up in these instances sometimes.

 

[Moonloop]

The deluxe of this figure is down to 9 at bbts, but it has a $30 markup. I think they are the last place with this in stock in the US?

 

[ZE_501]

[...] These are interesting insights - "obsession" coming up.

To be fair, we throw around words like 'obsessed', 'addicted' and phrases like 'OCD' pretty casually on this board.

In the clinical sense none of this has ever interfered with my day to day life, so it would be more accurately classified as being an 'aficonado' or 'enthusiast' in the truest sense of those terms, probably for the majority of Freaks here.

Interests can wax and wane or mutate over time, of course.

It's key to understand first and foremost this has to be fun for you, and a hobby that takes your mind off regular stuff like work, career, family issues etc.

If it's become another ball and chain, then something has to change. the minute I'm dreading picking up the dremel or researching one of these hobby projects, it's time to move on or at least walk away for a while like you did.

I concur. I don't think I ever made a conscious decision to walk away for a while, it just happened on its own. On a related note, as a creative, whenever I've spent too much time working on other people's visions, it's tended to drain me for purposes of my own work. It may not work that way for everyone, but I did have to take a serious look at what I was getting out of working for other people in certain contexts.

Circling all the way back to the topic of Hot Toys stormtroopers, I really do sometimes wonder if they won't someday hit us with a mostly accurate ESB stormtrooper just to mess with our heads. I don't see them doing 2.0s of previous trooper figures, and I think ESB is the last fully armoured OT trooper they can make along with the Scout...

 

[TaliBane]

Yeah, well HT does love their troopers, and they did do the deep dive into the ROTJ armor, so it says someone there loves a bit of trooper OCD.

But I do think that it really comes down to does it bring you JOY or does it bring you (more) STRESS? Are you excited/hungry or jaded/burned out?

I love this stuff and have a total blast doing it - it's a massive challenge but I especially enjoy being detective where you can uncover details about these costumes or props that even LFL doesn't know. Finding some obscure ref pic from a 1978 magazine that shows a never before seen angle and detail you can include on your custom - that's really fun.

All that being said, I can see how people sometimes get rubbed with my Tasmanian devil vortex sometimes. But hey - that's why I'm half Bane and half Taliban.

 

[Chronos1919]

It's good to have hobbies and everyone enjoys their hobbies differently.

 

[jkno]

You've obviously given this a lot of reflection but by the look of that, I'd recommend taking a break.

Seriously - if it's up to the eyeballs and feeling like that, just go cold turkey for a while then come back in a few months or a year.



These are interesting insights - "obsession" coming up. It's key to understand first and foremost this has to be fun for you, and a hobby that takes your mind off regular stuff like work, career, family issues etc.

If it's become another ball and chain, then something has to change. the minute I'm dreading picking up the dremel or researching one of these hobby projects, it's time to move on or at least walk away for a while like you did.

I also think there's the old saying that the things you don't like most about other people are the things you don't like about yourself come up in these instances sometimes.

That was not for me

 

[TaliBane]

That was not for me

And um... this was for you

I also think there's the old saying that the things you don't like most about other people are really the things you don't like about yourself come up in these instances sometimes.

 

[jkno]

And um... this was for you

Some time ago maybe, but right now it is your perfect description

I'm still member of the Rivet Counters brotherhood, but I'm much moderate these days, at least compared to you.

 

[TaliBane]

Some time ago maybe, but right now it is your perfect description

I'm still member of the Rivet Counters brotherhood, but I'm much moderate these days, at least compared to you.

View attachment 493620

I don't understand your problem with this - it was a major burnout for you, but I'm having fun doing this, why judge me by your negative experience?

I've already made it 100% clear that I'm having a blast doing this, yet you keep dragging this "you're an OCD psycho!!" bs out? Seriously - why? A threat to your "diploma of stormtrooper expert-ology" on the wall (or that's hidden in a drawer but you still value it even if you deny it)?

And that stale old rivet counters put-down is so incredibly stupid. The same people who will say there's something not quite right about how a certain figure looks - um... because several minor details are throwing it off - are the same people who condemn others who pay attention to those minor details? I mean wtf - how incredibly stupid.

The difference between a Hasbro 12" Luke Jedi figure from 1998, then a Sideshow Luke Jedi figure from 2006, then a HT Luke Jedi figure of today isn't just quality of materials - it's ACCURACY. Which means that yes, someone at HT counted the number of rivets on Luke's gunbelt, or the precise width of each section of Vader's chest armor or the exact size of his chestbox and each button/switch on it. Isn't the unique shoulder armor on this ROTJ stormie "rivet counting"?

I mean seriously - what more moronic idea is there in a hobby that is about more and more accurate figs as time goes on - than the idea of "rivet counters"?




And cue the...

 

[abake]

I wonder what it is that makes the old Marmit Stormtroopers so good.
Is it the overall silhouette that they achieved? The overall proportions? There's just something so uniquely right about the way they look, despite the soft details -or is it maybe because of them?
I remember there was a fellow boardie who had a bunch of customised Marmits, and he posed and photographed them really well.
Sometimes I think about looking for a couple on eBay...

 

[TonTon]

Agree that the Marmits are the best we've seen. Never had one in hand but they're the most convincing in pictures. Has anyone ever thrown a Marmit helmet onto a HT figure? Can't recall seeing that.

 

[TaliBane]

Agree that the Marmits are the best we've seen. Never had one in hand but they're the most convincing in pictures. Has anyone ever thrown a Marmit helmet onto a HT figure? Can't recall seeing that.

This is the Marmit sandie on the HT ANH body. I did this within a few days of getting my ANH stormies. Once I'm done tweaking my custom ESB helmet, I plan to paint this Marmit higher gloss white to match the HT armor (the Marmits aren't a very bright white and are a bit duller) while masking out all the details I can.

The brow strip is too high (this was supposed to be "move along" guy) but the broader helmet is a sort of blend of hero and stunt looks that still feels pretty ANH.

The Marmit helmet is 100% stock here - no tweaks or mods at all.