How the new rule impacts this forum.

[Lee in MI]

Re: New forum rule

As I said - this rule isn't really aimed at customizers in their basement making or altering a couple of heads for the their own use. I've had complaints from sculptors where their portrait sculpts were slightly altered and then recast and sold. So we'll have to treat each situation as they pop up.

So things like:

Darren's Ripley and Anakin sculpts
Sean's(Soveirgn Studio)Mola Ram
Les' Hicks, Heath Joker

Are all not allowed anymore? I assume so even though they are all produced by guys working in their basement but are all either re-sculpts of existing sculpts (making em better I might add) or original sculpts of licensed products.

Cause these guys are offering some of the best sculpts on this board and it would be a shame to see there work get pinched.

 

[LordAzrael]

Re: New forum rule

still kinda unclear seeing how a lot of the major toy companies....(like HT) get away with producing well known head sculpts named something totally different as they do with their military lines but also have to obscure known characters (ex: pred "billy") by 20% or so (dont quote me on the #) by painting or other devices. a slippery slope no doubt......

They are in China (Hong Kong), and China doesn't respect US intellectual property. Not only that, unless you are trying to pass it off as licenced merchandise then intellectual property violations are not a criminal offence - its up the copyright holder to take action. In theory a copyright holder could try to take action against every distributors I suppose but until recently Hot Toys weren't officially distributed in the US.

 

[toyadventurer]

Re: New forum rule

Yes, so far he's been very professional and very prolific. But who knows what will happen as the list grows.

The difference is even though there are several interest threads going, Z doesn't take any deposits or money until he is ready to start. I have never seen more then two sculpts going at one time that have deposits on them.

 

[LordAzrael]

Re: New forum rule

What if his workload triples within a year or if he receives a new job that requries his attention?

Z isn't Howes in regards to behavior but he seems to be the "new" Howes in the forum as the star unofficial sculptor on this board.

What if something happened to Z and he cannot get back on track? Most likely, there will be someone who will be frustrated with the delays regardless of what has happened and demands the product.

You're obviously not familar with Z's method. He doesn't take any money until he is actually ready to sculpt. When he is ready to sculpt he takes a $9 deposit. From this point he has an official 3-4 week turnaround but EVERY sculpt has been 2 weeks for a prototype with a third week to polish it. Once the final sculpt is published he gets the remainder of the payment. So in your example you would have a bunch of people on a wishlist who have not forked out any money.

 

[Deckard]

Re: New forum rule

Let's be serious You want to commission a 1/6 cane - go for it.

This forum has always been pretty laid back and I like to think I've been fairly reasonable and forgiving. We're not going to be any different in enforcing this rule.

Yes lets, you said no group commissions of any kind, now your saying its ok as long as it isn't a portrait?

So how exactly, does this solve the problem your claiming its being enforced for, when the sculptor could still take the money and run this way. Or even if it were already finsihed.

So I don't get it, is it no group commissions at all or just as long as its not something licensed? Cuz it seems to adress the problem your claiming to have all sales should be banned not jsut preorders...

Lets be serious but lets also be honest, this isn't what its being framed as, rather a really caca way of dealing with the C.Howes situation a little late and with no real punishment of the person whos actually responsible. Instead it punsihed everyone else including those who he already took advantage of.

And alot of bs is flying at the other sculptors, as far as I can tell your all but accusing z of trying to be C.Howes which simply couldn't be further from the case.

 

[toyadventurer]

This is why it will take longer. How many sculpters want to spend the time and effort sculpting something other than their own personal interests without an idea of how many folks would actually be interested in it ?

The end result will be we will have our 50th Bond, Indy and Joker sculpts but no more Ray as Punisher, Michael Weston, Donnie Yen etc.

I totally agree. Sculptors are not going to guess which characters people want to buy, they will just stop sculpting them or just keep sculpting old reliable heads. Also by not allowing any interest threads, nobody will have the opportunity to give suggestions as the sculpt progresses. The input stage has played a huge part in allowing the buyers to help refine the sculpt, resulting in a much improved product. I must of been wrong but I also thought getting together as a group and feeding off each other and sharing 1/6 ideas was also the purpose of the site and that definitely has been going on in the customs section.

I have to say I was only making one or two trips a week to this site before some of the custom commissions got started. I mostly just enjoy making 1/6 customs and since the customizing section improved so much over the last year, I have found myself making a couple dozens visits a day to the site. I fear stopping a lot of these group commission will vastly reduce the amount of activity going on. No offense meant but there really wasn't much happening in the customizing section with the exception of a couple artists. Just look at the happenings now. Group commissions have helped spark more people than ever bashing 1/6 figures.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Of course I'm open to suggestions. This is a separate issue from the the bootleg product, so I'm pretty free to decide how these things are handled here. None of the collectibles companies really care about random portraits unless someone is offering multiples of a fully produced figure.

I'll open it up to you - interest threads seem to be mostly pointless - more in the line of "wouldn't it be cool if this guy was made?" - with no intention of the original poster to follow through with hiring a sculptor.

I still maintain that the only way this can be done reliably is for a single person to commission the head and then that person will solicit it once it's complete.

 

[Doom Saber]

This is why it will take longer. How many sculpters want to spend the time and effort sculpting something other than their own personal interests without an idea of how many folks would actually be interested in it ?

The end result will be we will have our 50th Bond, Indy and Joker sculpts but no more Ray as Punisher, Michael Weston, Donnie Yen etc.

I understand the payment up front issue and agree completely, but I am completely unable to see the logic behind banning interest threads. Seems like complete overkill to what at the end of the day is the actions of a single person.

Honestly I only come here for the custom commissions these days - I've bought approximately 30 custom sculpts in the last 3 months.

Since the Sideshow gained the Star Wars licence I've found the forum increasingly hostile and negative, focussing on minutiae alternating with wishlist *** *** *** threads about what should be next for the licenced products. Combine that with Sideshow virtually dropping 1/6th except for $tar War$ and there's very little to interest me.

Anyway no more posting on this but I guess I'll be spending even less time here and more time on other sites.

One of the big problems with group comm. is they tend to encourage sculptors to take on projects they can't handle

l might be mistaken, but l think group stuff are still allowed, but done differently. I think one can make a topic that says "I wanna to get this sculptor to work on a such and such for me and is lookin for others who are willing to support this such and such. Please pm me for more info"

It basically makes the people more responsible with the commissions they want to be in.

The new rule also would not affect people like Spencer since he sculpts w/o commission



This new rule will decrease the amount of interest threads and also prevents someone to attach a sculptor to the job before asking said sculptor.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Re: New forum rule

So things like:

Darren's Ripley and Anakin sculpts
Sean's(Soveirgn Studio)Mola Ram
Les' Hicks, Heath Joker

Are all not allowed anymore? I assume so even though they are all produced by guys working in their basement but are all either re-sculpts of existing sculpts (making em better I might add) or original sculpts of licensed products.

Cause these guys are offering some of the best sculpts on this board and it would be a shame to see there work get pinched.

We can take things on a case by case basis - but full figures of characters that Sideshow holds a license for will not be allowed to be solicited.

 

[Darklord Dave]

One of the big problems with group comm. is they tend to encourage sculptors to take on projects they can't handle

l might be mistaken, but l think group stuff are still allowed, but done differently. I think one can make a topic that says "I wanna to get this sculptor to work on a such and such for me and is lookin for others who are willing to support this such and such. Please pm me for more info"

It basically makes the people more responsible with the commissions they want to be in.

The new rule also would not affect people like Spencer since he sculpts w/o commission



This new rule will decrease the amount of interest threads

Basically this is correct.

 

[Lee in MI]

Re: New forum rule

We can take things on a case by case basis - but full figures of characters that Sideshow holds a license for will not be allowed to be solicited.

I see what you are saying but, I'm not sure why the recent Mace resculpt would be any different than some of the previous mentioned resculpts which you recently said SSFs doesn't support and I assume would target that type of thread for deletion and possible banning.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Re: New forum rule

I see what you are saying but, I'm not sure why the recent Mace resculpt would be any different than some of the previous mentioned resculpts which you recently said SSFs doesn't support and I assume would target that type of thread for deletion and possible banning.

As I said - it will be on a case by case basis. If I have a specific complaint from a sculptor or a license holder that's a different situation than just a blanket rule for the forum.

 

[Lee in MI]

Re: New forum rule

As I said - it will be on a case by case basis. If I have a specific complaint from a sculptor or a license holder that's a different situation than just a blanket rule for the forum.

Ohhhhhhhh...I get it. Cool

 

[King Darkness]

Re: New forum rule

There seems to be a lot of grey area here.

If it doesnt really affect the 1/6 guys I dont really care, statues mean nothing to me.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Re: New forum rule

Okay, it sounds like the commission stuff I do is safe, so that's good.

If I understand this right, there's two things not to do.

1) Don't openly solicit interest or requests for work for a large group, and don't sell more than one of something in the sales section. If you do accept commissions, simply do it through PMs, and it's off the radar. Believe me, if your work speaks for itself, you'll still get plenty of it.

2) Don't sell knockoffs. Modified pieces are okay, even if it's several of them as long as each piece is an original custom work and it isn't replicated (remolded and cast) for a large group.

That about sum it up, D Dave?

 

[Wanderer]

It does seem Dave you've gone a bit too extreme with this. IMO the only 'issues' surrounded the money up front for customisers malarky. This is what needed to be focused on and not banning wish list / interest threads and unlicensed works threads. It just seems to be too heavy handed...

 

[Tyler]

Re: New forum rule

Ok. I read it like this. A board member can create their custom sculpt of a famous character and show it to us on this board. Either plain or painted. Just as they do now. But they are not allowed to say in their post that they are willing to make copies for sale. Although they can make copies for sale to any member that PM's them and asks for their services. The buyer can then show us their complete custom using that purchased sculpt as before. The buyer can also give credit to the sculpter/painter as before.

Is the above statement correct?

One other question. If I see someones work that I like. I then ask them to supply me with a copy of their work through a PM. They then agree. Can I then make a post in their original thread showing their work that I loved it so much that I am going to buy one?

 

[LordAzrael]

One of the big problems with group comm. is they tend to encourage sculptors to take on projects they can't handle

l might be mistaken, but l think group stuff are still allowed, but done differently. I think one can make a topic that says "I wanna to get this sculptor to work on a such and such for me and is lookin for others who are willing to support this such and such. Please pm me for more info"

It basically makes the people more responsible with the commissions they want to be in.

The new rule also would not affect people like Spencer since he sculpts w/o commission



This new rule will decrease the amount of interest threads and also prevents someone to attach a sculptor to the job before asking said sculptor.

PM's are a pain in the arse. Unless you massively upgrade the amount you can hold its not a workable solution. As someone who tries help out with administering a few of these things having a public record helps immensely.

How does keeping the workloads OFF the board help make ANYONE responsible ? If anything it makes it easier for sculpter to overcommit. Anyone who spent 2 minutes in the custom forum could see Howes was over committed. A better solution would be for each artist to maintain a thread where the first post listed all projects so people could judge for themselves.

How about leaving it in the open, but only the sculpter themselves can open the thread ?

 

[Darren Carnall]

Re: New forum rule

I have no problem with this new set of rules, regardless of any grey areas. I'll happily comply.

 

[breakersrevenge]

Re: New forum rule

So my Vincent and Aldo threads are OK then??

Still ing for me!!

If I have a lets say Brad Pitt Fight Club or Shaun of the Dead figure due soon am I allowed to post up a thread??