I’ve reached the point of just being excited to see a company that legitimately seems to care about every product they put out. Whether the turn around from prototype to production holds up remains to be seen, but it’s two things for me: consistency and diversity. I love me some Shawshank as much as the next guy. Stephen King does amazing stuff, but for me, personally? Could not give less of a **** about Pennywise. Saw both films. Enjoyed both films, but would I pay $600 for a figure? I wouldn’t pay $280 or whatever for the Hot Toy. ****, I wouldn’t pay $30 for the NECA version. I just…don’t care.
But you know who does? InArt. That prototype floored me. The pictures, the tailoring, the base and proportions? ****’s ******* stellar. Same with Gandalf. And their upcoming release schedule indicates much of the same. I’m not saying Hot Toys doesn’t care about their products. I look at stuff like their entire Loki line and I absolutely think they do. But I also think Hot Toys *could’ve* been an entirely different company had something like InArt emerged a long time ago. Like my boy B-Man once said, “people need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy.”
I’ll be completely honest: as far as consistency’s concerned? This ****’s well and truly above my pay grade. Joker was the impulse buy to end all impulse buys and I made a commitment to myself that if I don’t sell some **** I don’t want to pay for him? I’m not getting him. And Pattinson’s Batman stole my heart from the moment I watched that damn, beautiful movie, so, this one’s an absolute must, but from there? I don’t honestly know how far I can take this. Probably Bale, but I don’t know that I have enough of an attachment to Snyder’s trinity to want them. They’d have to really knock my socks off to get me interested in honestly anything that wasn’t classic DC like Keaton or Reeve after these guys.
I guess my thing is just to this point, I see a care that goes into these things that maybe I’m just not privy to with Hot Toys. I don’t think it’s elitist, so much as an objective assessment of a vibe. Hot Toys’ vibe for the last decade has been that of a bougie, less consistent Hasbro. They pump out as many new releases as they can to put up for pre-order when whatever the new, popular Disney/Marvel/Star Wars and occasional DC entry shows up and then they dip. I’ve never been a finicky bastard who picks over **** with a fine tooth comb, but you also get the impression that any imperfections, inaccuracies, or inconsistencies, to this point, would’ve been met with “don’t like it? Don’t buy it.” They’ve seemingly changed their tune a bit if Battinson and Peacemaker are any indication, but it still strikes me as super reactionary (probably because it is).
To this point, really, the only thing that’s kept me in the 1/6th game at all have been the Mondo Batman animated releases, the Damtoys Godfather, and the odd Hot Toys figure I’d pick up with Reward Points (Forever Bats and King Shark), but this **** has me feeling the same excitement I felt scouring these boards and looking at pictures of the old DX Joker as a 14 year old in 2009.