Uhm.
Premise 1: I'm looking forward the Mark 46 Iron Man by Iron Studio, so I'm keeping an eye open on their releases.
Premise 2: their Mark 43 Iron Man has had a ton of QC issues and imho it's nowhere worth near 1000$ (there's some backstory to this tho).
Consideration 1: QC issues are a bit of a letdown, mostly because I'm seeing local retailers struggle to get their MK43 replaced and people shouldn't struggle to get a replacement on something they paid nearly 1000$.
Consideration 2: overall it looks good to me, main issue seems to be the seam lines, which is weird if the body is a single piece. I can see people being fine with it as I can see people being bothered by it. Bottom line, I think that who's bothered by it has the right to send it back but at the same time who's fine with it shouldn't be considered an idiot - I've seen people settle for much worse issues a lot of times in this hobby.
Conclusion: will probably wait for the Mark 46 to come out and see how it is, probably pick it up (if I pick it up) second hand from someone who already inspected it. Sounds like the safest route.
Random extra consideration 1: the IS vs SS argument is moot. The SS Spidey PF has had wide QC issues, actually similar ones to this - rubbed off paint and color stains, non fitting parts of the figure, non matching lines, and so on. People seem to be willing to accept them because of lower price point but doesn't change the fact that they are present and the Spidey PF thread is not "blood and fire", quite the opposite, everyone seems mostly pleased with it. I could add some more to the bunch, like the same issues with Brown Wolvie PF (people trying to keep it hush hush) or with Kier and her whole forearm falling off, yet their threads are full of praise. Even the thread of that piece of junk that's the Winter Soldier doesn't have much negativity into it. Let's just give Sideshow credit where it's due and avoid the "Sideshow's just a poor boy" talks.
And to be fair, if people are willing to turn a blind eye on their 500$ Spidey PF, they should do the same on this 750$ huge diorama too. Yes I get it, it's more expensive, but it's not like 500$ is peanuts anyway. Either the flaws are an issue on both statues, or they are no issue on any of the two.
To say "yes I can accept paint rubs, bad seams and non fitting pegs on my 500$ statue but they bother me too much on the $750 diorama that's twice the size ofthe PF" sounds a tad like double standards.
:maul
