What about him is not at HT's level?
I'm not defending the price - but this is the most expensive license they've ever had and that contributes a lot to the pricing.
The most apparent thing would be the paint, but it's not new news that SSC human sculpts have a ways to go before the reach HT production quality (they're even WAY further away from HT proto quality). Next would be that incredibly cheap stand. I think the real glove design wasn't great the first time on Vader, and IMO it would've been better to go sculpted than to try it a second time. The rest of the figure looks good. Really good. The only thing that I'd say is that HT may have went with a more accurate thinner material, and SS's looks to be a little thicker and stiffer than should be (isn't the jumpsuit supposed to be a material more similar to the Breaking Bad Hazmat suits? A little thin with a bit of sheen to it?)
All in all I don't think that anyone can say SS hasn't come a long way with their SW line since their $60 figure days (I can't speak for the Joe's and other lines that I don't own, but I don't hear the best critiques on them). But as much as I like all of their recent SW pieces that I went for (E-Web, IG-88, Bossk, Tusken, Snowy, ESB Vader, Probe Droid), they're missing something that just makes them fall a notch short of HT quality. IMO the Probot is the best SW piece that SS has given us yet
They still are a couple of steps behind HT, but they're starting to ask HT prices....
Is it really any surprise that the prices have increased when the writing, IMO, has been on the wall for months? And it's not just Sideshow increasing their prices.
We don't have to like it but we do need to acknowledge it.
It's not new news, and I think that everyone IS acknowledging the existence of price hikes. It's that people are starting not to accept it.
What it boils down to is bang for buck which will be determined by comparing things to all other current PO's, and PO's of say the past year... and this set just does not add up any way you slice it.
Like I said before, the price hikes to quality advancement ratio was balanced for awhile, but the major advancements really started to plateau a couple of years ago. So if today's figure isn't significantly better than something of 2 years ago, why are retail prices still steadily on the rise? It gets to the point where it stops making sense and blatantly feels like companies are taking advantage of the rabid customer's addiction.