Mary Jane comiquette

[nash]

Thats a very insightful post on how things can pile up in production. thanks for that read Adam.

 

[customizerwannabe]

There's nothing like the baring of one's soul to create ardent supporters. Your unabashed candor bodes well for you sir. I always look forward to your posts. May your pencil never dull.

 

[Jen]

Thanks for the very insightful post AH....there are so many different variables in the equation that it makes me appreciate those pieces that come out beautifully and on schedule all the more.

 

[Shropt]

Mr. Hughes,

Your post about "the process" is simply inspirational. It proves how an industry opinion far differs from a consumer's opinion.

Thank you.

 

[devlinboy]

so ummmm when can i expect to see aunt may in nipple clamps in my bedroom......besides every night in my dreams:chew

 

[TOE]

so ummmm when can i expect to see aunt may in nipple clamps in my bedroom......besides every night in my dreams:chew

dang man. u seriously are ruining my heavenly vision of Aunt May :emperor

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

dang man. u seriously are ruining my heavenly vision of Aunt May :emperor

That's probably why she got shot recently in the comics.

Ho's don't pay so the Pimp needs to keep them in check.

 

[Khev]

Well, that's one of the reasons I decided to start posting. I never read boards. All it takes is one anonymous crummy comment, and you whole day can be tainted. Artists, whether they be sculptors or painters or whatever, spend DAYS and WEEKS creating their art. And it only takes 60 seconds of typing for a thoughtless reviewer who just likes to hear themselves be witty to make you feel like you WASTED days and weeks on NOTHING. The advent of the Internet makes this even more of an 'in-your-face' issue. Some people have no problem saying things they'd never have the gumption to say to your face, at a convention or whatever, because of the safety of the 'Net.

I say all these just to let the consumers know how difficult it is on the creative end. It's not actually EASY to do the stuff, and it's very hard to do the same level of work every time. Some days, you can do no wrong, inspiration hits, and eveything to create is GOLD. Some days, you can't get it quite right, no matter how hard you try, again and again. Since the average consumer simply sees the work out there, the usual response si to look at the very best, most inspired work, and ask "Why can't you do THAT every time?" That's akin to saying "Mr. Ruth, why didn't you hit a home run today? You hit one yesterday..." TRUST ME, each and every artist would GLADLY hit a 'home run' every time they created something. But a million different factors affect the creation of commercial art, and only sometimes can inspiration overcome them.

I've learned a bit more since working with Sideshow. All the questions I used to ask as a consumer, like "Why did you guys do it THAT way? What happened on THAT figure"..... well, guys at SS can give me answers. And it boggles the mind the hurdles they have to overcome.

They have to have the time to get a particular sculpt done. And then, they have to hope that the licensor approves it. If the ACTOR or ACTRESS has likeness approval, then it can get even worse. Especially if the actor or actress is insecure about their nose or chin, and tell you to "Make this bigger or that smaller" not because it'll make it look more like them, but because they'll feel better about their face. So, time is getting eaten up by stuff like this. You can say, "well, keep at it until you get it right". Sure, but if figure #1 is behind schedule, what about figure #2 that the sculptor is scheduled to work on? If the schedule backs up, everyone in the process down the road is held up. The costume fabricators might be twiddling theor thumbs, waiting. The prototype painters are sitting around waiting on heads to paint. The manufacturing plant in China can probably charge penalty fees for holding up their assembly line.

Let's say you decide to hold that head on figure #1 to get it JUST RIGHT. By the time you get it 'just right', the people further down the assembly line are working on one of the other 27 producst your company needs to produce to stray profitable and afloat. What do you do then? Do you start a domino effect of letting ALL the products get behind? Do you make, say, the painters work overtime to get everything done? That's not conducive to artists doing their best work, having to double-up or rush. Do you give some of that work to other sculptors or artists? Easier said than done. With the high level of work being produced by all these collectible companies, a very small talent pool is spread out over a large & growing industry.. "Let's get Bob to take Figure #2...." "We can't, he works for MacFarlane Toys now..." "What about Carl?" "He just went exclsuive with DC Direct..." At some point you go "That's gonna have to be good enough, dammit".

And then there's the budget. Every thing to buy had a budget attached to it, an estimate of how much it will take in time & money to produce the product from scratch. If that budget gets taxed, it can mean that the cost will have to be transferred to the consumer. You think it's expensive NOW? That one last iteration to get Figure #1's likeness JUST RIGHT will start a butterfly effect that will add $10 to the final retal price. And since the last figure in that line was $10 LESS, lots of people get irate, refuse to order, blahblahblah......

Sorry about all that. The comment about "learning a bit of the background" got me ruminating about how much I learned about the Other Side of this business. I'm a lot more understanding when something comes out and its not 'everything I'd dreamed about'.

Take the Gentle Giant Clone Armor Obi-Wan Kenobi fiasco. I'm sadly dissapointed, I thought it was the best Ewan McGregor likeness ever. I can also understand how something might have happened (assuming it was an accident of some kind). Short of moving a quality control representative to a foreign land permanently to oversee every step of the process, you get a production protoype from China or the Phillipines, and you sign off on it. And you HOPE that the people you contracted will ship you 6000 cases of something identical to the production prototype. If there's a PROBLEM, there's not much you can do once the damage is done. Redoing them all might break your bank, much less your project budget. So, I can fully understand how a disaster like that could happen. Doesn't make it BETTER, but I'm a little more sympathetic when posting about it online. Off course, there's no excuse for the "cone of silence" surrounding the affair. Damage Control is as much a part of the process as anything else. If anything, I feel sorry for the GG cats; C4 and San Diego are going to be public relations NIGHTMARES...

Anyhoo, I rambled enough. Just wanted to share a few random thoughts on what little I've learned about the process, in the short time that I've been allowed to play...

-AH!

Adam you should paste that entire post in the SW section. Very interesting.

 

[RoboDad]

I never read boards. All it takes is one anonymous crummy comment, and you whole day can be tainted. Artists, whether they be sculptors or painters or whatever, spend DAYS and WEEKS creating their art. And it only takes 60 seconds of typing for a thoughtless reviewer who just likes to hear themselves be witty to make you feel like you WASTED days and weeks on NOTHING. The advent of the Internet makes this even more of an 'in-your-face' issue. Some people have no problem saying things they'd never have the gumption to say to your face, at a convention or whatever, because of the safety of the 'Net.

-AH!

I think this paragraph needs to be stickied at the top of every sub-forum at this site. It needs to serve as a constant reminder that there are people behind all of the pieces we love to bash.

Thank you, Adam.

 

[devlinboy]

That's probably why she got shot recently in the comics.

Ho's don't pay so the Pimp needs to keep them in check.

you can only pimp slap the broad so much, something had to be done. its cool though, i got estelle getty waiting in the wings :chew

 

[Seretur]

Thanks for that essay, Adam!

I used to feel the same way about translated books before I started translating them on my own... even though I still strive for absolute perfection, and apparently still get it much more often than not.

Here's to a Mary Jane preorder tomorrow!

 

[Atom Hues]

I think this paragraph needs to be stickied at the top of every sub-forum at this site. It needs to serve as a constant reminder that there are people behind all of the pieces we love to bash.

Thank you, Adam.

Well, I just did it to remind some folks (not everyone, just some) that everytime you bash a piece, you're in danger of ruining another human being's day. It was SOMEBODY'S hard work. That's not to say that you/we/I the consumer(s) don't have the right to offer critiques on the product we purchase, but there's a world of difference between "Hmmmm, this isn't really what I was looking for, I'll probably pass" and "Pfeh! Easy pass! Why aren't they making MYYYYYY favorites, instantly, right now, with unlimited time and resources?!? This is a waste of my time!!!"

I dunno.....sometimes I feel the world's full of enough poison air. Why contribute? You can actually get further with a calmly stated "Actually, don't you think that the fact that the screenplay itself points out Jar-jar's uselessness to the story is a contributing factor...." than a "You f*****g suck, George Lucas! You ruined STAR WARS and my childhood, you god**** hack! Your films oughtta be taken away from you by some nerd-driven Thought Police and given to Peter Jackson wah wah wah...", screamed at the top of one's lungs. The only times "yelling in anger" helps is in football and revolutions.

"Hey. Hey. Hey. Don't be mean."
- Buckaroo Banzai

 

[the Doctor]

hi atom...question...have you worked on a slave leia pf statue or was the rumour false

thanks..love your work. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[The ill Jedi]

...have you worked on a slave leia pf statue or was the rumour false...

He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you.

That would be ****ing Awesome though.

 

[Atom Hues]

hi atom...question...have you worked on a slave leia pf statue or was the rumour false

thanks..love your work. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thank you so much for the kind words.

No, it's a total rumor. I wish I WAS working on a PF Slave Leia. THAT would be a fun gig. I have nothing to do with any PF Star Wars figures, although, for $300, I'm sure they'll let me BUY one....

-AH!

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

You can actually get further with a calmly stated "Actually, don't you think that the fact that the screenplay itself points out Jar-jar's uselessness to the story is a contributing factor...." than a "You f*****g suck, George Lucas! You ruined STAR WARS and my childhood, you god**** hack! Your films oughtta be taken away from you by some nerd-driven Thought Police and given to Peter Jackson wah wah wah...", screamed at the top of one's lungs.

Good thing that was just an example of something a SW fan would say. You probably don't agree with that.

I hear you though. If something is not your cup of tea then one should state the reasons why. Only through constructive comments and specific reasons can something be done about it...or most times not. At least it is noted that sub-par product is noticed and we will call shenanigans when something looks bad and you try to pass it to us. These things are expensive enough as is.

Hey, the system of checks and balances works even for us geeks and this crazy hobby.

 

[Atom Hues]

Good thing that was just an example of something a SW fan would say. You probably don't agree with that.

Welllll...... I agree with the FIRST part, not the vitriol in the second part. I had friends who were like me, life-long STAR WARS fans, and they hated PHANTOM MENACE so much, it actually tainted their enjoyment of the Original Trilogy. Hey, I too had an angry nerd headache after my first viewing of PHANTOM MENACE, I was so stunned & dissapointed.

But a wacky thing happened. It was like a geeky "Everything In Life I Learned From STAR WARS" moment.

I watched all my friends RAIL on it, and they were so angry they were *****ing about stuff that really wasn't crucial, they were just so cranky they were picking nits ("..and the inconsistant film grain!!! What was up with THAT?!?" That's no joke.) I looked at them, and I had this moment that made me flash to RETURN OF THE JEDI when Luke is looking down at Darth Vader's mechanical stump, and then looks at his own hand, and realizes that he's becoming the monster, he's 'gazing into the abyss' as Neitzche said; and he decides to not follow that path.

I saw all my pals being these angry, whiney fanboys, and I was horrified that I was becoming one too, shaking my tiny fists in impotent rage over a MOVIE. So, I decided to let it all slide. It didn't matter if the new films weren't like the old ones, I still had the originals, and all the memories of enjoying them. So, I decided I'd just enjoy the stuff in the new films that felt like classic SW, and ignore the rest. Which is easy to do. I still have my "Ewok Blinders" I wore in the summer of 1983.

Consequently, I had a BLAST at ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH. With no expectations, those flicks were fun! Yeah, full of stuff that I would have done differently, but not enough to ruin them for me. And weirdly enough, I also thank LORD OF THE RINGS for saving the Prequels for me. LOTR was so much better than what I was expecting, it totally satisfied my personal need for story, character, and plot over effects & lightshows. It's like "I don't care that my wife doesn't put out; my mistress gives great head!"

Wow. Bad analogy. AND, on the wrong board. Whoops.

MAKE MINE MARVEL!

EXCELSIOR!

uh, FOOM!

 

[Bannister]

Welllll...... I agree with the FIRST part, not the vitriol in the second part. I had friends who were like me, life-long STAR WARS fans, and they hated PHANTOM MENACE so much, it actually tainted their enjoyment of the Original Trilogy. Hey, I too had an angry nerd headache after my first viewing of PHANTOM MENACE, I was so stunned & dissapointed.

But a wacky thing happened. It was like a geeky "Everything In Life I Learned From STAR WARS" moment.

I watched all my friends RAIL on it, and they were so angry they were *****ing about stuff that really wasn't crucial, they were just so cranky they were picking nits ("..and the inconsistant film grain!!! What was up with THAT?!?" That's no joke.) I looked at them, and I had this moment that made me flash to RETURN OF THE JEDI when Luke is looking down at Darth Vader's mechanical stump, and then looks at his own hand, and realizes that he's becoming the monster, he's 'gazing into the abyss' as Neitzche said; and he decides to not follow that path.

I saw all my pals being these angry, whiney fanboys, and I was horrified that I was becoming one too, shaking my tiny fists in impotent rage over a MOVIE. So, I decided to let it all slide. It didn't matter if the new films weren't like the old ones, I still had the originals, and all the memories of enjoying them. So, I decided I'd just enjoy the stuff in the new films that felt like classic SW, and ignore the rest. Which is easy to do. I still have my "Ewok Blinders" I wore in the summer of 1983.

Consequently, I had a BLAST at ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH. With no expectations, those flicks were fun! Yeah, full of stuff that I would have done differently, but not enough to ruin them for me. And weirdly enough, I also thank LORD OF THE RINGS for saving the Prequels for me. LOTR was so much better than what I was expecting, it totally satisfied my personal need for story, character, and plot over effects & lightshows. It's like "I don't care that my wife doesn't put out; my mistress gives great head!"

Wow. Bad analogy. AND, on the wrong board. Whoops.

MAKE MINE MARVEL!

EXCELSIOR!

uh, FOOM!

 

[customizerwannabe]

"I don't care that my wife doesn't put out; my mistress gives great head!"

Wow!!! You're lucky the Darklord likes you!

 

[LOTRFan]

Consequently, I had a BLAST at ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH. With no expectations, those flicks were fun! Yeah, full of stuff that I would have done differently, but not enough to ruin them for me. And weirdly enough, I also thank LORD OF THE RINGS for saving the Prequels for me. LOTR was so much better than what I was expecting, it totally satisfied my personal need for story, character, and plot over effects & lightshows.

Truer words were never spoken!