Predator 2 City Hunter - Prime 1

[Heavy Metal Spike]

All their Predators are done with decals. I think only the base skin tone is painted and then it's decals on top. Probably so they can pump them out quicker and less chance of mistakes. It's disappointing for sure.

The decals make sense to avoid painting errors - but the folks adding them have to know what they are doing. Use the wrong approach and you end up with . . . well . . . what we have seen repeatedly reported here.

Close inspection of the decals also shows that they were not produced to high quality in the first place (at least get the spot patterns right from the get-go!)

If you have badly trained or "do not care" assembly staff - they can (obviously) screw up decal application & sealing as easily as others can screw up airbrushing.

Seems they came up with a good idea to increase efficiency and quality, and then introduced NEW problems by not creating decent decals and not implementing an acceptable application/sealing/checking approach.


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[Rotfish]

I have very little hope for the 1/3, but if nothing else it ought to be the ultimate confirmation that Prime 1 don't care about what they're doing. After all the marketing hype and the rumors of it being a passion project personally overseen by the president, if that one looks to be a repeat of these 1/4 Predators, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind as to this company's attitude going forward.

In the meantime, I've made the decision to go for a partial refund and keep this guy. Being the cheapest of Prime 1's Predator line by a hefty margin makes the pill easier to swallow. I also don't expect the pose to be replicated in large format any time soon -- unless the City Hunter becomes the new Ledger Joker -- and its unique crouching pose breaks up a display of standing Predators nicely. I'll do my best to touch him up and add some mixed media elements, maybe spring for a professional repaint if my abilities don't cut it.

 

[xpl0sive]

The decals make sense to avoid painting errors - but the folks adding them have to know what they are doing. Use the wrong approach and you end up with . . . well . . . what we have seen repeatedly reported here.

Close inspection of the decals also shows that they were not produced to high quality in the first place (at least get the spot patterns right from the get-go!)

If you have badly trained or "do not care" assembly staff - they can (obviously) screw up decal application & sealing as easily as others can screw up airbrushing.

Seems they came up with a good idea to increase efficiency and quality, and then introduced NEW problems by not creating decent decals and not implementing an acceptable application/sealing/checking approach.


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I'm fine with the decals too, but Prime 1 seem to be using crappy factories, as evident not only by their Predators, but also other pieces of late, like their 1:3 The Dark Knight Joker, which had a very noticeable decrease in quality.

I don't know if there is any truth to this, but I've read in various Facebook groups that Prime 1 have been accused of muscling the good factories to the point that none of them want to deal with Prime 1 anymore, so they've been stuck with lower end factories. I don't know how true this is, but there has clearly been a drop in their production quality.

I personally am not convinced their 1:3 Jungle Hunter will live up to the hype, so I'll happily wait for production on that one first.

 

[xpl0sive]

I have very little hope for the 1/3, but if nothing else it ought to be the ultimate confirmation that Prime 1 don't care about what they're doing. After all the marketing hype and the rumors of it being a passion project personally overseen by the president, if that one looks to be a repeat of these 1/4 Predators, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind as to this company's attitude going forward.

In the meantime, I've made the decision to go for a partial refund and keep this guy. Being the cheapest of Prime 1's Predator line by a hefty margin makes the pill easier to swallow. I also don't expect the pose to be replicated in large format any time soon -- unless the City Hunter becomes the new Ledger Joker -- and its unique crouching pose breaks up a display of standing Predators nicely. I'll do my best to touch him up and add some mixed media elements, maybe spring for a professional repaint if my abilities don't cut it.

Its still an awesome statue and depending how bad it is, you could just touch it up and add some sealer over it. That's what I would do.

I actually kind of regret passing on this as it's a pretty awesome statue overall.

Edit: just realised it's still in stock. Tempted to order one.

 

[Rotfish]

Its still an awesome statue and depending how bad it is, you could just touch it up and add some sealer over it. That's what I would do.

I actually kind of regret passing on this as it's a pretty awesome statue overall.

He's still available almost everywhere.

I'm fine with the decals too, but Prime 1 seem to be using crappy factories, as evident not only by their Predators, but also other pieces of late, like their 1:3 The Dark Knight Joker, which had a very noticeable decrease in quality.

I don't know if there is any truth to this, but I've read in various Facebook groups that Prime 1 have been accused of muscling the good factories to the point that none of them want to deal with Prime 1 anymore, so they've been stuck with lower end factories. I don't know how true this is, but there has clearly been a drop in their production quality.

I personally am not convinced their 1:3 Jungle Hunter will live up to the hype, so I'll happily wait for production on that one first.

I've read the same rumors. Hope they manage to break out the special sauce for the 1/3, but it's not looking good.

What pisses me off most with these is that they obviously tried hand-painting over the decals to "fix" them, but the color matching is terrible and the application is sloppy as hell. It's similar to what Ronny Haze experienced with his Big Game portrait replacement. Some areas on my City Hunter have black blotches, darker and messier than the decals, that were thrown on to conceal the bits that had already chipped off or were missed by the print. In other words, they do perform a QC pass, but their approach is a half-assed fix rather than replacing the part.

Those areas I'll cover up completely with a base tone and paint my own dots from scratch. It's not worth noodling away to improve the dots they carelessly threw on.

 

[xpl0sive]

He's still available almost everywhere.


I've read the same rumors. Hope they manage to break out the special sauce for the 1/3, but it's not looking good.

What pisses me off most with these is that they obviously tried hand-painting over the decals to "fix" them, but the color matching is terrible and the application is sloppy as hell. It's similar to what Ronny Haze experienced with his Big Game portrait replacement. Some areas on my City Hunter have black blotches, darker and messier than the decals, that were thrown on to conceal the bits that had already chipped off or were missed by the print. In other words, they do perform a QC pass, but their approach is a half-assed fix rather than replacing the damn part.

Those areas I'd rather cover up completely with a base tone and paint my own dots from scratch on top. It's not worth noodling away on the dots they carelessly threw on.

Haha yeah I had a look after I posted my comment and realised it's still in stock. Definitely tempted.

I actually had to send away one of my big game jungle hunter heads for repair too, still waiting for it. I suspect I'll get the same thing, poorly touched up decals, so I'll probably have to repair myself. I had to do that for the closed mouth portrait which had small parts of the decal chipped, but you can't tell it's been touched up now.

The black areas are easy to do, but colour matching the rest might be a challenge.

 

[xzbit]

I'm having a tuff time choosing a CH out of this one or the infinity studios.The both look great but I am concern about the prime one which is making my choice easier.

 

[Heavy Metal Spike]

I'm having a tuff time choosing a CH out of this one or the infinity studios.The both look great but I am concern about the prime one which is making my choice easier.

Personal choice I know . . . but infinity Studios all the way for me. Perfect condition, amazing presence, sculpt, art-direction & QC.

Easily one of the top 5 faves in my collection (and that's saying something).


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[xpl0sive]

I've been trying to make that choice too, although I prefer the mask on the Prime version, but the unmasked looks better on Infinity.

Which stores have the infinity studios version in stock?

 

[csutkakoma]

He's still available almost everywhere.


I've read the same rumors. Hope they manage to break out the special sauce for the 1/3, but it's not looking good.

What pisses me off most with these is that they obviously tried hand-painting over the decals to "fix" them, but the color matching is terrible and the application is sloppy as hell. It's similar to what Ronny Haze experienced with his Big Game portrait replacement. Some areas on my City Hunter have black blotches, darker and messier than the decals, that were thrown on to conceal the bits that had already chipped off or were missed by the print. In other words, they do perform a QC pass, but their approach is a half-assed fix rather than replacing the part.

Those areas I'll cover up completely with a base tone and paint my own dots from scratch. It's not worth noodling away to improve the dots they carelessly threw on.

Funny I have the same sloppy problems with my CH. I will try to repair the chipped places, spots on mine than I will use a gloss coat to seal the statue. It is very sad to see to be honest what P1 has become. I have the 1/3 fully paid and afraid what will happen with this expensive statue.

 

[xpl0sive]

I hope the 1/3 turns out great for everyone's sake.

 

[Dundee]

I'm having a tuff time choosing a CH out of this one or the infinity studios.The both look great but I am concern about the prime one which is making my choice easier.

I prefer the Infinity one

 

[Rotfish]

I hope the 1/3 turns out great for everyone's sake.

I hope their 1/3 City Hunter doesn't interest me in the slightest. If they keep the pose they teased a year ago, I'll be safe.

If they do this...

...oh, boy.

 

[xpl0sive]

I hope their 1/3 City Hunter doesn't interest me in the slightest. If they keep the pose they teased a year ago, I'll be safe.

If they do this...

...oh, boy.

I'd say it's likely the first pose they teased, as they usually do museum poses for their 1/3's, and it matches their Jungle Hunter.

 

[marsredv6]

I been very luck to get this city hunter and the prime 1 jungle hunter with no flaws. I have just had two hunter victims arrive which I need to check so fingers crossed. Like yourself xp10sive I'm also after the infinity studio predator as the presence of this looks great. I contacted Shane at secret compass and he's sent a couple of emails to infinity but hasn't heard anything back yet.

 

[Heavy Metal Spike]

I hope their 1/3 City Hunter doesn't interest me in the slightest. If they keep the pose they teased a year ago, I'll be safe.

If they do this...

...oh, boy.

Yeah - that'd be a problem . . . but they won't do it - like @xpl0sive says - they'll match the JH museum pose per their original tease.


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[Heavy Metal Spike]

I've been trying to make that choice too, although I prefer the mask on the Prime version, but the unmasked looks better on Infinity.

Which stores have the infinity studios version in stock?

Just checked Spec Fiction - they have it waitlisted.

Given the issues with PRIME1, I wouldn't be surprised if the Infinity Studios CH (ES of 500 and started shipping 18 months ago) is approaching exhaustion.


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[xpl0sive]

Just checked Spec Fiction - they have it waitlisted.

Given the issues with PRIME1, I wouldn't be surprised if the Infinity Studios CH (ES of 500 and started shipping 18 months ago) is approaching exhaustion.


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Yeah, it's probably the more valuable piece right now tbh.

 

[Heavy Metal Spike]

Yeah, it's probably the more valuable piece right now tbh.

Yarp . . . and it just occurred to me . . . given the multiple concerns people have with purchases of PRIME1 pieces either direct or through retailers (where you can at least get your money back - minus exchange losses) - imagine the risk of buying any PRIME1 pieces second-hand

Still - Sadshow survived (and continue to survive) as a company - so these clowns will probably be with us for the duration too.

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[xpl0sive]

Still - Sadshow survived (and continue to survive) as a company - so these clowns will probably be with us for the duration too.

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For now. Queen Studios are slowly taking over. People will eventually get sick of paying top dollar for subpar statues.

In the case of City Hunter, I think most people seem to be pretty happy with it though. But I'd rather not buy future statues from them if I can help it (I did order Ripley though, as there isn't an alternative).