I watched Carlos' video, and I can understand where he's coming from, purely as a consumer, but, at the same time, I also think that there are a few things that are a bit unfair about his assessment. For one thing, the bodies. I suppose that, by default, I am a Masterworks fanboy, since the only other figure I own, outside of licensed Hot Toys figures, is The Cowboy, but, dammit, a high-end, realistic, and authentically rendered Blondie figure was a grail for me for a long time and nothing really measured up to the image I had in my mind until I saw those pics of Trevor's sculpt and their paintwork. Suffice it to say, I will be forever grateful for that...even if it did cost me my two 89 Batman DX releases.
With that in mind, I try to follow all of their stuff, even if it doesn't particularly interest me. One of the most widespread sources of complaints throughout the various threads I've been to have been the bodies. I'm not saying that people should want inferior bodies, but I do think that it's to be expected, because of the status of the creator. Masterworks finds themselves in a difficult position. On one hand, they're too large an operation for it to be economical to be able to use $50 Truetypes on every figure, nor are they small enough create one-of-a-kind modified bodies for each figure; on the other hand, they're not big enough to be able to manufacture their own base bodies on a mass scale, so they find themselves in the difficult position of having to purchase their bodies through third-party manufacturers.
My point is that there's a dearth of quality, mass produced bodies out their for sale to companies on a mass scale, or in an economical capacity. If there were better options out there that Denny could afford to adopt instead, I'm sure he would in a heartbeat, but, unfortunately, there isn't. As they grow, I think new opportunities will present themselves to Masterworks, and, in turn, there's going to be improvements in quality, but, for right now, I think people need to either take the "just deal with it" approach, or shell out for a new body. It's a little unfair to say "well, I just paid [x] amount for this figure and the body's not the best it can be" without first understanding all of the aspects of what that company has to go through to get that product to you.
I'm not sure what the status of the "other name" is, so, I'll just keep saying Masterworks, but, as a whole, I still think Denny has dreams of becoming a widespread, mass produced company like Hot Toys or Enterbay (though I do think that he's got a good thing going with these figures, and he's helping to fill a void of classic characters from iconic "non-'genre' fare" in this hobby). End of the day, though, economics are an integral part of that growth. If Denny could afford to buy Truetypes by the caseload for every release, I think he would, but you aren't going to get much growth if you're breaking the bank to buy bodies. With that in mind, people complaining about the $635 price tag need to learn to differentiate between "licensed products" and "custom works." Hot Toys can afford to give you a Batman for $200 because they have anywhere from 5-10,000 (possibly more) being produced in mass quantities for the public. The more you sell, the more you can make, and, in turn, the more economical mass production becomes. Masterworks doesn't have that luxury; they're really unlike any other custom works out there because they aren't strictly a one-to-two man operation, but the thing to remember is that they're still "custom artists," and should not be judged against what is, essentially, a widespread collectible company. A small team of artists is not the same as 400 workers on an assembly line (I could be grossly under/overestimating those numbers, but I think I've made my point).
With all that being said, while I do think that, for the large DX set like you ordered, mightyq, it would've been a nice feature to offer the metal swords, it still comes down to that one core component: economics. Denny couldn't afford to make the swords for every figure out of metal for the price he was charging, or I believe he would have. He, at least gave people an option (for a price that would make production economical). End of the day, though, I'm sure companies like Hot Toys have more advanced equipment at their disposal than a small team of custom artists that make manufacturing metalworks easier and cheaper. Point is, though, that Denny and his team don't necessarily have that luxury. I don't blame anyone for having an opinion, but I also think that people should also remember that they should try to keep an open mind and look at things from a perspective other than a consumers. That's not just directed towards you, mightyq, but, also, at Carlos, though I'm unaware if he reads these boards are not. No disrespect to anyone, I'm just saying that we should try to think outside of the box about things.
With that out of the way, I am going to disagree you on the "Cowboy" boots, mightyq. I didn't much care for them in pics, either, but, in hand, I'm actually pretty fond of them.
