Show Us Your Troops (Sideshow/Marmit/Medicom/etc.)!

[Pixelpiper]

Just make your own.

 

[jkno]

Just make your own.

That Stormtrooper is not accurate

 

[Pixelpiper]

It's accurately delicious.

 

[Unclechopchop]

Is it way off 1/6 scale? The Tomy ones tended to be in the 1/7 range.

Yeah, I would say it's like 1/7. Plus it jus looks kinda wonky. But then again, I've been staring at stormy helmets a lot these days, and have seen a million variations. The only ones that seem right are the marmits. Everything else including hot toys, jus seems to look off. Marmit killed it for real, and the funny thing is, they did it 15 years ago! Hahaha
By the way, jus a side note. Why is it that none of thes companies besides Marmit cannot figure out that the chest armor flares outwards, instead of inwards around the rib cage? And also, why do they always make the chest armor cut off like a woman's half shirt? For now on, every single company that tackles a stormy uni should just go off of the Marmit, or hell, they could even use the 1/12 bandai model kit as reference (minus the high shoulders and larger belt area for movement).
Hot toys charging as much as they do, and still inferior to an older product that costs less. Granted marmits materials kinda are questionable

 

[ZE_501]

Marmits are best with a lot of work:

• Set-up
• Re-furbishing
• Kit-bashing with modern parts (e.g. Hot Toys)

To further complicate things, there are variances between Marmit kits from sculpt to plastic batch and even size. Their helmets aren't perfect but very, very close.

Hot Toys are best out-of-the-box. Their Sandtrooper helmet, being a "stunt" iteration, looks better to me so far and may be an option for stormtrooper bashes if you can clean the weathering off.

That said, I've given up on any company getting that damn helmet dead-on in any scale. I'm moving on with my life.

 

[Pixelpiper]

DELETED CONTENT. F-it - not worth my time to put up with sniveling dorks who can't read a reply to their posts.

 

[Unclechopchop]

"To further complicate things, there are variances between Marmit kits from sculpt to plastic batch and even size. Their helmets aren't perfect but very, very close. "

This statement is something I've always wondered about. What is the deal with the plastic batches? I've got a set that seems fine, but then I have another where it's ripped/cracked! I've always wondered about that. Did the sergeant have this issue??

"That said, I've given up on any company getting that damn helmet dead-on in any scale. I'm moving on with my life. "

I have no life, sooooooooo......hahahaha

 

[ZE_501]

[...] something I've always wondered about. What is the deal with the plastic batches? I've got a set that seems fine, but then I have another where it's ripped/cracked! I've always wondered about that. Did the sergeant have this issue??

No rhyme or reason to it. Colour, flexibility, sharpness and even size differ ... even within each character release.

 

[Unclechopchop]

They guys making the props killed it over 40 years ago, making them by hand, multiple times over.


? They made 1/6 versions 40 years ago?

 

[Unclechopchop]

No rhyme or reason to it. Colour, flexibility, sharpness and even size differ ... even within each character release.

Thanks for the verification. It's something that has always bothered me. I know I shouldn't really worry about such stupid things, but still it's good to know.
Now I just wonder if I should recast a set in resin. Don't know how that would turn out though due to flexibility.
By the way, what do you think is the ultimate setup parts wise? Like what company and what part?

 

[ZE_501]

Thanks for the verification. It's something that has always bothered me. I know I shouldn't really worry about such stupid things, but still it's good to know.

It's a hell of a rabbit-hole, man.

[...]By the way, what do you think is the ultimate setup parts wise? Like what company and what part?

The bash I'm working on uses a Marmit Sandtrooper helmet (which is the "stunt" iteration) with the black rim (for under the helmet, not the brow trim) and mic-tips from a disassembled HT helmet, with all HT armour save the shin guards, which are Marmit.

What I'm specifically going for is the slightly wonky looking armour arrangement as seen in ANH with the skinny 70's British dude look as opposed to the jacked-up tough-guy soldier look people keep pinning on stormtroopers.

Towards that end I like the tapered Marmit shin armour and have been experimenting with various configurations of Soldier Story S2.5 bodies, some with HT arms grafted on with the shoulder assembly sanded down, or with Hot Toys trooper bodies with the lats ground down to removed the V-shape.

Given that the extras and stuntmen who played stormtroopers were different sizes with different trimming/sizes on their armour, I'm not looking for uniformity.

I also dig the SSC stormtrooper shoulder bells because they have a pronounced taper, but I sold my one set ages ago. If I ever come across any at a reasonable price I'd consider using those again.

Finally, I re-arrange or remove the strapping on the Hot Toys armour. It does a great job, functionally, but it makes them look too tight and clean.

 

[Pixelpiper]

DELETED CONTENT. F-it - not worth my time to put up with sniveling dorks who can't read a reply to their posts.

 

[Unclechopchop]

A few 1:1, a few 1:6 of vehicles like the Landspeeder. That was in reference to your comment that Marmit "did it 15 years ago" - I'm not sure what the relevance is of the 15 years, it's not like there are only better or worse sculptors working today than there were 15 or 25 or 40 years ago. Accuracy in these products is most assuredly not a sign of talent, it's all business.

God forbid anybody have an opinion that differs with yours
Nobody is questioning any"talent" of sculptors. I'm merely pointing out that something awesome came out 15 years ago, that companies seem to have a hard time competing with these days.

 

[Pixelpiper]

I'm not wasting my time replying.

 

[Unclechopchop]

WTF? No need to take offence, this has nothing to do with my opinion. I've collected all the figures and I don't care which ones you happen to like or dislike. I just thought your exclamation about 15 years was an odd and foolish attempt to insult the people making the products, when the results you see in terms of accuracy have nothing to to with time nor sculpting talent. And certainly the products that come out today don't have a "hard time competing" - even if they were competing. You just don't understand that what you perceive as "accuracy" may not be on the radar at all of the people making the products. They don't care about the same things you care about.

Anyway, I'll let you get back to your profound analysis.

No need to take offense? Especially when you think and say :

"I just thought your exclamation about 15 years was an odd and foolish attempt to insult the people making the products, when the results you see in terms of accuracy have nothing to to with time nor sculpting talent."

Yeah, no need to take offense to something like that at all....
I notice you always got to drop your 10 cents everywhere on this board, and it gets old.
Let somebody else have an opinion. It makes the world a little more interesting.

 

[Unclechopchop]

DELETED CONTENT. F-it - not worth my time to put up with sniveling dorks who can't read a reply to their posts.

I'm willing to bet any amount that you wouldn't ever be willing to say that to my face.
Oh, and I love the way you delete your past post to cover tracks....

 

[Pixelpiper]

Not covering tracks, just taking it to PM to keep the forum and this thread, on topic. I don't believe you're worth my reply in the forum.

 

[TaliBane]

It's a hell of a rabbit-hole, man.



The bash I'm working on uses a Marmit Sandtrooper helmet (which is the "stunt" iteration) with the black rim (for under the helmet, not the brow trim) and mic-tips from a disassembled HT helmet, with all HT armour save the shin guards, which are Marmit.

What I'm specifically going for is the slightly wonky looking armour arrangement as seen in ANH with the skinny 70's British dude look as opposed to the jacked-up tough-guy soldier look people keep pinning on stormtroopers.

Towards that end I like the tapered Marmit shin armour and have been experimenting with various configurations of Soldier Story S2.5 bodies, some with HT arms grafted on with the shoulder assembly sanded down, or with Hot Toys trooper bodies with the lats ground down to removed the V-shape.

Given that the extras and stuntmen who played stormtroopers were different sizes with different trimming/sizes on their armour, I'm not looking for uniformity.

I also dig the SSC stormtrooper shoulder bells because they have a pronounced taper, but I sold my one set ages ago. If I ever come across any at a reasonable price I'd consider using those again.

Finally, I re-arrange or remove the strapping on the Hot Toys armour. It does a great job, functionally, but it makes them look too tight and clean.

The sandie is definitely the best Marmit sculpt, but even it has those few issues - the key one is the distance from the "teeth" to the "chin" is noticeably too much, and also the shape of the "chin" itself (the sculpted curve above the chin grill) is off. There's really nothing you can do about it. The ears are also not quite prominent enough for ANH, but I'm doing a little dark grey line where the earpieces join the helmet to hopefully make them pop a bit.

People seem to think the GG stormie mini-bust is the best ANH sculpt, though I don't think it's fully 1/6. I considered getting it to cast, but they aren't cheap, and everytime I buy a GG bust thinking I'll use the head for 1/6, I get it in-hand and realize it ain't going to work. My Ree Yees ended up almost being a from-scratch sculpt/build and I just resold the GG Ree bust.

 

[Unclechopchop]

The sandie is definitely the best Marmit sculpt, but even it has those few issues - the key one is the distance from the "teeth" to the "chin" is noticeably too much, and also the shape of the "chin" itself (the sculpted curve above the chin grill) is off. There's really nothing you can do about it. The ears are also not quite prominent enough for ANH, but I'm doing a little dark grey line where the earpieces join the helmet to hopefully make them pop a bit.

People seem to think the GG stormie mini-bust is the best ANH sculpt, though I don't think it's fully 1/6. I considered getting it to cast, but they aren't cheap, and everytime I buy a GG bust thinking I'll use the head for 1/6, I get it in-hand and realize it ain't going to work. My Ree Yees ended up almost being a from-scratch sculpt/build and I just resold the GG Ree bust.

I swear on everything that I've seen the GG helmet on a Marmit before. I could've sworn it was on this thread waaaaaaayyyy back. I know it doesn't help much that I don't know which page, but with some searching maybe I could find it again.
That all being said, if I remember correctly, it didn't look big or anything. I think it was just right. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but now I'm gonna look.

 

[LoveMinusZero]

I have a Marmit Sandtrooper as well as a Sideshow Storm and Sandtrooper. I'm hoping to get a HT Stormtrooper soon, but at least I have a HT SpaceTrooper on PO. Even with soft details, the Marmit looks most screen accurate, but right of out the box (at least in pics) the HT looks amazing. Maybe it's slightly idealized, but I'm okay with that for the Stormtroopers. Certainly moreso than with Vaders. Not even sure what my point is now, lol, but you could take any of these and have the people at places like RPF tear them apart with details you're not even aware of. The HTs one looks so good to me, but none of them are perfect.