Sideshow: is the McQuarrie Vader project still happening

[Matt S]

I still want this to happen, too. I want the 1/6th McQuarrie Concept Boba Fett they had planned for release after Vader to happen even more. But it's not gonna happen. At San Diego Comic Con last year, I talked to Matt Bischoff (project manager and apparently the go to guy for all things Star Wars at Sideshow) and Kevin Ellis (project manager and apparently the go to guy for all thing 1/6 scale at Sideshow) and was told that the 1/5th statue line didn't perform well enough to move forward with a sixth scale figure line and that the Mythos sixth scale line would be taking its place. The words "indefinitely on hold" were used by at least one of the two gentleman.

Thanks, what a bummer. Honestly, I love sideshow, but am pretty passive aggressive toward them. They made the mistake of not keeping up with the rest of the industry as it changed. Top notch paint apps on human portraits, consistent base bodies with tight joints, etc. And they kinda got out of 1:6 in the SW area for a while, or so it seemed. Don't get me wrong: I bought both tie pilots, at-at driver, dengar, Zuckuss, and 4-lom in the last year or two and are excellent. Dengar is as close to an excellent job as I've seen by sideshow, but the paint apps on that guy, even in 2018 is not quite where it needs to be.

Sorry rant over.


That said, if Sideshow re-announced this as happening, i'd preorder it in a New York minute

 

[Mos Def Eisley]

I'm amazed the McQ 1/5 statue line didn't perform well. Everyone I know that owns them (I also own them all) LOVE them and wanted more! McQuarrie Darth Vader prices are nearly double what he sold for at retail. I just don't get that statement.

 

[S. Griffin]

I think there might be certain things they consider like the speed at which they sell through a certain amount of figures, how long it takes them to sell out of the exclusive editions, how long it takes them to sell out of the regular editions (Stormtrooper still available on the site as of right now), whether they need to add discounts/deals to certain figures to get them to sell better, etc.
The crappy thing is, we are sure, we pretty much know, that the sixth scale figures of Vader, Boba Fett, the Storm Trooper, and potentially a Snow Trooper and others would have sold better than the statues. I didn't buy the statues for various reasons and was holding out for the Fett and Vader figures, but this is the model the bean counters have been using, and it's the model they seemed to use with their Jason and Freddy PFs and figures: If the cheaper to make and higher priced statue sells well, then they move forward with the more expensive to make and lower priced figures.
I was also given the impression, although it was not explicitly stated, when speaking to one of two men, that Lucasfilm also may have played some part in their plans changing, as well. Not sure what part that was, but maybe they put a stricter standard on what "sells well" means than say New Line or whoever owns Freddy and Jason...just a guess on my part.