I think SS has been phoning it in on several of these releases as of late, while nailing others. Sure they've got the cushion of a price/shipping advantage with European North American buyers, but that will only go so far. This could be a real wake-up call for them at least as far as the Marvel license goes. SS has already made their money on Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Thor and Classic Cap, so the XM pieces are less of a competitive issue except in terms of overall aggregate collecting dollars. They were also pretty far into their Black Widow and Hulk preorder cycle before the XMs became a factor. The head to head releases and the characters where XM is getting a jump (such as Magneto and Phoenix) are where the battle lines are going to be drawn. I don't know if SS has either of these characters up their sleeve, and I can't imagine them doing a more impressive Magneto. But let's say XM ends up moving 500-750 Mags. Will Sideshow take the risk of making their own, knowing that there are likely going to be a sizeable chunk of buyers who won't be interested in plunking another $400-$500 for another version? The same goes for Phoenix and Iron Man. SS hasn't had to deal with that question in the past. They only had to worry about the annoying unlicensed pieces, and stepping on that air hose with C&D letters. That ain't gonna work this time. I wouldn't call this a game changer yet by a long shot, but as XM lines up more distributors, gets quality product out into the marketplace, builds a following and announces more pieces, it will no doubt make an impact on what we see from SS--everything from character choice, to execution to ES.
I'm definitely happy to see a new player in the sandbox. I hope it translates into more character choices, better sculpts and better quality control.
