XM Studios Thanos
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hockeyflow33
Super Freak
Shading doesn't count as a color
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ActionJackson83
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There is subtle shading there, you don't want to overdo it and make it look artificial. The lights in your room are what's supposed to fill in the lines of the musculature of the sculpt as they get hit at multiple light angles.
lucifixion
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Since it was the piece referenced, I sometimes think the SS Spider-Man has too much shading depending on the lighting conditions.
CF79
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I have to agree on the paint apps XM is putting out fir the price. I'd even go so far as to say that they need to improve their eyes as well on non masked characters. They have definitely taken on a Randy Bowen type style which is kind of strange because Sosa, in my honest opinion, was making better statues under Koto than Randy. Having said that Bowen had really started to hit their stride with their shading and paint apps toward the last few years after Koto was gunning for them. And much like Bowen, XM is doing the model of pushing out as many random side characters with cool poses.
Also saying the price is comparable to other statues is like saying well the price of gas at the Exxon is comparable to the price of gas of Texaco at 3.95 a gallon. Even if comparable the price points are getting insane.
Also saying the price is comparable to other statues is like saying well the price of gas at the Exxon is comparable to the price of gas of Texaco at 3.95 a gallon. Even if comparable the price points are getting insane.
Having seen/owned most XM pieces and having seen/owned many Sideshow "grails" (as opposed to most people), I don't really see that much difference.
Last one I got in hand was the Gambit pf and I honestly think it has nothing more than the XM hawkeye, Magneto, Wolverine, Black Bolt and yeah, Thanos, in terms of paint... despite all people treating Gambit like some kind of mythological piece. (don't get me wrong: it's very very good, one of the few comic pieces where i can actually see the aftermarket value)
As long as one of the companies doesn't match the level of paint app that Blitzway put in their Marilyn and Rocky portraits, we're still talking of comic portraits with a more or less realistic finish, but still comic portraits with comic paint ups.
Last one I got in hand was the Gambit pf and I honestly think it has nothing more than the XM hawkeye, Magneto, Wolverine, Black Bolt and yeah, Thanos, in terms of paint... despite all people treating Gambit like some kind of mythological piece. (don't get me wrong: it's very very good, one of the few comic pieces where i can actually see the aftermarket value)
As long as one of the companies doesn't match the level of paint app that Blitzway put in their Marilyn and Rocky portraits, we're still talking of comic portraits with a more or less realistic finish, but still comic portraits with comic paint ups.
I was just saying the same thing on FB. I have/had most of the ssc "grails" and they are no better painted than any of the 8 XM i own. Also lot's of the SSC fully sculpted statues i own don't have all this shading people are talking about, so they must be flat Bowen like as well? I'm happy with how Thanos came out.
By the way Mule, still gutted you had Gambit and i was too broke to get him from you.
I gave you the chance to pay me with sex and you refused, now suffer the consequences
AC_808
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Exactly! This is 3D art ...if sculpted well, then room lighting should produce the necessary shadows for shading. Some shading is added only for enhancement. This is not 2D art. Art 101 ...shading is mostly prevalent in 2D art ...because it's flat and the artist wants to depict volume.
I gave you the chance to pay me with sex and you refused, now suffer the consequences
You are very brave
You might be the one suffering consequences after
Very true.You are very brave
You might be the one suffering consequences after
CF79
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Im not sure this comes down to XM pieces vs Sideshow grails as the endall be all argument. Look, Im just a cavemaaan. Youre crazy lightning on wheels machines with steering wheels frighten me. I dont understand how your magic square boxes work when youre looking at them in your hand and moving things are playing inside them and people are talking to you on some "magic voice thing".
But I do know this. Gambit was made six years ago in an ever changing climate of art that has and is always evolving in an interchanging market of multiple companies putting out competing products 6 years later. Trying to justify a modern product to an older product as an equal is dating said product as good enough... in the past.
Just seeing what Iron Studios, Prime 1, Hot Toys are doing and on the rise of, its actually unwise to try to compare XM to Sideshow. Youre looking at the past and not seeing the future of paint, apps, multi formatted pieces and also the ability to perfect facial structure like Prime 1 is doing.
This rivalry XM and their constituents have with sideshow is probably going to end badly for XM bc they are so focused on beating SSC barely that they arent seeing the other cars on the race track surpassing them AND teaming up with sideshow as a distributor.
But I do know this. Gambit was made six years ago in an ever changing climate of art that has and is always evolving in an interchanging market of multiple companies putting out competing products 6 years later. Trying to justify a modern product to an older product as an equal is dating said product as good enough... in the past.
Just seeing what Iron Studios, Prime 1, Hot Toys are doing and on the rise of, its actually unwise to try to compare XM to Sideshow. Youre looking at the past and not seeing the future of paint, apps, multi formatted pieces and also the ability to perfect facial structure like Prime 1 is doing.
This rivalry XM and their constituents have with sideshow is probably going to end badly for XM bc they are so focused on beating SSC barely that they arent seeing the other cars on the race track surpassing them AND teaming up with sideshow as a distributor.
There are so many holes in the argument I don't even know where to start from, lol.
Let's start saying - I don't know where you are located, but yours sounds like the typical statement from someone who lives in the US.
Yes US customers make up for the bigger market. Yes they can order Sideshow stuff, Prime1 stuff and Iron Studios stuff directly from Sideshow... at retail! Yay! Reward points! Reasonable shipping costs! Awesome... for them.
I know it might be shocking news and no disrespect intended here, but... the world is not northamerican-centric.
Don't get me wrong, if I were in the US, I wouldn't bother to do backflips and spend a ton of money on XM pieces too.
But, there's a whole world outside, made of high shipping costs, customs fees, VATs, every kind of stick that can reasonably be stuffed in a person's most sacred holes. A lot of asian countries where Sideshow, Prime1 and Iron Studios pieces are sold at the same markup you see for XM pieces in the US.
I perfectly know it... I live in Europe. Prime1 pieces in stores here retail at around 1400$. Some big 1:4 pieces by Sideshow like Lobo, Dark Rider, Sentinel, Galactus and such were more expensive than what I paid for many XM pieces.
And even if we're being pushed out of the market by increasing prices, increasing shipping costs, crappy conversion values and such, we still make up for a slice of the market. And companies can have their spot if they tap into these markets, smaller companies like XM that only need a few hundreds sold pieces to make a profit out of a project.
For the records, there's an european company called Tsume. They do manga/anime stuff, became more popular in the last year or two but they've been around for nearly a decade. They are now doing 1500-2000 edition sizes and their stuff goes sold out in an hour usually. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of americans don't even know about them. Let's just say their "older grails" are worth thousands. Their Gaara statue goes for 3000-3500$ and people kill each other bidding on it when it pops on Ebay.
Yes, as much as the "definitive timeless grail of grails" Doom PF. Oh, and it's a 1:6 piece, did I mention that?
This is to say: there are markets outside of the US.
Moving on to the companies talks:
First of all, you'd make a serious mistake counting Sideshow out. They have been in the big scale (1:4) market more than anyone else, outlasted other companies, have the capital, experience, artists, knowledges. This alone should tell something. And they have adapted lately, their sculpt improved, the paint apps improved, they have been forced to increase the sale price of their pieces but in turn this gave a much better output. It's undeniable their recent releases are improved a lot in terms of paint and overall quality control. They are making better anatomies, bigger bases, more complex stuff.
Then, you're mistaking the actual merits of a statue with the status/perception of it. Iron Studios can pull the best movie Captain America statue (they did), yet it just doesn't have the legendary status of pieces like Gambit PF, Hulk PF and such. It's a matter of perception.
Which brings to the following point: Iron Studios does good stuff... but they're nowhere ahead anyone else. Yes their Captain America is a pretty much perfect rendition of the movie character, who has a fraction of a fraction of the popularity of its comic counterpart, but that's it. The XM Black Panther is head and shoulders better, arguably the Black Panther PF is better than their movie version. The XM Mark 7 is better than their Mark 43 and the Mark 6 Maquette, the level of paint app is simply superior.
Prime1? Yes they're doing great stuff, but mind it: their "perfect facial features" come from digital files of the videogames. They still require work to make 3D models productable, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's an effortless task on their side. But they're using stuff that has already been made with "perfect features" by someone else, which is fine, and they add value to it with great paint jobs. But I'm curious to see how they'll do on characters made entirely from scratch. And so far they have been hoarding licenses like crazy but I want to see the output.
Also, they are mostly doing 1:3 scale and videogame characters. Keep this in mind for later and for now let's just say that people expecting to pile up 40 1:3 pieces in a room like they do with 1:4 pieces will soon realize they don't have the space for it.
Hot Toys... well I won't even comment. Some people buy statues AND dolls but they're a vast minority, different market.
Not sure if you see the pattern here... the cake is being split up in many different slices with different flavours.
1:4 scale vs 1:3 scale, comic vs movie vs videogame (vs original stuff, recently), and so on. These are relevant differences. There are people that would spend 1000$ on a 1:4 comic piece and not even consider a 1:3 videogame piece. People that spend 1000$ on movie stuff and don't even care for comic pieces sold at 500$, and so on.
As long as there are people buying into each different slice, companies tapping into that specific flavour will make their profit and go on doing their thing.
Let's start saying - I don't know where you are located, but yours sounds like the typical statement from someone who lives in the US.
Yes US customers make up for the bigger market. Yes they can order Sideshow stuff, Prime1 stuff and Iron Studios stuff directly from Sideshow... at retail! Yay! Reward points! Reasonable shipping costs! Awesome... for them.
I know it might be shocking news and no disrespect intended here, but... the world is not northamerican-centric.
Don't get me wrong, if I were in the US, I wouldn't bother to do backflips and spend a ton of money on XM pieces too.
But, there's a whole world outside, made of high shipping costs, customs fees, VATs, every kind of stick that can reasonably be stuffed in a person's most sacred holes. A lot of asian countries where Sideshow, Prime1 and Iron Studios pieces are sold at the same markup you see for XM pieces in the US.
I perfectly know it... I live in Europe. Prime1 pieces in stores here retail at around 1400$. Some big 1:4 pieces by Sideshow like Lobo, Dark Rider, Sentinel, Galactus and such were more expensive than what I paid for many XM pieces.
And even if we're being pushed out of the market by increasing prices, increasing shipping costs, crappy conversion values and such, we still make up for a slice of the market. And companies can have their spot if they tap into these markets, smaller companies like XM that only need a few hundreds sold pieces to make a profit out of a project.
For the records, there's an european company called Tsume. They do manga/anime stuff, became more popular in the last year or two but they've been around for nearly a decade. They are now doing 1500-2000 edition sizes and their stuff goes sold out in an hour usually. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of americans don't even know about them. Let's just say their "older grails" are worth thousands. Their Gaara statue goes for 3000-3500$ and people kill each other bidding on it when it pops on Ebay.
Yes, as much as the "definitive timeless grail of grails" Doom PF. Oh, and it's a 1:6 piece, did I mention that?
This is to say: there are markets outside of the US.
Moving on to the companies talks:
First of all, you'd make a serious mistake counting Sideshow out. They have been in the big scale (1:4) market more than anyone else, outlasted other companies, have the capital, experience, artists, knowledges. This alone should tell something. And they have adapted lately, their sculpt improved, the paint apps improved, they have been forced to increase the sale price of their pieces but in turn this gave a much better output. It's undeniable their recent releases are improved a lot in terms of paint and overall quality control. They are making better anatomies, bigger bases, more complex stuff.
Then, you're mistaking the actual merits of a statue with the status/perception of it. Iron Studios can pull the best movie Captain America statue (they did), yet it just doesn't have the legendary status of pieces like Gambit PF, Hulk PF and such. It's a matter of perception.
Which brings to the following point: Iron Studios does good stuff... but they're nowhere ahead anyone else. Yes their Captain America is a pretty much perfect rendition of the movie character, who has a fraction of a fraction of the popularity of its comic counterpart, but that's it. The XM Black Panther is head and shoulders better, arguably the Black Panther PF is better than their movie version. The XM Mark 7 is better than their Mark 43 and the Mark 6 Maquette, the level of paint app is simply superior.
Prime1? Yes they're doing great stuff, but mind it: their "perfect facial features" come from digital files of the videogames. They still require work to make 3D models productable, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's an effortless task on their side. But they're using stuff that has already been made with "perfect features" by someone else, which is fine, and they add value to it with great paint jobs. But I'm curious to see how they'll do on characters made entirely from scratch. And so far they have been hoarding licenses like crazy but I want to see the output.
Also, they are mostly doing 1:3 scale and videogame characters. Keep this in mind for later and for now let's just say that people expecting to pile up 40 1:3 pieces in a room like they do with 1:4 pieces will soon realize they don't have the space for it.
Hot Toys... well I won't even comment. Some people buy statues AND dolls but they're a vast minority, different market.
Not sure if you see the pattern here... the cake is being split up in many different slices with different flavours.
1:4 scale vs 1:3 scale, comic vs movie vs videogame (vs original stuff, recently), and so on. These are relevant differences. There are people that would spend 1000$ on a 1:4 comic piece and not even consider a 1:3 videogame piece. People that spend 1000$ on movie stuff and don't even care for comic pieces sold at 500$, and so on.
As long as there are people buying into each different slice, companies tapping into that specific flavour will make their profit and go on doing their thing.
I really enjoyed reading your post El Mule. Thank you
So did i.
Spliff
Super Freak
i love all the fluff ******** you guys spew out for your flavor of the month company. you can't see the difference in an SS paint job versus XM really? that's just you being obtuse.
it's fine if you love the basic/plain paintjobs they put out that's fine, but i don't see how you can say you see no difference in the superiority of other paint jobs other companies are putting out and be taken seriously by anyone other than fanboys.
it's fine if you love the basic/plain paintjobs they put out that's fine, but i don't see how you can say you see no difference in the superiority of other paint jobs other companies are putting out and be taken seriously by anyone other than fanboys.
hockeyflow33
Super Freak
They probably get painted in the same factories overseas.
Why do you need allegiance to one company? And how do you complain about fanboys on a site that is named after Sideshow?
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