The other thing that springs to mind for me is... How long does Sideshow's license to make the PFs last? Does anyone know? If its anything like the statues they ran for about 4 years or so?? At this rate we'll only have time for another 2 or 3 at best if something similar is in place for the PFs. So, is there a time-limit on the PF license????
As to the point about a possible gag order being in place, surely they could announce officially (ie on their website, not just at a convention) that they "expect" to announce 1, 2 or 3 PFs at SDCC?? Now wouldn't 3 all at once be good.... we'd have about 9-12 months to save up for them before they're released!
In the past my dealings with SS have been, on the whole, extremely good. However, I do feel they've let themselves down with the LotR PFs; several people reporting switching to other lines (and to other companies!) is not good for SSs PR at all. If I were them, I would at least post something on the LotR homepage to confirm that the line is indeed not dead (if that is the case and lets be honest, even with the comments at ORC and a while ago on this board, the "proof of the pudding" (as they say) is actually seeing something in the way of an official announcement), possibly even to apologise for the delay (whether its their fault or not, its good PR to communicate with your customers) and to give us some official hope. I recently completed a management course and in the marketing module, do you know what the most important thing to do is? To "listen to the customer". Well right now, many customers are effectively (ie either speaking on these boards, or (more importantly for SS) dropping the line completely) telling SS that we need to know more about whats going on with this line, and of course, that we'd like to see more pieces!! I said it earlier, and I'll say it again, I think they've diversified too much with the dios and busts, so its about time they focussed again on the PFs and the 12" line and at the least give us some concrete information regarding where they plan to go with them. Thats the least they can do to people who in many cases have invested several thousands of dollars with their company and are now feeling that they've been left high and dry with regard to the PFs. I honestly don't know what proportion of SSs income comes from LotR, so I don't know how important we are to them. Unlike others on this board I have neither the resources, nor the inclination to invest in any of the other lines that SS produces (I couldn't afford it when it was announced, but did get on the waitlist for the Predator maquette but that didn't come through). For me its only LotR - the way things are going, this is another customer that they're about to lose, permanently, and no matter what proportion of their income comes from me, it is not good for any business at all to lose customers...
As has been said above, the next PF needs to be absolutely stunning; the only female PFs that might come close to that for me are armoured Eowyn (or perhaps in her mourning gown...) or Dark Galadriel. They've already done an armoured Eowyn with SSW, and I'd much prefer to see Theoden (please!!) or Eomer done in PF. The "normal" Galadriel statue is still available on the SS website, and so is the Eowyn - I know they had ridiculous edition sizes, but the fact is that they are not as popular as the "main" characters. I'm not interested in Arwen in any guise.
So, SS, its over to you; please let us know whats going on and make the next PF an absolute killer (and then the next, and then the next...). I really want to see this line expand and succeed - Lurtz was out of this world, Frodo less so (amazingly detailed, yes, Elijah-like, no) - as has been said before so many times (sometimes by people who've now abandoned the line
), the potential for this line is immeasurable. Please, let it grow from strength to strength, not wither and die....
