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Showing posts with label Sideshow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sideshow. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2012

Sauron Helm Lord of the Rings by Sideshow Weta Preview

For preview The Dark Lord Sauron Sideshow Weta 1/4 Scale Helm/helmet. The will be revealed shortly.


Check out the Full review and Photos Here

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Thor Hammer & helmet Sideshow Archive set

Thor Archive Set Hammer & Helmet by Sideshow Collectibles

What is an archive set? That was my first question about 6-7 years ago when I first heard about these. Basically it's a pure display piece (in every sense of the word)  it captures everything to do with the character without the character. For me it is pretty awesome because you get to see the weapons up close. What makes the hero or villain you can literally hold in your hand.
The sideshow pieces are made to a 1/4 scale meaning perfect for you budget and small enough to save you a ton of space instead of dealing with super large life size prop replicas. First of the detail is fantastic the amount of time and effort to design and mass produce these is unheard of. I'll let the pictures explain, down to business. I'm Going to do a reverse order this time bring the suspense to the front instead of making you all wait. Let me know if you like this method better.


The Goods What you care about:
The Archive set (the piece): The paint job is stunning, the piece looks like it's straight out of Thor's Asgarian utility room. The wood display is not actually wood, the paint job makes it look so real. As well the base isn't stone, both the base and the wood display are made out of polystone and probably metal on the inside to make the frame. The stone base has rune like markings on each side with the classic Thor logo on the front (even the shading is done in the paint job). The hammer (Mjolnir) is heavy the entire piece is made out of solid metal (probably weighs about 1lb) with the handle wrapped in leather (just like the comics). His winged helmet is also made out of solid metal (probably about 1/2 pound) with an awesome silver sparkle flecked paint job and hand painted feathers. Each then mount on to the wood display part (the winged helmet mounts with a peg in the middle and the hammer just rest on the 2 horizontal dragon looking pegs.

 Sideshow Thor Archive Hammer and Winged Helmet Front view, Side view, Back View and the under side Numbered edition

The Winged Helmet and Hammer (Mjolnir): the up close look at both the winged helmet and hammer reveals an amazing amount of detail given to each individual piece. Quality control must have been really strict. I'm more amazed at the helmet than the hammer due to the fact that the detail required to pull off the helmet was actually thoughtfully designed and then exceptionally executed. Sideshow didn't just have the feathers painted, they had them machine stamped into metal and then hand painted. They did that on the outward and inward facing parts of the helmet. The Hammer WOW a solid piece of metal with a textured paint pattern and to top it off, the embossed inscription of what it takes to wield Thor's hammer (Mjolnir). The leather wrapped handle looks great as well the little detail at the bottom of the handle. Sideshow there's really no one out there that comes close to your attention to detail and price point.
Thor's Hammer and Helmet up close. You can see the detail and the quality of workmanship


The 4 Colour Box: looks great and really shows off the piece. Even before opening and seeing the piece you know what you are getting into. The excitement just grows from there.
Sideshow Archive Thor Hammer and Helmet set 4 colour box front, back and side

Styrofoam Packing
The Styrofoam: Packed well and to save space this piece should save you a bit on shipping but the weight alone will probably make that saving negligible. Trust me though the weight is what makes this piece ever penny.


The Verdict: the fully metal pieces, life like wood and stone base give this the look of fiction really becoming reality. Get you hands on one of these comic fans, especially you Thor guys. You won't regret it.

5 Thrown Hammers out of 5

Friday, July 15, 2011

DC COMICS & SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES Has FINALLY ARRIVED

It has been years since I first imagined a Batman or Superman Premium format and now my dreams have come to reality. Sideshow has just announced it has acquired the license for the DC characters. AWESOME. Now it's just time to wait and see what incredible stuff is on the way. CAN"T WAIT.
Read the rest Here at sideshow and watch the teaser trailer below.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Mary Jane Comiquette Statue Review Sideshow

An edition size of 2000, it's the Mary Jane comiquette statue by sideshow collectibles. Another piece in the sideshow Adam Hughes collaboration collection. Released in 2007, there were 2 versions an exclusive and regular. The exclusive came with the control art, which I don't have. In this case the control art doesn't much look like the actual piece. The piece is more slim and the hair more straight and flat. Overall the piece looks awesome and is probably the best representation of Mary Jane to date.


The Goods (What you care about):
The Brown Shipper: The box does well to keep the piece safe, any bumps or drops though and expect to see the same damage on the 4 color box as well.





The 4 Color Box: I liked it, the choice of colors and font really suit the piece. As usual Sideshow puts the effort in to make a different box for each piece.

The Statue: There were a few things that I noticed about the sample pre-production piece and the actual released product. The hair and that touches the right side of the face was actually attached to the head in the released pieces, where as the pre production piece had the hair separate. Why the complaint? Well with the released piece the hair and the face had to be painted and it looked as though the skin is extending into the face giving it a weird finish. Other then that the piece looks really good. The skin tones are very life like. Everything is in proportion and nothing really hangs out that can be easily broken off.


Assembly is actually really fast and easy. There are 3 pieces the base, the figure and the washing bucket. Put the base on a level surface, then place the peg on the feet into the peg hole on the base make sure her hands are over the table. Now the washing bucket. It has a magnet built into the bottom and felt so it wont scratch the table or fall off. This is were you need to be careful. Put the base on the table and fit the spider-man costume (parallel to the figure body) into the fingers of the right hand. then just fit the left side of the costume into the left hand. The left hand doesn't really hold the costume. DON'T Twist the costume or else you'll break the right hand fingers off.
A tank top, blue jeans and... pink panties seems to sum up the super model wife of Peter Parker. The costume she washes isn't the original red and blue costume, it's the black and red. It kind of sucks but i guess it goes to show that Spider-man only has one of each costume, and she's washing this one to be ready for him for his next adventure.
Sideshow has done it again and made a great piece, add this to any collection whether is spider-man, or just a woman of comics collection. This is a well needed addition for any completest just try not to break the bank as right now it's about $300 to acquire this one.

4.5 Full Super Kleen Bottles out of 5

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

White Queen Emma Frost Exclusive Comiquette Sideshow Review

Here's a particularly special piece. Sculpted off the works of Adam Hughes this one is a little PG-13. This has become one of the most highly sought after female collectibles to date. With an exclusive run of only 900 pieces (2000 for the regular edition), and with a pose like this, it's a keeper. Now the pose for you married guys may or may not work in the house, if your woman is confident and secure I don't think she'll have much against a capturing of 2-D art brought into the realm of 3 Dimensions. I'm sure a tasteful answer like that will help her to understand, otherwise it'll live in the box and you'll have to reference our photos to remember it. Anyways... originally released in 2006 the sculpt and attention to detail may be even better then the stuff coming out now.

The Goods What you care about:
Brown Shipper: well its a brown box nothing more to it, oh by the way this is the exclusive version so enjoy that on the box.
From left to right: Brown shipper box, Front of the 4 colour box, side and the back

Four Color box: unlike the Magnetto Comiquette the purple works really well. It delivers just the right amount icy cold that suits the White Queens character. It's quickly obvious that the purple doesn't seem to cool down the piece or the White Queen. The full sculpt is revealed on the sides and back of the box and it's obvious this is a PG-13 piece. It's like a scene captured from the bed room of the White Queen, a long day of screwing over the X-Men it's time to go to bed.
 From left: The back story on the White Queen, and the control art print only given with the exclusive 

The Styrofoam: I caution lots of care for this piece. When lifting of the top piece just be careful. There's a lot of protruding plastic pieces that you do not want to break off. So be careful when taking out the cape/cloak. I take out everything else and leave the cape till last. I wish they had made these cape strings an insert but they are attached so if you break them that's it. Luckily if you break them they don't take to much away from the piece. I cant figure out how they came up with the idea to pack this but its expertly packed, and good thing the cape doesn't move around at all in the box so there should be no damage on shipping unless you pack it badly.

 White Queen Emma Frost Statue by Sideshow Collectibles. Click pictures to enlarge. 

The Statue: Stunning and beautifully presented. With the exclusive version you get the chance to compare the real piece with the control art which is pretty cool. All I can say is wow it's nearly identical. The statue hasn't missed a detail.  As well the assembly is very easy. There are 3 pieces and its the minimalist style of the statue that really makes it stand out. Also the statue is huge at 16.5 inches this is one to be highly sought after. The control art for this piece is a little weird with the swirls and flowers, I think it detracts from the actual subject. That's my only thing.
The actual figure is great with everything proportioned really well. The hair is very straight similar to the sort of old school 90s cartoon, which is fine. It gives the very "staunch, proper, out of my league" typical of the Hellfire Club White Queen era. But I would have loved the Greg Horn White Queen hair with a few curls. None the less the statue is awesome even with the hair, I still like it. The paint job is perfect. I really like the pearl white they use for the outfit its just so much nicer then plain white. The pearl white gives it the look of real leather. (Hmmm a premium format of this would be... interesting). The face features are extremely life like with every attention to detail captured. Adam Hughes fans won't be disappointed, this one is a keeper.

5 Pairs of white thigh high boots
out of 5

Friday, November 5, 2010

Magneto X-Men Sideshow Comiquette Statue

Up next, we're talking the X-men today. Villains, yup we're covering our first villain. According to IGN he is the best comic book villain. For a guy with a bucket for a helmet...ok it blocks psychic attacks...I think he isn't a terrible villain. Also he has been around forever he just doesn't seem to go away. Now he's arrived here on League of Fiction. Not sure if he'll make the list for best villain statue.


First impressions:
The piece being a comiquette is just another fancy word for a statue. Instead of being like a premium format this one is completely solid, no cloth or fabric. Its made of polystone and not hollow. That is what made this pose possible. This is one of those special sideshow pieces that seem to defy gravity. It's a very cool feature but with it comes a sense of over precaution. Seeing a piece in your display case worth $150-$200 looking completely unbalanced but still standing, gets a collectors heart racing. First of they are already fragile the last thing would be to see it fall over because it was produced with the right center of gravity.

The facts about the piece are this. Sideshow has a nack for making doing this and getting it absolutely right. I can pretty much say this piece will probably never topple over if placed in a protective display case and not pushed or shaken (typical statue care procedure). For a Magneto this is exactly what it needed to make it awe inspiring statue. Even I think he looks pretty awesome. Whether or not the pose should be for Magneto will be discussed.


The goods what you care about:
4 color box, sorry no brown box, (rarely do I ever get these with the purchase), if you're disappointed may I suggest visiting a postal office storage place to get your fix. Its purple...not a favorite but it gets the feel across of magneto. The back shows the entire statue and the amazing pose that they have sculpted it in as well as a blurb on the back with back story.

Styrofoam.
Typical sandwich style, statue in the middle two styrofoam blocks to protect the middle from damage. Statue comes in 2 pieces which may pose a little tricky to take out. I grab the base and set that up first. Then grab the cape and the leg, lift the piece straight out. Then mount the statue on the base before taking off any of the protective wrappings. Just make sure you get a good grip the wrappings are a little slippery with the statue underneath. From a boxed side angle the statue looks cool. I'll cover that in the next section. *****Remember when putting the piece back in, if its in a plastic bag you will probably want ot cut a hole where the out stretche hand will touch, the pressure from the bag being pulled may break the fingers.****

 Note: Grab the cape piece in the middle just behind the back and the leg and pull straight out. Try mounting the statue on the base once its in the right spot then take the plastic off the statue.



The Statue.
The detail is really good, they managed to get every muscle on top of muscle to show with this piece. The base of the piece is pretty plain, I'm not sure if they really needed to put the name of the character on the bottom. If you didn't know who he was before reading the name won't really help to tell you who he is, but that's me being picky. The pose is pretty incredible and seems to defy gravity.
The Teeth look like
Chicklets, the face
doesn't work either
The paint job is as usual very good, with a great sculpt getting every little detail to help bring this to life. The crimson rd of the costume makes you forget that the rest is purple. I thought the base was a little small for this piece. Now the pose is where the statue starts to get a little weird. It's an awesome pose but unfortunately not suited for this character. It feels more of like maybe a Storm pose or change the cape to fire and make it an Iron Man statue. Well what's done is done. My last concern is to do with the face sculpt, I'm not a fan of it. The white eyes ust didn't really fit the pose, ya I know he's using his power etc. but its just weird. Now the teeth on this statue from a far look great but close up it's really bad. They look like chicklets painted in place of his teeth.

If you are a magneto completest you'll probably love this and want to get this piece. For all others depending on your taste I would probably have this piece lower down on my list. Finally it was tough to find a good angle to shoot the statue at. The back was kind of to big at the top and the 3/4 quarter view I normally use looked just like the front. I think the statue looks best with the out stretched arm at the back and the left arm in the front, that way you don't see the face. I can only hope that Sideshow does another magneto... better next time, with a better pose and face sculpt.

2 Chicklets out of 5 Chicklets

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi Premium Format Sideshow Exclusive Statue

It wouldn't be a fiction blog without this. STAR WARS, that's right it's here. As expected we couldn't have this blog without it. On the block. Obi Wan Kenobi exclusive version premium format statue from Sideshow collectibles.

First Impressions:
With premium formats the name only helps to build and set a certain standard for what the product should look like. Along with the price tags they come with it, you would expect nothing less then a premium piece.

The Goods what you care about:
The four color display box. This box style was a little odd. The functional design elements didn't suit the product. I'll explain. The box has a sleeve around it (that's where the pictures are) that makes it really difficult to get a good grip on and transport. In most cases you'll probably pull the sleeve off and then move the product box. Also with a matte finish the scuff marks just show up so easily.





Sliding the sleeve off reveals a high gloss black box. Lay the box down and find the side flap that opens (it opens much like a treasure chest would), the product doesn't just slide out. Now on a first time opening it looks really cool but its a really pain to get the product out. Print and artwork is pretty simple and minimal, to accompany the style of a full black box.
Styrofoam. With this one the styrofoam is great and fits perfectly around all the parts. Now here's the tricky part if you had once opened the statue before, you'll notice that you probably re-tied the twist ties. Trying to get Obi Wan out of the box now is tricky because you have to lift the bottom styrofoam piece out because Obi Wan is stuck to it. How? well the easiest way is to put the  styrofoam top back on and flip it over and drop the whole thing out gently. Which for most collectors can be quite the task and scary. So don't tie the twist ties back it'll save you time and a hassle. Unfortunatly the base is protected from scratches using a hard plastic... which usually scratches high gloss pieces. So either put some paper between the base and the plastic or take your chances with just the plastic. Other then that every thing is packed really well. They even had enough sense to split the lightsaber far enough down the hilt that it wouldn't get jostled and broken in shipping. Also making it easy to put the lightsaber together for the light up feature. From the pieces in the box this is a really easy set up and wont take long before it's ready for display.

The Statue
Wow, wow, wow. This is another example of what a premium format is supposed to be. As usual pictures can only come as close as possible without seeing the real thing, we did our best to capture it. The statue is 20 inches high with the face sculp being fantastic with lots of detail especially for the hair. They even managed to get right down to the details of veins on the hands. The robes are really well made with good fabric, even his belt was included on the waist which is incredible. To go to such great lengths to bring this piece together it truely is something to look at. Normally you would think with robes it would be hard to get them to flow in the right manner, not with this statue. you can even decided whether you want the hood up (with the EP4 "these aren't the droid you are looking for style) or down (showing the full face). My only issue is that the ears look kind of big from the back, but who looks at the back of a statue.
On to the lightsber, trust me it really needs its own section. THE LIGHTSABER LIGHTS UP. YUP it lights up, this is included in both versions exclusive and regular. It's a little tricky to get the lightsaber connected as you have to be careful to slip the lightsaber into his hands. Just make sure the notch goes with the other notch.


 Probably the most exciting part of the statue the light up feature. Seen from all angles of the statue.
Training Remote
Exclusive




Now the exclusive. For this particular statue the exclusive addition is a Jedi training remote with matching style base. Let me make this point it's not essential and I don't think it adds that much value to the piece. But thats the exclusive and it is more rare so that's a personal preference. The training remote does have amazing detail and sculpting which is very impressive, not skimping once on the quality.

 From Top clock wise: Obi Wan Kenobi without hood, below Obi Wan Kenobi with hood on. Lightsaber not illuminated.

Final thoughts:
This is yet another premium statue that raises the bars for all other companies in order to be competitive. SIDESHOW for the win. Recommendation i would go with getting the regular if you are tight on cash. The exclusive isn't realy worth the extra $300+ you would pay for the training remote. Get this statue becuase of the light-up lightsaber it totally changes the dimension and the cool factor of the whole thing. This is a must for Obi Wan Kenobi fans. It'll ad the grown up professional tasteful feel to your collection. Sideshow tends to do that very well and they have so far managed to keep the quality exceptional. Get the regular version unless you can get the exclusive for a price matching the regular version price.

4.5 "Force" hand waves out of 5