ShadowGuardian
Super Freak
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Messages
- 2,311
- Reaction score
- 230
Hello freaks!
There have been a lot of controversies in the collecting world over the past year, especially with specific companies from what I've seen. Recently, Prime 1 Studios announced a re-release of their ever so popular grails of the 1/3 Hush Batcave Batman, and 1/3 Hush Superman, but they will just be scaled down to 1/4 this time around. This discussion isn't really about that, but it was the catalyst for my line of thought after reading various opinions on this forum, the statue forum, and facebook. Coincidentally, I've also been sorting through a lot of old photos over the holidays which includes many of my past collections. I've been writing descriptions for each photo, and so I've been thinking a lot about why I sold different pieces, why I bought them in the first place, etc.
Lets not kid ourselves: these companies are businesses and it has always been about making money. It's not a charity. BUT, unless my perspective is skewed, I feel like there used to be more emphasis on putting out quality "art" pieces in addition to the $$$. Quality craftsmanship from individual sculptors/painters could shine through more, and there would be certain pieces where it was clearly evident that a lot of time and thought had gone into the original design. Now, that's not to say this never happens anymore of course, but it feels more rare. When is the last time you bought a piece that made you think "wow, clearly a lot of passion was put into this release to ensure it's done to perfection?"
I feel like the game has changed. These things are not NEW for the hobby, but they seem to be more prominent: an increase in re-releases, an increase in mediocre variants, an increase in rushed releases with glaring issues, oversaturation of certain characters across the board, higher production numbers (so a drop in quality), lack of honouring limited edition numbers or outright no longer doing limited edition numbers, etc. On top of ALL of this, prices are at extreme highs and the "bang for your buck" value has diminished significantly. Obviously with this last point, a lot of it can be blamed on the global economy, but I think some of the price increases have been motivated by greed too (again they aren't charities, but it's still frustrating especially when IMO quality has dropped off sharply).
I think a lot of the collectible market has also been directly influenced by the way the general movie/tv show landscape has changed, as a constant onslaught of mediocre content will directly result in a constant onslaught of mediocre collectibles. There has been a loss of craftsmanship in creating quality, limited edition collectibles, and a loss of craftsmanship in constructing well-thought out films and television shows with a clear passion behind them. ESPECIALLY with Disney, it's always the popular "flavour of the week," and then immediately on to the next thing. A lot of franchises are not left to rest, or have a defined conclusion, which makes them unsatisfying. This translates to the collectibles, naturally.
I still love the idea of collecting, but my general life priorities have changed so I rarely put money down on pieces now. At the same time, I feel less involved in the hobby because I have become more frustrated with it, and I feel that it is less worthwhile to drop my hard earned cash on a statue these days for many of the reasons I listed above. Do you guys agree? Especially those that have been in this game for 10 years+. Or am I just blowing things out of proportion? Curious as to where this discussion could go.
There have been a lot of controversies in the collecting world over the past year, especially with specific companies from what I've seen. Recently, Prime 1 Studios announced a re-release of their ever so popular grails of the 1/3 Hush Batcave Batman, and 1/3 Hush Superman, but they will just be scaled down to 1/4 this time around. This discussion isn't really about that, but it was the catalyst for my line of thought after reading various opinions on this forum, the statue forum, and facebook. Coincidentally, I've also been sorting through a lot of old photos over the holidays which includes many of my past collections. I've been writing descriptions for each photo, and so I've been thinking a lot about why I sold different pieces, why I bought them in the first place, etc.
Lets not kid ourselves: these companies are businesses and it has always been about making money. It's not a charity. BUT, unless my perspective is skewed, I feel like there used to be more emphasis on putting out quality "art" pieces in addition to the $$$. Quality craftsmanship from individual sculptors/painters could shine through more, and there would be certain pieces where it was clearly evident that a lot of time and thought had gone into the original design. Now, that's not to say this never happens anymore of course, but it feels more rare. When is the last time you bought a piece that made you think "wow, clearly a lot of passion was put into this release to ensure it's done to perfection?"
I feel like the game has changed. These things are not NEW for the hobby, but they seem to be more prominent: an increase in re-releases, an increase in mediocre variants, an increase in rushed releases with glaring issues, oversaturation of certain characters across the board, higher production numbers (so a drop in quality), lack of honouring limited edition numbers or outright no longer doing limited edition numbers, etc. On top of ALL of this, prices are at extreme highs and the "bang for your buck" value has diminished significantly. Obviously with this last point, a lot of it can be blamed on the global economy, but I think some of the price increases have been motivated by greed too (again they aren't charities, but it's still frustrating especially when IMO quality has dropped off sharply).
I think a lot of the collectible market has also been directly influenced by the way the general movie/tv show landscape has changed, as a constant onslaught of mediocre content will directly result in a constant onslaught of mediocre collectibles. There has been a loss of craftsmanship in creating quality, limited edition collectibles, and a loss of craftsmanship in constructing well-thought out films and television shows with a clear passion behind them. ESPECIALLY with Disney, it's always the popular "flavour of the week," and then immediately on to the next thing. A lot of franchises are not left to rest, or have a defined conclusion, which makes them unsatisfying. This translates to the collectibles, naturally.
I still love the idea of collecting, but my general life priorities have changed so I rarely put money down on pieces now. At the same time, I feel less involved in the hobby because I have become more frustrated with it, and I feel that it is less worthwhile to drop my hard earned cash on a statue these days for many of the reasons I listed above. Do you guys agree? Especially those that have been in this game for 10 years+. Or am I just blowing things out of proportion? Curious as to where this discussion could go.