Statue BLITZWAY- Enter the Dragon- Bruce Lee Tribute 1/3 scale Statue Ver. 2 spec

[Tyderium]

Well I'm not really on the fence so much because I really would like to have it.
It's more the $1100 price tag that is counting me out at this point in time.
The possibility of receiving a piece that leans is also a legitimate concern without being able to go into the store and exchange easily.

 

[Darkavatar]

Well I'm not really on the fence so much because I really would like to have it.

So would I, just wish I could see it in hand.

It's more the $1100 price tag that is counting me out at this point in time.
The possibility of receiving a piece that leans is also a legitimate concern without being able to go into the store and exchange easily.

Yeah that is probably one of the main reasons I won't be getting this, too much trouble to exchange this and hope the next one won't lean or have something else wrong with it. Price is also a factor as well, kind of think I should be spending money on something else that I need to rather than want to.

 

[mrchris]

off topic kinda,but how cool does that look.
https://instagram.com/p/3G3JQHtEsp/...&fb_collection_id=486228154733719&ref=profile
https://www.facebook.com/arnie.kim.9/videos/vob.1460645150/10206379990886199/?type=2&theater

 

[xpl0sive]

I agree this part is subjective as some people could look past this fault, but considering that most people on here have touched up or are planing to touch up theirs including you, I would say objectively speaking it would be something most people would have to or want to do.

I think it's more because it's such an easy mod to do that would greatly improve it. I mean, if I thought it was hard to do, I wouldn't bother, even if it looked really bad, as I wouldn't want to make it worse, but considering adding sweat doesn't really require any skill, then I'd definitely do it. I suppose if Blitzway's sweat apps were decent, then I probably wouldn't bother with the effort, but considering they are crap I'd rather do them properly and make it perfect.

I think it depends on the statue, from what Chris says the sweat is pretty bad, even from a distance.

Mine currently sits on my TV entertainment unit, to the right of my TV, as I have nowhere else to put it at the moment. I sit roughly 2 metres away on a couch, and I literally see no sweat on my statue from where I'm sitting. It just looks like a normal statue with no sweat application at all. If I move around, I will see the odd glistening effect here or there (a sparkle or 2 on the arms) from where those spots reflect light, but otherwise nothing. Just looks like a normal painted statue with no sweat apps.

If I open the blinds and let natural light in, or whack him in the Detolf and turn on the Detolf lights, you see a bit of it but again it's hard to notice as the overhead lighting doesn't really show it well, but he has this overall sheen on his body when lit up this way, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it actually looks good. Kind of like when someone looks sweaty, and their skin gives off this glistening sheen. I think this is in part due to the smoothness of the material, and also the body is covered in this freckle effect which I don't think is actual freckles, but rather specks of dark clear, which give off that glistening effect on the body. Looks good IMO.

Well that's good news, maybe you can fix that horrible look up by painting over them.

Yeah the cuts are interesting. Haven't quite worked out how to tackle them yet. You're right, the drips can be fixed by simply painting over them and doing proper ones, but I'm thinking in order to paint the cuts properly I may have to carefully remove the existing paint for the cuts. Reason for this is the colour they used is quite dark, so if I apply a lighter clear red over the top, it may not show up well due to the dark colour underneath. I think if I use a q-tip with something like acetone I should be able to remove it. Doesn't need to be removed completely, just lightened up at least so I have a lighter coloured base to paint over. If I do go down this path, I'll likely test a very small section on his back first to see what reaction it has, just in case.

Really? I thought his looked pretty bad in pictures.

He mentioned when he got his replacement that it still leans but when he took pics of it, it looked straight.

Yeah this one came from Sideshow's one because of the shoddy work they did on it as far sweat and cut paint apps are concerned.

lol their work is getting worse and worse. Sadly, I'm not sure if I'll ever buy another piece from them. all my recent PO's from them have been returned due to really poor quality.

I hope your right but those promo pics of Robocop looks like it is straight out of a cartoon or comic. Doesn't have the appearance of real metal, thus I wouldn't be surprized if it doesn't look real because of the paint job.

I never quite got that feeling with Robocop, always looked good to me, but everyone sees things differently I suppose. I'm not sure what the final product will look like, but I'd say whatever the case, they will learn from it and improve on it with their next piece. I guess I never thought too much about Robocop as it's not something I have any interest in, and I'm waiting to see a full human statue from them before I judge. Conan will be their real test I think, and I'm optimistic it will look good. If it doesn't, I'm not fussed as Chronicle Collectibles is releasing a 1/4 Conan on throne also from Arnold scans, and if their Arnold T800 statue is anything to go by, it will look incredibly life like (seriously, if you haven't seen their Arnold statue, go see it now).

There's also nothing to compare to unfortunately as I can't think of any company that is doing polystone statues that look realistic, until I saw Chronicle's piece. All the realistic looking stuff are figures, or customs. Sideshow was the main player in this game when it comes to polystone statues, and none of their stuff looks realistic.

Oh so you agree with me now that it is dead on?

I've always loved the sculpt on Dutch PF and always thought the likeness was dead on, and was the main reason I bought it. Not sure which conversations you may be thinking back to, but I remember making a comparison to Enterbay's T800 battle damaged sculpt, and I still think that is the best sculpt of Arnie I've ever seen. I still have that figure, and am still wowed by it. The sculpt is the one thing that has kept me from selling it. It's just bang on Arnold no matter which angle you look at it. Dutch also looks great, but it does look a tad off when viewing from some angles, but this could be more to do with paint rather than sculpt as Enterbay's paintjob is superb. I love both regardless though.

I would still love to get that piece just hate how yellow it looks.

Man this is still my favourite statue from Sideshow and I still love looking at it. Easily one of my favourites in my collection and I'm glad I have it. In regards to the skin colour, if you display your stuff in natural light then I would highly recommend buying this if skin colour is your only concern, as it doesn't look yellow at all in natural light. Looks pretty normal. Seems to take on a bit of a yellowish tinge in artificial light though, which is a bit annoying but has never stopped me from enjoying the piece as the overall piece is so good. Great sculpt, clothing and base. Actually looks and feels like a quality piece, which is more than I can say for some of Sideshow's recent efforts.

I think that is what it was, but I must say it looked amazing in the proto pics that I think most people would of thought the same way, I know I did.

Yep lol. The proto definitely looked amazing and is one of the best and most realistic looking statues I've ever seen. It definitely hooked me in. I do think it's possible for a factory to replicate the paint job, or get it close, but not the el cheapo factory Blitzway ended up using. I'd say the factory Toynami uses would have done a fantastic job.

Well I hope you do, would love to hear your thoughts on it.

I'll definitely let you know.

 

[mrchris]

Regarding the sweat,I agree it can vanish in certain light conditions and I can walk past and it can give off a sheen like look to the torso.but where I generally sit,when the light is coming from the left,the sweat looks like his front/neck,chest and the worst bit his right side are glossy runs his right arm and forehead give this look also but in a blob like way.maybe mine was worse before masking it with powder??.and yeah cheapo finish sounds about right.and careful with the acetone mate,the paint on this runs pretty easy...

 

[xpl0sive]

Oh Chris you know Blitzway thought if they cut corners and sell it for the same price they would get more buyers if they charged more and made it look high quality.

Yeah, I'm with you here. I think Blitzway tried to pull a Sideshow with this. Build an epic proto, then pass it off to a cheap factory to reproduce at a low cost, to maximize profit.

To me, this statue is expensive enough. I don't think it's cheap, and I think for this money we should have got perfection. I think people just expect to pay more for quality work than what Blitzway charged for this and thus assume this level of work (Blitzway's EtD statue) is what is expected for this sort of money (and hence may even think it's cheap) because we've been getting ripped off by other companies until now.

Seeing other large scale statues coming out from companies other than Sideshow recently has put things into perspective. This EtD piece cost $1000 AUD, and has now gone up to $1100. This is with poorly done cuts, sweat, no known edition size and some obvious QC issues. PCS have recently released 1:3 scale statues at similar price points, very low edition sizes that sell out within minutes and are known to produce quality work with no shortcuts. Granted, no one has seen a production 1:3 piece from them yet, but their 1:4 scale stuff seems high quality and very popular and the only complaints I seem to see are long wait times, so I would expect the same if not greater quality for their 1:3 scale stuff.

Chronicle Collectibles has recently put up for PO a 1:4 scale endoskeleton statue from Terminator Genisys that is made using the actual digital scans of the movie props provided to them by Legacy Effects (the guys who made the on-screen endos), so it is 100% movie accurate. It has a worldwide edition size of 500 and the production pieces will be done by Toynami, the guys who do Cinemaquettes, and was sold for $500. To put that into perspective further, Sideshow sold their horrible 1/4 scale endo all those years ago for $550.

This is the sort of work (and price) we should be getting, and I'm glad to see some companies actually caring about providing quality product at reasonable prices. I think if you're going to actually charge very high prices for your products, at least make sure the pieces are of very high quality with no shortcuts and no expense spared, and certainly ensure there is adequate quality control.

 

[Darkavatar]

I think it's more because it's such an easy mod to do that would greatly improve it. I mean, if I thought it was hard to do, I wouldn't bother, even if it looked really bad, as I wouldn't want to make it worse, but considering adding sweat doesn't really require any skill, then I'd definitely do it. I suppose if Blitzway's sweat apps were decent, then I probably wouldn't bother with the effort, but considering they are crap I'd rather do them properly and make it perfect.

That's thing though I don't consider it an easy mod, I hope you can prove me wrong when you have finally done it. However, disguising it with flesh powder like Chris did, doesn't seem to hard.

Mine currently sits on my TV entertainment unit, to the right of my TV, as I have nowhere else to put it at the moment. I sit roughly 2 metres away on a couch, and I literally see no sweat on my statue from where I'm sitting. It just looks like a normal statue with no sweat application at all. If I move around, I will see the odd glistening effect here or there (a sparkle or 2 on the arms) from where those spots reflect light, but otherwise nothing. Just looks like a normal painted statue with no sweat apps.

Like I said though, others are not so lucky with the sweat apps, regardless of lighting or distance, it still looks bad.

If I open the blinds and let natural light in, or whack him in the Detolf and turn on the Detolf lights, you see a bit of it but again it's hard to notice as the overhead lighting doesn't really show it well, but he has this overall sheen on his body when lit up this way, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it actually looks good. Kind of like when someone looks sweaty, and their skin gives off this glistening sheen. I think this is in part due to the smoothness of the material, and also the body is covered in this freckle effect which I don't think is actual freckles, but rather specks of dark clear, which give off that glistening effect on the body. Looks good IMO.

Hmm interesting.

Yeah the cuts are interesting. Haven't quite worked out how to tackle them yet. You're right, the drips can be fixed by simply painting over them and doing proper ones, but I'm thinking in order to paint the cuts properly I may have to carefully remove the existing paint for the cuts. Reason for this is the colour they used is quite dark, so if I apply a lighter clear red over the top, it may not show up well due to the dark colour underneath. I think if I use a q-tip with something like acetone I should be able to remove it. Doesn't need to be removed completely, just lightened up at least so I have a lighter coloured base to paint over. If I do go down this path, I'll likely test a very small section on his back first to see what reaction it has, just in case.

Well I am sure you will figure it out, looks like a lot of people have.

He mentioned when he got his replacement that it still leans but when he took pics of it, it looked straight.

Hmm ok.

lol their work is getting worse and worse. Sadly, I'm not sure if I'll ever buy another piece from them. all my recent PO's from them have been returned due to really poor quality.

Same here unfortunately.

I never quite got that feeling with Robocop, always looked good to me, but everyone sees things differently I suppose. I'm not sure what the final product will look like, but I'd say whatever the case, they will learn from it and improve on it with their next piece. I guess I never thought too much about Robocop as it's not something I have any interest in, and I'm waiting to see a full human statue from them before I judge. Conan will be their real test I think, and I'm optimistic it will look good.

I must admit it certainly looks promising.

If it doesn't, I'm not fussed as Chronicle Collectibles is releasing a 1/4 Conan on throne also from Arnold scans, and if their Arnold T800 statue is anything to go by, it will look incredibly life like (seriously, if you haven't seen their Arnold statue, go see it now).

I have seen it, it is a great sculpt.

There's also nothing to compare to unfortunately as I can't think of any company that is doing polystone statues that look realistic, until I saw Chronicle's piece. All the realistic looking stuff are figures, or customs. Sideshow was the main player in this game when it comes to polystone statues, and none of their stuff looks realistic.

That's true, because of their paint jobs.

I've always loved the sculpt on Dutch PF and always thought the likeness was dead on, and was the main reason I bought it. Not sure which conversations you may be thinking back to, but I remember making a comparison to Enterbay's T800 battle damaged sculpt, and I still think that is the best sculpt of Arnie I've ever seen. I still have that figure, and am still wowed by it. The sculpt is the one thing that has kept me from selling it. It's just bang on Arnold no matter which angle you look at it. Dutch also looks great, but it does look a tad off when viewing from some angles, but this could be more to do with paint rather than sculpt as Enterbay's paintjob is superb. I love both regardless though.

Then you really don't consider it really dead on likeness then do you? The profile on EBs looks off IMO, the mouth looks off, actually looks Asian, Sideshow's profile looks dead on and looks practically dead on from the front to.

Man this is still my favourite statue from Sideshow and I still love looking at it. Easily one of my favourites in my collection and I'm glad I have it. In regards to the skin colour, if you display your stuff in natural light then I would highly recommend buying this if skin colour is your only concern, as it doesn't look yellow at all in natural light. Looks pretty normal. Seems to take on a bit of a yellowish tinge in artificial light though, which is a bit annoying but has never stopped me from enjoying the piece as the overall piece is so good. Great sculpt, clothing and base. Actually looks and feels like a quality piece, which is more than I can say for some of Sideshow's recent efforts.

Maybe it isn't as yellow as it appears to be in pics and videos but the fact that some guy on you tube said he was sending it back because it was too yellow pretty much gives me a good indication on how I would respond to it. I guess it is another thing I would have to see in hand to be sure though but I have never seen a pic or video where it didn't have some yellow tint to it.

Yep lol. The proto definitely looked amazing and is one of the best and most realistic looking statues I've ever seen. It definitely hooked me in. I do think it's possible for a factory to replicate the paint job, or get it close, but not the el cheapo factory Blitzway ended up using. I'd say the factory Toynami uses would have done a fantastic job.

Yes but then the statue would cost over over 1 K USD.

I'll definitely let you know.

Thnx.

 

[Darkavatar]

Regarding the sweat,I agree it can vanish in certain light conditions and I can walk past and it can give off a sheen like look to the torso.but where I generally sit,when the light is coming from the left,the sweat looks like his front/neck,chest and the worst bit his right side are glossy runs his right arm and forehead give this look also but in a blob like way.maybe mine was worse before masking it with powder??.and yeah cheapo finish sounds about right.and careful with the acetone mate,the paint on this runs pretty easy...

I think it was Chris.

Yeah, I'm with you here. I think Blitzway tried to pull a Sideshow with this. Build an epic proto, then pass it off to a cheap factory to reproduce at a low cost, to maximize profit.

To me, this statue is expensive enough. I don't think it's cheap, and I think for this money we should have got perfection. I think people just expect to pay more for quality work than what Blitzway charged for this and thus assume this level of work (Blitzway's EtD statue) is what is expected for this sort of money (and hence may even think it's cheap) because we've been getting ripped off by other companies until now.

It's an expensive statue but cheap a 1/3 scale polystone statue.

Seeing other large scale statues coming out from companies other than Sideshow recently has put things into perspective. This EtD piece cost $1000 AUD, and has now gone up to $1100. This is with poorly done cuts, sweat, no known edition size and some obvious QC issues. PCS have recently released 1:3 scale statues at similar price points, very low edition sizes that sell out within minutes and are known to produce quality work with no shortcuts. Granted, no one has seen a production 1:3 piece from them yet, but their 1:4 scale stuff seems high quality and very popular and the only complaints I seem to see are long wait times, so I would expect the same if not greater quality for their 1:3 scale stuff.

I bet the Conan Arnold will cost more than 1k, considering it has real hair with acrylic eyes, BTW whey did they use acrylic eyes instead of glass eyes?

Chronicle Collectibles has recently put up for PO a 1:4 scale endoskeleton statue from Terminator Genisys that is made using the actual digital scans of the movie props provided to them by Legacy Effects (the guys who made the on-screen endos), so it is 100% movie accurate. It has a worldwide edition size of 500 and the production pieces will be done by Toynami, the guys who do Cinemaquettes, and was sold for $500. To put that into perspective further, Sideshow sold their horrible 1/4 scale endo all those years ago for $550.

Looks good but I will wait to see the final product before I make any judgements.

This is the sort of work (and price) we should be getting, and I'm glad to see some companies actually caring about providing quality product at reasonable prices. I think if you're going to actually charge very high prices for your products, at least make sure the pieces are of very high quality with no shortcuts and no expense spared, and certainly ensure there is adequate quality control.

Yeah but so far these are proto paint jobs, I doubt the final products will look as good but hopefully better than Sideshows ones.

 

[nongshim]

off topic kinda,but how cool does that look.
https://instagram.com/p/3G3JQHtEsp/...&fb_collection_id=486228154733719&ref=profile
https://www.facebook.com/arnie.kim.9/videos/vob.1460645150/10206379990886199/?type=2&theater

That looks sick. Is Arnie gonna be doing any more Bruce Lee for Blitzway or has he moved on to another company?

 

[mrchris]

arnie and blitzway have parted company(he wasn't happy with how the statue turned out,but I don't know if that's the reason).I have a feeling those videos are ''personal projects'' but would love these to be available to the public.

 

[Darkavatar]

That looks sick. Is Arnie gonna be doing any more Bruce Lee for Blitzway or has he moved on to another company?

What Chris said and from what Arnie told me, it didn't sound like he wanted to work for another company just make handmade stuff now. He did say however, that he will continue to make more Bruce Lee products.

 

[mrchris]

no doubt mostly personal stuff steve.maybe the odd commission?

 

[Darkavatar]

no doubt mostly personal stuff steve.maybe the odd commission?

I assume so Chris, all he told me is that he continue to make Bruce Lee, despite not being pleased with the mass produced ones.

 

[mrchris]

at least that will save me spending any more....for now anyway.i'll keep an eye on his FB page for updates.

 

[Darkavatar]

at least that will save me spending any more....for now anyway.i'll keep an eye on his FB page for updates.

Did he ever post how mad he was with Blitzway for producing products below his standards? I notice people post pics of their ETD statue and he never replies, which I think is telling us something.

 

[mrchris]

I've not seen him reply to people's posts,maybe he knows there's nothing he could do about it,but I'd like to here/see him give his honest opinion on it( I doubt if he will reveal the reasons behind parting with blitzway though)I think frustration at the finished item may have been a factor,i'm with him on that,this statue could have been such a stunner with a ''cared about'' finish to it.

 

[Darkavatar]

I've not seen him reply to people's posts,maybe he knows there's nothing he could do about it,but I'd like to here/see him give his honest opinion on it( I doubt if he will reveal the reasons behind parting with blitzway though)I think frustration at the finished item may have been a factor,i'm with him on that,this statue could have been such a stunner with a ''cared about'' finish to it.

I know he didn't mention why he left Blitzway but did he ever posted a message on facebook saying he was not happy with it?

I mean I never saw anything and the only way I found out was through here and actually asking him myself when I chatted to him on Facebook.

 

[mrchris]

it came to my attention when one of the guys who is a huge BL collector,posted that arnie had told him he was very unhappy with the finished article.and on a couple of other forums i have seen others say the same.....maybe arnie should ''spill the beans'' on this .

 

[Darkavatar]

it came to my attention when one of the guys who is a huge BL collector,posted that arnie had told him he was very unhappy with the finished article.and on a couple of other forums i have seen others say the same.....maybe arnie should ''spill the beans'' on this .

Yes I know, that is how I found out to and when I spoke to Arnie he confirmed it. However, it is strange that Arnie never posted a comment on facebook about how unhappy he was.

 

[mrchris]

yeah it does seem a bit strange,as look at his FB page and he's happy showing the GOD but not this one,maybe that says it all ?