Re: Hot Toys's DX04 - Enter the Dragon: Bruce Lee 1/6th scale Collectible Figure
I am,
As much as I love the guy, he had to go back to China to star in movies because nobody would offer him roles worth his talent. He even lost the Kung Fu main part in favor of David Carradine who knew nothing about martial arts (the guy was a dancer).
This is an overall response to a lot of the comments in this thread, not just about the above quotation.
Hollywood's racism of the time doesn't change the fact that he was a superstar in Asia and would have received World wide fame regardless of when he died. He could have very easily produced another string of films that would have elevated him to even greater levels of fame. You can make the same argument of James Dean. He was still a star on the rise no matter when he died. This isn't cult of personality we are talking about. This is the cultural zeitgeist of the 1970's. Bruce Lee created the global fascination with martial arts. Do we have mixed martial arts now if Bruce Lee doesn't explode onto the World stage? We are talking an absurd amount of influence felt through multiple cultural strata.
In addition, we aren't just talking about Superman. We are talking about a hyper specific representation of one actor as Superman. I love Christopher Reeve, but he isn't everyone's ideal Man of Steel. We will get him soon enough. I thought it might be the Mark V Iron Man, but I'm not hung up on the fact we got this instead. I don't think 'fail' factors into this. All the 'pithy' comments i.e. 'fail' and 'yawn' seem like a waste of bandwidth. They chose Michael Jackson because that is what the market demanded at the time. I didn't buy those, but I understood there was a huge market for it. I'm sure this one is more of passion project than anything else.
Apart from that, let us all keep some perspective please. 1.4 Billion Chinese + the rest of Asia vs. 300 million or so Americans. Obviously, both characters cross borders all over the World but you get my meaning. Hot Toys is dealing with a global marketplace.
I will say I am mystified why they chose to tackle Bruce after Enterbay produced absolute masterpieces. It is great for the people who never grabbed the EB releases. A huge step up from Medicom, but overall I think a slight step down from the Enterbay versions.
If you (all, not the guy I quoted specifically) want to frame the discussion as Hot Toys' license choices and timing, I'm all for it. Like, why Platoon and why now? Arguing against the product quality on a prototype with HT's track record of delivery seems absurd. Not every release is going to ring everyone's bells and no one is forcing you to buy these figures. The World isn't a better place now or six months from now for not having DX 0-whatever Christopher Reeve Superman/ T-800/ Iron Man Mark V in it.
Just walk past a window with a Hot Toys figure in the display. It makes me want to buy the figure regardless of whether I like the license or not. I'm just happy companies like Hot Toys and Enterbay even exist. We are in a golden age of collecting.
