Yeah...I like them, but unless I'm wrong...they are just plastic. I'd rather pay $100 for a statue than a piece of molded plastic. But, I'll still get a few of them that I like anyway.
Vinyl...and hard and heavy at that! There's no company that I know of which sells cold resin statues, which is what I'm assuming you're referring to, for $100.
Attakus, to my knowledge, is the cold resin statue specialist, and you'll be lucky to get 1/2 a Jawa for that money.
And yes, I do think it's nicer than the Ep3 clone trooper, mainly because the OT (for me) comes first...esp. ESB.
Is vinyl and different than plastic? It's not necessarily the quality...it's just in my mind...plastic should be cheap...resin/polystone should be $50+. Something to do with action figures being made of plastic and less than $20 generally has my perceptions warped I guess.
I think it's worth the $65-70.00 selling price. They make a nice product. Very detailed. True it's Vinyl, but it's an imported piece as well. I think if it was made here, it would be more. The Lucas License itself costs a fortune so I think it's a fair buy for the money.
I don't collect anything from this company after not liking the Sandtrooper set that much, but I might get the Spec. Ops Clone and the Snowtrooper. I would buy TONS of these if they were resin, but the vinyl turns me off somewhat. It looks fairly close to resin, but it's just not the same.
Definitely on my gotta-have list. No perception hangups on soft vinyl as a medium. I've been using and building models made of it for almost 20 years and yet to see any of this stuff warp. Got all the Koto sandtroopers too. The decisive factor was actually visiting their flagship store in Tokyo and seeing all their lines on display. Really makes a big difference over seeing them online. As I mentioned in an earlier post - these things got some heft and solidity to them. I've built tons of resin kits before and personally from a wear and tear point of view, soft vinyl's not as brittle so impossible to chip or break. Granted, you can achieve more refined detail with resin but can save yourself a lot of heartache as a friend of mine experienced when he accidentally knocked over his GG Fett bust from a shelf sitting barely a foot above his desk and broke the arm off! In the end its all about personal taste - i'll probably never buy any of Koto's 'human' likenesses untill they nail one to my liking. That being said, the snow and shock troopers represent the best that can perhaps be accomplished with soft vinyl. 8)