Lol, this is a little bit like Hot Toys selling their 1/6 as ARTIST EDITION: J.C Hong
I'd be annoyed. The marketing was completely in line making it seem like Viper was doing the work. And these SHOULD be numbered. All the customs I own and the 1/3 statues I own are ALL numbered.
An edition especially that is marked up as to receive special attention from a main artist or team of artists should have this. I usually don't care about editions, I've been very vocal against people complaining about redo's of previous HT's being against the old run they've originally done as stupid, as they're not editioned or meant to be collector's items in a similar vain. But, an edition that is specifically set as a limited run, and moreover, handled by a dedicated artist or chosen team of artists, the price is higher because of the more special and focused attention each piece receives.
I've always been skeptical of QS, and still am with their 1/6 despite placing an order with them, but practices like not editioning (if this is true) and misleading marketing has me questioning further.
EDIT: To clarify I think the statue came out great still; this wouldn't be a reason for me to cancel at all - it'd be the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. These are technicalities at the end of the day, what matters more most definitely is the statue itself. And needless to say, despite the numbering not being there, you can bet that it is still a small run regardless. I'd probably guess that QS always meant that Viper has been director and lead artist, so everything is signed off by him and directed, similar fashion as Kojun for JND; except that's a little different as he actually sculpted and directed. Pretty sure Viper would just have shown how to hair and paint. That part is still off, I never ordered this but always took it as Viper himself doing these editions.
Interesting artistic line of theory, though. You have artists like Damien Hirst and his colour circles for example, he designed them but had a team of printers actually make them, and to be fair through history, including artists like Munch, a team of printmakers usually handled the replication of an original artist's piece. I guess this all boils down to how personally you want the artist to be involved with your own piece; and the answer will mostly lay around how much grievance people have with the marketing of the statue, and that is to say that it all boils down to subjectivity, naturally. After all, what difference does it make if another artist replicated near identically to how Viper would have done; and instructed them to? If you were told it was Viper and never found out that it wasn't does that change how you'd perceive it...? Probably not.
