Here we are almost a month into the new year and 2015 is quickly fading in the rear view mirror of our minds. The “Best of 2015” lists are popping up on the interwebs and awards are being handed out (in case you missed GOFN's version). Obvious choices like the Hot Toys Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Farmboy Luke seem to tickle everyone’s space opera fancy for über high-end Star Wars collectibles. The DC Direct Batman: The Animated Series line, after some early production snafus, is chugging along—making fanboys geek-out ober their awesome Bruce Timm-verse Batmobile and show-accurate figures. Even old school toy wunderkind Todd McFarlane has brought people back to the fold with his fun and interactive Walking Dead playsets. And the Legos. Man, the Lego sets these days are just simply awesome. A Ghostbusters firehouse? Are you serious!?!?!? Gimme, gimme, gimme!
We here at Gofigurenews.com have already done our “Best of 2015 Lists” and there was some great variety amongst all of us. And there should have been—we all have great taste. But I like to talk about trash—plastic trash. I feel compelled to be the guy to give out our version of the “Razzie.” I’m calling it the “Trashy.” This year’s inaugural Trashy was a no brainer. It comes from a company that many consumers feel is on a decline. Many collectors are calling them out due to production issues, bad head sculpts, price gauging, and the overall feeling that they can’t keep up with the giant elephant in the room named Hot Toys. I’m talking about Sideshow Collectibles and this year’s Trashy goes to the Sideshow Escape from New York Snake Plissken.
Firstly let me say that this wasn’t a runaway. Another Sideshow figure was in serious contention for the award. The Sideshow R2-D2, for all its cool accessories and light-up features, was a wreck. It felt cheap and plasticky. The panels didn’t stay closed, the spring-loaded mechanisms broke or jammed up, and numerous people had to get their R2’s dome replaced. In fact so many people had to have them replaced, Sideshow straight up ran out of them temporarily. It was a case of a company trying to do too much with one figure—too many features, functions, and accessories crammed into one box. I’ll never display it with half the stuff provided and they could have cut the price for all the extra plastic. But, in the end, the figure does look good on the shelf. The lights are very well done and he has enough weathering to not look like a low quality Hasbro figure (but he could have been engineered a little more durable like a Hasbro figure). For the price, I would have preferred sound effects to the Jabba Skiff serving tray, but it’s nice to have the little droid on the shelf.
So why good ol’ Snake? If you weren’t aware, the Snake Plissken figure is the beginning of a Sideshow line where they plan on making one-offs of fan-favorite movie characters. If this is the inaugural figure in the line, they’ve missed the mark by a country mile and when you look at the next two releases in the line, it’s not getting any better (we’ll come back to that in a minute). Coming out the gate with a not-so-great figure is not capturing any new fans and likely pissing off longtime followers. Snake Plissken isn’t as much of a cult-hero as, say Rambo or Ash or Terminator, but he still deserves a fair shake. For some reason, John Carpenter’s films have not gotten a whole lot of respect in the collectible world. Halloween is the go-to when it comes to J.C. merch, but how about some decent Big Trouble In Little China figures (and, no, those ReAction turds don’t count)? How about They Live! or The Thing—two great films with great looking aliens? There are barely any collectibles at all, a minimal number of action figures and absolutely nothing to write home about. Hell, I’d even buy a Jeff Bridges Starman if someone had the balls to make it.
How does Sideshow get their hands on this property and drop the proverbial nuclear football? Was there some sort of rush to get this figure to market? Doubtful. Snake’s not someone collectors are pounding their fists on the table for, so maybe it was a laissez-faire attempt from the outset. Let’s break him down and look at where this figure missed the mark.
The head sculpt is the first thing we need to dissect and it is definitely the most disappointing part of this figure. So, sure, I guess that’s Snake Plissken, but is it Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken? Hardly—maybe if you squint. The paint is the big issue here and something that Sideshow has struggled with on human characters for years. The scars are a cartoony, 12-inch G.I. Joe quality and the five o’ clock shadow is absolutely horrible. There have been some decent repaints of Snake coming up online and the one color beard stubble seems to be the big issue that needs tackling first, but even then the resemblance to Russell is minimal. The sculpting of the stubble is also a little heavy, which does look much better when a skilled painter can take the time to focus on all the little pock marks of the sculpt, but Sideshow didn’t do that and the result is a very flat paint application. Plus, I shouldn’t have to shell out an additional $75-$100 to have a customizer fix the paint. It should be good enough right out the box. When you look at the competition, precise paintwork is something Hot Toys has excelled at over the years (especially stubble) and this is definitely a place where they are leaving Sideshow in the dust.
Also, collectors have taken issue with the overall expression. Snake’s a pretty gritty character and this sculpt doesn’t show that…at all. It’s a pretty dead/stoned look for a guy who grimaces, winces, and sneers throughout two films. The choice of a character’s expression has become a HUGE issue for collectors recently and it’s another issue directed right at Sideshow for both the second and third figure in this collection: Ash and Beetlejuice. Sideshow is taking the biggest hits regarding their Beetlejuice figure. Facebook, message boards, and various blogs are blowing up over everyone’s favorite Bio-Exorcist and Sideshow’s very odd choice of an expression for the figure. The initial wave of responses were very negative when the figure was first shown at Comic-con earlier in the year and this current wave is even bigger because it seems that the collecting public feels they’re not being heard. We’ll see how this pans out, but the second figure of the series, Ash from Evil Dead 2, is getting similar complaints. Less negative than the ones surrounding Beetlejuice, more “meh, that doesn’t really look like Bruce Campbell,” but it’s interesting to note that all three figures under the same line are getting the same lukewarm response regarding the sculpts.
The next part of Snake I have a big problem with is the quality of the holsters. This is where Sideshow (and even Hot Toys) have been known to have issues, either with the quality of the pleather/leather or areas where glue easily comes undone or tears. The quality of Snake’s holsters are thin and prone to rip. I got the guns holstered and strapped and don’t plan on removing them often. Well, one’s strapped; the other’s broke and needs regluing.
The accessories, even though plentiful, are also very half-baked. The MAC-10 I initially received had a ridiculously bent barrel, which led to a ridiculously bent silencer. It was bad enough that I requested a replacement from Sideshow—along with a replacement body. Oh yeah, did I mention that my Snake shipped with a snapped off arm at the shoulder? Yeah, quality control is seriously dipping in Thousand Oaks, CA.
One of the oddest missing accessories (or body parts) is a basic gun-holding left hand. Snake comes with two guns, two holsters, and only a right hand to hold both of them. Huh? You get two left hands that are meant for the cigarette, cassette tape, and/or radio, but there is no left gun hand. It’s really odd—like Sideshow didn’t test the accessories first (or just didn’t care). This may sound like a small thing, but I compel you to pull out any other 1/6 figure that is given a ton of accessories and is unable to match and fit the accessories with the proper sculpted hand. I can’t think of any figure in my collection where that’s an issue. The only time recently where I’ve been bummed regarding the exclusion of a hand is with the Hot Toys Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sideshow gave their Obi-Wan that cool, pensive hand where the thumb is resting on a closed index figure so you could bring up under Ben’s chin likes he’s contemplating some sweet Jedi move. Hot Toys did include the “These are not the Jedi you’re looking for,” hand, which is cool, but that’s how important an additional hand can be. It’s not important until you miss it and how Sideshow missed this one is beyond me.
The other accessories from Snake’s mission are all there, but you have to be careful attaching everything to the flimsy belt and I highly recommend removing the hands before putting both the wrist timer and wrist tracker on—you’ll just save yourself the heartache of snapping them in half. The cases for items and extra magazines have the same cheap feel as the belt and holsters. The long cases look like something 21st Century Toys made in the early 2000’s. The large radio sports a very half-assed sloppy paint job, as does the cassette tape. Again, it’s like Sideshow could care less.
The outfit also has some major issues. It’s not super complicated, which makes the whole problem of it more perplexing. The leather jacket is easily the nicest piece. It’s tailored well, has a nice liner, and fits the body like it should—except it has really large lapels. This is as bad as having a full size zipper on the front of a 1/6 figure. They are extremely distracting. Also, the jacket is lacking decent wear. Outside a couple spots, it looks like it’s right off the rack at Bloomingdales. Nothing a couple screenshots and a little sandpaper can’t fix, but again at the price, I shouldn’t be doing the work. And what’s weird is Sideshow is no stranger to adding a little wear to their figures. For some, it’s just enough (R2-D2), others it’s too much (C-3PO), but it’s not an area the shy from often. Same goes for the camo pants—they’re a little too clean and bright—much like the G.I. Joe Firefly’s camos from a few years ago: too bright and not enough dinge. Also, the pants hang strangely low, which works with the body and belt, but when you see how the belt weaves through them, it looks like a production mistake. It’s not; it’s there purposefully to make the belt hang correctly. The undershirt has some extremely sloppy stitching along the top, but it’s not as distracting as the lapels, so I’ve decided to display Snake without the jacket. But to quote Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven: “The shoes. The shoes are tragic.”
Holy hell—where do I start with these boots? First, they are just one piece of molded rubber. The shin guards are not a separate piece and the ankle joint is restricted due to the stiffness of an all-rubber boot. These couldn’t be more Hasbro-esque if they tried. Again, like large zippers and large lapels, I thought we were passed this for high-end collectibles?!?! Boots can be separate at the ankle and still appear to be one piece, but Sideshow went extremely cheap here. The result is a figure that is very difficult to stand without a support system. When you factor in the weight of the sculpted upper body with zero ability for ankle movement, you have a figure that is going to topple over at the slightest bump.
Snake also has the Snake tattoo painted on his lower abdomen, but the bobble-headedness of the figure shirtless is so bad I'm betting no one is displaying him with it in view. Sideshow could have scratched this boneheaded idea and put more work into the paint on the head sculpt.
Okay this isn’t a $200+ figure…clearly. But $160 is a lot of scratch for sub-par quality from a company that usually makes a decent product. More importantly, I feel like this may be the beginning of a huge slide downwards for Sideshow Collectibles. This line of expensive, not well-executed one-off movie characters might signify a momentous shift for Sideshow. I pre-ordered Snake with above average hopes and was served a very underwhelming figure. I’d love to update my Sideshow S-Mart Ash from 2003, but not if it looks nothing like Bruce Campbell. And why would I pre-order it if it’s not going to sell out? I’ll wait for a discount, coupon, or a used version of the figure.
For me though, Beetlejuice is a whole ‘nother story all together. The sculpt is bad, the expression is bad, the accessories are non-existent and the price is outrageous. On top of all that, Sideshow had decided to gauge customers for an additional $125 for a plastic or resin tombstone. It’s obnoxious, inflated, and flat-out unfair. Collectors need to cancel their pre-orders and not buy the figure if they want things to change. As of yesterday, there was a rumor (confirmed) that Sideshow was deleting negative (not offensive) comments about the figure on their Facebook page. Wow. Real classy Sideshow. Maybe you’d be better off taking a cue from a company like Asmus Toys who turns to their fan base for online suggestions and then, shocker, LISTENS TO THEM. I mean they are the ones paying for the products.
But, hey, maybe we already have a candidate for next year’s Trashy. In the meantime, like us on Facebook for a whole lot more that doesn't appear in print here.
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