furystorm
Super Freak
Furystorm’s Silver Screen Edition Diorama Collection
An Introduction:
As many of you know, from the chat during Spooktacular, and by many posts on the Freaks message board, I am deeply interested in the Silver Screen Edition Dioramas which Sideshow has now made apparent with the release of the Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man Diorama. Having been a casual observer of the company for many years, and after a brief stint collecting their Star Wars Premium Format figures, Sideshow permanently lured me in at the 2007 Comic-Con with the announcement of the first in a series of dioramas pertaining to the Alien and Predator franchises. Having been unsuccessfully attempting to purchase show exclusive items at another distributor of collectible merchandise for most of that show’s length, it was like a breath of fresh air to walk up to a friendly associate at the Sideshow booth, and simply order such a fine collectible. For me, personally, the diorama size was a perfect match for my space considerations as well as my budget. Each subsequent release in the line seemed to impress me more than the previous. Later when the Monster Dioramas were announced, I was very excited. These smaller scale statues could help me pay homage, within my collection, to the fine films which are the foundation for so much which has entertained us in the past eighty years. Upon further research into the Universal Monster license which Sideshow holds, I found that they often create Silver Screen Editions of each of their fine collectibles. This fact encouraged me to wait for the possible release of SSE Dioramas, which I felt would be better renditions of the black & white films from which these scenes are derived. During Spooktacular, we all learned that this possibility was indeed a reality. I think any of you who participated in the chat may be aware of how excited I was at the fact that Sideshow was going to grace us with Silver Screen Editions of the Monster Dioramas.
My Mission:
My sole motivation at this point, as far as my hobby and my collection are concerned, is to assemble an entire run of the SSE Dioramas which Sideshow has produced, or will produce in the future. I am determined to see this plan through, even at the expense of passing on other Sideshow items which I may desire.
Ongoing Dialog:
My intention in opening this dialog with you fellow “freaks” stems mainly from a desire to use this impromptu log of my collection activities as a sort of therapy for the disappointment which is sure to plague me during my endeavor. I welcome all comments, whether they be encouraging or admonishing. Any help that senior members of the board can offer will be greatly appreciated as well, as I attempt to fulfill my personal dream of creating this collection. I also hope that you find my story, at the least, entertaining.
Timeline with Observations: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Sunday, October 26, 2008 Criswell Predicts episode hints at the release of the SSE Dio with “extremely limited availability” and warns collectors to “stay vigilant.” I was extremely excited to hear this prediction, and as this was my first Spooktacular, had no idea when to expect the release of the diorama.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Sideshow’s chatroom goes live for Spook ’08, and I join in for clues as much as I possibly can. Luckily for me my weekend is Tuesday and Wednesday. I participated in the chat for over eighteen hours on Tuesday, and after begging for clues late in the evening as to when we could expect the SSE Dio release, I finally crashed after 12:15 am PST. The item is said to have appeared on the website between 1:00 and 1:30 am PST!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 When I awoke from restlessness just before 5:00 am, and after less than four hours of semi-sleep, I followed my regular procedure of checking the “Just Unleashed” section of Sideshow’s site first. To my horror, the SSE Dio was in the listings. C^^^^ing on the product information link, my heart sank as the page loaded to show that waitlists were available.
My Wailist - Date Placed: 2008-10-29 11:55:12
I was unable to get back to sleep. I forwarded a message to Sideshow stating my disappointment with the whole situation. They have yet to respond to me, which is alright, because most of what I wrote was fueled by my utter disgust in having spent the entire previous day waiting to order the piece, only to have it show up immediately after I fell asleep. I am now working on taking full responsibility for my actions in missing this, and am taking steps to rectify the situation.
Subsequently, I joined the chat and attempted to enjoy the rest of that’s days festivities. On many more than one occasion, I solicited chat members to sell me their SSE, at an inflated price. There were no takers. Many of you gave me encouraging words of hope, and a few of you have led me towards promising other means of securing the diorama.
Thursday, October 30, 2008 Awoke with the newfound motivation to make my dream of owning the SSE Dio a reality. Someone, whom I cannot remember, in the chat directed me toward bagelsncheesey’s contest on these boards. I immediately began working on the questions, and I have to say that it was a fun and rewarding process. It felt like therapy for my bruised collecting heart, and for the three hours I worked on the project, I was not so upset about missing out the previous day. After a couple days of waiting for the results, we would all learn that The Monster would emerge victorious, and I am extremely happy for him. The chat was more fun that day, as I had a newfound hope of reaching my humble goal. My work week began again.
Friday, October 31, 2008 Another forum member informed me that their regular dealer, on the east coast, was on the dealer waitlist. This concept is something I am totally unfamiliar with. I emailed the dealer immediately and in a couple of responses since, it is fair to say that this may be a viable solution in my search. Of course he remains on the "dealer waitlist," but informs me that he is at the very top of that list, and that I will be the first person to have a chance for his conversion, if that happens!
So a huge thanks to ozzfan84! I appreciate the assistance!
Saturday, November 1, 2008 After enduring the wait, we all found out that The Monster was the winner in bagel's contest. I am happy to know that I did get all ten questions correct and was at least in contention. Congratulations to Nick! However, this was not a good day for me at work. My poor coworkers!
Sunday, November 2, 2008 Yet another friendly board member pm'ed me about an online retailer who had the SSE Dio for order. Again, I'm not sure how that is going to pan out, because how many of these could one dealer have? The most intriguing part of this new prospect is that the figure was available for less than retail! Previous information I was given is that when retailers are allowed to order an exclusive product from Sideshow, they are charged the same as a regular customer. So how is it that this online retailer could have the product at a reduced cost? If any of you have any insight into that, I would love to hear it.
Thanks go out to Ancient Astronaut! I've scored a great prospect because of you.
Monday, November 3, 2008 In email from the online retailer which I have the order with, I was informed that:
"Yes we are getting this product, however this item is on pre-ordered so i can't tell you what date i can ship it out"
Once again, I am hoping against hope for this situation to result in actual delivery of the SSE Diorama! Meanwhile, there has not been a hint of any availability on either ebay or these forums as of yet, and my outlook is currently rather bleak. There are currently three active WTB threads, including mine, and I feel the pressure of my competition. I want everyone who collects these to have one. Now that forum members are taking delivery on the SSE, posting images, and stating thier satisfaction with the piece, I feel my chances of obtaining one are becoming less. While I don't totally agree with the act of scalping, I truly hope that more than a few of the sales were to such buyers. I have increased my ceiling price, but may not stick to that, should one become available as a "buy it now." I am also anticipating raising my offer price in the WTB thread to stay in contention.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 In email from the online retailer that I HAD the order with, I was informed that;
"Unfortunately, we made an mistake on this item run. But this item is pre-order cancelled due to the limited quantity"
The best part of missing out on this order is that they actually charged my credit card for shipping. What the heck is that about. During checkout, I read that my card would not be charged until the item shipped. So why was my card charged at all?
Spent four or five responses within ebay with an anonymous user without ever coming to a final agreement on a price. I have a feeling the user may want more than my ceiling bid, as they abrubtly ended communications. At any rate, they are going to receive the diorama by next week and put it up on ebay almost immediately. At least this helps all of our chances a bit. Oh, and I got to chat via pm with a few of the board members today. Received lots of good advice on how to go about collecting the hard to find items. Thanks to all!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 I've exchanged another email with the anonymous user on ebay, and they have stated they will have to start the auction at $600 buy it now/or best offer. They asked me my best offer, and I have replied with a much lower offer. I'm trying to be patient now, however I feel that if I pass on too many of these types of offers, I will never be able to add the diorama to my collection. When live bidding begins on more than one of these, which I expect will happen any day now, there may be no stopping me. There is a ceiling price for me on this piece, but to be honest, I have already offered over that price to the anonymous ebay user!
Thursday, November 6, 2008 First one to show up on ebay: #49/50 for $799.95 buy it now/or best offer. I sent an offer, and was happy to see I was the first, but I know I will not be scoring this one. $800 is just way too much! Now, at the very least, I finally have hope that these will be showing up on ebay.
Friday, November 7, 2008 Not quite sure why the individual selling the dio on ebay will not respond to my offer. I have offered a very fair price, and am interested in seeing a counter offer. Or at least a decline, so that I can know what to expect with this particular auction. I've considered what expenses could be eliminated in order to just go ahead and use the "buy it now," but am trying to listen to board members reasoning that these will indeed be available and that only the first few will go for insane prices. My thoughts are that anyone willing to pay these inflated prices is surely as insane as I am and truly wants the piece. Hence, one more off the market for good, and less chance for me to eventually get one. As you may be able to tell, I have not really been through this type of collecting experience in the past, and am relying heavlily on the advice from all of you. I'm very close to cancelling some of my preorders with Sideshow so that there are extra funds for this and upcoming SSE Dios. After all, there is a breaking point somewhere, and my collecting dollar is limited. I appreciate the fact that this will severely limit the breadth of my collection, but feel that is a very good thing in that the collection will ultimately be more focused. Re-watched Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man last night for about the fifth time in a week. I love my newly aquired Universal Collections!
Still more hope today in the form of an email from Sideshow: "Unfortunately we do not have access to the Wait Lists here in our office so I cannot tell how many people may be on the list ahead of you. I can advise that we so still have orders to fulfill and we will have some to offer to our Wait List subscribers I just do not know how many at this time."
Here is a final update for the day, and hopefully for awhile! The first dio to hit ebay is mine! After impatiently waiting for the seller to respond to my offer, he was able to counter at a price I felt I could live with. Even though I feel the piece will initally come down once initial demand has subsided, I was not willing to take the chance with the first piece in a line I want to collect this strongly. My final price was $499.95, and I'm fairly happy with that. After checkout, the seller started a very pleasant conversation with me via IM, and was more than willing to help ship the item on a date that would allow me to be home to accept delivery. Out of the blue, he also offered a free SSE 1/6 Frankentstein which I gladly accepted. Probably just a gateway drug into more collecting woes. I am grateful to have the diorama on order and my collection finally underway. Even though I only waited a week before scoring the dio, it was obviously an ordeal for me. Guess I still have work to do on the patience thing, huh? Now, forum members who have been reading any of my multitude of comments over the past week will finally catch a break, as I will no longer have anything to gripe about. So, I guess you could say I spent a bit more for your peace as well.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Well, #49 arrived today at my doorstep via FedEx! Upon opening, I immediately found that one of the Wolfman's fingers was BROKEN off. Found it in the package. While the diorama is very securely packaged within the usual excellent styrofoam, there just seems to have been too tight a spot for the fingers to rest in. I suspect the foam was pressed too hard against the fingers and if there had been just a bit more clearance in that area, everything would have been fine. Overall, I love the statue, although it may be a bit too dark to be displayed within my cabinets. That is until I have installed better lighting. I had it set up inside the cabinet, and found the paint apps to be too dark. However, when displayed in brighter light, I have no problem with the darkness at all and even find it adds to the overall black & white "horror" feel of the piece. My only real gripe about the dio is that it seems like the paint was not fully cured before these were packed up in the tissue and plastic, as some of the tissue was stuck very well to the figures. Hence the silica gel? I never received the silica gel in any other dios as of yet.
Now, I'm hoping and praying for an equitable outcome on the possible return and replacement of the figure in whole. I'm really trying to keep my wits about me and not panic too much, but you all know how much I want this diorama. There is just no way I could accept keeping (and fixing) a brand new piece, especially when I paid such a high premium. Although, if left no other choice, and offered a partial refund, I might be tempted to attempt fixing the polystone. That is if no replacement is available.
I contacted Sideshow immediately to inquire about a possible replacement, and they informed me that I would have to work through the original owner in order to facilitate the exchange. I asked if there were replacements available, and was only told that the run was significantly small on this piece, without definate assurance. One very interesting part of our conversation was that when I told the customer rep which piece I was inquiring about, and only stated "silver screen diorama," he asked "which one?," to which I replied "the wolfman." This would seem to indicate that there will indeed be another SSE diorama, and possibly soon!
Also contacted my ebay seller through email, and he replied that I need not worry and that he will help me in every way that he can. He really has been a fantastic seller, and I am happy to be dealing with him. The only variable which still bothers me is whether or not Sideshow will have a replacement for my broken diorama. I would even be willing to take replacement on just the Wolfman, as he is the broken part. I know that Painforall's #4 was broken and that they have just returned it today (presumably for replacement). Pain even mentioned in the SSE registry that his Wolfman was not damaged, so that may help me somewhat, if SS does not immediately destroy Pain's returned diorama. I'm sure I am fretting over nothing again, as not all of the dios have even shipped yet, and there must be at least a few replacements. Right?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 After fully unpacking the diorama and setting it up in my collection space, I found another broken piece this time on my Frankenstein! His lower left lapel was broken out of the mold and painted over at the factory. It seems like Sideshow's quality control is slipping quite a bit. I could understand the broken finger, which presumably happened during packing or shipping, but painting over a broken, and sharp edged, piece is unacceptable. I took some photos of the whole figure and of the broken section, repacked the dio, and sent it back to my seller overnight. Again, he is being very helpful!
Thursday, November 13, 2008 My broken dio arrived back at the seller. Sideshow contacted him late in the evening saying they would replace the Wolfman part only. At this time, that is the only broken part they knew about. I had another friendly chat in IM with my seller late in the evening, and we discussed the other problem with the dio. He had already broken the Wolfman part per SS request, but has now sent new images of the other problem to SS. My greatest fear now is that they will not have a full replacement available.
Friday, November 14, 2008 Another restless night for me, as I can vividly recall actually dreaming about this diorama. I really need help! However, I feel positive that Sideshow will do the right thing and replace the entire diorama. We are hoping to hear back from Sideshow as early as possible today, and news of replacement would certaintly bolster my confidence in them. They simply must have a few replacements, and I feel they offered only the Wolfman initially to save as many pieces for other situations like this one.
My luck in this whole situation has been absolutely terrible. Aside from my seller, who has been an absolute pleasure to deal with.
Fantastic new news from Sideshow via my awesome seller: I will be receiving a full replacement shortly. I am so happy, words cannot describe my feeling. I will reserve celebration until I have the diorama in hand, fully inspected, and placed upon my collection shelf. However, my faith in Sideshow has been restored!
Monday, November 24, 2008 Great surprise news from my seller this evening! The replacement diorama arrived to him today, and is in mint condition. Even though Sideshow informed him last week to allow seven to fourteen days for shipment, they delivered very quickly. The diorama should finally be in my hands by Wednesday ready to display on my waiting shelves. Once it arrives, I will undoubtedly take multitudes of photographs and post them in this thread.
Friday, November 28, 2008 Great morning! Not only was I able to preorder the new SSE Dracula Diorama, but my replacement SSE Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman Dio arrived at my doorstep fifteen minutes later. This one is perfect and has a much better paint application than the previous.
The hunt ends successfully!
Timeline with Observations: Dracula
Friday, November 28, 2008 Was able to successfully preorder the SSE Dracula Diorama. Extremely happy about this!
Special thanks to Madcow for the heads up!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 Received 25 day shipping notification from Sideshow! Wow, that was fast and I'm too excited!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Dracula versus Renfield arrived today directly from Sideshow! After all of the problems I had securing and receiving an intact Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, I opened the packaging with much trepidation. I know Sideshow would take care of any problems, however I just wanted this particular purchase to go smoothly. And it did. Overall I am very happy with this diorama, and have a renewed dedication to the SSE versions of this line. Having watched Dracula last night in anticipation of the diorama's arrival, I am fairly happy with the paint apps. The Count is a bit darker than he should seem to be, but personally I feel that fact actually brings the piece closer to what I recall from the film. He seems somewhat grainy in the skin tones, whereas Renfield has a very smooth complection. We can most likely contribute this to the fact that the two figures were likely painted by seperate "artists" before being joined as one piece. I was wondering how SS would package this diorama, as two or three distinct pieces, and I'm happy that the two figures are already locked in their stance together. I was anticipating trouble trying to fit them together.
There are a few slight problems with the diorama, with regards to my expectations. They are all minor enough not to tarnish my excitement of adding this to my very humble collection of SSE dios. They do however, require mentioning and are as follows. There are a couple of pretty sloppily painted areas on mine. They include where Renfield is grasping Draculas hand, there does not seem to be any seperation between the figures. Another particularly sloppy area is around Dracula's collar where his neck meets the bow tie. Both of these are easily acceptable when taking the diorama into observation from a normal distance. They are only bothersome upon closer inspection. Otherwise I love the SSE paint scheme on this diorama. The top of Dracula's cape is quite thick although this was apparent in the preview images. I'm not sure if this is screen accurate, or if the thickness is to avoid breakage of the polystone. I was very happy to find no broken fingers on this dio! Possibly my only other gripe would be the fit of the figures by way of their pegs to the base. The fit was very tight, but I was able to get them both almost all of the way down onto the staircase. Actually, this is very minor, and you can only see a very small sliver of peg from one angle, so it's not really a problem on mine at all.
Things I love about the diorama include: the SSE paint application! The attention to detail on the staircase, cracks and ground are wonderfully weathered. Both Renfield's and Dracula's expressions. And most of all the presence that the Count seems to be presenting, by simply floating down the staircase. His stance, while seemingly static, shows upon closer inspection to be ominous and imposing, with a very subtle dynamism to his figure and sheer terror in Renfield's.
Needless to say, I love this diorama!
Thank you, one and all, for the support which has already been showered upon me in the past week. I look forward to an educational and entertaining dialog with you all.
My intention is to update this initial post with new information, as I make progress towards my goal. Each time I will make a simple notation in a response, keeping the bulk of my story contained herein.
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