As I said earlier I believe Sideshow would sell more of these if they put an ES. I think they under estimated a # of people who could afford and would buy these LSF lines if they close the ES. I would definitely buy one of these if they put an ES and sounds like you would too plus some other collectors may join us too.
The limited ES is one of the biggest reasons people bought sideshow product. There is no way Optimus Prime Maquette EX was sold out that fast if Sideshow made it an open ES, and by all means $1200 is not cheap for its size and many people complaining it's overpriced but yet it was gone less than an hour?
I started by collecting 1/6 statue in this hobby, sold all my 1/6 and bought mostly 1/4. I honestly would not mind to sell all my collection now and buy just 1/2. I personally think bigger is even better (not always). In my collection room I think I can fit about 16 of 1/2. Having 16 of LSF in one room I think would look AMAZING. But open ES stop me from doing this because I know someday I may NEED to sell these, and selling one of these would be a pain unless you are willing to take a big loss.
And no I am not a flipper I don't sell statue to make a profit. In fact I tried buying several hot toys and see what they look like and sold all of them for a loss, not a big loss only like $20-$30 per figure. And I am willing to do the same with these LSF lines, I would have bought 2 or 3 of these and display it to see if I like it or not, but I am not willing to lose $300-$400 per statue if I decide to sell them. That's too much money for me to experiment with these lines.
By far 1/4 scale limited ES is the wisest line to collect for me (and maybe for other collectors too). Not only they look nice but most of the EX also retaln their values, so if for whatever reasons you have to sell them you will at least get what you paid for.
The fact this is an open ES there is no motivation to drive most collectors (not all) to buy this now. Heck if I know someone is selling their doom PF EX for $1600 and Iron Man maquette for $1600 I would buy the doom. Why would I want to buy doom when the retail price was $350 while IM retail price is $2000 and Doom size is probably about 4 times smaller than IM maquette? My wife who doesn't know much about this hobby may think I am crazy and dumb to pick the doom PF. What she doesn't know is there is a better chance I may find an iron maquette for $1600 than doom PF EX for $1600 in the future, why? It's all because of the ES.
The Limited ES of a great sculpt that makes most people buy sideshow products, if you take away the ES from a great sculpt the end result won't be the same and I am surprised Sideshow did not get this.
So in conclusion yes
the ES matters for most collectors, history of sales proves it. Yes, some people don't care about the ES, but the fact is the majority of collectors care and there should be no argument there. And up to this point I still don't know why sideshow decided to make these LSF lines an open edition, I wish somebody from Sideshow (not a member from this board) can explain the reasons why.
