I'll put my two cents in on this piece for whatever it's worth.
I fell in love with it when I saw what Iron Studios was doing. I had noticed Iron Studios when I saw their original Avengers Diorama. When Iron Man came out there were alot of complaints to the QA/QC aspect. However Iron Studios showed tremendous ambition at a time when things were somewhat stagnant in the statue game. XM was new to the game as well. What Iron Studios was struggling with was the larger statues but some of their smaller stuff was damn near flawless *ie Magneto*. So when this Spidey was first teased it was revolutionary. I bought in and patiently waited once Sideshow got the rights.
The concept was brilliant. It was beautiful and it had the potential to blow the doors of any Spider-Man piece and, to be be honest, any 1/4th piece statue I had ever seen. It was a diorama of sorts. Of course, many people had their opinion on the pose, the fact it looked "too busy". Some said Spidey had metal killing his balls which was an epic fail. Arm Chair comments at best and investors of the new Sideshow Spidey and old Sideshow Spideys scared of their status would lose stock at worst. Again, I'm stating my own opinion, albeit an honest look at a time when statues were more of an investment being lost.
When the statue came, I was excited. While putting it together very carefully and slowly, pieces didn't fit. When they did fit, the pieces snapped. Mainly the secondary pieces around the base. The seams on the Spidey itself were shotty if you looked at them closely. Despite that, as an entire piece. It was phenomenal. However, the customer service on the replacement parts like the staircase were non existent. And the one critique of a statue is that if you pay the high price you should receive the same amount of excellent QA/QC XM brings to their pieces. So, ultimately I realized the piece would not be fixed unless reimbursed. I had a difficult decision ahead of me. I either needed to live with what I had or destroy the piece. Had they been able to provide me a proper staircase, Oscorp sign and goblin bombs that were like paper... I would have been OK with the seams. But as it stood, despite the fact I dont buy statues to invest in them, if an emergency happens and I need to sell something I at least want to have something I can sell that is intact and just like I bought it.
Ultimately Sideshow somewhow made an EX Spidey PFF available to me within the same time they stopped distributing the Iron Studios Spidey so I smashed it and got my reimbursement. It was a sad moment for me.
If they have made this statue with more durable accurate pieces that do not break or snap on a whim then it is worth it if you are a Spidey fan. It is beautiful, it pushes the bar, and it is a talking piece in a collection among numerous collectibles. I feel like I bought a Note 7 or a first generation video console that burned up because I didnt wait for the second generation. Which kind of sucks but it is what it is.
I think Iron Studios has a ton of potential.
