Chewbacca?

[JustinLuck]

I think the situation is, we buy things based on our interest of the properties, not the companies themselves. It just so happens that Sideshow has the only 1/6 SW license, so we are forced to buy from them if we want high-end 1/6 SW memorabilia. I honestly do not count Medicom because they only release 1-3 figures a year, and their quality is unfortunately nearing Hasbro standards. This is a pity because Medicom could do so much more with the license if they wanted to. Because of the artificial monopoly created by Lucasfilm, Sideshow seems to lack motivation or drive to be make better products. If the SW license was given to all the 1/6 players, I can almost guarantee we would already have the droids, Yoda, and Chewie in our hands. Maybe not from Sideshow or even Hot Toys, but from another strong player like Enterbay, ACE, or Soldier Story. Competition is always good for invigorating innovation while keeping prices reasonable. You can already see that Soldier Story has unexpectedly one upped the Truetype with their high quality S2 body for 2/3 the cost.

 

[Memnoch]

Justin, I'd just like to say thank you for addressing things with TACT. Something that has been missing around here of late.

 

[Agent0028]

The competition thing is a good point, if there were a bunch of places with the license we would see alot of innovations from alot of companies. What would suck is when some company outdoes another with a figure you already have, because lets face it we would all upgrade.

 

[drod26]

I agree, if Lucas gave the license to all major players in the 1:6 scale we would have alot more figures out. In my opinion I dont think this would be a good idea, the market would get saturated with lots of figures, alot of good ones and alot of bad ones. Competitors will try to cost price to win a big piece of the buyers but suffer quality. If we look at how things are right now, Hasbro is the only player in the 3 3/4 scale.

I think that RAH has a license is because they are international and they dont import to the US. They are not the primary suppliers to the US like SS is. I think that SS could improve their product line just like everyone else. For the consumers if you are not happy with SS products you have choices you may not like them but we have them:
1) Buy if you like the figure
2) Dont buy at all and be angry and complain like a kid does when he/she doesnt get what they want
3) Make your own figures

I personaly will continue to buy the figures because I am a fan of starwars. If the figure doesnt meet my expectations, I simply wont buy it.

 

[Darklord Dave]

As I've said in multiple threads - HT has done some very innovative things, but nothing they've done has demonstrated that they'd have any better ideas on doing a furry Chewie than SSC.

Let's see some ideas - sure we don't know the production problems involved, but even completely unworkable ideas could lead to some other brainstorm.

I think the biggest obstacle to Chewie is making his head look right - and even he fantastic custom Chewies that we've seen sometimes suffer in this regard.

So let's hear your ideas on how to do a furry wookie head and then reproduce it 1000s of times without resulting to skilled artisans.

 

[The Josh]

When are their POTA figs suppose to be out? Like to see how the end product came out.

Yeah, I'd like to see production pieces of those before saying oh HT can do it.

Im speaking more to the fact that lately most of what I see here relates to how everything SS does is garbage (more or less) and how Hot Toys would be soo much better.

Thats pretty much been the status quo for some time now. Lots of folks taken a hit of the same bong that HT is the only company that can do anything right in 1:6th. SS has made and will continue to make some awesome 1:6th figures. I think the idea that they just make a decent product is cutting the items they make way short.

Well hey, here's a novel idea. If ya don't like the products, don't visit a site called Sideshow Freaks.

As I've said in multiple threads - HT has done some very innovative things, but nothing they've done has demonstrated that they'd have any better ideas on doing a furry Chewie than SSC.

Exactly! HT does some amazing stuff. Look at the TDK figures, Iron Man, Dutch, etc. They make some of the best 1:6th figure out there bar none and overall are probably the tops when it comes to that. However, they haven't shown they can make a Chewie yet by anything they've put out there. If they can get the POTA figs to come out looking amazing with real hair then I might agree let them help make Chewie.

I'm fine and dandy with letting them help SS get Yoda, R2, and 3PO out there as well. I agree with Justin in that letting folks work together or even competition helps things out. So as I've stated lets get SS and HT working together more on things and get the best items out there.

 

[Kenbenobi]

Take a look at the Apes thread, that is hair done right. Im actually kind of shocked.

Agreed. I'm kinda amazed that Hasbro never perfected it. Their puffball Chewie is one of the funniest items in my collection! :chew

 

[pixletwin]

How hard can it be? In 1:1 he is a guy in furry suit. In 1:6 he would be a guy in furry suit.

(I know thats naive but its basically true. Maybe SS and others are thinking too hard).

 

[Darthrazz]

I think the biggest obstacle to Chewie is making his head look right - and even he fantastic custom Chewies that we've seen sometimes suffer in this regard.

.

That's probably THE sticking point, as far as the body I think they could nail it quite easily. Remember the Rev Bem figure from Andromeda? I believe it was made by BBI and he was actually wearing a fur suit over their standard body, very well done, and it didn't limit the articulation much. As far making Chewie's head, as Dave said and mass produce it with fur could be the issue. Maybe they can make a hybrid resin/fur like suggested in one of the other threads, similiar to Planet of the Apes?? You could always apply fur to the resin part yourself and "finish" the figure??? I don't know , I'm at a loss myself as to how to pull it off. Here is the link to the Rev Bem figure from Michael Crawford's site.

https://mwctoys.com/REVIEW_120501.htm

 

[IrishJedi]

This is simple, people. Hot Toys has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to 1:6 engineering. Sideshow has not (hell, they all but admit they can't pull certain things off). That this is even debatable is crazy to me.

You can doubt the ability of Hot Toys until your faces turn blue, but it would be like mocking the mighty Technoviking. OBEY:

 

[The Josh]

This is simple, people. Hot Toys has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to 1:6 engineering. Sideshow has not (hell, they all but admit they can't pull certain things off). That this is even debatable is crazy to me.

You can doubt the ability of Hot Toys until your faces turn blue, but it would be like mocking the mighty Technoviking. OBEY:

I'm glad its that 2 you. Its not that simple and HT has not earned the benefit of the doubt at least in my book. Until they can pull off the POTA figures in production the way they look in the protos I'm going to say its 50/50 they can do it. I give SS the benefit of the doubt when it comes to most figures but I admit and they do too that getting a Chewie done right now aint or cant happen with them.

I don't doubt HT but to just anoint them the gods of 1:6th is just pure silliness to me.

I have no idea who that guy is but I doubt he can spell Cat if I spotted him the C and the A.

 

[IrishJedi]

I have no idea who that guy is but I doubt he can spell Cat if I spotted him the C and the A.

How dare you insult Lord Technoviking!

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/_1nzEFMjkI4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/_1nzEFMjkI4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


(You gotta watch the whole thing, or at least the first half)

 

[The Josh]

I can't @ work. Filter blocks it.
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I will say one other thing with HT I have NO doubts that they can do R2, 3PO, or Yoda. I know that they can pull those off without a hitch.

 

[Agent0028]

I think getting the fur to look right in mass production is going to be another huge obstacle to overcome in addition to the face. Also I think it depends on how good they want Chewie to look. I've seen alot of great looking customs but I haven't seen one that really truly looks like Chewbacca.

 

[Darthrazz]

Here's an oldie, but a decent looking Chewie, some of the images are long gone though.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050323005634/www.skygunbros-custom-creatures.com/chewietutorial1.html

 

[Memnoch]

Here's an oldie, but a decent looking Chewie, some of the images are long gone though.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050323005634/www.skygunbros-custom-creatures.com/chewietutorial1.html

I've always liked the execution if not the total look (Chewies hair is very distinct and that seems a bit coarse) but from what I remember that Chewie really had the tall and lean look down pat that most customs are missing.

 

[Darthrazz]

I've always liked the execution if not the total look (Chewies hair is very distinct and that seems a bit coarse) but from what I remember that Chewie really had the tall and lean look down pat that most customs are missing.

Yes, most custom Chewies are larger than they should be. If you look at the OT and even pictures, Chewbacca was very lean and not broad shouldered. He was rather lanky more than muscular.

 

[Agent0028]

It does look nice, but its not something I would buy. I don't like the lips and the fur looks to coarse. Not meaning that as an insult to the creator because it is an excellent job, but its not good enough for an official item by Sideshow.

 

[Darklord Dave]

How hard can it be? In 1:1 he is a guy in furry suit. In 1:6 he would be a guy in furry suit.

(I know thats naive but its basically true. Maybe SS and others are thinking too hard).

A furry suit that had lots of little old ladies poking individual yak hairs through a body suit one at a time. And as I said, it's not the suit really, it's the head.

And when I proposed that Chewie be done similar to the HT PotA with a partial sculpted face - people weren't supportive. So I'm not confident that HT could come up with something completely different that maintained the look of the character.

 

[Nitro]

Guess I gotta stick with my furry Hasbro Chewie for a little while longer...