While I agree (I wanted a CR Supes and was pretty vocal about how bad I thought it was going to be originally and passed), I have had nothing but wins from SS this year. This is what I have received, you tell me what is on this list that is a miss or sub-par, because I can't fault a single one.
89 Batman PF
Captain America Allied Charge PF
Saruman PF
Sinestro PF
Poison Ivy Green PF (arrived with broken heel and paint blemish, SS sent replacement)
That is nothing but wins. These are all great pieces, so I don't think SS finally woke up with Lobo. They have been putting out fantastic stuff all along, but you would never know it from the tone of the boards, FB etc.
Yeah, they have had a couple of dogs (not Dawg) but the vast, vast majority of their output has still been at a consistently high level.
The only bad thing? I can't see how I could pass on this now. I'm not really a fan of Lobo, but he will easily fill that hole in my DC bad boys section that a decent Darkseid could have, and be a much more impressive piece. I know the price point is keeping people at bay, and who knows, maybe a deal can be had for awhile on the Reg for those who are patient, but this one has the makings of being a centerpiece to any DC collection.
There are many ways to deliver a mediocre statue, for example I find Poison Ivy and the 89 Batman to be extremely boring, and that's a matter of art direction.
If we want to talk about the sheer quality of what people receive, I could counter your list with a ton of Iron Man, Alien and Predator pieces that are huge misses, and that would be just sticking to those three licenses. If we expand the list to everything that Sideshow puts out, they DO have a lot of misses.
They surely have good statues out, but the ratio between the good ones and the bad ones is just not enough for this kind of hobby. People pay a premium and expect more, it's not that hard to understand.
I'll reiterate: 400$ are 400$, I shouldn't be gambling with my money and hoping that what I receive is on par with expectations. Bringing up a certain number of good pieces made by Sideshow in a certain amount of time is pretty much useless because anyone could jump in and bring up an equal amount of bad pieces made by Sideshow in the same amount of time.
Let's be honest... nowadays, most of the time people could just avoid to preorder, wait for in hand pics and then decide if they want to buy or not. There isn't much "risk" involved anymore when buying, at least to anyone with a minimal amount of patience and common sense, so I think that what's bothering people the most is not just the good quality/bad quality matter, as much as the fact that you can't feel confident dropping your money ahead of time when it comes to Sideshow. And this screws up your planning and buget, because when a piece comes out and it's (unexpectedly) good, it's no easy task to find the money for it if you haven't planned ahead of time. Just look at this Lobo, I bet my right ball that if we knew ahead of time he would have come out like this, we would have planned the purchase one year ago without second thoughts. Now we're here scrambling to fit over 600$ into our budgets.
PS:
I'm calling it, I'm curious to see how Conan PF, Batgirl, Godzilla maquette and the Bale Batman 1:1 bust will come out in the next few weeks.
