How is that possible when they've made Luke Bespin???
That was a collaboration with Sideshow.
How is that possible when they've made Luke Bespin???
That was a collaboration with Sideshow.
So the rumored Yoda/Dagobah Luke from HT would be a collaboration too? I just wish these companies wouldn't leave us in the dark so much haha. I just want more HT figures from all the movies haha
Hey Opti I was wondering how you got started reviewing figures? What made you decide that you wanted to turn talking about these collectibles into a career?
It may simply blow peoples minds that someone can be so blessed to get paid by YT for reviewing what may be free figures from SS. It's jealousy, a "why you deserve" kinda thing. The reason I asked whether or not he paid for the figures is for the very reason he brought up himself and that is the integrity of the review. Without that it becomes shilling and showcase and not a review at all.
Which brings me to another question for Optibotimus. How did you get the job? Take us back to the beginning of your channel and how you got sponsored. I bet its a pretty damn cool story.
That rumor is hogwash.
No, it's true. They only got the license for Episode IV, VI, VII, XIX and the Holiday Special.
Yep
nope
The more likely scenario is Hot toys and Sideshow (Long running partners in ****ing customers) are staying out of each others way, basically one is taking the mouth and the other is taking the ass, with a grand high five in the middle
A lot of people did say they released Lumpy in that two pack with Han.
The Holiday Special is true though.
I don't like throwing around the term that people are jealous. Is it possible, sure. But i'm not going to make judgment calls on other people. I honestly don't believe that just because someone gets something given to them, it turns into shilling. Does it happen? Sure. Especially if someone doesn't have a very large following. Which is why i said i don't need to be given things for free or at discounted prices. I am capable of buying what i want whenever i want (to a degree obviously). Reviews of just about everything have existed for a long time. Some people will shill things to keep getting things. That's all well and good, but as i said, if i like something, i'm gonna buy it regardless. In my opinion, there are far more benefits to paying for things (as a "professional" reviewer) than not.
As far as being "blessed". I do consider myself lucky, but it also takes a tremendous amount of work to create this as a business. People don't see that. If it was as easy as everyone makes it out to be, there would be far more people doing it. Just like with any business, it takes a lot of work to do. So if people are jealous of the fact i'm able to review toys for a living, they need to understand it came with a lot of work first and foremost. I've been doing this for almost 9 years. I worked hard, persevered and turned a passion i have for something into a career.
I started out in 2007. I worked previously for Bank of America and a merchant consultant. It was a job that allowed me to travel throughout the U.S. and see a lot of different things. Sadly though, it also had a tremendously bad impact on my health. Living out of hotels and eating out all the time isn't a healthy way of life. Near the beginning of 2007 i was moved to SoCal for work. A friend of mine had a friend who he wanted to introduce me to. She and i both loved hockey and he figured that while i was down in SoCal, she and i could hang out. She and i hit it off but i then got very sick. I developed pancreatitis and my blood sugar sky rocketed to over 1300. A normal person has a blood sugar level of around 100, so you can see i had a problem. My body stopped producing insulin and i turned into a type 2 diabetic. I was hospitalized for 2 weeks, 10 of those days i was literally in a diabetic coma. I have zero recollection about what happened during that time. I woke up to find my mom and sister at my side, along with my girlfriend. I came home a couple days later and had to figure out what i was going to do with my life.
About a month later, a friend of mine moved to California and wanted to open a hockey store. I had to do something so i decided to invest in his business and i ran things from the back end. It was around this time that the hype of the new Transformers movie was starting. I had always loved Transformers, going back to my days as a kid and i was getting excited about it coming to a live action movie. One night, my girlfriend (who would eventually become my wife) was out shopping and i saw the voyager class Ironhide figure from the new movie line. I hadn't bought or even played with a transformer for years and decided to buy this one to see what it was all about. I played with it but i couldn't figure out how to transform it. It frustrated me cause of how easy they used to be haha, so i went to youtube. I found a video on it and it showed how to transform him into robot mode. I thought it was cool but i was stuck again. There wasn't anything showing me how to transform him back into his truck mode. I figured, well hey, i can do that. So i grabbed a logitech webcam, pulled out a tv dinner table and made my first video. They were terrible back then. HD videos weren't something that existed. Hell, you were lucky if you could record things at DVD quality. A lot of those older videos are still up on my channel today, and i leave them there because of the nostalgia, so you can see how bad they are if you ever want a good laugh lol. But i just had fun with it and showed off my toys.
Things started picking up more around 2009 though. Initially things were okay. Basically everyone was allowed into the youtube partner program, which allowed you to make money off your videos, it wasn't anything substantial. But 2009 saw a lot of Transformers stuff coming out. We had Revenge of the Fallen coming and we had a really popular cartoon series, Transformers Animated, on TV. During that time, a lot of early "factory leaks" of toys happened. This sparked a whole bit of competition among TF reviewers. It was a race to get something before anyone else and get a review up. During this time, it wasn't uncommon for people to pay $100 for a $10 deluxe figure. Some voyager class figures went for $500. If you wanted to stay relevant, you had to do this kind of stuff. More and more people started doing toy reviews but bigger named people, who by this time were able to monetize their videos, were really the only ones capable of spending that kind of money. It was a good business decision. That old saying about "you gotta spend money to make money" was very true. Spending $100 on a figure got you the views. It got you the attention which brought more views to other videos. So you quickly made that initial investment back. So it wasn't all that bad.
That's when things picked up for most of us. If you stuck with it, it turned into a long term sort of thing. At that time, i started making more money with my videos than i was doing with the hockey store. I sold off my portion of the store and dedicated my time to making videos. Investing in better equipment, better cameras, lighting, editing software, ect. And that's basically it. Sponsors happened later as my popularity expanded. BBTS offered to buy "ad space" in my videos. That's a common misconception, that i get paid by BBTS to review things and if i send them more traffic, i get a cut of it. I don't. I get paid a flat rate that doesn't fluctuate depending on how much traffic i send them. I wish i got a percentage of the traffic i sent them LOL. It's not like what Sideshow does with their affiliate program at all though.
But that's the story
I don't like throwing around the term that people are jealous. Is it possible, sure. But i'm not going to make judgment calls on other people. I honestly don't believe that just because someone gets something given to them, it turns into shilling. Does it happen? Sure. Especially if someone doesn't have a very large following. Which is why i said i don't need to be given things for free or at discounted prices. I am capable of buying what i want whenever i want (to a degree obviously). Reviews of just about everything have existed for a long time. Some people will shill things to keep getting things. That's all well and good, but as i said, if i like something, i'm gonna buy it regardless. In my opinion, there are far more benefits to paying for things (as a "professional" reviewer) than not.
There's more action in this thread then the regular HT Boba Fett thread.
The figure hasn't shipped yet from most places. Optibotimus got his before SSC actually shipped the figure to regular customers, so makes sense there'd be a bit more action here.
Whether you are annoyed by the hands or not, you are fortunate enough to be getting an early look at the figure. Thanks Optibotimus for providing the early look. I greatly appreciate it.
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