Costume choices

Hello,

I’m back this week with a bit of a longer update.

First off, just want to talk about the specials. A few people have asked what characters make specials. For the purposes of the forum poll and as a general rule, if a character is 6’ 8” and over, then they’re likely to be a special.

Now I realize that some characters might be 6’ 9” but thin as a rake so it would seem unfair to class them in the specials category. However, if such characters are popular enough to be in the regular series, we’ll consider putting them in.

Obviously there is a limit to the size we can make certain figures and maintain a successful magazine. Our production team has told me that we’ve been making figures a little too big recently. In all honesty, when we first started the collection the Thing (Issue 4) only just made it in as he was pretty much considered a special due to his bulk. Since then we’ve attempted to balance the collection while trying not to compromise on size and complexity of the figures. The Beta Ray Bill figure was right on the cusp of becoming a special and I’ve fought to keep him in the regular line-up without compromising the original sculpt (which I think was awesome). Due to a few problems with him and a couple of other figures it looks like I’m going to be tweaking the running order from 119-160 in the next few days but all figures confirmed are still going to be made.

So, what I’m getting at is that although you may think someone like Ronan isn’t too bulky, at 7’ tall with a big hammer and possibly a cloak he just breaks the regular limit. We could perhaps compromise and reduce him down, remove his cloak, make him thinner etc… but personally I’d rather make an excellent sculpt at special size than one of the regular sculpts that people say ‘aw, he’s alright but could have been bigger and better’.

At the moment the collection is scheduled to end around the end of 2011 so we’ve got plenty of time for more specials. If we get extended again then we’ll have more on top of that. Plus you never know what’ll happen with double packs etc…

Speaking of double packs…

No, I’m afraid Pyro is not being pulled out and placed with Avalanche at this point. Despite the fact that I’ve actually been struggling to find decent reference for the figure (any ideas for good artwork much appreciated), we’re still planning on including him as a regular.

Right, with that aside I just want to say that the main site should be updated very soon, if not already done. We no longer do this update in house but have a couple of very good people working for us. They hear your comments and should be sorting it out.

Next I’d like to kick off a little debate on character’s costumes. We’re looking to start sculpting a few of the characters chosen in this new extension and a couple has been bothering me as to which costume they should be made in. While I’m sure the guys on the forum will be running some polls, I’d like to hear views in the comments section as well.

Rachel Summers (Marvel Girl)-
We think it should be one of two costumes.

Original hellhound red costume:


New Green and yellow tribute to mum (Jean Grey) costume with or without mask:


Cannonball –

Original New Mutants:


Flight Jacket and goggles (late New Mutants):


Most Recent X-costume:


Or if you think there are better costumes than those listed above, let me know.

And finally this week we have a sneak peek of X-23.



Being a modern character (and Wolverine related) I know she’s going to get some strong reactions from fans of the older characters but I’m happy she’s in the collection as I think it keeps it a little balanced. The pose we chose was based on some Mike Choi artwork from her second comic series and was chosen to reflect a sort of silent menace. After all, she is a deadly assassin but she’s also a lost little girl. Being a new character she has had a few costumes already but we chose this one based on it being the most X-Men-like and iconic. She has recently updated the costume with a mask (as part of X-Force) but we felt it’d be nicer to show her face.

Three Sneak Peeks

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of update last week, I've been a little ill recently and pre-occupied with a personal matter.

As I'm not in the office tomorrow here's this week's very quick update with sneak peeks of Fin Fang Foom, Son of Satan and Titania.

Magnificent Seven

Ok so the big day is here and I'm ready to announce the rest of Eaglemoss' choices.

Drum roll please...

Quasar
Firestar
Wrecker

Alright I admit these were leaked yesterday but the four that weren't are:

Scarlet Spider
Balder
Cannonball
Songbird

Altogether that gives us a list of:

Ares
Balder
Batroc
Cannonball
Destiny
Firestar
Klaw
Marvel Girl
Quasar
Radioactive Man
Scarlet Spider
Silver Sable
Songbird
Triton
Typhoid Mary
Wrecker

I've tried to make this extension a little more balanced than the last and I hope that everyone will find at least 2-4 characters in the list that they really wanted.

I know there are a few characters that people will be disappointed didn't make it in but it has been virtually impossible to get 16 characters that everyone really loves – as has been made clear by the discussions on the blog and messageboard.

But even if your biggest want didn't make it in don't give up just yet. The poll on the www.superherofigurineforum.com will be open very soon. You'll be able to vote for your favourite characters there and the three most popular will be added to the extension.

Plus we've still got the comp, which will be announced once the forum polls close.

On a related note, please can I ask that the comments section keeps relevant to the blog. I understand that there are some difference of opinions about the forum (which I'm not taking sides in) but please lets not have an open argument on here.

As far as I'm aware only four people have been banned from the forum and the mods will allow you guys to vote on the collection. However, if you're not happy to do this, I'm more than willing to have these four people submit their votes to myself.

That aside lets celebrate the fact that the collection is still going strong and there's plenty of characters left to fill another four extensions. Here's hoping we get them.

Gimme Five

Hi guys,

I’m sorry this is just a quick update this week but it should prove to be an interesting one.

Below are five more characters that have made it into the extension.

1. Typhoid Mary
2. Triton
3. Batroc
4. Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers)
5. Klaw

That leaves seven more to be confirmed by us at Eaglemoss, then we’ll have the superherofigurineforum.com choose three and I’ll sort out the comp for one collector to choose a character.

And a super-quick figurine preview, below is the near-final paint for Sunfire.



Tune in next week when I promise I'll reveal the final seven, we're still debating one or two in the office.

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of an update last week but hopefully I can make up for it today.

First I wanted to answer a few questions from the comment section.

Q): Are we going to get more double packs?
A): Yes, I’m pretty sure that the double packs have been successful enough to warrant more being included in the collection. When and who’s in them I don’t know. We’ve started planning the specials for next year and so far Fin Fang Foom will be first, most likely followed by Cloak and Dagger. After these two I’m unsure if we’ll do Blob or have a double pack next.

Q): Are we going to see team-packs with more than 2 characters in?
A): Not at the moment. While the prospect of getting more characters into the collection is certainly an attractive one, team-packs are not on the agenda at the moment. We have discussed making these but feel that the price for packs of four or more characters would make it difficult for everyone to continue their collections. We wouldn’t want to make this collection too expensive.

Q): Are civilians going to be included in the collection?
A): At this point I have no plans to put civilians in the collection. Certainly if we were extended to 200+ issues then we would consider having them in. The reason that we’ve not had them in so far is that civilian figures can look a little generic or boring. While I personally would rather have Tiger Shark or the Beetle in the collection before Mary Jane and Jarvis, I do see the argument for some characters such as Thunderbolt Ross and J. Jonah Jameson. These civilians have been in hundreds of issues and are actually integral to a lot of Marvel’s storylines. So they’re not in at the moment but don’t be surprised if JJJ or Ross get in if we reach issue 200.

Q): What’s going on with the competition to choose a figurine?
A): I’ve almost finalized the extension list (the ones that have been chosen by Eaglemoss), after this I will speak to the chaps at the superherofigurineforum.com and have them choose three figures. Once all of this has happened, we’ll sort out the competition so that whoever wins can choose a character knowing full-well which ones have already made it in. As for the details of the comp, I’ve not yet decided.

Right so hopefully that has answered some questions and I can now announce that the next two figurines in the extension are:

Destiny (well I did say she was a strong contender last time)
Silver Sable

I’ve chosen Silver Sable as I believe she’ll not only make a great looking figurine but also because she boosts our Spidey allies and females sections of the collection. Although not a ‘classic’ Marvel character in terms of her age (she made her debut in 1985), Silver Sable managed to hold her own title for 35 issues and has appeared throughout Spidey’s history.

And lastly this week, I present our nearly finished sculpt of Gorgon. Hope you enjoy.

And next up is...

A slightly earlier update than usual this week.

First I just want to say that I’m glad the news of the extension has gone down so well, with your support I’d like to think we can go even further but, as they say, only time will tell.

Anyway, I haven’t quite decided on the competition I’ll be running to choose a figure yet but I do promise it will be something that virtually everyone can take part in; definitely no custom sculpt comps.

And while we’re on the subject of the extension I thought I’d announce the next figure that is definitely getting in:

Ares.

Though by no means a new character in the Marvel Universe, Ares hasn’t really had much prominence in the (Marvel) comic world until recently. However, I think that there’s enough history to make a great magazine and an even better figurine.
We’ve not chosen all our characters for the extension yet so don’t think I’m just drip feeding you guys the list. At the moment it’s still all up for debate and believe me we’re still arguing in the office.

I’ve also heard some of the complaints about our regular website (not being updated regularly enough) and I will pass these on to the Internet designers. Unfortunately, I’m not in charge of their updating schedule but I will give them a little nudge.

And here’s this weeks figurine preview: Sunfire.



As you can see we’ve gone for the classic costume, not the modern (very similar to AoA) look. The pose for this figure was chosen to be a little more muted than some of the recent figures. We hoped to get the proud, stubborn and impatient attitude the character has into the pose, while making sure he fit nicely among the other X-Men sculpts.

What do you want first...

Right, this week I have good news and I have bad news.

First up the bad. I’m sorry to say that the Cloak and Dagger Special will be postponed until next year. I’m not sure when next year it will be out but it will definitely be after the Fin Fang Foom Special.

There are a couple of reasons that we’ve had to delay this figure. First is that Marvel have asked us to change the paint scheme of the figurine. We’ve been asked to paint Cloak as he was originally shown in the comics. So rather than being a dark colour with shading, we’ve had to go for the blue and black stripes look.

The second reason is that we’ve had a number of problems with the final production of the figurine. We’ve not been happy with some of the samples we’ve had in, which have had Dagger looking out of place and fragile as well as Cloak’s cloak looking a little disjointed.

Unfortunately the combination of these problems has meant we can’t produce a fully approved figure (that is up to our standards) in time for its release.

So with that aside I have some good news: we have indeed been given the green light for another 20-figure extension. The series will now run to 160!

This time round the extension is going to mostly be chosen be myself and the guys at Eaglemoss, however, I will be looking closely at all the wants lists on here and on the forums. I will also be talking to the chaps on superherofigurine.com and letting people vote on a few figurine choices via that website. I also hope to run a competition to let one collector choose a character and be involved in as much of the creation process as I can.

Obviously we’ve only just got the news of the extension so all of the above will take a little bit of time but I’d like to start the ball rolling (as well as a little controversy) by confirming the first figure chosen for the new extension as:
Radioactive Man.

And while technically not an official figurine update, I thought I’d show off our latest staff member to become a Marvel villain.

Behold Danim Zola (Art Editor).