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.
