Holy crap kids, take a look at this.  From my good friend Wataru at Psycho Monsterz in Japan, a 1:1 xenomorph skull trophy.

And this thing is huge – 31.5 inches long (80cm) yet it only weighs in at an astonishing 4 pounds (1.8 kg).  Wataru has used a very clever and unique strategy employing a hollow resin structure filled with a light weight hard foam.  The result is a whole lot of strength with very little weight.  You can mount this to your wall without fear of pulling it downl.

This is a limited run as each skull is handmade, assembled and painted.  It is not available as a kit yet but maybe if enough folks ask, he will rethink that.  Wataru is making a few of these available to followers of this site at an especially attractive price.  If you want more information, contact me.

I was trying to figure out how to start off 2012 with a bang when I received an email from Vincent in Costa Rica who suggested having a contest.  BINGO and hats off to Vincent because that is exactly what we are going to do.  Since I am a major supporter of the KISS theory of life (Keep It Simple Stupid) I have come up with a very simple contest with a very cool prize.

First the prize.  A genuine, still-in-the-box, never opened, just released, exclusive edition of the  Sideshow Classic Predator!  Yup, I have one right here at Predator Stuff HQ and it is waiting to be shipped to the winner.  Here’s a peek in case you haven’t seen it:

So, how do you enter.  Good news, no forms to fill out, just visit the Predator Stuff Shop between now and February 29, 2012 (yes, it is Leap Year) and make a purchase.  That’s it.  Nothing else to do.  Every purchase made will be entered into the contest and every time you make a purchase you get another chance increasing your probability of winning.  And that includes items we carry in the Shop as well as items you order from Sideshow.

Don’t see anything you want in the Shop, how about something from Amazon.com? Just click on the button below and anything you buy from Amazon enters you in the contest.  Same deal here, multiple purchase equals multiple chance to win.  So you have nothing to lose and a very cool Predator to win and add to your collection.  Good Luck!!

Several months ago, I mentioned that Hot Toys had shown a prototype of the Samurai Predator at the Hong Kong toy show.  It was an instant success with all sorts of (bad) photos showing up on every Predator-related web site.  Well my friends, while we were all sitting around eating turkey (at least here is the US), Sideshow and Hot Toys launched this bad boy and it is awesome!  Take a look-

Shipping in the spring of 2012, this figure is 14″ tall and comes with a boat-load of features including newly sculpted head with both open and closed mandibles, moveable jaw, interchangeable hands, four (4) swords attached to the back, helmet and samurai mouth mask and so much more.  All of this mounted on a diorama base featuring a defeated Alien body and a broken sword piece.

This is the first entry in Hot Toys’ Artist Collection.  It is a unique collaboration between two Japanese sculpting legends, Takayuki Takeya and Yuji Oniki.  Don’t miss out on this one, it is already a classic, so go get it!

I’ve noticed that trashing Sideshow has become quite the in-thing to do. I’ve seen/read comments like Sideshow has let the “quality of sculpting decline”, the paint jobs are “crappy”, the “poses are not realistic” and the proportions of the Predator are “all wrong”.  When I read these gripes I think that I really need to get new glasses as I don’t see most of those things.  But let’s take a look at some of these issues.

Now, I’m certainly not going to put myself in the position of defending Sideshow, they are doing okay without my help.  And please keep the “hey Rich we know that Predator Stuff is a Sideshow affiliate and as such you’ve sold your soul to the company store” riffs to yourself.  The amount of money we make from Sideshow wouldn’t pay for hosting this web site.

In reality, I actually find some of these complaints to be a bit amusing on a number of different levels.  There are those of you that think Sideshow charges too much and somehow that translates into “crappy” products.  There are those of you who think that if a statue is not an exact duplicate of the movie version, it is “crappy”.  And my favorite, “it doesn’t look real”.  Let’s take a look at that last one.   I have been a ‘Predaholic’ since 1987, it is my hands down favorite sci-fi movie of all time.  I have been collecting, building and painting Predator kits since 1990.  But even with that pedigree, I have to admit that at times I lose sight of the fact that Predators are not real, they are works of fiction.  I know, I can hear the screams of “heretic” but the truth is the truth.  So, as with anything that is fictitious, its realization is subject to artistic interpretation.  Besides, who says all Predators should look the same.  Imagine how dull our collections would look if every statue or kit looked the same.  As we found out in Predators, there are different tribes, different roles in the tribe, females, presumably Predator children, all different.  That’s what makes them cool.  So when we look at a Predator statue, we should look at it independent of who produced it and not lock ourselves into how closely it resembles the movie version.  Take a look at the Samurai Predator on this page.  Never made an appearance in any of the movies but it rocks.

Bottom line:  Sideshow has cranked out some badass statues and some not so badass ones. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and different beholders behold differently.

The Rant is over. Let’s move on to a review of the Predator LSB.  A couple of upfront admissions/rules/facts.  As I mentioned above, this site is an affiliate of Sideshow which means that every time you click through from here to Sideshow and buy something we get a small commission.  That is also true for Amazon, iTunes, Electronic Arts, and Google AdSense.  Running this site costs some money and these affiliate relationships help to offset those costs.  Having said that, it doesn’t mean I have any allegiance to any one of them nor have they bought me off.  Next, I do not get free kits or statues from any of those folks.  Anything I review is based on my purchase of that item.  Last, I call it as I see it.  If you agree/disagree with me, there is a comments section below and I encourage you to use it.  Those of you who have emailed me know that I love a good dialogue, so bring it on.

One of my favorite things is seeing the FEDEX guy pull up the driveway and head toward me with a box.  Seeing him/her struggle with the weight of the box is even better and seeing a big box wins top honors.  And that is exactly what happened when my Predator LSB arrived, big ass, heavy box, wooo hooo!  I brought it into my office and then heard the worst noise any collector can hear…something rattling around in the box!  Statues and kits packed in Styrofoam don’t rattle.  So, I opened it up and got the old approach-avoidance conflict.  The bust was bigger than I thought and initial impression was very favorable but there were a bunch of black things rolling around in the bottom of the box.  Turned out to be two broken dreds and a few broken/displaced quills.  Not a big deal you may say but when I am paying $350, I want perfection.  A quick email to Sideshow resulted in a UPS return label and about 10 days later a replacement arrived.  This was my first experience with Sideshow Customer Service and based on it, I give them an ‘A’, prompt, pleasant, apologetic and professional.

On to the bust.  It is fucking beautiful!  It is the perfect capture of the expression of the original Predator moments after he has removed his bio helmet and Dutch utters the immortal “You are one ugly mother-fucker”.  Mouth is close, eyes are piercing and head is slightly cocked to the left.  You can almost see him looking at Dutch and returning the complement.  As you can see from the photos, the eyes are amazing, They are the off-white/yellow combination and look slightly crossed just like the movie.

Next thing I noticed was the mouth, beautifully detailed with minute veins and gloss coated for that wet look.  The mandibles are perfectly proportioned with the upper mandible slightly opened and the bottoms closed.  The rest of the head is nicely detailed with the ‘liver spots’ running up and out from the center line and darkening nicely out to the dreds.

And the dreds!  One of my complaints with some kits and statues is that they go cheap on the dreds, that is, not enough.  Almost makes the poor Pred look like he is balding.  Not here.  I actually started to count the dreds – I do have a life but not much of one – got close to a hundred and quit because they are too densely packed in.  Nice, no balding guy here!  Ditto with the quills that run up from both eyebrows, out of the upper cheeks and down the center of the chest.

There are some very nice details.  There is a good looking ‘bone’ necklace hanging around the neck, the armor straps feel like they are leather and the netting across the chest is…well..netting, not a paint on

Now for the negatives.  While the dreds/quills are somewhat flexible, they should have been made with a rubber compound to add greater flexibility and realism.  Plus I wouldn’t have had to return my first one. Also, the dred rings totally suck.  They lack any detail at all, simple north-south indents and are way too black.  They look as if someone took a quick dry brush to them and as a result they do not stand out at all.  I will have to do a re-paint on them, not cool.

A few more issues.  The armor on the right shoulder looks out of proportion.  It looks like the big guy put on his kids armor by mistake!  And I think the painters could have taken a nice thin brown wash to the entire body not just to the top of the head.  It would have brought out more of the sculpting that is there but almost impossible to see from beyond a foot away.

Oh, and what is the deal with the “Sideshow Exclusive Base”?  What is it?  Where does it go?  Does it attach to anything?  It looks like they had a bunch of plaques from an old kit, didn’t know what to do with them and threw them in with this statue.  Lame.

So let’s take a look at the report card for the Predator Legendary Size Bust:

Would I buy it again?  Yes.  Do I recommend it for purchase?  Absolutely!  Is it worth the money?  A qualified yes.  Are you all going to disagree with me?  You bet!  Let the comments fly!

-Rich

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Holy Cow Kids, Sideshow is starting off the Halloween holiday Spooktacular with a new Predator that is…get ready…20″ tall!!  It is beautiful and here is the first photo.

That is the Sideshow Exclusive Edition that comes with the very cool bloody human head – how Halloween of them.  So this is the one we have been waiting for.  The original guy, the one who started it all from the 1987 film.  Check out the helmet view.

And don’t forget the classic close up with and without the bio.

One word of caution.  Don’t let this one pass you by, you don’t want to be paying 3-4 times on eBay in a few months.

On this site we tend to focus all (or most) of our attention on the Predators but there is a lot to be said for exploring the world beyond the Yautja.  This past week, I spent some time in the World of the Xenomorphs and came across some very usual, very weird and very beautiful items.  There are probably as many items made for the Alien collector as there are for the Predator collector.  For example, I made mention of a Predator Christmas tree ball a while back and, well guess what, there is one for the Alien as well.

But as I searched around this ‘Alien’ world,  I couldn’t find anything that quite matched  the life size or near life-sized busts of the Predator.  Sideshow has cranked out some righteous 1:1 scale busts and they usually sell out within a few weeks.  I just received the Sideshow Predator Legendary Scale Bust (review is coming) which is magnificent, so where is the xenomorph equivalent?  I think I found it.

Produced by Xeno Guy, an enormously talented sculptor in the UK, these heads come in two varieties;  with and without the extended ‘tube’ mouth.  The ‘Without‘ (on the left) is 20″ long by 5.5″ wide and 8″ high (57.2cm x 14cm x 20cm)and weighs in at a healthy 6.5 pounds (2.9kg).  The ‘With Extended Mouth‘ is equally massive  – 22″ x 5″ x 8″ (55.8cm x 14cm x 20cm) and 6 pounds.  As you can see, the sculpting detail is very impressive taking on a true HR Giger quality.  The paint is very cool.  Layers and shades of black, silver and grey are covered with a ultra gloss clear that gives the head that exquisite Alien slime look.  I have both editions in my office and they look sensational.  Could be the biggest and most unusual bookends in the world!  For more information and photos of the Christmas balls and the xenomorph heads, contact me.

Those of you who have been reading my posts here and in the newsletters know that I am a huge fan of Narin, the amazing Thai artist and sculptor.  So, I will save all the platitudes and tell you that he is planning to recast several of his most popular kits.  And here is the very cool part, they will only be available through this web site so you loyal readers will get first dibs on some of the gems you may have missed.

One of his most popular kits was the Narin Classic Predator.  It was one of the first kits he produced when he went out on his own and it sold out almost immediately.

This is the original Predator with a non-removable bio helmet.  Classic position with the armature knives fully extended it is truly the classic predator and should be the cornerstone of your collection – it is of mine.

Next up is the Death Warrior.  This is one of my all time favorite kits and I have lusted after it for years since I missed it on the first go-around.  But, good news for all of us is that it is back but in a very limited (read that as 10 kits) run.  Once he got beyond the 10th kit, the quality of the pour started to suffer, so the run was ended at 10.  I’m not going to miss this one and neither should you.  Dan Richard does a very nice review of this kit on YouTube, so check it out.

This is a stunning kit with a hunter standing over a pile of ‘deceased aliens’.  The attention to detail is amazing  and every aspect of the kit is crisp and top of the line.

I’m embarrassed to admit that the last two kits never made it on to my radar.  They are variants on the hunter with the emphasis placed on the weapons.  The Axertor and the Spearaizer (I’ll let you figure out which one is which) are both classic Narin.  At the risk of being criticized for using the word “detail” too many times, the detail on both is amazing.

The Axertor is an all resin kit on a 1:10 scales and is made up of 22 parts.  The kit is 8.5 inches tall (21cm)

The Spearaizer is 1:16 scale, comes in 8 parts and is 7.5 inches (18 cm) tall.

If you have any interest in any or all of these kits please contact me as soon as possible.  Letting me know you want one is not a commitment on your part, you can always change your mind.  Think of this as a pre-pre-order.  But once again folks, don’t waste time.  I’m still getting requests for the Hellboy and Alternative Hunter kits which sold out almost immediately—that is a hint not to send me any more emails about those kits, they are gone.

One additional note.  Those of you who are particularly observant will notice that the picture of the Axertor and the Spearaizer are different than the ones on the site earlier.   That’s because the first ones were wrong, my bad.  I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion.

-Rich

I would like to add my sentiments and express my deep sorrow on the passing of Apple founder and Chairman Steve Jobs. His attention to detail and vision was reflected in the innovation of the Apple portfolio of products.  His passing leaves a huge gap in the technology community.