Good evening everyone! Some of you may have noticed that today our shop area has been nearly totally emptied out of all kits and prop replicas and I thought I would take a minute to explain what’s happening. I’ve been collecting and reviewing Predator pieces for several years now, and as my interests grew and this site’s popularity increased, we added more and more content and covered more topics and product types. It’s clear that Predatorstuff has become very popular in the collector community, with thousands of people viewing our articles, photos and videos every day… and with that popularity comes a certain amount of visibility to both collectors, and companies that make the collectibles.

It’s not much of a secret that we sell garage kits and fan-made replicas, which of course are all unlicensed products, which are technically and legally infringements on the intellectual property owned by studios and companies. As I continue to grow the website and it’s outreach, I am also trying to work with licensed product holders like Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys Japan to develop better relationships with them and bring you more than the typical information you can get from many different outlets. It’s always been fun to be able to report inside industry information, and I am always working hard to find out anything I can and work with new people in the industry. However now the site has reached a level of notoriety where even licensed companies and licensors such as Fox are fully aware of this site and it’s influence and importance in the community. With that in mind, the sale of unlicensed product on this website presents a rather significant conflict of interest and makes it difficult to reach out to these companies for their support.

In addition to that aspect of the business, I am also not comfortable with the legal ramifications that I could face should a licensee or licensor decide that further action is required to have this site taken down or expect some form of financial compensation. I am not prepared to deal with either of those two scenarios, and I would seriously rather not have what is essentially my hobby become a nagging legal concern. To be completely honest, I have faced “saber rattling” in the past, however as I mentioned, I do all this for the love of collecting and for my passion in community involvement. Let me say this here and now… anyone who thinks you can get rich being a kit producer or reseller has no idea what they are talking about. Anyone who does this for more than a few months does it for the love of the industry, NOT to make tons of money. In fact if I were to figure out how much I make an hour for all the work I put in to what I do vs how much money it makes me, I probably yield 10 cents an hour.

With all that said, in order to maintain the integrity of the site legally, professionally and personally, and the relationships we are always trying to improve with Fox and license holders, we have made the decision to remove unlicensed items from our sales area effective immediately.

PLEASE NOTE this does NOT mean that I can’t review kits, props and other unlicensed products… I fully intend to talk about them, review them and talk about the artists that make them as I always have, but I can no longer sell them directly in our online store. The only items now available are licensed products or original kits that are not based on any licensed intellectual property.

This is a very big transition for this website as the kits have always been part of our core business and allows me to fund the purchases of collectibles to review on this site, so we will have to look at other ways of monetizing the site and funding the operations. I do realize that this is a fairly significant change in direction, but I am excited about focusing more on the reviews and news aspect of the site rather than the direct sales, which has dropped considerably in the past 6 months due to the economic climate. I hope that everyone can understand and support this decision, but of course I welcome anyone to contact me by clicking here should they have any questions or concerns, or post a comment below by clicking the comment button.

So that’s my say on this guys and gals… I know this is probably shocking to a lot of you, but in the long run this is the only way to go and continue to grow without the problems selling unlicensed product entails.

With that said, I have a TON of goodies coming up next week… I have the promised BIGGEST EVER REVIEW coming up, some cool inside news from Sideshow on the AvP helmets and other production matters and my Celtic Bio Lense fix-up tutorial. Plus with SDCC coming up soon, LOT’S will be happening. Oh, and I have been working VERY hard on a cool intro sequence for all my videos and that will be premiering next week as well… I haven’t been this excited about 18 seconds of action since that one time at band camp!

Thanks again everyone for your support, you’ve all been amazing! Hope you stick with me while the adventures continue…

Have a great weekend!
Dan

UPDATE - Just a heads up that it appears a few folks are having the knee-jerk reaction that I am selling out on this. Let me assure you right here and now that 90% of the money I made through this site was through the production of kits, so this is a very big blow to me. Also, I am not in any position to financially get involved with any legal battles, nor would I drag my family through something like that for a hobby. I would sooner close the site and smash my collection if it meant that I would have to spend money fighting a legal battle where I am in the wrong anyhow that should be going towards my daughter’s education fund. And as I said, I will still review and be part of the kit community and I can sell any kits that are original products, such as the Chelonian Warrior that is still available in the shop as I type this. I am receiving NO compensation in the slightest for doing this… it’s the opposite in fact. - Thanks.

At long last… I’ve managed to get my hands on a Sideshow AvP Celtic Predator Bio Helmet and today it’s REVIEW TIME! Ever since I ran over the last AvP helmet I reviewed and mercilessly abused the idiotic paper lenses, you guys have all been anxiously waiting to see what I do to this one since I first reported that from the high resolution prototype photos on the Sideshow site, it looked like the Celtic would have NO LENSES AT ALL, just paint! Shall we dance?

OK guys, let’s just get this out of the way… *takes out the soap box*

Sideshow… I love you guys, your company comes up with awesome ideas for collectibles, you have awesome staff and have even managed to impress me with some of your releases. But screw you and the horse you road in on with this completely STUPID idea of not having lenses and just painting over the resin. It looks like ass, it’s poorly done, and your lame cheap cop-out completely drags down the look of what could have been an AMAZING piece. Wake up and stop screwing over collectors with the piss-poor finishing on your pieces! Iron Man bust, Scar bio, Celtic Bio, Indy PF and Moria Orc (and that’s just what I’ve ordered from you) all looked awesome on your site but ended up being complete cock-ups because your production department failed to catch China spitting out crap or you simply took the cheap route and made the collectible a joke through lame development ideas. Paper lenses on a $300 collectible?! Are you serious?! You’re starting to piss of your loyal fans… start fixing this!

*breaths* OK.. I feel better already. Alright, so as you’ve probably guessed or already found out on the collector forums, the Celtic does indeed NOT have any kind of lenses… they simply left the resin over the eye holes and painted it over with silver paint and some black flecks of paint, and it looks TERRIBLE. There is simply no glossy lense effect at all… no clearcoat, no plastic over the paint, nothing. I’m actually not ranting and raving about this because unlike the paper lenses on the Scar bio, I knew about this ahead of time and was mentally prepared for the idiocy ahead of time lol! OK so the lenses are a MAJOR FAIL and no, I won’t be running over this one, blowing it up or destroying it, sorry guys! In fact, I already like this way better than the Scar bio, but we’ll get in to that later.

Let’s look at the stats on this guy:

Product Size: 15″ H x 11″ W x 15″ D
Product Weight: 21.00 lbs
Limited Edition: 750

Artists:

Tom Gilliland
Brock Otterbacher
Scott Klauder
Amalgamated Dynamics Inc
The Sideshow Design and Development Team

Sideshow is proud to partner with Amalgamated Dynamics Inc (ADI) to bring you the Alien vs. Predator Prop Replica line, featuring some of the most advanced weaponry and armor ever conceived for the Predator arsenal. Each prop replica is an exact 1:1 reproduction of the original screen used prop, as created by ADI. The Celtic Predator Mask Prop Replica is cast in fiberglass and features a light-up targeting feature. The piece is complete with a display stand that can be displayed on your desktop or mounted on your wall. Each piece is hand-cast, hand-finished, and hand-painted to exacting standards, then individually hand-numbered.

The Celtic is easily my favorite helmet from the AvP designs and is probably my second favorite design after the Wolf bio in terms of all Predator movies… Of course the original P1 will always have that special place in my heart, but design wise the Wolf and Celtic tickle my fancy. So when Sideshow announced that this bio was coming out, I was very excited to have this guy direct from the ADI molds. A few talented fans out there have sculpted and released some very nice Celtic bios out in the community for a couple of years now (Stever Hird, Pete Mander, Weaslefinger) but they were all slightly off in one way or another and many of us were waiting for something pretty much dead on. Sideshow definitely made a good call on releasing these, MANY collectors love these helmet designs even if the movies themselves were a bit meh.

The casting is very nice, clean and quite heavy… the detail looks great and they’ve used that same fiberglass resin combination with the fully finished inside with a black hammered texture. As with the Wolf and Scar, you have the magnet for connecting it to the base and the small switch to activate the LEDs in the laser shroud. Nothing unexpected hear and everything looks great. I did see some people concerned with warped castings or symmetry issues but in-hand it looks perfect with no warping or weirdness to it when it sits on the base. There’s also no detail loss anywhere due to air bubbles or anything like that, which my original Scar DID have and resulted in it’s asphalt death. Comparing the helmet to the ADI book does confirm the exact same detailing as the original prop piece, so the molds do seem to match. So top marks on the casting quality, absolutely no complaints on this one.

The paint job is the same boring silver and black wash they used on the Scar helmet, and then it looks like they used a spatter effect where they dipped a brush in black wash and flicked the bristles with a finger to cover it in fine black dots. The entire helmet is covered using this process, including the lense area. As mentioned before, they painted the resin over the eyes silver and flicked some black over them. On the rest of the bio, it looks OK, but on the lenses it looks like garbage. I’m also noticing that mine seems to have a bit heavier weathering than some of the other photos people have posted although it’s STILL not as weathered as the prototype photos on the Sideshow Website. Someone needs to show those guys how to weather armor on full size prop pieces a little more realistically… The other paint issue of note is the fact that unlike the movie prop, the Sideshow piece has copper paint on the cheek, jaw and nose detailing. I can confirm that this was requested by ADI for the final finishing, but I have no idea why. In all honesty though, I like it… it’s actually an improvement to the piece to be honest and helps lessen the yawn factor of the boring paint job. They should have done it like that in the movie too!

The base is the exact same wall mountable base used for all their other helmet releases, which is fine, they look great and it’s painted in the same scheme as all the other bases.

As a little side bit, I am going to offer you guys some suggestions on how you can pimp the lenses and make this helmet look AMAZING in just a few minutes. I’ll offer you permanent and non-permanent solutions to fixing the lenses up so they have a nice glossy semi reflective look and it will increase the look of your helmet tremendously.

Permanent: If you don’t mind doing something permanent to your helmet, you can simply add a layer of clearcoat to the helmet with either a spray can, airbrush or brush. Any art store will sell brush-on clear coat (Liquitex offers many levels of gloss in tiny bottles) or you can use Future Floor Polish in an air brush to shine up the lense areas. Basically what you want to do is make them look like they are covered in a plastic lense.

Non-Permanent: Carefully cut out and fit a piece of plastic perfectly in to the lense socket and pop them in place… if the material you are using is rigid enough, you can pinch it in place and use a heat gun to shape the plastic perfectly to the eye lense. This is probably the best option and will look the best. My suggestion for materials is to go to Home Depot and find their section where they sell the sheets of plexi glass and they always have a spot where they put in smaller scraps from customers that had them cut pieces for them. Find the thinnest piece possible for ease of use. The other source for easy plastic lenses is a dollar store type place and you can usually find fake glasses with clear lenses. If you can find lenses big enough for the helmet, you can carefully sand or dremel down the edges as needed to fit them and again use a heat gun to form it. If you see that the lenses won’t stay in place, a TINY strand of hot glue in a couple of spots on the edges of the lenses will hold them in place and you can remove it later on without damaging the paint.

Ooooor you can just leave it as is and enjoy it anyhow depending on how picky you are. In the next few weeks I am going to put together a video tutorial on how I modified my lenses, which I plan on doing as soon as possible.

With all that out of the way, the bottom line on this helmet is that despite the idiotic lack of lenses, this is actually a better helmet than the Scar simply because the sculpt is so much cooler and detailed. The paint job is pretty much the same quality but with an easy lense fix I think overall the helmet would look gorgeous. In fact, that’s what is so frustrating… had Sideshow simply put a couple of pieces of plastic over the painted lenses, it would have looked GREAT! I still think the value is there, for $300 you get a prop from the ADI studio mold that is finished and painted, has LEDs and a cool base. It sucks that you have to customize the helmet a bit to get it top notch, but it’s well worth it.

And what’s a review with some video… check out the HD video review I put together on YouTube by clicking here or on the icon below. Apologies in advance for the lack of violence, explosions or vehicular destruction - I’m keeping this one! (The video was JUST uploaded when this article was published… the HD version may not be available for a couple of hours until it is fully processed)

Ready for eye-candy? I’ve gone ahead and snapped a ton of photos for your viewing pleasure, focused mainly on showing you the detailed areas of the bio so you can see for yourself how nice the castings are. Unfortunately they also show how lame the lense areas are, but I digress. Click the photo icon below for all the pics:

That’s about all I have to say on this guy, what do you guys think? Click the comment button below and share your thoughts on the Celtic bio or this review, I’d love to hear your feedback! Hope you enjoyed the review everyone, see you soon with more goodies! Remember next week is Predatorstuff’s BIGGEST REVIEW EVER!

Take care,
Dan

Good afternoon folks! As promised, I was finally able to get back to recording reviews and the first one I have to show you is my review of the Iron Man Mark III figure by Hot Toys. I would have liked to have done the Celtic Bio Helmet from Sideshow but it still hasn’t arrived although I am expecting it any minute now. So without further chatter, let’s get to it!

Collectors all over the world were EXTREMELY excited when Hot Toys first started showing off their Iron Man figures, and rightfully so because the images were positively STUNNING! They looked more like high end collectible statues than plastic poseable figures with weird proportions and funny looking joints. Say what you want about the RIDICULOUSLY popular Hot Toys Predators, you can’t tell me they have weird skinny looking bodies and funny looking heads. Needless to say I was VERY excited about getting a Mark III in my hands (I have the Mark II on the way and the Mark I is on pre-order) and I am happy to report that I am not disappointed with the final result at all… it’s stunning!

The Mark III is part of Hot Toys’ ever improving and extremely popular Masterpiece series, which covers all kinds of awesome movie licenses such as Terminator, Rambo, Predator, Aliens, Iron Man and more! They are 1:6 scale figures, so human type pieces tend to be around 12″ tall, which is exactly the height of the Iron Man Mark III. The figure comes with over 36 points of articulation allowing you to pose it in many of the iconic movie poses including the classic arm blast pose, flying and the kneeling fist pose, and all the poses look awesome. Most articulated figures tend to look goofy if you try to pose them beyond their default pose, but the Mark III pulls off a ton with no funny looking arm or leg positions.

The paint is a metallic looking dark red and gold with light-up eyes, chest and hands and comes with 3 pairs of hand configurations along with an interchangeable head with authentic likeness of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (more on all this later). Top it all off with a typical Hot Toys stand and a GORGEOUS retail box and you’ve got yourself one hell of a kick-ass figure!

First let’s talk about the good stuff (there’s very little bad stuff that I noticed) and why I think this is probably the best Iron Man movie-based piece released so far! Overall I think the sculpt is fantastic and from a non-fanboy standpoint it looks exactly like the movie version. No idea if there are some bolts or lines that are wrong, but it looks spot on to me. And for once, the articulation does not ruin the sculpt at all, in fact it enhances it! This can sit in your display and look like a high quality statue and the beauty of the ingenious articulation is that you can repose it… typically figures suffer from either silly looking articulation joints or weird looking arms and/or legs when trying to twist them in to different poses. The Mark III has no such problems, it gorgeous and perfect in terms of sculpt and articulation, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Presentation wise, the box itself is a collectible! I have collectibles worth over $1000 and not even they can come CLOSE to the gorgeous retail boxes Hot Toys seems to come up with for all of their Masterpiece figures, they’re simply stunning. In fact these boxes are starting to sell EMPTY on forums and eBay with Predator boxes fetching over $150!!! (Are you people NUTS?!) So who knows… hang on to your boxes (I chuck all of mine out *shudder*) and you might be sitting on a gold mine later on down the road. The box has multiple flaps that open up in to a wide landscape type layout with a clear window on the main box showing the figure inside. I was very pleased to see I didn’t have to build the entire figure like those damn Predators… I HATED that!

There’s no question that the best thing about this figure is the inclusion of lights in the helmet, the chest and the hands… it’s the icing on the cake and look fantastic. The head and chest lights are controlled via cunningly hidden switch under one of the opening flaps on the back (see photo below) and each arm has a light switch for the hands located on the inside of the forearm. I’ve seen reports from people stating that some folks are having issues with poor LEDs but all of mine seem very bright and look awesome. Honestly, at this point this is the best and highest quality looking articulated figure I have ever owned, and believe me I’ve owned A LOT lol!

The figure also includes a stand, but call me a Hot Toys noob, I have no idea how to use it when the figure is standing. Basically I use the stand because I like the little text on in that IDs the collectible, but I just take the wire support. On the Predator HTs I had, the wire thing was shaped so it would grab around the waist, which was a no brainer to figure out. So if you look at the base and wonder how to use it, don’t worry about it… I couldn’t figure it out either. BUT what you CAN use it for is to pose your Mark III as though he’s flying in the air! You can place him horizontally face down with his waist cradled in the wire frame of the base and with the right arm and feet positions and with the two open hand options, he looks pretty cool. So yeah, apparently I’m not equipped to deal with Hot Toy bases *red face*

I should also mention that I love the detail work UNDER the flaps and things that open up… the servos and wiring under the calve flaps looks awesome. I also love that both forearms have flaps that open up to reveal with little mini-missiles like the one he uses in the movie to blow up the tank that blasted him our of the air.

OK, time to go over the dirty stuff… the BAD! While this is not a major issue, I don’t like the dark and dull looking maroon color of the paint, which should be much brighter. Hot Rod Red is NOT dark maroon or a dark candy apple color. The prototype photos had a much brighter and accurate color, the production pieces just didn’t turn out like that at all. The gold looks great, but that red is just not right… it’s not a HUGE problem, but it dig bug me slightly when I first took him out of the box. The torso is especially dark… darker than any other areas on the figure.

The second and pretty much irrelevant thing I don’t like is the Tony Stark head… call me anal (giggle) but I do not like human figures because I find it very rare that a company comes up with a good likeness. And when the likeness is not nearly spot-on, I HATE it. As I’ve mentioned before, that is why I have almost NO human characters in my collection, there’s always a problem with the sculpt being way off of the pre-paint application is ridiculous. A great example is the Indiana Jones PF… the sculpt is gorgeous but the paint job on my was a complete cluster-you-know-whatter. Anyhow, the trend continues with the optional Tony Stark head, which looks about as close to Robert Downey Junior as it does David Beckham. Sorry, but it sucks and won’t even make it out of the box. I haven’t received my Mark II yet, but I’ve seen photos of the head on that one and it’s even worse. But like I said, to me that’s irrelevant as I have zero interest displaying this badboy without the helmet on anyhow so this is a non-issue.

The bottom line? This to me is the PERFECT piece to represent one of my favorite super-hero movies and kicks total ass in every way aside from the slightly “too dark” red thing. For under $200, it doesn’t really get any better than this and I would tell anyone not to hesitate to pick this up if they are an Iron Man fan. HOWEVER, for those of you with some serious bling, you might want to wait a bit… word has leaked out that Sideshow will be announcing a HUGE 1:2 scale Iron Man Maquette!!! (No official announcements yet from Sideshow) Check this out…

If it’s the first time you see this pic, don’t feel bad… I had to change my underwear the first time I saw it too.

So that’s it guys, I hope you enjoyed the review because now it’s time for eye candy! First off, I’ve just uploaded a full video review in HD to YouTube that you can watch by clicking here or click the icon below! I JUST finished it though, so the HD version may not be ready yet… check back after a couple of hours and it should be ready (It will tell you if the movie is still processing on the YouTube page).

And of course we can’t have a review without some sexy pics! Click the photo icon below to check out the Iron Man Mark III gallery I put together for your viewing pleasure:

Thank you so much for checking out this review and please be sure to share your comments on this product or my reviews by clicking on the comment button below! I have a TON of reviews to do over the next couple of weeks, including a review of the MUST-HAVE PREDATOR COLLECTIBLE in what will likely be our biggest review EVER! Watch for that early next week… I would also like to recommend for those of you that want to see all the different poses and display methods you have for this figure, check out this thread over at the Sideshow Freaks Forum for hundreds of more photos from other collectors.

Take care gang!
Dan

Hello everyone! I am having a final sale on everything I have left in storage that I would like to move out ASAP. Please be sure to read the descriptions properly as some kits are raw and unpainted and some are painted and ready to display. Please note all sales are final and payment is required via PayPal… I will hold items and wait for payment from any buyer for 24 hours, otherwise the item(s) goes back in to the list of available items. Any sales for over $500 will include free shipping in Canada and the USA and I will cover half the shipping costs for anywhere else in the world. Orders of under $500 will be regular shipping costs.

One final note… DO NOT try to purchase these sale items through the shop, the discounted prices will not be applied if you do. If you want to purchase anything on sale, please use the contact page to send me an email and I will get back to you right away. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, or request a shipping quote.

OK that should just about cover it! Let’s get crackin!

Predator Resurrection

This is a very large kit sculpted and released by Model in the House and is actually a bad-ass kit when seen in person. The base is quite elaborate and HUGE! Regular price on this guy is $139.99 but I have one left and will sell it for $80.

More photos by clicking HERE!

Narin Gun Warrior Predator

This is one of Narin’s earlier pieces and it’s quite large and heavy… kit features a cyborg style Predator with a crazy huge cannon arm. Regular price is $89.99 and I will sell the last 2 I have for $50.

More pics by clicking here!

Narin Seated Axertor Predator

Narin has released 4 directly produced Predators to date, with his most recent being the Bad Blood and Death Warrior kits. Well series 02 is the seated Axertor and I have 1 left to sell. Regular price is $129.99 and will let this guy go for $85.

More pics by clicking here!

Narin Female Predator Warrior

Unfortunately this kit was never a big seller and honestly I think it’s because I’ve never been able to get pics of a nice built version and Joe Dunaway has yet to make one because honestly, this kit is gorgeous and very detailed like Narin’s other female kits, which all sell VERY well. In fact it’s ironic that the only pics I have of her were taken from a recaster’s auction on eBay lol! I have 4 of these girls left and will sell them at $60 instead of the regular $99.99!

More pics by clicking here!

Latex Foam Filled Alien Hands

I have 1 pair of AWESOME Kre8-FX Latex Alien hands that are foam filled in the fingers and they are 100% wearable. They are thick and very high quality castings and pretty much ready to paint right out of the box. I’ve had these for about 6 months so they are NOT old castings and I received them directly from Pete at Kre8-FX. I am asking $40 for the pair… here is what they look like finished:

You can find a few more shots of the hands by clicking here!

Rambo Gizmo and Mohawk Mogwai PAINTED BY JOE DUNAWAY!

Some of you may remember this review I did a little while ago of Narin’s new Mogwai sculpts. I had a set painted by the main man Joe Dunaway for the review and they were photographed extensively in the review. Well, these guys are now available to invade your collection… just don’t get them wet or feed them after midnight! I am asking $350 each or $600 for the pair. Bear in mind that just ONE of these painted by Joe Dunaway would normally sell for around $600, so this is half price. You won’t find anything as realistic looking as these guys… just check out the photos and see for yourself.

More pics available by clicking here! (Please note that only the photos with either “gizmo” or “mohawk” somewhere in the filename are of the kits from Joe and the ones that are for sale).

Sandy Collora Predator Bust - Repainted by Joe Dunaway

Next up is a VERY heavy bust initially sculpted by cult classic film director Sandy Collora (director of Batman Dead End) and released as a pre-paint. The paint job itself was ugh until Joe Dunaway got his hands on this one and repainted it! Now it’s just plain creepy and badass! I think this guy initially sold for $400 from Joe but I will sell it for $200.

More photos by clicking here!

NECA Complete Series of Alien and Predator Bobbleheads

I have a complete set of all 6 Alien and Predator Bobbleheads from NECA all in mint condition and would like to sell the entire set for $80. I don’t have good shots of each one, but I do have a shot of them all in my display case… click here to see it. These normally sell for $15 - $25 each, so I think $80 for the set is reasonable.

Greyzone Alien Queen Skull PAINTED By Joe Dunaway

This is a HUGE 1:4 scale Queen Skull that was produced several years ago by Greyzone and it is a very rare original that has been beautifully painted by Joe Dunaway. I paid a lot of money for this guy… just the kit alone cost a lot of money (almost $300). I will sell this to a new home for $250.

More pics available by clicking here.

Sideshow Star Wars Endor Rebel Infantry

I have one of these guys loose, complete and mint (was displayed in my closed display case) available… these are sold out at Sideshow and normally sold for $50. I will sell this guy for $20.

Takara Predator Micromen - Complete set of Predators

Here’s something you don’t see often… a complete set of the cool little Predator Microman figures, the last poseable Predator figures I have in my collection! I have the Elder, Scar and Celtic open and on display.. they are mint and complete. I am asking $50 for all 3. I do apologize but I don’t have a picture of these guys up close, but you can see them on display in my case by clicking here… they are on the top shelf towards the right side.

You can also find some pics on google by clicking here!

Mel The Biggunns Predator 3D Wallmount PAINTED by Mel

This piece is actually a bit of Predator Stuff history! The Predator wallmount bust from Mel was actually the first item ever posted on Predatorstuff.com as a sale item! Unfortunately Mel was unable to deliver castings for clients due to casting problems and the item never went anywhere. I was however able to keep the sample proof that I bought from Mel and it’s AWESOME! Only 5 castings or so were made of this piece and anyone who has something built by Mel knows how much her stuff sells for and how amazing it is.. I will let this go for $300. It’s pretty much one of those most rare Predator kits ever made actually. The banner below features photos of the actual piece the buyer will receive:

More photos available here!

Sideshow Predator 2 Diorama Exclusive Edition!

And finally, the last item available is a Sideshow Predator 2 Diorama Exclusive Edition, which I used for the review you can see by clicking here! So the item up for grabs is exactly the one seen in the review. This item includes the retail box and brown shipper. I am asking $210, which is exactly what it cost me to get from Sideshow…

More photos available here!

So that’s it guys! Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want to purchase any of these items. Please contact me by clicking here!

Thanks in advance, all proceeds go towards Dan’s fund drive for an orthopedic knee brace coming to a leg near you lol!

Take care,
Dan

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone is having a great Friday and looking forward to the weekend… as always, just as we head in to the weekend, Sideshow likes to drain our wallets and this week there’s a couple of items I think would interest you folks. They’ve released the Aliens Power Loader Diorama for Pre-Order to go along with the Queen Diorama, and they’ve just released a new Battle Damaged Edition of the Life-Size Iron Man Bust that is in-stock and ready to ship immediately!

Let’s start off with the Power Loader Diorama and break this baby down for ya…

Sideshow Collectibles is proud to bring you the Power Loader Diorama, depicting Ellen Ripley’s visceral battle with the Queen Alien*. The diorama is cast in high-quality, heavyweight polystone and packaged in a durable foam interior and stunning printed box. Each piece is finished with real tubing and detailing and individually hand-painted and finished, and each has its own unique quality and detail that is the trademark of a handcrafted Sideshow Collectibles product. The Power Loader Diorama stands 20 inches high above a themed display base, ready to join your Alien collection.

You might notice that the likeness is quite a bit off… that’s because the license Sideshow holds does NOT include the likeness of Sigourney Weaver as she does not permit it’s use to anyone for private reasons. So what you see her is a representation of her character as close as they were allowed to go… to be honest I don’t really care, this baby is all about the power loader! And as mentioned, this piece goes with the Alien Queen Diorama to create the full battle dio from the famous scene at the end of Aliens.

Product Type: Polystone Diorama
Product Size: 20″ H x 14″ W x 14″ D
Product Weight: 15.00 lbs
Box Size: 23.00″ H x 17.00″ W x 17.00″ L

Artists:

The Gore Group
Steve Riojas Anthony Mestas
Bernardo Esquivel
Tom Gilliland
Mike Allen
Trevor Grove
The Sideshow Collectibles Design and Development Team

Easily the best power loader I have ever seen and this is a no brainer if you already have the Queen on order. Please click HERE to see all the photos or to place your pre-order! This is scheduled to ship 4th Qtr 2009 so you have lots of time to save up! By the way, if you DON’T have the Queen on order, I would suggest you sign up for the waitlist… there’s always a ton of cancellations when a product arrives and goes to ship from people that’s aren’t financially ready for the piece. You can join the waitlist by clicking here (It costs nothing to join the waitlist).

Next up is the Battle Damaged Edition Iron Man Bust, which is a bit of a questionable move from Sideshow currently being debated on the forums… read on to find out more!

Sideshow is proud to partner with Stan Winston Studios to create a stunning Iron Man Battle Damaged Life-Size Bust in celebration of the blockbuster Iron Man movie. Iron Man has been captured in 1:1 scale in his unique powered armor, taken directly from the molds used to create the film costume. Each piece is individually painted and finished to exacting standards, each with its own unique quality and detail that is the trademark of a handcrafted Sideshow Collectibles product. The bust is cast in high-quality fiberglass and features LED light-up glowing eyes, which can be powered by the supplied power cord and wall plug (U.S. only), or it can be battery operated (batteries not included). The Iron Man Battle Damaged Life-Size Bust is sure to be the centerpiece of any collection, and the perfect complement to any office or home theater.

OK, so what’s all the drama about on this one? Well, you’ll notice that this piece is actually not a pre-order, it’s already in stock and ready to ship! The reason for this is because Sideshow’s production on these busts was a complete disaster with a TON of Quality Control problems and piss poor paint work that resulted in a large amount of returns. Even the better painted busts off the production line looked nothing like the “new car finish” Sideshow has promised in their video feature. So instead of fixing the problem and getting the paint done properly, they simply scuffed up and dirtied up the returns and VOILA! You have Battle Damaged Editions! Some people seem to be in favor of this and love the Battle Damaged look better than the clean version, others think this is a pathetic move from Sideshow and just another event in a growing list of alarming behavior from Sideshow. From a business standpoint, I would say this was their only reasonable option… what choice did they really have? Let’s face… redoing production on 1500 busts would just cost WAY too much money and in today’s economy, I doubt Sideshow could absorb that kind of loss. Perhaps the Product Management team needs to get together and work on solutions to PREVENT these cock-ups (hee hee) in the first place. Remember Sideshow… an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

So, with that aside, let’s get on with the specs.

Product Size: 24″ H x 19″ W x 13″ L
Product Weight: 37.00 lbs
Box Size: 19.00″ H x 26.00″ W x 31.00″ L

Artists:

Stan Winston Studios
The Sideshow Collectibles Design and Development Team

This bust is in stock and ready to ship immediately, so bear that in mind if you place an order. Please click HERE to view all the pics or to place you order now!

Enjoy guys, more coming soon as my sinuses slowly return to normal lol! Have a great weekend, and please be sure to share your comments on these pieces by clicking the comment button below and using the form to post your thoughts!

Take care,
Dan

Hey all… My apologies for the lack of updates on here, I actually have a TON of stuff I want to post but I have been sick as hell since last week and can barely muster enough energy to eat let alone do any work. My left ear popped last Monday and since then I am deaf in that ear and have a constant high pitch squealing noise in my ear and over the weekend I got hammered with a constant running nose, fever blah blah… so I was finally able to drag my ass to the clinic Monday and I have some kind of sinus infection and my ear is all fubar. So combine all that with my tendency to have a “man cold” and I’m pretty much staying in bed 24/7.

So again, sorry for the lack of updates but I assure you I have lots I want to share including a review of the Mark III Hot Toys figure, my Indiana Jones PF repaint, the new Lara bust I got and some other items that folks have requested. Also coming up is the Sideshow Celtic helmet and tons more… so bear with me while I try to get myself pulled together and I’ll be back with more updates very soon. Also, please note I am behind on my emails so I do apologize for that… if you are expecting an email back from me, please be patient, I will get back to you.

Thanks and talk to you all soon!
Dan

Hey everyone! I am totally stoked about the next issue of Kitbuilders Magazine because this magazine is featuring the most amazing, spectacular, stupendous and splendiferous Predator build-up article EVER! Joe Dunaway will take us all through the amazing buildup and customization of Narin’s legendary Death Warrior kit!

KBM issue will have a full build-up article photographed and written by Joe Dunaway detailing his step by step work on a never-before-seen Death Warrior kit, which just happens to be residing in my display case! This is a HEAVILY customized Death Warrior, with all kinds of surprises like major chains and skulls, a custom plasma cannon and much more! So for anyone that is in to Predator kit building or would like to know how to go about it, you do NOT want to miss out on this issue.

For the sneak peek, I’ve put together a quick little HD movie feature you can check out on YouTube by clicking HERE, hope you like it! For the magazine itself, you can subscribe or get more information about them at www.kitbuildersmagazine.com. It’s basically the best model kit building mag out there for adult modelers, and Joe Dunaway does a ton of articles for them every month.

I had a lot of fun putting the little movie together, I had a chance to mess around with more of the effect plugins (like the blurring text and morphing background) and will definitely be playing around with more of these in future reviews and videos. Be sure to post a comment and let me know what you think of the vid!

Enjoy!
Dan

Let’s face it… it’s hard to find a nice Predator 2 helmet out there lately, and even when you do one, there are casting issues, or the paint job isn’t too hot, or there’s no lasers/LEDs, or it’s simply overpriced. I know HCG is coming out with one that is way too expensive, but seeing as they’re a bunch of unprofessional asshats, their products won’t be getting any face-time on here either way. Well folks, today I want to introduce to you a GOREOUS Predator 2 helmet that has it all at a price you won’t believe!

My friend and fellow board member Art Gonzales (aka Nucking Futs on the Lair) recently sent me a sample of the Predator 2 helmet he makes and I have to admit, it’s probably the best P2 I have ever seen, the paint job on it is absolutely AMAZING! The helmet weighs in at around 4 lbs and measures 21″ in height and 14″ in width and seems to be a nice thick and solid casting. There are no thin or warped areas at all, and I love how both the outside as well as the inside of the helmet is fully painted and weathered. One thing that I found unique to this bio is the battle damaged effect to the side details of the helmet, it looks AWESOME! So in terms of sculpt, the added lip and the battle damage effects make for a gorgeous bio and the casting seems to be very high quality.

I honestly believe that out of all the movie based helmet designs, the P2 helmet is easily the most difficult paint job to re-create properly as most tend to slap on a single copper color with some black weathering and leave it at that. It looks good, but the aged and weathered look of the P2 seems lost so I was extremely pleased with the finish Art had applied on this helmet! You’ve got copper, browns, gold and everything in between all applied in a gorgeous texture that looks absolutely perfect. The helmet is then finished with strategically placed bits of “copper oxide”, that greenish-blue color that seems so hard to re-create on these pieces. And believe me, I know it’s hard to pull off, I’ve tried! So in terms of the paint job, this helmet gets full marks in every way… gorgeous coloration and paint textures both inside and outside the helmet.

On to the next bit of awesomeness that makes up this helmet… LASERS! Yep, this baby sports 3 real lasers lined up in a perfect tight triangular targeting reticle that looks good even pointed at houses across the street. The laser trigger system is also quite unique, with the use of a cable push trigger rather than a switch located inside the helmet, which makes this perfect for display or costume purposes. The lasers are contained in the laser shroud housing on the helmet as well as the battery pack, which is located in the snout area. Here comes the neat part… then battery pack is then wired to phono jack receptacle right where the hoses connect to the bio in the movie. (PS - 2 AAA Batteries not included) Next, you are provided with a separate cable that looks like one of the hoses and on the end of it is a red trigger you push to activate the lasers! How cool is that?! So if you are using this as a costume, you can actually fish the wire down your sleeve and in to your hand so you can activate the lasers without having to touch your helmet or have someone turn it on for you. If you’re using this for display like I am, then you just roll the cable up and keep it inside the bio and use the trigger in the off-chance that you want to show it off to a fellow pred-nut. Overall, I think the entire way the lasers are rigged is really cool and especially costume builder friendly.

The helmets are made and shipped direct from the USA by Art himself, and you are going to LOVE the price! You get the FULLY FINISHED helmet, including painted, mesh screen lense, REAL LASERS and trigger for $250 plus shipping! That is easily the best price I have ever seen for a fully painted helmet that also has lasers, and based on this piece I have here in hand, I would NOT hesitate to grab one of these for your collection, that price is a STEAL!

Want to order one for yourself or contact Art about this piece? You can email him by clicking here, he can take your order directly.

I had a lot of fun photographing this piece and I lit the office in a way that would really make the colors and textures pop out and look rich and detailed… to the naked eye, the helmet doesn’t look quite so colorful, but I think the paint job really deserved to be shown off so you could see just how detailed it really was. Click the icon below and enjoy the photos!

In addition to the photos, I also had a little fun and put together a video review in HD for your viewing pleasure, which you can check out by clicking the YouTube icon below:

In the video I discuss the qualities of the helmet and show the laser wiring and trigger system used to activate the tri-laser reticle and just show it off in general. I JUST uploaded it though, so if you click and it’s saying the video isn’t available yet, try again in an hour or so… it’s probably not fully converted yet.

That’s it for this review gang, thanks again and I hope you enjoyed it! Remember to click the comment button below and share your thoughts!

Take care,
Dan