Hi all!  Just gearing up for the VERY busy week of Sideshow’s Spookfest where we will be featuring extensive coverage here on Predatorstuff, including product updates and commentary and all that good stuff…  coverage starts tonight in about 7 hours!  Until then, I am working on the site and adding various items and articles I’ve been meaning to post, so be sure to keep your eye out on the site over the next week.  Let’s start off this this piece…

Not to be confused with the Splish Splash kit, this is a sculpt that was recently sent to me by a friend as a "Hey!  Check this out!", but I have no idea what it is…. first time I see it.  It’s a Creature vs Predator diorama and looks pretty damn slick!  I’ve added it to the reference guide in the unknown kits area, which you can see by clicking HERE!  (see update below) If you know anything about this kit, please contact me and let me know, would love to know where it comes from!

Have a great Spookfest everyone!
Dan

UPDATE!

Woohoo!  Looks like we’re getting more information on this guy already!  It’s sculpted by Mike Melillo and can be seen on his website at www.blacklightfright.com  and I’ve gone ahead and moved it from the unknown kit section to a company listing for Blacklight Fright, which you can visit by clicking HERE!

It has been one of the hottest debated subjects in Predator collector circles in a long time…  BUT, before we go on and for the record, I would like to say that I love Sideshow and love the people that work there… no disrespect intended and this article is more out of fun than any actual indignation. So don’t go too crazy with the Sideshow hate… I just love a good arguement is all!  So, when Sideshow first dove in to the realm of Predator helmet replicas, they brought us the highly prized AvPR Wolf Predator helmet, which was well received and considered a highly successful release.  The helmet was beautifully detailed, featuring a gorgeous sculpt, great paint-up, lasers and a real mesh lens to finish it off.  When Sideshow then announced they would be releasing a full compliment of AvP props, including the Scar, Celtic and Chopper helmets, collectors were very excited.  Unfortunately for the die-hards, the AvP helmets were not well received and showed signs that perhaps Sideshow development had skimped on details to save money… the number one issue was the lack of decent looking lenses.  The Scar used a paper-like material with an icky print pattern of a mesh, and the Celtic had no lense at all, it was simply painted over resin where the eye holes should have been.

Needless to say, fans were VERY upset with this move, not to mention the paint job wasn’t really as well done as the Wolf… but again, the main issue was how awful the lenses were.  I mentioned them extensively in my reviews, emails were sent to Sideshow about it, people everywhere were talking about them on the forum and my videos featured semi-rants about them.  People were not impressed… the obvious knee-jerk reaction was to grab our torches and pitchforks, but I treated more as something to make fun of than anything else, despite this being a $300 prop with a paper lense glued on it.

I started doing some research and talked to Sideshow…  turns out the choice of lens material was out of their hands, as the master copy they received from ADI (The company that did the prop effects for the AvP and AvPR movies) came exactly like that and they were simply following their design and paint scheme.  I was assured that the materials and paint scheme of the master matched the screen-used props exactly and that there was no difference.  I completely disagreed despite this information and still felt that the lenses used were nowhere NEAR what was used during film production, not a chance.  But I supposed I agreed to disagree… after all, Sideshow didn’t make the movies, they can only go by what ADI tells them right?  So that was it… I figured there would be no more debate about this perhaps until the Chopper came out, which we assume will be like the Celtic… no lense, just painted resin eye-holes.

The forest was quiet, we had moved on… then Sideshow threw down a glove.  Yes my friends, Sideshow puffed up their chests, bristled in the cool California air and posted this on their website:

Some folks have been wondering how close we can really get to the actual screen-used piece with a Prop Replica collectible. Well, we’d like your input! How close do YOU think we’ve gotten? Take a look at the side-by-side photo below. One of these Predator Masks is the screen-used prop by special effects studio Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., and the other is the Sideshow Collectibles replica. Can you spot the real movie prop?

And here’s the photo of the two masks side by side that they showed (click to enlarge):

Oooo Sideshow why must you taunt me so?  *rolls up his sleeves* You have now released the evil Fanboy Dan, and it’s time to go fanboy on your ass!  I am going to go ahead right now and say this… that is not a screen used prop, it’s the master ADI sent to Sideshow standing next to one of the replicas, which by the way has been touched up.  And I’ll prove it.

We’re going to cover 3 things in this article and I will back everything up:

1. The "screen used prop" in the photo is not from the movie, it’s a prepared master copy ADI sent to Sideshow to be used as the material and paint master.
2. The helmets had separate lenses installed, they were NOT painted resin.
3. The helmet in the photo above that is the Sideshow replica has been tweaked to resemble the master more closely.

Let’s go ahead and get number 3 out of the way right now shall we?  First off, there’s no way that is a regular factory issue Celtic bio helmet standing next to the "screen used prop".  If you haven’t already read it, please check out my review of the Celtic Predator Helmet and be sure to go look at the gallery.  Pay VERY special attention to the paint detail and weathering, and the sheen of the paint… you will notice in the review that the paint is very uniform with a dull grey with a couple of black airbrushed spots on the crown and that the finish is quite flat, meaning no shine.  Now look at the photo Sideshow posted… both helmets have extensive weathering over the entire helmet, with browns and blacks and the finish is a mild shiny satin.  Think it’s just me?  Go ahead and check the forums where dozens of people have posted their helmets and you’ll see the EXACT same thing.  If either of the helmets in that photo are from the factory floor and from a normal production run, it’s been touched up for this photo… absolutely no question about it.  All bias aside, the two helmets side-by-side look almost identical with only tiny differences, I’m not arguing that at all.  Too bad the helmets we received didn’t have that paint job and there’s no screen used prop in that photo.

Next, let’s cover 1 and 2, since they are both directly related… the question is, where do I start?  In all honesty, you could skip to the last photo and point in this article as that alone is enough to put this debate to rest, but I figured we’d go over the movie stills first and then go in for the kill.  Sound good?

The major debate here for me and most of us is the lens issue.. the lens look like crap, especially up close and we’re not liking the fact that we’re being told that this is the way it was done on the screen-used props.  Now, if we look at the comparison shot from Sideshow, we know that both helmets have the same painted resin eye holes instead of lenses.  Now, I am going to prove to you that ADI used separate lenses in the eye holes of the helmets, NOT painted over solid resin.  So with that proven and out of the way, it’s an obvious conclusion that the so called "screen-used prop" in the comparison photo is in fact a paint master, not a screen used prop.

Once again, this is the purpose of the article… we’re not happy that Sideshow is not using separate screen-accurate lenses in their helmet replicas and we’re being told that this is how it was done on the actual screen replicas.  I’m going to show you proof that this is not the case.

OK, first… the lenses on the screen-used pieces are curved like sunglasses, they are not a flat surface.  This is important when looking at the shape of reflected light…  when a reflective surface or shiny surface is flat, it will reflect light uniformly, meaning the entire surface will be bright.  When a surface is curved, you’ll notice that there will be a bright soft line of light in the middle or towards the sides (depending on the angle) and the light diffuses outward from that point.  It’s the curve that causes that, as the highest point of the curve closest to the light source reflects that light.  So, armed with that knowledge I want you to look at the comparison photo from Sideshow and you will notice that the eye hole areas are fairly uniform, meaning very little curve.  That’s because it’s just flat resin covering the eye holes, they’re not rounded eye lenses like in the movie.

Now, look at the following movie stills (click for larger):

See the difference?  You’ll see it in every frame of film with the Celtic in it… the lenses are curved.  Not only that, but there is an obvious color difference between the color and tint of the lens and the rest of the helmet making it pretty clear it’s not part of the helmet’s paint job, it’s a separate installed piece.

Next up, if you look at the comparison shot from Sideshow, BOTH helmets have copper accents on the rounded nose sections, the cheek detailing and jaw detailing.  Didn’t we already establish that the screen used prop had no copper detailing and that ADI added that to the master because they preferred that paint scheme?!  So if there were no copper accents on the screen-used props, why does the "screen-used prop" in Sideshow’s comparison photo have them?

Now granted, we only get limited looks at the Celtic’s side detailing on the helmet and the lighting is not very color-friendly, but from what I can see, there certainly isn’t any copper paint on the nose or jaw sections.

Another point regarding the lenses, they are reflective…  now, whether that is movie magic, lighting or the grace of god, when watching the movie, we see several scenes where reflections are clearly visible.  Now, I know that the alien jaw reflections we see are computer generated, that’s fine… but no matter how the effect was achieved, the lenses we as the movie watchers saw them REFLECTED.  The Sideshow piece does not reflect ANYTHING… they do brighten up because of the silver paint when you shine light at the prop, but that’s about it.  So now there is this argument… screen accuracy vs bench accuracy.  This is how I define the difference between a prop looking different on screen than it does sitting on the work bench of the prop builder.  When it comes to prop replicas, I personally believe the prop should reflect what we see on screen, NOT what it looks like on a work bench, because this opens the door to all kinds of BS.  Think about it for a second…  entire lines of props could look like garbage and all the company would have to say is "Oh, well this is how is was really done, it only looked good because of special effects, lighting and post-editing".  Sorry, but that’s absolute nonsense.  The facts are simple: In the movie, the helmets the Predators wear have reflective lenses, the prop replica does not.  Straight up, it’s wrong, and I don’t think using the ol’ "well this is how it was really made" makes it right at all.

Still not convinced?  OK, then I offer you the nail in the coffin… what if ADI themselves came out and said, look, we heard about this debate and we wanted to confirm that the lenses are indeed separate.  What we did was drill out the eye holes and laser area, painted up the helmet fully, and then later installed the lasers and eye lenses.  Not sure why people might think that the lenses were in fact solid resin with just some paint over them, we apologize for the confusion.  Wouldn’t that be GREAT?!  And what if you could verify that yourself and not just take my word for it?  After all, I could just make any BS up and tell you ADI told me so and you would have no choice but to believe it right?

Well luckily, we have these things called books, and ADI just happened to write one on the making of AvP and it was published by Design Studio Press in 2004.  I’m sure many of you pred nuts like me already own this book… if you do, would you be so kind as to open your book and turn to page 105 for me?  No problem… I’ll wait while you go fetch your book.

OK, all set?  Right, could you please go ahead and read me the caption for photo 7… you know, the pic of the fully painted Celtic helmet with big gaping holes where the lens and lasers should be?

OOPS!  What does that say?

The next step is a trip to the Paint Department (07) before it is finished off with any final fabrication details (such as installing a laser sight and eye lenses).

*And Jordan fades back* SWISH! I think we’re done here…

So this goes back to my first review of the AvP helmets…  Sideshow, ADI, whoever…  please put the right lenses in the helmets because they were not solid resin with a bit of paint flecked over.  It doesn’t look like that in movie, and it says right in the ADI book that they are separate pieces.  Besides, logic would dictate the actors kind of need to be able to see what’s in front of them.. last I checked, humans can’t see through 1/4 inch thick resin.  When making prop replicas, they should reflect (no pun intended) what we see on the silver screen and blowing off legit complaints by saying the studio said so shouldn’t be the end all playing card.

So I did enjoy the comparison and I’m sure the average Sideshow fan will assume that indeed you have a production run piece standing next to a screen-used prop, but to me and many other Predator fans, it seems obvious that neither helmet is screen used or a production piece.  What you’ve got there is the ADI master sitting next to a touched up production piece that’s been more intensely weathered to match the master more closely.

Would love your thoughts guys, please click the comment button below and tell me what you think. 

Thanks!
Dan

PS. Yes I know I just broke the soapbox in my nerdy display of fanboyism… and I’m happy to do it!

Good evening folks!  Just a quick note tonight that we’ve added links that let you browse our article database by year, and it’s located just under the main categories in the middle column menu.  You can simply click on the year you want to look at, and the site will load a list of all articles published that year.  If you spot an article you want to read, just click the title and you’re there… and the article archives go all the way back to 2005!

 2009 Article Archive
 2008 Article Archive
 2007 Article Archive
 2006 Article Archive
 2005 Article Archive

And before I go, you HAVE to check out this cartoon/comic strip that fellow Predator fanatic and artist Marcos Caldas sent me, it’s HILARIOUS!  He put together a little webcomic titled Predator vs Teletubbies… it’s not in English, but believe me, that’s really not important lol!  Click here or click the image below to see the whole thing (it’s 3 separate story boards).  Great job Marcos, we need more of these!

That’s it for tonight gang, hope you all had a great weekend and you’re ready for another Monday!  I’ll see if I can arrange a review for tomorrow that’s easy on the eyes *wink*

Take care,
Dan

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.

Happy Holidays Everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you all the very best in the coming year and that we get another year filled with Predator goodies! I am finally back today after almost a week away from the computer jumping around from city to city and family to family trying to pack on as much poundage as possible, but all the fun has come to and end and it’s time to face the HUGE pile of emails I have in my inbox. Please be patient while I try to catch up, and shipments will also start going out tomorrow as I resume packing tonight.

Along with my re-appearance, my dear friend Ian decided to surprise me by FINALLY send an update to his infamous SNAKE Guide, which stands for Spike NArin Kit Encyclopedia. This is the second edition that Ian has put together (Ian’s nickname is Spike by the way) and it includes all the new Predator kits Narin has released in 2007 and 2008.

The SNAKE Index is a numbered list of all the Predator kits Narin has released over the years, and provides a simple way of communicating the kit you are talking about… so instead of saying “Female Huntress 2 with the spear and weird base etc.”, you can just say Narin kit #34 and a quick check on the index shows which kit you are talking about. I actually use this guide all the time when making orders or talking about Narin kits with other fans, it’s just easier than trying to remember the names for all of them lol! Here is what Ian had to say about this updated version:

Well it’s been 22 months since my last attempt at building the ultimate Pred collage ….. and I’ve finally found some more electronic glue and paper.

Most everybody interested in reading this will already be familiar with the sculpts Narin has worked on since Feb 2007, since between Narin’s own site, Predatorstuff, and the HIVE/Clubhouse/Lair (etc) communities, these beauties have been publicised as they became available.

However, it never hurts to make things easy with a consolidated reference guide – so here we are. The ones added (yellow numbering) are as follows:

2007 (March-Dec only)
44 – Predator 2 (masked & unmasked options)
45 – Urban warrior (huge scale P2 with damaged mask – same size as Sideshow maquette)
46 – Deadly Duo Celtic
47 – Deadly Duo Chopper
48 – Lobster Pred bust (never kitted)

2008
49 – Death Warrior (Narin series 03) – the ultimate Pred kit
50 – Predalien
51 – Wolf
52 – Predator tile (limited distribution, painted by Narin)
53 – Rogue Hunter
54 – Bug Killer (masked & unmasked options)
55 – Dual-axe Pred
56 – Wolf bust (masked & unmasked options)
57 – Predalien bust

These last 2 years have seen us spoiled with yet further awesome creations from Narin, a man who’s prolific talent is unsurpassed by any in our community. I look forward to the coming months as he will doubtless take yet more money from me in return for his wonderful works of art.

I will remain ever hopeful that he continues to do so for a long LONG time. Narin – you STILL rule my friend.

Ian “Heavy Metal Spike” Campbell – Dec 28th 2008

Thanks so much for the update Ian! For those of you that would like to see the full size version of the SNAKE Index, please click HERE! You can also bookmark that image link, it’s handy to have at the ready… I actually have it right on my links bar in my browser.

Have a good one everybody, I have more updates coming soon, including a very cool AVPR Cannon replica Pete just sent me!
Dan

I am very excited to release the second version of the Predatorstuff.com website! We’ve introduced some sexy new features and streamlined our shop system and we hope you like it and much as we do!

The biggest improvement on the site is the AWESOME new search! Instead of having 3 different searches like on the old version, you can now search the Shop, Reference Guide, Articles and the Gallery all from the main search at the top. The search results are broken down by area and you can filter the results as required. It’s awesome!

Next up is the shop ticker up top… now you can easily see the latest items in our shop and check out those items in detail bu clicking the icon for the item you want. It’s a breeze to see what’s new!

The shop itself has been completely streamlined and updated for easy navigation. You can now browse photos of each item without having to leave the shop and opening the gallery in a new window and we’ve made the detail views easier to read and follow. There seemed to be some confusion as to when stuff was in stock or when it would be arriving, so we hope this will help make things easier to figure out.

Aside from that, we’ve cosmetically enhanced the site and made room for more content so you can see more information at a glance instead of a huge banner taking up half the screen (yes, we know the old banner was nice, but it was HUGE!).

PLEASE NOTE: The gallery and reference guide are still using the old layout.. we’re working on updating those areas as quickly as possible!

So enjoy the new site and please be sure to click the comment icon below and let us know what you think.

Enjoy!
Dan

Hello everyone! I’ve got quite a few things to tell you folks about today, so let’s get right to it! First off, I am very excited to announce a BADASS new Hellboy kit from Model in the House, the same guys who made the huge AvP Attack kit.

This kit is absolutely massive! The kit features a dynamic sculpt of Hellboy cast in to 16 parts, including his coat in 2 parts and includes the short and full length horns. Kit is over 14 inches tall including the base, and the base measures about 15 x 10 inches. Overall, the kit weighs an impressive 8lbs! You can order this right in our shop by clicking here!

I’ve received a bunch of photos of a painted sample and this looks awesome. Check it out by clicking on the photo icon below:

NEW PREDATOR 2 DIORAMA

This week and weekend is the San Diego Comic Con, and depressingly enough, I am missing it. Oh well! I did the Disney thing this year, so SDCC 09 is all mine! Anyhow, all Predator fans should be keeping an eye on Sideshow Collectibles as they always announce new goodies during the show, and this year they’ve announced a new Predator 2 Diorama!

There are no order details or anything yet, although an order link will probably go up on Friday. keep your eyes peeled to this blog for the pre-order link as soon as it’s available! There will be an exclusive and regular edition. There is a preview link though you can check out and leave a comment if you like… check it out on Sideshow’s site by clicking here.

They’ve also got a new Predator poseable figure listed on their SDCC product list… it’s listed as “Lost Predator” but there are no preview links yet. I suspect this is the special Lost Hunters release that I heard about months ago, featuring the Predators seen in the ship at the end of Predator 2. I’ll update the site when I find out more!

I should also mention that my jaw dropped at this one… a FULL SIZE General Grievous Bust!!!

COME TO PAPPA BEAR!!!

CHEAPER OVERSEAS SHIPPING!

For those of you outside North America, I’m sure you will be VERY happy to hear that I am working on a new drop-ship system that will slash overseas air shipping in HALF! Basically you will be paying the cheapest surface style shipping, but it will be shipped EMS from the producer instead, so do a little dance and make a little love, because cheaper shipping is almost here! This will apply to about 90% of the items in the shop and I am hoping to have the new prices live by tonight or tomorrow. I will post when this is in effect.

So that’s it for now guys! I’m keeping an eye on SDCC coverage this week and I will post updates as soon as I can!

Enjoy! As always, please click the comments button below to share your thoughts
Dan

Hi Folks! I am very pleased to announce that the newsletter system is ready to go and you can sign up right away to get a heads up on new products and announcements right in your email and get a general look of the latest news and information posted on the site. This won’t be a regular weekly style newsletter, we’ll simply send it out when something newsworthy is happening. You can easily sign up by using the newsletter sign up form in the middle column of this site, just to the right of this article! It looks like this:

Just enter your email and click signup and you’re registered! You can unsubscribe at any time by simply replying to a newsletter and asking that your email be removed from my list. For those of you that prefer RSS feeds, you can find our site feed here!

Thanks and enjoy!
Dan