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.

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

Hi all! I am working on a brand new prop review that I am hoping to finish tomorrow (need to record the video review) but in the meantime, I wanted to let everyone know that the Death Warrior from Narin is now officially sold out and has been retired! So that means 99 people now own this awesome kit and I would like to congratulate Narin on the HUGE success of this piece. For those of you that don’t want to miss out on his next kit in this series, you can find the brand new Bad Blood kit by clicking here, which has just started shipping to customers this week! I am also happy to report that Predastore has just advised me that the Double Axe kit from Narin is also now back in stock and available for immediate shipping… you can check that kit out or order it by clicking here! While the Double Axe is not part of the exclusive Narin series, remember this kit is cast by the same fella that does the Narin exclusive pieces, so you know this is as good as they get!

Thanks guys and congrats again to Narin on his first full edition run!

Dan

For those of you that are in to the model kit scene, then you probably know or attended the AMAZING Wonderfest show in Louisville, Kentucky, which is the biggest Garage Kit even held in North America. Wonderfest 2009 just wrapped up this past weekend and it was the best show yet because:

1. It was a record breaking year in terms of attendance and contest entries.
2. This was Wonderfest’s 20th anniversary
3. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of ALIEN, this year’s theme was ALIENS!
4. Steve Wang and Tom Woodruff were both in attendance!

In fact, here’s the guest list, check this out:

Veronica Cartwright
Tom Woodruff Jr.
Ken Kelly
William Stout
Mark Schultz
Frank Dietz
Larry Blamire & Jennifer Blaire
Bob & Kathy Burns
Cortland Hull & Dennis Vincent
Patrick McClung
Kenny Miller

Unfortunately, as usual, I was unable to attend and with the Clubhouse forum down since last Friday I was dying to see photos from attendees. The Clubhouse is where everyone posts their photos of the event, and normally photos start trickling in by the end of the first day and I love to check everything out. But with the Clubhouse down and STILL not up and running due to what appears to be a botched forum update, I was SOL. But fear not… along comes my good friend Chris (aka Sabres) to save the day!

This morning I got up and realized that Chris was attending this year and I KNEW he would have a ton of photos someplace. So I booted up and headed to Chris’s favorite stomping grounds, The Hive and sure enough I found some SERIOUS Wonderfest photo loving.

You can also join the discussion on the Hive about Wonderfest, quite a few people have tuned in to talk about the show.

In terms of Predators from the show, there are a couple of new kits from US based producers that were unveiled at the show and both were painted up by Joe Dunaway. These will be for sale soon, but you can check out the new Wolf kit HERE and the new T-Rex vs Predator kit HERE! There is also a HUGE Alien kit coming soon from Nightmare Collectibles, you can see it in a few of Chris’s shots, including this one.

More info on these kits coming very soon!

So that’s it guys, thanks again to Chris for sharing a ton of photos with us and be sure to keep an eye out for more once the CH is back up and running. For anyone that wants to check out Wonderfest NEXT year, it will be held May 29th and 30th, 2010 and you can see the latest announcements by clicking here on their website.

Enjoy,
Dan

Hey guys! I wanted to take a quick minute to introduce you to some AMAZING sculpture design work that I was recently turned on to by my buddy Neal. Check out the world of Kris Kuksi!

Kris is an artist based out of Kansas in the USA and creates these mind boggling sculptures that you simple can not fully grasp without hours of study, they are simply THAT intricate. His work has been featured in many expos and exhibitions and I would LOVE to see some of this in person. Check it all out at kuksi.com and get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor. From his site:

Kuksi’s art speaks of a timelessness–potentiality and motion attempting to reach on forever, and yet pessimistically delayed; forced into the stillness of death and eternal sleep. He treats morbidity with a sympathetic touch and symbolizes the paradox of the death of the individual by objective personification of death. There is a fear of this consciousness because it drops in upon us without mercy, and yet there is a need to appeal to it in order to provide a sense of security, however deluded that sense may be. Kuksi’s art warns us that this appeal is irrelevant, and that we should be slow to create a need for it. His themes also teach us that although death may pursue us arbitrarily, we should never neglect to mourn the tremendous loss of individual potential.

Gorgeous stuff, check it out when you have a chance, you won’t regret it! For those of you that are in to Digg, you can digg a small post I made about his site by clicking here!

Thanks!
Dan

Please join me in congratulating Narin and his lovely wife on the birth of their beautiful baby son last Sunday at 9:15 AM local Thai time!

This is their first child and both Pookan and his mom are healthy and well and of course Narin is proud as a peacock and passing out the photos and cigars enmasse! So a big pat on the back and congratulations all around to the Narin clan and welcome to the world of parenthood! And on a personal note, I’m taking bets that we start seeing amazing Predator sculpts from Narin’s son by age 3… great… now we’ve got 2 OF THEM to drain our wallets with amazing sculpts!

Narin does check this site and he knows I was going to post an announcement today so please be sure to press the comment button below and leave a note for Narin and his family!

Thanks and congrats again my friend!

Dan

Hey everyone! A huge thanks and shout-out to Matt Skeins for the heads up he sent me while I was on vacation of the new photos released by Hot Toys of the HIGHLY anticipated Predator 1 figure in the 1:6 scale Masterpiece series that has become so popular!

From the new prototype photos, this looks totally awesome and the body seems a lot less skinny than it did for the Wolf series. The paint application looks awesome, but I felt that the P2 prototypes looked awesome but the production units were absolutely terrible, especially the heads. I guess we’ll see how this one goes but you can bet this will be a HUGE seller and we’ve been waiting for a couple of years for this P1 to come out. The figure will have a closed and open mouth pose by swapping out the jaw like on the P1 bust they recently released, as well has come with a removable helmet. The figure also includes a fully detailed medi-pack, that opens up to show all the tools! The detailing looks amazing! If the production pieces look as good as these pics, this will probably be the best Hot Toys Predator figure to date. Check out all the pics Matt sent me by clicking the gallery icon below:

Be sure to keep an eye on the site for when this is up for order in a few weeks and all newsletter subscribers will receive a “heads-up” notice when it’s up for pre-order on the Sideshow Site. It’s a safe bet these will sell out VERY fast, so grab one as quick as you can. These sell for a ton on the secondary market and the P1 is the most request Predator figure HT has ever had, so be ready! LOL!

WARNING FOR SIDESHOW GIFT CARDS!

Do you have a Sideshow Giftcard that you have not used yet? Well your card has a very good chance of expiring December 31st 2008, so you better use it now or kiss it goodbye! I had a $50 one from SDCC that I used to buy a kick ass book I wanted, which ended up being free with my card! Here’s what you need to do with your giftcard(s) if you have one:

Go to the main Giftcard Page on the sideshow site by clicking HERE.

From here you can check your code to see how much it’s worth, if it’s still valid, and when it expires. Then along the right side you can see the full list of all the items you can use your giftcard on, so it’s easy to see what qualifies and what doesn’t. Just be careful because I noticed a few items are actually sold out… I ended up buying a copy of the book “Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop” with my gift card that expires in a coupe of days.

So that’s it gang, be sure to use your giftcards if they are about to expire and a huge thanks again to Matt for sending me the heads up on the HT Predator 1 pics!

Dan