Hey Frank,
I’m always up for more Heston, and it looks like Will posted the Taylor sculpt he did for me, with perhaps a bit of refinement. I’d be in for one of those for sure.
But, here’s my impressions of how this poll has gone so far, as I’ve been watching the requests over at the other boards:
1. Perhaps it was left a little too open-ended as far as genre or what the artisans are capable of: Will’s a fine sculptor and probably pretty capable of doing just about anything, but modern military (especially to the caliber that that group desires), is not in Amy’s wheel house. Her forte is period outfits for the most part, and I highly doubt she’s going to be able to live up to the exacting standards of the multi-cam crowd, or even be able to do it. Those requests are stupid and ridiculous; and while Will is possibly capable of doing some weapons... again, I don’t see that as being viable, as I know for a fact it’s not really in his comfort zone.
2. If you’re willing to explore other genres besides “Western”, I probably would have been more specific as to which ones. The requests are all over the map, and aside from the small handful of ones you’ve mentioned and shown, seem a little too broad to reach a wide enough audience. Jackie Gleeson from the Honeymooners?! Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman (forgive me, but guys in suits after awhile just becomes two guys in suits). While I know there’s interest, Modern Military, 20th century Military and Contemporary (aside from possibly iconic characters that more people are interested in — like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard) should have been left off the table. Unless you yourself have an interest in those areas, I would have stuck to Western, Sci-Fi, Fantasy (?), and clearly (due to MacReady) Horror (but I would keep it to just him or head sculpts (I saw requests for characters from Alien and Aliens; while cool, again... unrealistic. People seriously need to pull their heads out of their asses and think about the limitations of the people we’re working with; most of that stuff would end up being HS only unless you can find someone to do the outfits and gear, and then the costs would quickly shoot through the roof and out of the realm of where we’ve been thus far. And instead of it being a couple months for each project, we’d be looking at years).
3. I’m not generally a completist, but some of the requests are too limited for me, personally, to get involved: the movie’s called The Magnificent Seven, if all we were going to get is Brynner and McQueen, I honestly wouldn’t waste my time (I’d want all Seven); I’m more than a little pissed QMX dropped the ball on Firefly, and it looks like they might be dropping it on Star Trek TOS. If you’re going to do Antonio Banderas from Desperado, I’m out if we’re not going to get Salma Hayek. Although I love the John Wayne/Eathen figure, it really does look lonely without Natalie Wood to compliment it. The constant sausage fest requests by everyone is a little trying (Michael Douglas from Romancing the Stone, but no Kathleen Turner?! That was in another open-ended poll, not yours), and speaks to the limp-dicked insecurities of the requesters who don’t like to collect “Barbie’s”. Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite Spaghetti Western, but I didn’t get involved in it because I knew there wasn’t going to be a Cheyenne or Jill.
4.These are all just my opinions, and you can agree or disagree, but I think you may have made this open-ended poll more difficult for yourself than it’s worth. I’ve seen requests for things that have already been done by others, or are in the process of being done as we speak, so really, what’s the point? Just looking for a cheaper alternative, I guess, but with the over-expectations that most seem to have, I doubt many would be that satisfied in the long run. I’d pull back and reign this in before it goes much further and the requests continue to get further and further out there. So far, I have zero interest in about 90% of the requests being made, but that’s just me (Robert Redford in The Natural? Some of these folks need to realize that much of this stuff would have to be done on a private commission level, not a group effort). Hell, someone started a Logan’s Run Interest Thread over at the Freaks a few years ago that’s gone nowhere, hence Will and I are planning to do Logan and Jessica just for he and I.
5. Spreading the projects out a little might be a better idea than jumping from one to the next before previous ones are even finished, money gets tight in this hobby, and other things come up (I have private commissions and group commissions from others that I’m involved in, as well), and can’t always jump in right away on the next project. I’m all for a Butch and Sundance, but just couldn’t swing it at the moment that poll came up, and probably can’t now for another year or two, to be honest.
6. If you wanted to do more Western stuff, and that’s fine, I’d start one for female characters (or duos like Cat Bsllou and Kid Shellene), and see where it goes. So far, as I mentioned, it’s been nothing but a sausage fest, and me personally, I can only have so many cowboys on my shelf, before I’d like to see a CowGIRL. I’ve already made several suggestions in that area that may or not go over with the group thing, but it wouldn’t hurt, and it’s something that Amy is quite capable of.
Food for thought or not, it’s your company. You can handle it however you want. As someone who’s been involved with a few of these projects now, I just thought I’d point out my perspective on what I perceive to be some of the problems. I hope you don’t take offense at any of my comments. It’s been a pleasure working with you, and I look forward to doing so again.
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