Statue Spotlight: 12 Days of Sideshow

Every holiday season, from December 25 to January 5, Sideshow Collectibles holds its "12 Days of Sideshow" event, where the company reveals one new (sometimes more) collectible that they plan to release in the future. Typically, this event is marred with either excitement or outrage pertaining to the revealed collectibles. However, I found this year to feel very unique, in that many of my reactions, and those of others, had less to do with the individual reveals and more to do with the overall feel of the event and about Sideshow Collectibles as a whole. Before diving into the real substance about this year's event, a quick take on Sideshow's reveals from each day of the event.

Day 1: Phoenix and Jean Grey Maquette

On the first day of reveals, Sideshow gave to me...a concept that accentuates both the best and worst of the company's abilities. A logical and sound concept, I think the company had a great idea in this statue that represents the transformation of disciplined Jean Grey as she is taken over by the chaotic Phoenix Force. The poses are good and the Jean Grey portion actually looks to be better sculpted than Sideshow's recent 1:4 version. However, all the talent seemed to stop there, as the Phoenix appears to have a much blander sculpt, with a lot of unecessary musculature, and does not capture enough intricacies in detail to feel cohesive to the diorama as a whole.

Day 2: Mer-Man Maquette

I grew up after the heyday of the "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe," so the subject matter did not capture my interest. However, the details in the sculpt, especially the texturing in the golden armor and the scales on Mer-Man, look incredible for a 1:5 scale statue. Tweeterhead continues to carve out its niche in the 1:5 scale market with little/no competition and, yet, their concepts and technique appear to continuously improve. I do not know if this is a popular character or not, but what I can see is the creative team for Tweeterhead have put in a lot effort into capturing an impressive piece of art that can compete with the details of much larger statues.

Day 3: Alex Ross Evolution Fine Art Lithograph

I will be the first to admit that Sideshow using the "12 Days" event for something as mundane as an art print seems wasteful. Sideshow is not a statue company, but a collectibles company, and that includes mediums such as art. Regardless of my personal feelings and bias towards statues, it seems insulting that today's reveal was a lithograph for art that has already been released. Ross' "Evolution" has been available in canvas and, albeit sold out on many sites, feels like a cheap "new" reveal.

Day 4: Darth Vader Mythos Statue

Following Sideshow's release of a second wave of Star Wars Mythos statues (i.e. Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, Assaj Ventress, General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker), their uniquely interpreted statue line has circled back to re-interpreting the franchise's most famous Sith Lord: Darth Vader. The original Darth Vader Mythos statue is one of Sideshow's most decorated pieces, so this interpretation with its anime-esque cape and tattered costume has large shoes to fill. It is very cool looking, but comes off as almost too stylized to represent the character and is more fitting as a variant and secondary Vader statue. As casual as a Star Wars fan as anyone else, I think this is a cool statue, but is unfortunately, just another remake of a popularly made character.

Day 5: WandaVision Fine Art Print

The fifth day of the event and already the company's second art print, this was a real downer of a reveal. Sure, capitalize on the popularity of the series (even though they are a year late), but I just did not think this warranted a coveted reveal day. Most of Sideshow's art prints just kind of show up on the site with very little publicity behind their releases, so why try to start now?

Day 6: He-Man and Battle Cat Deluxe Maquette

Similar to the Alex Ross lithograph, this Maquette also feels like a very cheap "reveal". First of all, it is just a colored art concept for the statue and not the actual sculpt. Secondly, pictures of the statue had already been circulated, though not in color, from a previous convention. So this was already known to be in development, had an unpainted prototype already revealed, and showed no actual statue. So what exactly were they revealing here?

Day 7: Iron Man Fine Art Print

Another art print really makes it feel like Sideshow does not have much planned to come down the pipeline. We have plenty of Iron Man everythings. This was an utter bore.

Day 8: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Premium Format Figure

Ever since he sculpted the recent Batman Bust for Sideshow, the clamoring for Daniel Bel to sculpt a full Batman statue has been greatly apparent. It may not be the version many wanted, but a Daniel Bel Batman is officially in existence and, man, even I have to admit that it looks impressive. Fully sculpted, tattered cape with a textured suit, bloody rips, and griseled expression, this is a fantastic interpretation of the comic art. The lightning bolt, on the other hand, takes this highly detailed rendition and succumbs it to feeling like a plastic toy. Just because it is in the comic, does not make it a good idea.

Day 9: Zatanna: Mistress of Magic Fine Art Print

At this point, need I say more? This art print and its variant are really nice, but again, it does not warrant this much spotlight.

Day 10: Thor Premium Format Figure

Assuming this is sculpted by Martin Canale, the man sure does love his big beefy boys. There is nothing inherently wrong with this new classic Thor statue, but there is nothing very great or exciting about it either. Sideshow appears to be in a time loop, where they get to a point of taking a step forward in their statue design or sculpting then, boom, they revert back to a 2008 company, which is when they last revealed a classic Thor Premium Format Figure. The difference between this one and that one does not capture over 10 years of artistic advancement. I almost found myself more excited for the art prints.

Day 11: Optimus Prime Designer Collectible Toy

You know what, it is not an art print and its pretty different, so I will take it. I have not particularly cared for the stylized toys that Unruly Industries makes, but there has to be an audience out there for them or they would not keep getting released.

Day 12: The Witcher Statues

I am not surprised that it took Sideshow two years to reveal statues from their highly anticipated "The Witcher" line since they first announced the license. What I am surprised by is that the wait resulted in 1:5 scale statues and not the popular 1:4 scale size. I have seen a bit of negative reaction to the statues, particularly in poor likenesses and plain designs. I am not well-versed in the world or characters, so I can only go by what I see. Eredin looks pretty cool and I like the whole look of Yennefer's pose and costume. Geralt seems like its modeled after the Deathstroke Premium Format Figure that Sideshow released in 2018 and it was a boring pose back then. It would be sad if these do not capture the attention of "Witcher" fans enough to take off, because I can see that killing any line that Sideshow might be planning.

Again, the thoughts about the individual reveals are not as important as the ideas surrounding the bigger picture of this event. It did not seem as though 2021's "12 Days" event carried any amount of buzz with it and that could be due to a number of fact of factors, but from my perspective, I think Sideshow Collectibles has lost a lot of any prestige it once had. The company just feels boring. Most of the statues maintain the same level of intricacy and concept from pieces the company was putting out ten years ago. Sure, there is a diamond in the rough every now and then, but not enough to ever build good momentum. There is also the concerns about Sideshow's factories resulting in poor production pieces, from paint to overall quality. I do think that collectors, including myself, have maintained some lofty ideas about the type of company that Sideshow Collectibles is. They just do not compete as a premium collectible company, but rather fill the position of producing the everyman's collectible: simple, cheap, and highly produced popular characters.

"12 Days" had me seriously considering whether Sideshow even cares about producing their own statues anymore. I have long expressed my thoughts that Sideshow is more concerned with establishing itself as a statue distributor rathan than a statue producer, and having four art prints as reveals did not help quell that theory. Nothing against art prints, but amongst the communities that purchase from Sideshow, they are not the company's selling point. Nothing felt exciting about these reveals. I know not every year can have the multiple reveals in a single day or a few lesser made characters, but this year brought none of that. This was as boringly cookie-cutter as I think a reveals event could get. That is not to say that Sideshow made no improvements on the event, because they did. There were no pictureless name banners that simply teased that a character was coming. Those were always a high point of contention. Also, the company made sure the reveals were pretty equal in their diversity: one statue from each fandom (Marvel, DC, Star Wars). The problem is, that is really all the company seems to be offering and for an event that is supposed to tease the future, it is looking pretty grim for those who count on Sideshow Collectibles.

---

If you enjoyed this content, please follow Geeky Therapy on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with all posts and reviews.

---