The Statue Hobby is DYING! Let's Talk About WHY

Agree 💯 I just collect the statues I really love now. Like the MOTU line.

You know me I used to collect XM preordered through you. I got out of the statue collecting almost 3 years ago. Prices got out of hand no more space. Im only collecting hot toys and action figures now.

It's sad and also frustrating because the advancements in technology are supposed to make manufacturing and distribution cheaper so stuff like this should be getting cheaper as well. But between inflation, tax and just cooperate greed its going the other way somehow 😢

Prices of pieces are insane, cost of living is constantly rising and quite honeslty they're a waste of money.

If you can get a 3D printer and dont mind learning to paint. You can have your own statues for much cheaper. I was looking at a few. 1800 us dollars just for the one i was looking at. Crazy

And here I thought Bidenomics was real

During this Christmas weta Sale I bought the 7 Classic series 1/6 and paid 920 euros in shipping and taxes to Malta EU :(

I feel like it comes in waves - the aftermarket has certainly slowed down with much of the economy running through a recession of greater unpredictability in the inflated cost of living and yet stagnate wages not aligning with such costs in many cities

It's too expensive now.

I only have a couple that are sentimental to me got rid of the rest I'm out now

Statue? Like an actual statue? Made from stone? $1000 is a huge deal for a lifesize stone statue. Am i missing something?

I almost bought my first terminator and first ever statue from sideshow made by DSC. It was the T-800 on his motorcycle and the description said it came with a signed COA by Arnold Schwarzenegger so I was psyched. I was at my buddies house about to buy it and he asked me if I ever watched a review on it and realized I hadn’t so him and I looked one up that night. We were watching the review and come to find out that half the reason I was going to buy the statue, the signed coa, was not hand signed it was a printed on signature. Sideshow even advertises it still with the description “signed by the terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Statue collecting never made sense

Sigh. I fell down the rabbit hole on statues a couple of months ago and no regrets. My Mezco Conan came from England today and he's amazing. I just have purchased the ones I like. I have several Doctor Strange statues, a Moon Knight, Bruce Lee, GI JOE Baroness, Red Sonja and just ordered a Solomon Kane statue. The most I have spent on a statue is 400 for my prized Conan. Once my Mezco Solomon Kane gets here I'm probably done though. I just like the small statues. They look nice, are cheaper and are easy to display. I just put the boxes in the garage.

Have 200 orders on Sideshow through the years and stacking reward points by doing that. Never used them, which was very stupid. Stopped buying statues and one day noticed that Sideshow had removed all my points. The value of the points was 1933 dollars (38677 points). When they did that i felt ripped off and find it harder picking up the interest of collecting again.

Peoples credit card bills caught up to them.

I can’t justify spending that much for something that’s going to just sit on a shelf collecting dust, and ultimately means nothing to anyone but me, and will eventually just become part of the background for me too.

There’s been plenty of times where I’ve seen a cool looking Godzilla statue in comic/geek shops, and then immediately said “nope” as soon as I saw the price tag. For the price that some of these statues/figures go for, I could go get a couple more of those Arcade 1up cabs for my home arcade. You can at least play those, and people can have fun with those when they come by.

No. Cash!

Speaking for me never got into collecting statues I'm more of a comic book collector of back issues and vintage figurines have to stop on both sides especially wit the figures it's just to expensive to keep up wit especially trying to collect vintage 80s and 90s g.i Joe's the prices got way to much for me to keep up wit. Then I got the chance in organizing my bedroom and closet for space to find out I borderline have no more lol. I got my last bit of orders I placed on ebay for the marvel handbooks the master edition ones coming in and some I got on my saves list then I'm completely out the collecting game. Not sure when imma come back.

I had to slow down. Would constantly have several on order. But I couldn't keep up when the cost of living went up. So I'm selective on what I pre-order from major companies like P1 and Sideshow. But I have started ordering from 3rd party companies that are making fire statues for a faction of the cost. They look just as good as officially licensed stuff.

F Sideshow Collectibles...overpriced

Every market goes up and down, it's always been like that. Dying is terminal.

Man, I'd love to get the legendary beast hulk, but I have zero space for it.

Spot on video Gem!

I’ve definitely been out the game for years now. Crazy thing is all my statues are still in there original shipping box. Took Zod from Berserk out the box to check him out then back in. Dr. Doom with the cloth cape & original Senestro. The rest never seen the light of day & there’s like 8 of them are still in boxes. Need to update my facebook I’ll find you there Gem

Because it was always dumb

In fact I’m waiting on 2 hulk pieces and then I’m taking a break. I just bought the blade statue and it cost me almost 2000.00. Your point about resale is true. I went to a guys house because he was selling me statues that he made on his 3D printer. He showed me this hulk statue that he got from side show. It was the first gladiator hulk statue with the big shield. Easily this statue was 1500.00, it is massive. He sold it to me for 300.00, I could not pass it up.

I’m so happy you made this video. I also have a problem with the order always being delayed and only thing they do to compensate you is send you an email saying that the order has been delayed.

Beside the cost and storage/display problemas they are kinda boring, yeah they have many cool details, but compared for example with action figures, the later hobbie is way more afordable , here in my country many people prefer a.f. because of the reasons mentioned, I even sell some items of my collection just because there is an "update", not realy for need.

Ahm bcos people r starting to save money for humanoid robot chicks? 🤣😂

Buying statues is a Hobby..?

I have been collecting staues for about five years now, the most I've ever paid three thousand dollars. That being said, in my opinion cost is the reason most people don't get into collecting statues. Most people I know buy the pvc ones you get from Gamestop, they complain about paying one hundred dollars lol. You like myself know its a very expensive hobby, I'm afraid to actually add up how much money I've spent just on sideshow collectible statues and comic omnibus. I keep telling myself okay after this one I'm done and next thing ya know I get a email saying pre-ordered this one and we are only releasing 300, I'm afraid to miss out so I have to order it. But back to my original reason for commenting, most people just cant afford to drop that much money for a statue. I know most people would love to own at least one but they either can't afford one or can't justify spending that much for a statue. I'm single and live alone and have no debt, lol so thats my justification. My issue is running out of room, I've got all my spare rooms looking like a action figures/statue/comic museum. I've boxed up a few, my Halo ones and Gears of War ones and Conan and Red Sonja and Vampirella ones stay on display all the time. I've been trying to figure out where I'm going to display the new Red Sonja one that comes out next year, the new Hellboy one as well.

I also think another factor is lack of interest. I've not been part of a community trading things around and that but I've seen the statue collectors as a bit of a bubble

Many of the statues like the ones seen on the channel end up being bought and sold by a few of the same people, if you go far enough into the past one of these collector channels could be reviewing a piece sold by another collector's channel

With some pieces going up in value when the production run is over and the fact that many collectors are just selling to buy something else they want its understandable why some just want to save money losing interest in pretty much just trading pieces between each other

I just started and purchased about 7 (mostly 1/4 over about three months. They fill my game room very quickly! I’ll probably get one more Batman (Hush Cave) and the Shredder I preordered. After that I’ll take a break unless a great deal or RARE statue pops up. I wouldn’t mind having Serpentor and Onslaught. There just so BIG! I enjoy looking at the characters I grew up with in comics and television. Money isn’t too much a factor. I’m blessed with a good job with no kids or wife. I still manage cause I’m no millionaire! I’m the type that believes I only have one life! If I try to stay out of trouble and work fairly well, I’m buying what I want! I’m not gonna to allow
economic issues slay me. I’ll make better decisions.

i wanted to get the resident evil 2 claire figure from damtoys and from prime 1. no way am i paying 2k for a full model

Yeah, it's crazy that the action figure market is aimed at "blue collar" collectors and sci-fi movie fans (mostly), but in 2023, you have to be independently wealthy to build a decent collection. Makes no sense and the hobby will shrink to a few wealthy collectors if it keeps going in that direction. It's almost like $350 for a basic Sideshow statue or Hot Toys figure.

I'm trying to slow down what I buy. I just sold a Ryza statue today. For 2024, I'll only focus on the Fire Emblem and Xenoblade statues. I collect a lot from GoodSmile, F4F, and a few others.

when the statue has a nice pose and price i buy, like the mcfarlane the batman statue

I am a second hand collector, that doesn't help the studios much, other than the re sellers buying more statues from them. One of my Ebay statues came straight from Sideshow, but the rest were private seller. I end up drooping that statue the following week. It was the MK larger Shao Kahn 1/4 scale. it even broke in half. I was able to fix most of it, but I killed the value.

I’ve definitely cut down. I only have one PO at the moment (Prime1 T-800 1/3) with no plans for anything els for a bit.

My last statue was the The Joker premium format ( Heath Ledger) years ago. It was 550. I dont pay 700 - 1000 for a statue. I could but it feels not right.

I would be okay with the price if what you get would actually match the price tag 🏷️

I quite way back in 2012. I started collecting figures like Mafex, Sh figuarts, Amazing yamaguchi, NECA and Super 7 figures. Statues are too expensive and take up too much space.

In my life as a collector I have only bought two Prime 1 and xm I paid in 10 installments, I have lots of other parts but unfortunately a lot in the boxes due to lack of space, and some not at home, because I'm looking for a bigger apartment, but in france with the rotten state that governs our housing and rent prices, salaries which do not increase much, it is chaos.
For my part in any case the prime 1 and xm prices are over, or second hand, regarding sideshow the prices remain affordable but for a regular in france, otherwise with the shipping costs and French tax it's horror, in addition many collectors resell their statues at a losswhatever the brand, on french networks, I saw the Hulk Queen studio on its throne at least 50% of its price or even more for the regular imagine that, I also have a shop where I resell some of my pieces, I lose money but I manage to recover most of the amount, excepton Bowen design for example which lost a lot, because it is mainly the fans from the first hour at the beginning of its history who buy, so I lose 50% of the price.
In short, inflation is intended, it did not come by chance, in your country, in my country in france or elsewhere, the aim being to destroy people's means, their lives, their leisure activities, the simple fact of living, of making oneself pleasure, then I recognize the wise side also of expenses, being reasonable,even if for my part I am not an example 😂😅, but as long as a major cleaning is not carried out I understand myself when I say that, it will continue like this and even worse and worse I see it just in France.

I refuse to pay the prices these companies are now asking..... When I do buy statues I use a 0% interest credit card for 24 months and pay them off abit each month.
I've just pulled the Trigger on a Custom Spawn statue from Dan DynamicMenace which was 1195USD and shipping on top of that but it's size and quality is amazing it'll be the last one I buy I reckon for a while. Maybe if the OG Hulk pops up for a good price I might grab it haha
But in all Honesty the prices are now rediculous and I've actually Toyed with the idea of getting a 3D printer and trying going down that road. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤔😎

Yeah, I'm still paying interest on the berserk statue, so now that is my first big statue and going to be last till I have more space and money

Yeah, I'm still paying interest on the berserk statue, so now that is my first big statue and going to be last till I have more space and money

I stopped when everything was just Marvel & DC... Boring.