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Quote:

Originally Posted by proteus

Those are very valid arguements,especially the deadline/expense ones.The very reason i singled out sithfire's work is because he sculpts EVERYTHING from scratch.He puts together a body from MU/SW/GI Joe parts then dremels off ALL the detail until hes left with a basic blank body,THEN he sculpts onto it.

Surely thats exctly what Hasbro's sculptors do as well??

Partially. But Hasbro's final sculpt then needs to be transferred to a metal mold that's used for mass-production. Some of the finer details of the sculpt can get lost in this process. And the mold has limited space for all parts needed to assemble the figure afterward, so there has to be some compromise with the add-on details/accessories.

Hasbro's budget per-figure can only cover so much, so it's not so much the work put into it, but how much of that work they can afford and still turn a profit at retail. If Hasbro's designers did what some of those customizers did (even at half the effort), I would guess that a typical 3.75" figure would cost closer to what a Hot Toys or Sideshow toy costs now.

A better way to look at it would be to imagine paying SDCC prices for mass retail figures.