[Trivial Psychic]

The dot-matrix/face printing thing was something that I mentioned in my two post review of the entire wave that I'm sure nobody read. I initially started to suspect they were doing this as far back as the Space Venom wave, as the eyes on some of my figures (Silk in particular) looked a little fuzzy, but upon looking at this Mantis wave, I can say with confidence that they are.

It does not however look like they are printing faces on every figure upon closer examination, and for the most part, it seems as if it's reserved mostly for the MCU stuff. Ex Nihilo, Adam Warlock, and Death's Head all have a classic painted look to them, where as Rocket, Gamora, and Nebula, look as if they have been run through a printing machine of some sorts. Rocket's is very noticeable when you get closer if you look at the snout, as you'll begin to notice a grid, and in the case of Gamora, her face gets fuzzier as you bring it closer to the naked eye. In both cases, I struggle to see the finer details in the eyes such as the iris and pupils. Nebula is a little better since she has neither, and this is the figure the process seemed to work best on.

Not all of the MCU figures are being screened though either. I can also say with confidence that the new Star-Lord (Mantis wave) as well as Mantis herself look to have traditionally painted faces. My guess is that they are only doing this process on figures that have more complicated details, such as tattoos and fur patterns, where neither of those figures have that (especially Mantis, who had a doll like look to her, both in the movie and in action figure form.)

I know this process is a controversial one, as I have heard people from both the FigureArts and DC Icons community cry out both in favor and against it, but if it prevents us from having figures that turn out like the first Gamora, I'm okay with a little bit of up close fuzziness. I hope though that this doesn't become the standard practice for EVERYTHING however, as the way the paints came out on their comic figures are just fine for the most part, and have been up to par as some of the best results they have produced to date.

I also think this is part of the evolution of things, and Hasbro is experimenting with this because of other companies, both foreign and domestic, are dipping their toes in it. I'm sure that every time Hasbro puts out an MCU figure (not to mention their Black Series,) they probably are looking at whatever SHFigureArts is doing out of the corner of their eye, while reading through the comments of how this collector or that collector is gonna "just hold out for the Bandai/Mafex/Figma version instead". We can say that this type of stuff goes unheard by Hasbro, but remember that there is a team of sculptors, marketers, and developers that put their hard work making this stuff happen, and I'm sure that NO ARTIST wants to see their work dismissed before it's even had a chance to find it's way into our hands.