TheJabbaWookie
Sith Lord
Firstly let me say I'm an admin on one of the Jabba's groups on Facebook. Secondly, I find the rules and regulations laid down by Echo over the top which is why I gravitate towards Jabba's. JP who runs TIG can be hot headed and certainly doesn't mince his words when he's arguing about something he's passionate about. And well there's no two ways about it, the IC and it's founder certainly divide the Star Wars collecting community.
I certainly don't see eye to eye with a lot of them but the anti repro stance that they fight for when it comes to SLC, Stan Solo and TFSB gets my thumbs up every time.
Chris Smith is a crook. He's done time for counterfeit goods in the past. I was on the fringes of Jabba's when those Leia blasters first hit the scene and all the crap Retroblasting put in that video about Chris Smith thinking they were genuine was bullshit.
Yes he was talking to one of the TIG guys but everything about the so-called discovery was setting alarm bells ringing in the community.
It soon became clear that it was a new major player in the repro community and if you think Smithlord Creations were in it for the good of the fans who can't afford originals ask yourself why they were willing to make up a story about having a friend of a son of a former Palitoy worker who discovered a box of blasters, and selling them on as originals at up to £40 a blaster. I bought one of them blasters very early on. They were better than anything we'd seen at the time. If that story was true or if he even thought he was the one conned ask yourself why did he then go in to make reproductions of all the other major blasters and weapons since?
I understand the argument about reproduction for people who haven't got the funds to facilitate the purchase of a 100% original collection and I respect that. But kit them out with the easily identifiable grey or blue weapons from the 90s that sink like a lead balloon. Or clearly mark them to make them easily identifiable. Don't make something so god damn close to the original. There's only one reason to do that and it's to fool the collector.
And here in lies the problem and is the reason that the Retroblasting guy and other pro-repro guys totally miss the point. Even if these reproductions are sold with honourable intentions initially (and here I'm giving a massive **** off benefit of doubt) they end up bought by others intentionally or unintentionally and sold on as genuine at original market prices. It totally ****s over the collector who wants to buy original.
And if you think it's all for the benefit of the hard up collector and not to line their pockets ask yourself why they didn't just stop at reproducing the expensive Blasters like the Leia, palace, Jawa and Endor blaster and why they are now producing exact replicas of loads of the cheapest weapons on the market. I can buy an original for the same price or cheaper then they're selling them.
The biggest travesty is that there's clearly a lot of talent at Stan Solo. A lot of people in my circle of friendship wishe they had just turned their hands to customisation. They started off with Han Stormtrooper. Why didn't they concentrate on producing other desirable unproduced figures from the OT like Tarkin, Rebel Fleet Trooper... instead of producing reproductions of the last 17 and Blue Snag?
I certainly don't see eye to eye with a lot of them but the anti repro stance that they fight for when it comes to SLC, Stan Solo and TFSB gets my thumbs up every time.
Chris Smith is a crook. He's done time for counterfeit goods in the past. I was on the fringes of Jabba's when those Leia blasters first hit the scene and all the crap Retroblasting put in that video about Chris Smith thinking they were genuine was bullshit.
Yes he was talking to one of the TIG guys but everything about the so-called discovery was setting alarm bells ringing in the community.
It soon became clear that it was a new major player in the repro community and if you think Smithlord Creations were in it for the good of the fans who can't afford originals ask yourself why they were willing to make up a story about having a friend of a son of a former Palitoy worker who discovered a box of blasters, and selling them on as originals at up to £40 a blaster. I bought one of them blasters very early on. They were better than anything we'd seen at the time. If that story was true or if he even thought he was the one conned ask yourself why did he then go in to make reproductions of all the other major blasters and weapons since?
I understand the argument about reproduction for people who haven't got the funds to facilitate the purchase of a 100% original collection and I respect that. But kit them out with the easily identifiable grey or blue weapons from the 90s that sink like a lead balloon. Or clearly mark them to make them easily identifiable. Don't make something so god damn close to the original. There's only one reason to do that and it's to fool the collector.
And here in lies the problem and is the reason that the Retroblasting guy and other pro-repro guys totally miss the point. Even if these reproductions are sold with honourable intentions initially (and here I'm giving a massive **** off benefit of doubt) they end up bought by others intentionally or unintentionally and sold on as genuine at original market prices. It totally ****s over the collector who wants to buy original.
And if you think it's all for the benefit of the hard up collector and not to line their pockets ask yourself why they didn't just stop at reproducing the expensive Blasters like the Leia, palace, Jawa and Endor blaster and why they are now producing exact replicas of loads of the cheapest weapons on the market. I can buy an original for the same price or cheaper then they're selling them.
The biggest travesty is that there's clearly a lot of talent at Stan Solo. A lot of people in my circle of friendship wishe they had just turned their hands to customisation. They started off with Han Stormtrooper. Why didn't they concentrate on producing other desirable unproduced figures from the OT like Tarkin, Rebel Fleet Trooper... instead of producing reproductions of the last 17 and Blue Snag?