Whenever a manufacturer plans to release a new collectible, producing a prototype is one of the first steps. This serves to coordinate with the licensor and usually also opens the pre-order phase at the same time. Of course, the company assigns its best people to making the prototypes or hires talented and sought-after freelancers for modeling and painting. After the final agreement with the licensor, taking into account any requests for changes, mass production follows based on the prototype. In this process, quality control is an important building block towards the final collectible. The big and well-known players in this game take this very seriously and so the mass product usually comes pretty close to the prototypes.
But there are also disappointments every now and then, where we look at the end result and ask ourselves: How was it possible to just wave this through? Was there no final quality control?
On the other hand, we have also seen final products look even better than the previously shown prototypes, which may be due to improvements made during the process.
Prime 1 Studio and Blitzway keep their promises and can actually say "What you see is what you get." So far we have only been dissatisfied once when the final hairstyle of the Jimi Hendrix 1:6 figure unfortunately did not do justice to the work shown previously.
It is always commendable when manufacturers also show pictures of the final product at the end of production. Two days ago, Blitzway posted 10 prototype-to-final comparison photos of the announced ELLEN RIPLEY »Aliens« 1/4 scale statue, which was made in cooperation with Prime 1, on Facebook. Have a look:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=648124084005901&set=pcb.648124227339220We think they are rightfully proud of their work and the pictures show that they needn't fear this comparison.
The images really make us want to see this fantastic statue of our favorite sci-fi heroine, due for release in the last quarter of the year. Here is the pre-order link:
https://www.space-figuren.de/Movies/Alien/1-4-Scale-Ellen-Ripley-Ultimate-Premium-Masterline-Statue-Bonus-Version-Aliens::23402.html?language=en