[mandoman]

I've looked these up on here, and it seems to be hit or miss (mostly miss...) on the quality with these.

The one's I'm interested in hearing about are the R2-D2 and C-3PO Screamin' kits. I'd really like to get these to display with other 1/6 figures, but there seems to be some inconsistency. While one Ebay auction might list their 3PO kit as being 11" (sounds about right in scale), another, which uses almost the exact same picture, lists it as being 7-8".

Now, last time I checked a ruler, there was a sizable difference between these two metric values. Can anyone shed some much-needed light on who might be selling the best recasted kit (yeah, I know, it's like choosing between turds) or should I just completely skip over these?

 

[rogerbee]

These guys are pretty good:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Cyber-Model-Shop_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d999QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Admittedly I didn't see R2 or Threepio on there, but, if they do get any their quality looks better than any others you're likely to see. A lot of the others look like they may be way too small. Phantom and Elfin did very good recasts of all the Kaiyodo SW figures but I haven't seen many of theirs around recently.

Hope this helps

CHEERS!

 

[Double Dare]

Mandoman,

All vinyl recasts are crap. The reason for the huge discrepancy that you've seen regarding dimensions is the fact that vinyl shrinks as it cures. If the shrinking wasn't factored into the original sculpture, then you can be sure to have terrible distortions in the final product as well. The original prototype sculptures were sculpted at 1/6th scale which resulted in somewhat smaller vinyl figures. The even smaller figures you mentioned were very likely recast from the latter.
I have all of the droids and armored figures from Kaiyodo and they are largely very good. I'm fortunate enough to also have an original resin artist's proof of Kaiyodo's Stormtrooper and when compared to the vinyl release, the shrinkage becomes most apparent (the final product looks so skinny when compared to the more robust resin copy).
Since original Kaiyodos are somewhat tricky to find these days, I'd suggest you look into the C3PO and R2D2 vinyl figure set from Kotobukiya. They are supposed to be 1/7th scale but the scaling is inconsistent throughout the Kotobukiya Star Wars line and you might be able to get away with using them with other 1/6th scale figures (unless you're thinking of using them with the larger-than-1/6th-scale Sideshow figures).

Avoid cheap recasts like the plague. They are of poor quality and adding them to your collection supports what is tantamount to thievery. If you practice some discernment and go for something of genuine and worthwhile value, your collection will be so much better for it.

:rant



I hope this helps. Good luck!

Nick

 

[rogerbee]

I hear, to an extent, what you're saying there Double Dare, but not every one is crap. The kits I used to get were from Phantom, Elfin and others and there was no difference in size between these and the Kaiyodo ones. I had both originals and recasts in my time and the two stood side by side admirably. The ones to avoid like the plague are the Thai ones with @@@@@@@ everywhere.

I also have the artist's proof of Han Solo, he is even bigger than Sideshow's and I think he's slightly bigger than 1/6 so that the vinyl ones shrunk to the right scale.

Basically, the recasts are cheap enough so you could get several from different places and take your pick from what you get.

Vinyl is flexible and can be heated to take care of any warpage that may occur

At the end of the day, Mandoman, it's up to you what you do

CHEERS!