Street Humans

@thebluemarvel I think it would be a mistake to believe I'm giving this any undue amount of attention. These are just preliminary thoughts that jump to my head pretty much immediately, and for me (probably for many of you as well), a response of several paragraphs takes two or three minutes to write. I'm not devoting a whole lot of time or brainpower to any of this.

But that's probably my biggest issue with this; it takes virtually no serious consideration to see the potential problems and weaknesses here. That seems like a big deal. If you have to look really hard to find problems, then that's a pretty solid offering. If the problems seem incredibly obvious and jump out at you within seconds.. well..

At no point did I intend to tell you that you shouldn't be happy with wanting these figures, or putting whatever amount of money toward them. I meant only to give the reasons, as I see them, for why you may find yourself in a minority there and why -I- don't like them. You absolutely should feel good about supporting whatever projects look like something you will like to have. I don't have to like them or think they're a good idea for YOU to like them and think they're a good idea.
And apologies if it seemed at any point like I was judging you for wanting these, rather than just explaining my reasoning.

@theknightdamien No need to apologize, I prefer thoughtful engagement rather than the opposite. And you are right, your opinions don't appear to rise to the level of an unduly invested detractor, I should've crafted my response in a way that didn't imply that or leave room for the inference. Thanks for responding to me in a mature manner that considered what I’d written.

I think one of the fundamental flaws of this Kickstarter is that random background thugs are a hard sell at $28 a pop, but $28 is probably as low as Shartimus can feasibly go without making serious cuts to articulation and accessories, which neuters what appeal they do have. I think in terms of what you get in the box, the value is fairly comparable to a Jada Street Fighter figure, which costs $25. That being said, $28 feels like a steep price for a figure that I think can best be described as utilitarian. A figure of a random bald guy in a wifebeater is not very appealing in and of itself, but rather it's appeal lies in the function it fulfills

Using a hypothetical example for a moment, suppose a toy photographer wants to take some photos of a Jada Toys Chun-Li figure fighting off a group of thugs. When they take those photographs, Chun-Li is almost certainly going to be the focal point of every shot. The function Street Humans fulfill is not to be the star of a shot, but rather to fulfill a supporting role, and because of that, $28+shipping feels like too much

Normally wouldn't post a 3POA  video here (or recommend them) but this interview was a disaster for Shartimus:

Looks like BBTS is selling them now?

Posted by: @thewyldman

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Normally wouldn't post a 3POA  video here (or recommend them) but this interview was a disaster for Shartimus:

Jeez. Half an hour of just awkward... I don't know, banter? It feels uncomfortable, like some dudes who have had beef in the past trying not to talk about it (I don't know their history or anything).  And as soon as they get to the figs his connection drops and super chats start coming in flaming him. 

This just feels mean.

@jakeekiss I don't think there's any beef there. I think shartimus just comes off as unprepared. Most of the flame comments were about him doing it from his van in a parking lot.

@thewyldman I suppose it's just the overall tone. 

I think everyone knew before they hit record that he doesn't have the production background of Bobby and is relying on others to deal with that end. He's broadcasting from his car because he came from a show, it's not a great look, but it's not some unforgivable thing. And I'm used to online spaces where chat is moderated such that taking shots isn't as encouraged as it seems here. People making fun of the names, the lore. 

I don't know. It feels like a crowd that knew they wouldn't respect this guy's attempt and invited him on to pants him in public. Like, the kick seems like it's not going to succeed anyway, so why do that? 

First of all for the kickstarter - definitely not for me.   When it was first pitched I thought maybe... but then with the overall size of the figures  and the final look,  not my bag and not worth the price for what amount to background noise for a display.

As for that interview -  I couldn't take that pod seriously because it seems Bobby Vala is a regular or a host and I can't stand that dude.   But I'm not a huge fan of Shartimus either.   So that show was certainly not my thing.

Posted by: @panthercult

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First of all for the kickstarter - definitely not for me.   When it was first pitched I thought maybe... but then with the overall size of the figures  and the final look,  not my bag and not worth the price for what amount to background noise for a display.

 

As for that interview -  I couldn't take that pod seriously because it seems Bobby Vala is a regular or a host and I can't stand that dude.   But I'm not a huge fan of Shartimus either.   So that show was certainly not my thing.

Yeah I'm not a fan of that show either for the same reasons. I also don't really care for SP, but more just because he's not my cup of tea, not because I think he's a bad dude or anything. Certainly don't think he deserves to be clowned on by toxic fanboys for making a go at a figure line of his own.

Wow. That was a real shitshow. And I'll admit it; I listened to the entire thing while doing some toy organizing stuff I've been putting off. When the most rational, reasoned stuff is coming from Robert Vala, there's a fuckin' problem. Not to say Vala never said anything dumb ("I made 98% good decisions..." - lol). But he was consistently making good, reasoned arguments and asking relevant questions. I may think the guy is trash, but I'm gonna always call it like I see it.

Russ came off as very enthusiastic and probably more likeable than he EVER has in anything I've seen. But he also came off as very nervous and incredibly clueless about the actual production of his own toys. A lot of his answers to specific questions were terrible. Frankly, he comes off as a guy that just wants to make his own toys, and hasn't thought it through further than 'I want to make toys.'
I'm sure he went on that mess to drum up extra support because his campaign is dead in the water. I came away thinking this may have done the opposite of that. I know that if I were waffling in interest, or even just interested enough to have pledged for one figure - I probably would be backing out after that 'interview.'

Further, his final answer to how he can assure people that he will actually deliver something decent and on time was... that he sells fucking t-shirts to his fans and has like.. an eBay account in good standing? What the fuck does that have to do with any of this? I'm sure he meant it to be about general trustworthiness - but that has very little to do with anything. It was a dumb answer from someone very unprepared.

Neckbeard host whose name I don't know was a complete fucking idiot the entire time. From opening the whole thing with terrible jokes (you know it's funny when you have to tell someone 'it's a joke'), to jerking his viewers off by making SURE to read their superchats no matter how inane or potentially insulting to the guest they are. Like, this absolute stain cock-blocked an actually semi-interesting conversation about the state of the toy market at retail to say 'we gotta get to these questions for Russ' and then proceeded to post up some absolutely asinine non-question garbage posted by his dumbass subscribers.

The whole thing was like a slow motion bad joke where Russ was the punchline (like how it ended with both guys on the vidcast admitting they weren't even backers - but totally pinky swear they're gonna do it real soon).

@theknightdamien  Yeah like I said, I normally wouldn't post it or recommend the show, but Shart's answers were just really bad and you know it had to be killing Vala trying not to just go off on him and stay "nice." The interview just kinda emphasizes the main fear about the line and it's that Russ is just unprepared to actually make a toyline. The first kickstarter was rushed and despite obviously learning from the first kickstarter he needed to spend alot more time actually learning about how production actually occurs and stuff.

I don't think any amount of preparation or knowledge is going to change the fact that Shartimus struggles greatly to express himself in a live forum. I'm not shitting on him, or suggesting this makes him a bad guy or anything. But whether it's his livestreams, his interviews, that asinine video he made with Boog and Talkerart recently...he rambles incoherently, has great difficulty staying on topic, and cant identify the logical string in a discussion.

He's okay in the format of his figure reviews, because he's not under pressure and has the ability to edit himself. But he's not a good public speaker or conversationalist, and he's the wrong individual to be a pitchman for anything. He's doing himself and his line a disservice by being the one promoting it.

Whipped up a few AI generated city youth on my lunch break.  Don't mind the spelling, ai doesn't work well with text, also needs to work on articulation cuts.

And AI has finally come to the one forum I was able to avoid it on for the last few months...