Hey everyone,
I pop into these threads from time to time, mostly with factual information about our products, what they are, when they're coming or to answer specific questions when and where I can. I've never gotten involved in arguments, nor do I answer the often harsh criticisms some folks like to level against our company and our products.
I am personally friendly with a small handful of people on this board. We chat occasionally and they hear my views and opinions about some of the projects going on here. I have been asked my opinion about a certain Slave One project many times. Usually the question is related to how I feel about it when it is a subject which eFX plans to release.
My view has always been the same. I can't stop anyone from making and selling their own version, nor do I want to. Scratch building is where I started in modeling myself and it remains a passion for me. There are a huge number of talented and passionate folks here on this board whose work I admire and fortunately eFX been able to recruit some of them to help us. We all share that same passion.
eFX took a license with Lucasfilm and that grants us direct access to the models and photographic library in the archives. As a builder there is only so far you can go to get a shape right from orthographic photographs, even when they exist. Since eFX is lucky enough to scan, measure and photograph the original models (and in the case of Slave One have access to the original wooden plug used to form the body), it gives us a distinct advantage in accuracy and removes a lot of the guesswork from the equation.
Tim Ketzer, a modeler whose work I greatly admire, started building a Slave One many years ago that he was convinced, at the time, was accurate. When he found the shape wasn't as accurate as he at first thought he put it to one side and started over. If Tim had the plug or the scan data from the model he could have saved himself a great deal of guess work. Frank and Moe similarly built incredible replicas of the Falcon, but when they worked on the MR one they learned a lot more about the bird. You can't beat hands on.
Richard and Lee are immensely talented artists. There's no doubting that. I believe your model will reflect the high standard of your abilities and the enormous work they've put into it. I believe people will snatch your version up and love it. I also believe our Slave One will be incredible and worth the wait when we bring it to market. I hope folks will love ours and it'll sell out. Best of both worlds.
With regard to our choice of the TIE Interceptor as our next release... There are other subjects on the way that we haven't told you about yet
. Given the economic climate we carefully selected smaller subjects which people can more readily afford. Slave One was to have been released this year but is a large and expensive model so we moved it out. Since we only tackle models we can reference in the archives Vader's TIE which was also a contender for this year is out on tour and so we were unable to scan. It will be released but ONLY when we can reference it.
As to the subjects we choose THESE are ultimately decided by our customers. We listen to what people want and try to give it to them, if at all possible.
Sorry for the long winded post.
Barry
