I think many of us WERE more than willing to welcome Andrew with open arms... right up until we saw that first "prototype" of his replica helmet and it all went down hill from there. For me at least, that was when the questions really started, and have never stopped. :angry
Well yeah the prospect of having someone involved in production forming new helmets from authentic mold origins was certainly welcomed at first... But as I said, once the stories/claims and product being offered didn't match up, the open arms were short lived and the suspicion of a game of smoke and mirrors was being played was born...
Cant speak for anyone else but personally i'm reluctant to call anyone out and pass judgement without good reason and up until the first court hearing there really wasn't anything to damn him for really.
Plenty clear to me and many he was selling a big fat lie well before the court date... His claim to sculpting the helmet didn't materialize until he decided to counter sue LFL after they sued him... Before that his claims were only to having the original tooling and thus rights to continue to use that tooling, he never claimed to be the sculptor until it was convenient for his lie... The whole still owing the original tooling was his whole argument until the court case was actually in motion, then his story changed and all the sudden he "
... went on to make over 200 characters for the film" because that better fit his new lie...
Prior to that case there was nobody coming forward claiming credit for sculpting the helmet or armour and certainly no credit given to anyone from LFL or evidence showing who did sculpt them.
I don't know how many of the threads are still on the forum, but I know for a fact many (including myself) were claiming someone in the LFL Art department being responsible for the sculpts not AA, we might not have had a name but there certainly was calls to his claims immediately... It was clear to many AA was a hack from just looking at his 'prototype', heck it's still clear to me he is a hack, did you watch his made angle grinder antics and the pile of poop he made? Is anyone foolish enough to believe he created the trooper helmet and armor 30+ years ago and today he can only sculpt poop? Go to his site and look at his Hengstler counter on his new blaster, it looks like a preschooler knocked it together with some scrap popsicle sticks they found on the curb...
The one and only issue i have with him is the stealing of credit from Liz and Brian and nobody knew about that prior to the court case.
Well my contempt goes back further when he clearly recast GF's ab piece (as well as the entire TE suit short of the arm bells) and claimed it as his own from the original molds, it was clear at that point he didn't know Jack, didn't have any molds and was simply out to steal credit from anyone to make a buck... He was quick to do multiple revisions to GF's ab plate to try and hide his clear theft of an inaccurate part that stood out like a sore thumb as GF's work... But only after it was pointed out, watch history repeat itself again as he discovers the embedded boogers in the tear area an his 'original' molds giving them yet another make over like the fetted tumblehome excuse.... You could clearly see AA's grinding marks on the back of his early ab pulls where he attempted to disguise it's origins by taking a grinding wheel to the bucks, total hack job... It was clear to many way back than he was intent on stealing credit from others, well before the court case, that is for anyone that was following along... The court case only enforced, drove home and thankfully put a name to the artist that did the work, emphasizing the fact he was willing to steal credit and legacy form anyone and everyone and lay claim to everything... So for many the court case was hardly the first revelation of this pattern of theft and deception it was only further support and reinforcement of what we already knew or suspected...
