Yes. Not sure if a deal has been reached. But it's being discussed.

So I talked to Stew. The seller is very hesitant to have a cast made because he wants to sell it. The casting Stew uses doesn't damage the head, but I get it. The guy wants to sell so doesn't want to take any risks.

What Stew wants to do then is basically take pre-orders. Pay in advance at $10 each. If Stew reaches the $600 (that's 60 heads) he'll buy the figure. If not, he'll refund anyone who paid in. If he gets the figure, anyone who paid in will get an unpainted cast copy of the head. He'll work on casting the body and armor for later release.

Count me in, is he trying to get both the lex head and the darksied head?

For now I believe it's just Lex. There hasn't been a lot of interest in the Darkseid to be honest. So he's going to get Lex IF enough people chip in up front.

I think people would be willing to do that if they heard this from Stew. Does he ever post here? I seem to recall that he did...

He does occasionally post here, but not often. He specifically asked me to post it here for him as he's at work and can't get on. I should have done it up front, but I neglected to do so. Here's Stew's Paypal ID for those who are interested.

stew@dchallofjustice.com

Anyone who's interested can contact Stew either here, at CJ, or at the email address above.

Tex....

...I am going to pm you. And I never said you were a con artist.

Man I just want to buy the Lex figure Armor and all (as is, lol) but if only I had 600 bucks to spare. Though Stew does an incredible job... I don't really want cast's, but it is cool that he is doing this for everyone, +1 for him


D.

So apparently, there aren't many JLU toy fans here who aren't also on the Custom Justice boards, but just to be safe, here's what the seller of the prototypes wrote up on the Matty boards regarding Stew and potentially casting Lex:

There has been a great deal of requests coming in to allow Stew to "Cast" the Lex & Darkseid, so customizers can have their own versions.

I wanted to officially inform the JLU community that I will NOT allow this as this greatly cheapens the original value of these one of a kind prototypes and awesome tooling.

It lessens interest in wanting to obtain the originals, because people will just buy a $20 to $25 caste copy of a head, etc. and make their own (Example: JLU Hal Jordan) Toylines NEED to have have hard-to-find, ultra rare figures & prototypes. It's part of every great toyline and it actually helps keep people interested in collecting a toyline.

Also, there is potential damage that could happen to the figure during casting. These are two very one of a kind, official Mattel protos, and bottom line two truly unique items. (Even if it does not represent the new 2013 line) These are rare parts of history of a great & long running toyline.

The best I can do is offer the Prototypes at 600.00 each or 1000.00 buy it now. If they don't sell for the lower prices, I will just keep these beauties as part of my personal collection. I hope the community understands.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: u84l582, June 13, 2012 06:07 PM

http://forums.mattycollector.com/eve/fo ... 004257/p/5

I can understand him having concerns, but since Stew was already putting together a possible community plan to have us each invest a bit of $$$ into buying the prototype so it could be cast, I feel like his reply was rather poorly timed and worded. He's essentially dissing Stew's work as a customizer, and ignoring the fact that Stew already said the piece wouldn't be damaged. The attitude comes off also as though he'd rather we didn't get the item to share with as many people as possible. What does he care who buys it?

It's a shame that he doesn't see these for what they are - two rare items in a line that has already produced multiple versions of both characters, and is now officially, finally ending. They aren't some holy grail of a find, but he's hyping them up to a crowd that knows better. Which just rubs everyone the wrong way, doesn't it?

That said...while plans are now underway at CJ to hold a contest to see which customizer can make the best Lex head...I still wish we were getting this one. I seriously love the sculpt, and feel badly that it won't eventually be shared among the fans.

Thanks to Stew (and Tex) for trying to rally the community together. A shame this one isn't going to make it out there.

Translation: "I don't want casts made of what I have to sell because then no one will want to buy what I have to sell. Also some BS about rare stuff being good for the hobby. If you want these, pony up the cash!"

I dunno. These were basically first drafts of the figures we already have that didn't turn out that different in their final form. I would rather send the money to Casmir, Stew, or one of the other great customizers out there to purposely sculpt a better head than either one of those Lex heads. Would you pay $600 - $1,000 for the gold painted Dr. Fate prototype?

Now if there was a Savage Time Batman prototype or something floating out there, I would totally understand paying $1,000 for that. Sorry Mr. Ebay seller, you overpaid for those things.

I think what bugged me most was "I will not allow this!" and "Toylines NEED to have have hard-to-find, ultra rare figures & prototypes. It's part of every great toyline and it actually helps keep people interested in collecting a toyline."

Dude....you are not the king of everything, and secondly...that doesn't make any sense.

But I'm going to go ahead and assume he's a young guy, over-enthusiastic but basically nice and a little bummed his treasure isn't going to land him a 500 buck payday....instead of some JLU fan who is old enough to know better but has no communications skills.

You you would, please PM me!!! I could easily make that happen lol

On a totally unrelated note



LINK

I don't see what the big deal is. This guy bought the prototypes and can do whatever he wants with them. He doesn't owe any of us anything. I can also understand his concerns about the pieces possibly being damaged and maybe even a loss in value (whatever it actually is) of the originals once copies are made. Yeah they are nice sculpts and yeah he could be a nice guy and let Stew cast them but it doesn't look like it will happen. His prerogative. The only thing I agree on is that his statement about a line needing rare items to thrive is a little ridiculous. I get where he was coming from but I've heard of too many people dropping lines because some items were too hard to find.