Guess I will raise my hand as one of the "idiots, whiners, or jealous people" that have some reservations about your reviews. I am not saying they are not helpful or appreciated, quite the contrary. However, I have seen more than a few figures where the sculpting has been questionable, the proportions and anatomy off, or the casting rough to say the least, and these things are a bit glossed over with statements such as "is to be expected", "best figure yet from this manufacturer", or there was not mention of it at all. Now I realize I can look at the pictures and make a decision for myself if the figure looks more simian than human, or if the details are carved with the finesse of an Aztec stone carving, but to me, to recommend such figures without any hint of hesitation or qualification makes no sense. I know it takes time and is labor intensive to do a review, but if the result is always going to be "recommended" or "highly recommended", why even bother writing anything, why not just post the pics? I frequently wonder just what the criteria would be to not recommend a kit, or just how bad it would have to be to not recommend it, because I own some of the figures that have been reviewed here that were recommended, and I can only say I wouldn't recommend them, at least not without a lot of reservations. One person even posted that if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything, which I responded by saying how does that help anyone? Critiquing and criticizing are two different things, but I get the feeling that many people can't differentiate between the two, and to fairly critique a figure is viewed as the same as criticizing the person that produced it. Now I just glance at the pictures in your reviews, knowing I don't really need to read the conclusion because I know its going to be recommended. As an example of what I consider the most useful of reviews, Terry Ashley at Perth Military Modeling does reviews of armored vehicle kits, which are in depth and informative, and his conclusions on the accuracy, quality and recommendations whether to buy a kit are pretty much industry standard. In fact, he took Dragon to task so often for the mistakes they continued to make, they set up a blog to harass and belittle his conclusions. He may not be able to do so many reviews, but the ones he does are pretty much look at as gospel.
Now I await the usual "how many reviews have you done" commentary, which my answer is exactly 2. I have been doing figures for 20+ years, and have probably several hundred tucked away here and there, all that I have bought.Just my 2 cents.
Cheers
Jason
