Sideshow Collectibles ran their annual Spooktactlar, but did they wow or fail?

Spooktacular

Halloween came and went and I have to say I was actually really excited about the idea of Spooktactlar.  When the <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> email arrived to announce and I clicked the link to their website and saw the countdown clock. I got a lot of questions in my head and maybe got a bit too carried away…

What was <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> going to reveal?

Would <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> finally show a Michael Myers PF?

Would the new Freddy Krueger come up for pre-order?

Maybe we would get to see more of the New Leatherface PF?

Or at least be able to order the new 1/6th ASH figure?

I am not going to look up the exact order of the reveals, but I believe the first was the new Lady Death who was revealed a SDCC2015 and NYCC2015.

She looks great and really fits with the Halloween theme of Spooktacular. So it kept the hope alive inside me that some great horror pieces were going to pop up throughout the next few days.

Ok so not really horror, well not horror at all, but I could forgive <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> for releasing their Loki PF. He’s an evil villain so I gave them some leeway on this one.

Only thing that did let it down was the fact there is not EX which the figure’s hand is perfectly posed to hold the cube. Guess Sideshow has saved me a few $ here as I can just order him from a UK store and skip the tax bill.

The 1/6 Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead looks really great and if you are a collector of these kinds of pieces I think it would fit in great to any collection.

So here is another horror piece and still sticking to the theme of the campaign. <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> announced it’s latest in their line of The Court of The Dead art prints

Here is the moment I confess that I have never seen a Harry Potter movie even though Geo and my girlfriend have both tried to get me to watch them. It is not that i would not like them as I most likely would, but I just know if I watch one I have to watch them all if I like them of not… and that is a lot of time to invest.

Anyway here is the <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> 1/6 Severus Snape. Still I will let them have this one as I am as knowledgeable as Jon Snow and I know nothing of the character.

Totally unrelated to Halloween or Spooktacular!!

Here are the pieces that I feel <a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> should have released at other points of time as they have nothing to do with the event. I will not go into details for them all and I may have missed one or two, but if you click on the titles of link you will be directed to the<a class=”affiliatestyle” href=”https://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Tracker.aspx?aid=3652&href=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sideshowtoy.com%2f” target=”_blank”>Sideshow Collectibles</a> page for them.

All I will say is that I am a huge Stan Lee fanboy and I would buy a ¼ scale statue if they released one, but as it is likely they will not in the near future I am actually really tempted to make this my first Hot Toy purchase.

Star Wars

I really do not understand who works on the publicity for Sideshow. First of all they seem to tell us only a few days before that a pre-order will go live. Even PCS put out an email newsletter and give you a few weeks notice to prepare yourself.

Then February/March/November 2015 all had a Friday 13th would this not make perfect sense to use one of these to use and put the new Jason up for pre-order? Or worse case delay it till during Spooktackular? No lets miss an opportunity and release him on a random day in the summer.

Then Sideshow release their Sideshow Return to Horror article (Click link to see the latest on the new Freddy Krueger and Leatherface PF), but they don’t wait a few weeks to show this till Spooktackular.

Sideshow also have their ever growing The Court of The Dead line and they could easily have had one of these ready for pre-order or have another preview to show off, but they missed out on this too.

I think the the two biggest missed opportunities were.

I feel everyone thought that on Halloween Sideshow would put Freddy up for pre-order and this event was the most perfect build up to receive maximum orders, even people who would not have normally ordered may have got caught up in the moment.

Sideshow should have got in touch with STARS and run sum publicity and not only jump on the Halloween/Spooktackular Bandwagon, but to also jump on to the release and premiere of the Ash Vs The Evil Dead tv series.

Sideshow ran their Promo codes and I believe if you were super fast you could score $60 in points. I think I managed $35 and Geo got about $20. Both of us were not so fast.

Also the usual trick ran of offering deals of the products Sideshow cannot seem to sell. Like $100 of the Regular Engineer Premium format and I am sure a guest appearance of the Man of Steel Premium format was made at some point.

But all in all I have to say I was pretty disappointed by the whole experience and feel Sideshow have the products and the tools to make the event a lot better. I feel most of this was just down to the timing of some of their articles and releases. I hope Sideshow learnt from this and do better next year.