Wow, I didn't expect such strong reactions from some of you on the SDCC exclusive. First I'd like to explain the nature of a show exclusive. It is not to make some amazing be all end all figure just because it is an exclusive. The production run for a convention item is 10-20% of the run for a retail item so we are a lot more limited in costs since we sell 80-90% less of the Eleanor/Unmasked Big Sister vs a regular retail figure.
Second doing SDCC is very expensive between the booth space, the travel, hotels, being out of the office for a week, etc so the exclusives help to cover the costs of the show. We look at SDCC as a huge marketing event and selling the exclusive figures covers some of that marketing/advertising cost.
Third we always strive for complete accuracy and authenticity on all of our lines. We developed this item with 2K and with the understanding that it was not exactly how Eleanor is seen at the very end but we did the best we could with the available budget and time and reference that was available. In case some of you forgot there was a time when there was only 1 Big Sister not several and also we sculpted many of these figures over a year ago in early 2009 when Bioshock 2 was supposed to release in November 2009.
So unfortunately she still has on her leather work and harness but we did remove the armored shoulder pads to help with her silhouette and we did tool the new head and collar as well as adding a "Saved" Little Sister. We realize that Eleanor is not perfect but had we allocated our tooling budget to creating an all new body we would have to sacrifice new figures for retail somewhere else. Now I don't know about you but I would rather put our budget towards new figures like a Brute Splicer, a Ceiling Crawler, etc or full size Splicer masks that 100% of our audience can buy as opposed to a limited edition show exclusive that maybe 20% of our audience will have access to.
That being said no one is forcing you to buy anything. Vote with your wallet and if you don't like it don't buy it. I regret that it does not live up to some of your expectations but I still think it is a cool item and gives Bioshock fans something unique or special to take home from San Diego that they won't find at retail.
I am very proud of the work we have done on Bioshock and I think the figures are an amazing value and that nothing else compares to them especially at that price point on store shelves. We have a lot more Bioshock in store and new prototypes to show you in San Diego this July.