Heads Up: News & Updates (Long Post!)

Yo, guys! This post is about a few updates you can expect in the near future here in Samiho. We heard your feedback and we’re constantly improving things to offer not just models, but a better service as well.

I’ll address some changes and updates, but also some issues pointed out by the community. If you think it’s too much to read, jump to the last paragraph for a TL;DR (Summary).

Bigger Team

We recently expanded the studio and are still working on it. Here’s our team now:
• Sculptors: Kidou, Giovani, and me (Devian)
• 3MF painter / presupporter: Scarlet, who also helps manage the community and daily tasks
• HR: I don’t mention him often since he mainly handles the studio’s legal work

I’m sharing this because I’ve talked a lot about the expansion and want to show you how things work behind the models.

Kidou focuses mostly on the extra releases you’ve been getting lately, while Giovani specializes in Dragon Ball figures and worked on some past releases. Even though both are talented and dedicated, I still work closely with them, polishing figures, adjusting cuts, fixing poses and anatomy, tweaking faces to match the anime or manga, and sometimes adding extra props. For Giovani’s models, I handle the cuts myself. We do it this way because I have the most experience and want to make sure every character has detailed sculpts, accurate faces, and pieces that fit perfectly after printing. This is how we keep the quality high even as the team grows.

They’ve only been with us for three months, and I’m sure things will keep improving. Little by little, they’ll need less of my help.

Extra Models

Recently we released a few extra models, so I want to explain how that will work from now on. I’ve always wanted to give more attention to smaller requests from the community, animes that don’t get many votes in polls or characters that wouldn’t normally make it as a main monthly release.

Examples: Yu-Yu Hakusho, Hitman Reborn, Inuyasha, Yugioh, Pokemon, Gantz, and even some game models.

We’re fans of those animes too, and creating these figures adds variety to our collection while making many fans happy. Before, I couldn’t dedicate time to them without affecting the main releases, but now that we have more people in the studio, it’s finally possible.

I know that releasing unannounced models might feel confusing, especially when there are delays. You might wonder why I’m working on different characters instead of finishing the delayed ones. But from the last extra releases, I was only responsible for Kabuto, which I made because we didn’t have a model from me in August.

Delayed Releases (Shanks and Tobirama)

We have 2 delayed models in progress: Tobirama and Shanks. This month I didn’t announce any model made by me so I can focus on finishing these delays once and for all.

• Why did this delay happen?

We had some problems with 2 models when finding new sculptors back in May or June, and that delayed the other projects because I still had to release new models while working on previous ones. It snowballed, and I couldn’t end the delay because I had to keep announcing new models so the studio could keep running and pay the new people we hired. That kept me working on the previous month’s releases while refining the current month’s.

• Devian, why is it taking so long to finish those 2

Tobirama is a huge statue, around 60cm tall, and will connect with Hashirama, released 5 months ago, and Sarutobi, to be released in the future. His base is super complex, I have to think in the past and in the future to make it connect with the other Hokages. The rocks must fit most 3D printers and have no seams in the cuts, which is the quality you expect from Samiho. Tobirama’s pose, details, and textures must match Hashirama’s because they are brothers, and ruining one piece from this collection would ruin the whole collection.

Shanks was supposed to be a September release and he’s delayed because I haven’t finished Tobirama yet, so I couldn’t just release him and leave an older model behind.

I want to clarify that I’m not holding the models just because I want to, or because I’m not working on them. That would make no sense. Samiho is an art studio, we all love art and anime here, but it is also a company that has to survive. Holding a model for no reason wouldn’t help anyone.

• When's the release?

October. I didn’t announce any model made by me this month so I’ll have more time to focus on them and finally make their releases. Starting the month with both announced models almost finished already will save me a lot of time while the guys work on the next releases.

"But X Studio doesn’t delay their releases and Y Studio gives us more models"

I’ve received messages like this, and I understand the frustration, but honestly, what can I do with that information? It won’t make the delayed models appear faster. Should I be happy for those studios, should I be stressed, or afraid? Sometimes unexpected things happen that are out of our control.

We’re not perfect, and we’re definitely not claiming to be the most incredible studio out there. Everyone has their own opinion. Personally, I think Wicked3D is the best!

There are a lot of studios out there, guys. That’s nothing new. Many of them had delayed models at least once. Everyone is free to support whichever ones they like. There’s enough space for everyone to share their work. We’re not racing to cross a finish line before anyone else. This ain’t a marathon!

"Samiho was better in the past, the releases weren’t delayed back then"

No. This is our peak. If you compare past releases with recent ones, you’ll notice a huge increase in quality. Look at Pain and Hashirama, characters from the same anime, but Hashirama has clearly more details in cloth and ambient. You don’t even have to go that far. Just compare Zetsu and Zoro, released in the same month.

In the past, I had to work overtime to release 2 characters a month at a quality I consider fair, and it reflected on my health. Many supporters remember I had a health problem when working on Law last year and had to rest for a week. That was burnout. Many studios close because it’s hard to adapt to demand and they can't just hire new people to help them. Now our team is bigger and I can take a little time to breath too.

So no, Samiho wasn’t better in the past. It’s just difficult to change, but we’re changing for the better and we have a lot of projects we’ll bring you next year because of this change.

Dragon Ball Models

We’ll be releasing Dragon Ball models every other month to leave space for the results of our latest polls. We included Dragon Ball in our lineup because we wanted to expand and bring this iconic anime, part of many people’s childhoods, to more fans. The Dragon Ball community is huge, we often receive requests from them, and supporting it is also good for the studio's growth. Remember, it’s the people who support us that make everything we do possible.

• But there are already a lot of Dragon Ball models out there

That doesn’t mean we’ve stopped with other anime or that we’re only releasing Dragon Ball models. We still release a variety of anime figures, and we’ll release even more in the future through extras and upcoming releases. The reason you’ve seen several DB models in a row is that Giovani specializes in them, but next month he’ll work on a Demon Slayer character, the most voted anime in our poll.

We can’t please everyone, but we’ll always do our best to reach as many anime fans as we can!

Special Rewards for Longtime Subscribers

We’re soon launching Loyalty Rewards to honor the supporters who have been with us for a long time. We don’t want to give just a regular figure for such a special occasion, so we’re preparing unique ones. Of course, we’re also adding a way to mark these rewards and make them as exclusive as possible.

Fennec Project

This project has been on paper for a while. I can’t share too many details yet, but we’ll present it next year with iconic/huge/exclusive scene figures.

TL;DR (Summary)

• We can now take on small requests and cover a wider variety of anime and even game models, thanks to our now expanded team. these releases are what we call extras.

• Shanks and Tobirama are coming this month (October), along with the recently announced models.

• Dragon Ball releases won’t replace other anime, they’ll alternate with our poll results.

• Special rewards for longtime subscribers are on the way.

• And The Fennec Project is coming soon, bringing huge/exclusive figures.

Guys, that was a lot, but I hope this post was helpful and gave you some clarity. If you have any questions or need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m always here to help.

Thanks for all your support. I’m extremely grateful to each of you who help us grow and create what we love. We’ll keep giving back to the community, just like we always have. Let’s go!