Thursday 3 April 2008

Meeting at Ozay Veral's house.

Yesterday on 2nd of April; Can, myself and two more friends were invited to Ozay Veral’s house for a quick gathering and maybe barter a few items. I was pretty anxious about this get together because only one member was missing and everybody was going to be there. This gathering was highly important to me because Can lives in London/England most of the year and because of his university education he was going back to UK in four days. Second reason I was making a big deal about this meeting was we as “EOTC Team” were going to do an interview with Ozay Veral. I wanted things to be perfect but of course nothing can or will go perfect as we plan in life.

I was home the whole morning until mid-afternoon receiving and making calls about the meeting, trying to figure out how it was going to be executed. Can was a life saver as always. What I like about Can is you can almost never see him in a rush, he’s always this calm, helping pal that you’ve been dreaming about and who is also a control freak like my wife. Can is getting married this summer and because of that he had lots of stuff to do in the morning. He had to go and talk to his agent about the house he had rented a few days ago. Renting the house took most of his time this week but in the end everything turned quite alright...well actually more than alright!

I packed up my “Sideshow Thor vs Loki” diorama that morning because we had agreed with Ozay to swap it with his “Regular Edition Kiani”. It was love at first site, I mean how can you not love that piece of art. I’ve been reading Statue Forum threads and poles about it and everyone is blown away by it. I guess when you loose your mind you tend to do crazy things like ordering a Lava version of the same statue. That’s ok because I ventured the possibility of my wife going crazy and busting my balls. I was never really good with comic books and I must say I know nothing about ‘Fathom’ but I thought that this was something I could not miss the chance of owning.

Like I’ve said I was trying to pack the diorama back to it’s box when Can called and told me that he’d pick me up from my house about two o’clock. I didn’t have much time so I got a bit nervous because I had several things to do before leaving the house. Putting these statues back to their box can be very tricky sometimes. I’ve always hated repacking my statues because there’s always the possibility of you breaking them and feeling sorry for yourself which is very dumb. So I approached with the utmost care and luckily repacked without damaging it.

It was almost three o’clock when Can came, we were running late and that was bothering me a lot because we were going to a house with two little babies. I was worried exceeding the time limitation of this meeting could really cause problems since the wife was going to be there and obviously she was going to be pissed.:) Imagine two year old twin rascals running around, crying and the dad is with his friends behind a closed door doing collectible barthering way to long...I’ve never said we were normal.:)I have been to this man’s house before and I know he’s a very hospitable guy. It was around four when we got there and the whole family greeted us at the door. We went back to his private room where his whole collection is piled up and the rest is quality time with friends.

Lets get to the interview and hear what this old collector from Istanbul has to say….


EOTC : First of all Ozay thank you very much for opening your doors for us. It’s an honor to be here and being able to share this with you.

Ozay: The honor is mine.

EOTC : My first question will be a cliché but you know how it is…how did you start collecting?

Ozay : I have started with the advise of my older brother actually. He introduced me to Bowen and I was swept away. It was 2003 and my first statue was Bowen’s full size Spiderman.

EOTC : Did you know Randy Bowen at the time?

Ozay : No, I must admit I didn’t know him but with a quick referencing and research on the net I became addicted to the man’s work. I have only collected Bowen statues from Marvel the past 5 years with a few exceptions from Sideshow Collectibles. You don’t have to look elsewhere because of the amplitude in major character production. You’ll be more than satisfied with Bowen, that's for sure.

EOTC : What about Hard Hero!?!? Did you ever think of getting some of their products?

Ozay : No I’ve never even considered going down that road because of all the statues they've been producing are already done by Bowen.

EOTC : I’m sensing a deep devotion towards Bowen (laughing) I mean…I feel Hard Hero has some pretty good stuff don’t you think?

Ozay : Yes that’s true but like I said I’m going with Bowen and I don’t want it to be a mixed display of Marvel Universe. My MARVEL display is mixed up with Star Wars and that’s bothering me enough already…(laughs) but I have always wanted a Hard Hero Conan! (laughs)


EOTC : What do you think of Sideshow compared to Bowen in terms of Marvel products. I mean Bowen Designs is an older and more experienced company. What differences do you see?

Ozay : I feel that they are both producing top notch statues but I must say it is impossible to resist Sideshow because of the scale of their products and they’re doing pretty good with their diorama line. I could never get enough of Bowen. Bowen is a passion and Sideshow is more like an adrenaline rush! (laughs)

EOTC : I can see you have quite a lot of Attakus Star Wars statues which are acknowledged to be elite of the elite. It’s more or less a complete line is it not? Both brands unified in one bowl have boosted your appetite I guess!?!?

Ozay : I feel they are one of the top companies that produce SW high-end products. Ok I want to be honest here I feel they’re the best! (laughs) Some pieces are very hard to get and that’s what makes them very desirable for me. Because of the shipping costs and the lack of reliable retailer or seller of these products to our country, I preferred buying and bringing them back from my travels to other countries. I wish I had the opportunity to buy the missing pieces…I’m buying stuff that are not much tiring like the Attakus statues are these days. As you well know because of our customs law and the inequality in the execution of these laws it can sometimes become very hard to do this hobby.

EOTC : Well as someone that’s in the same hobby with you, I should say this is one Attakus collection to be proud of…

Ozay : Thank you, you’re very kind. I know that only someone like you or Can could know how hard it is to make this happen.

EOTC : If you were living in the States you’d probably have not just filled up one room but two with these beautiful statues and busts.

Ozay : Definitely! (laughs) We’re very unfortunate because we have to pay almost half the price of a 300$ statue just for it to be shipped. My friends in the States are buying their 300$ statues and paying maybe a maximum of 30-40$ shipping fee. Now that’s something to be jealous about! (laughs) It is generally like this for all Europeans. We can call it “our misfortune”.

EOTC : I would like to know the company which satisfies your needs and expectations the most these days.

Ozay : Well Bowen is like the first kiss first love for me but other than that I can say it is Sideshow. I would really want Bowen Designs to continue unruffled, just do what they’ve always been doing. There are lots of hard core Bowen lovers out there like me that love Bowen just because of what they are and have been. If things started going a different way that would disappoint me a lot.Sideshow on the other hand arouses a panic state sort of an adrenaline rush which is fun to pursue. That’s why I’ll be there when they put out something new.

EOTC : True! Sideshow has that certain essence of uncertainty doesn’t it?!?! I mean you can never be sure of what they’ll be doing next that is good and can also be bad sometimes.

Ozay : They have too many licenses in hand and sometimes giving me the feeling as if they’re loosing track of things. For instance the Star Wars premium format line…what’s up with that? Only two PFs a year will never make anyone happy because that’s not how most people want it to be. I personally don’t care about 12” format figures, I want four PF’s a year. If they are not doing it that way then I’m out. I have sold all my PFs just because of this. They’re grabbing you with a format and knowing that you’re in their hands then they go for an other format. They shouldn’t be doing that because now there is too many formats to concentrate on…it’s not hard to understand sometimes why some products they put out don’t meet their quality trajectory. It is obvious it was rushed…(laughs) people can see that and they don’t buy.

EOTC : So in summary you would want SS to go with only one or two lines or formats but more products maybe.

Ozay : That’s how I feel…

EOTC : Anything you would like to say to beginners?

Ozay : Only advice I would give them is that this hobby needs passion. There will be lots of ups and downs. It can’t be done for money. Even if you have the time and money it will still take from you. You’ll have to sacrifice more than that. I’ve been collecting high-end stuff for the last 5 years only and I’m 32 years old. I know people that are into this hobby at 15. That’s just great and I hope they treasure it.

EOTC : Thank you for this great afternoon…we were honored.

Ozay : It was good to be with friends such as you. My door is always open to you guys. Thank you.

Interview done by Conquistador.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

EOTC ekibinin katkılarıyla hazırlanan yeni siteniz cok güsel hayırlı olsun arkadaslar inş istediginiz yerlere ulaşırsınız... 8) öyle sıcacık samimi içten ki röportajınız, emeklerinize sağlık. zevkle okudum.

ayrıca tat kattınız,keyif verdiniz.:)
mantıyada mutlaka beklıyoruz ;) ;) bumush(mrs.veral)