Blizzard Employee Statue for Sale...

TelekineticFrog

Never thought I'd see one of these for sale anywhere, but today I was in Austin, TX and as I'm pulling through the parking lot of the shopping mall to leave I see a store in the back corner. I stop in to check it out. Nothing too crazy, just Kubrick figures, lots of star wars crap and a few board games. As I'm walking out though they have a big glass display case behind the registers with some sideshow collectible statues but in the very middle up top is a Blizzard Employee bronze statue. It's the one they handed out that looks like the big orc riding the wolf that resides outside the studio offices. It's definitely pretty big...over a foot tall and on a nice base with the Blizzard logo on a plate engraved on the front of the base. I asked the clerk and they said they wanted $975.00 for it. 0_0 I asked how they had one and they said a former employee was attempting to sell it there via consignment. Well if anybody has about a grand in pocket change and wants one without the work that goes behind getting one, have at it. It's kind of sad in a way to see something like that for sale. I would think you'd want to hold onto something like that.

Yozora

Thats a pretty ugly wall of text Let me fix it for you! pics! (this is the statue you are talking about I assume~)



And yea that is too awesome to sell imo

Marine

blizz should buy it back

mLichy

damn, I hate WoW, but that statue is freaking sweet!

TelekineticFrog

Yep that's the one...I just don't understand. They must be hard up for cash or something.

Rwolf

that looks epic

pior

It's also heavy in a nice, 'oh that's heavier than I thought!!' kind of way :P Don't know or will comment about the sale tho.

It's funny seeing that familiar silhouette on so many desks!

Dippndots

imo its too small i'd want it at least 10ft tall so i could put it out in my yard

East

It looks cool, but not so cool I'd want it around in my house. I share a flat right now with two other game devs and there's enough of tasteless game- and anime related statues and crap around as it is :P

TelekineticFrog

I think the thing for me is as much as I like World of Warcraft and the work that comes out of Blizzard, I could not buy this even if I had the expendable cash for it. To me it seems like something you should earn and not be able to just buy in a game / toy shop. It's like when people buy oscars or emmys or grammys sold by celebrities. Why would you sell something you had to work for to earn recognition and then why would you buy something like that even if it looks cool on a shelf.

Disco Stu

Youd sell it because its hard to transport you probably lost your job at blizzard, its a
dust collector and your maybe not into these things even if you work there. You might
as well be some producer or programmer only interested into his own expertise ^^

Xenobond

Whoa. I'd totally buy that. I'd have em dual with the Samus statue I've got.

slipsius

that thing is badass! i would totally paint it with warhammer paint... all badass like!

firestarter

Buy that, put it on eBay... profit!

TelekineticFrog

I figure an auction of it would be shut down maybe...maybe not, I don't want to get anybody in trouble though.

DrunkShaman

I just want to put my own thought regarding this matter of employees of the Activision-Blizzard are attempting to sell their unfortunate statue at fortunate prices.

Its really not worth buying it. If I would buy any of this fantasy stuff I would rather go to Game Workshop and buy a set of Warhammer, because they deserve such fortune, where as, Activision-Blizzard does not (According to the past history before warcraft and starcraft, if anyone would know what I am talking about). In general I would just keep my limits to the world of warcraft mmorpg, and will not extend it to buy action figures of them. As for employee statues, they are not worth buying either.

Shogun3d

Wayyy too cool. Priceless imo.

Emperors Teeth

I want it... so I can paint it!

Asherr

Someone put one of these up on Ebay in April 08 and last year Blizzard auctioned off one for Child's Play last December.

AstroZombie

I wonder how much it costs Blizz to have each of those produced and how many of the employees would have rather had a cash bonus instead

Adam L. Gray

mLichy wrote: »

damn, I hate WoW, but that statue is freaking sweet!

+1

Philly13

I'm with TelekineticFrog on this one, why would you want to sell something you had to work hard for in the first place, especially if its from such a reputable studio? I definitely wouldn't part with it that's for sure

Mark Dygert

Well... you have to ask yourself how does someone become a ex-Blizzard employee when the company isn't laying people off because of financial hardship like the rest of the industry? So the person probably has some bitter feelings, and some bills to pay?

I'm not sure I would feel right owning it.

Nick Carver

I didn't even get a statue yet and someone's already selling theirs?!!? If anyone wants to buy my bonafide, 100% official Blizzard note paper then I will start the bidding at 100 Bison Dollars (1 Bison Dollar is worth five British pounds).

Peris

Dunno, I can imagine getting this and not really knowing what to do with it. I personally don't really like having stuff like this in my appartment . Not really comparable to this, but when we all got Bionic Commando figurines at GRIN, I gave mine away to some random kid in the subway.

But I wonder why the guy selling this statue doesn't put it on ebay or so? I'm pretty sure you can get A LOT more than 975$ for it.

Flynny

Perhaps there is a policy at Blizzard about selling them?

PolyHertz

Dippndots wrote: »

imo its too small i'd want it at least 10ft tall so i could put it out in my yard

More like this then?


Thats SlipGateCentral in the pic, not me btw.

Wahlgren

He's very very white.

pior

BTW the outdoor one is much MUCH bigger than it seems here! It actually IS kinda cool to walk around.

Asherr

Do they let you ride it?

Wahlgren

First you have to beat the orc in savage hand to hand combat!

Pandaren

hello all, just to clear some things up. The statue in Irvine seen above is 12 foot tall, so yes very big.
The mini ones are about 14 inches high so still not small, they were given out to all of us who were employed around christmas '08 , which was very cool cause was the same year they gave us in game murloc suits.
And yes I was there, and yes, I have one of these statues, and for around 1-1.5k I would be very tempted to let mine go. It is after all something we got for free.
As for selling policy, I know one GM who sold his straight away and was fired. But since I dont work for them no more thats not a huge biggie. Will likely be a few of these appearing soon (about 1500 made total).
Personally if I were you I'd save up for the Blizzard Sword, shield or ring. These were rewards for 5, 10, 15 years in the company: http://www.gamer-source.com/image/news/2008/10-10/100_1095.jpg
thats the sword and shield both life sized and steel.