When Will It Stop? (Or Knowing When to End a Multi-Signed Project)

If you haven't heard, SWAU is doing an extremely rare signing with Nick Nolte, and for a lot of you that means that a lot of you (to include myself) are going to going to be starting a new Multi-Signed project, but with it comes a few questions that even the most seasoned collector should ask. 

Those questions are:

"Who am I going to have sign this project?"

"Will the item I'm getting signed support that many signers?"

"When will I consider this project to be done?"

It's important to ask yourself these questions as it not only helps to define your project, but it also allows you to start budgeting for the project as those signers start doing convention appearances or private signings. I have learned to ask these questions now as I've started projects that I either just lost my way on because I didn't have a focus, or it just wasn't something that would be worth my time and money to complete. 

"Who am I going to have sign this project?" is a good question to ask yourself, as I've seen people toss out all kinds of lists for who'd they get to sign Mandalorian cast pieces, and regardless of what your opinion is on who is truly the 'main cast', you will draw the line some place and go "No, I don't need to add them to my project." Now, I'm not saying that this is an authoritative list, but this is what myself and a bunch of the mods came up with after Tom Cathey decried it as "The most nerdy conversation I've been a part of," and could serve as a good starting point for you to build off of:

• Jon Favreau

• Dave Filoni

• Pedro Pascal

• Brendan Wayne

• Gina Carano

• Nick Nolte

• Carl Weathers

• Taika Waititi

• Werner Herzog

• Giancarlo Esposito

Now you are probably wondering “Who in the world is Brendan Wayne, and why is he on the list?” The short answer is he’s the lead stuntman who suited up as ‘The Mandalorian’, and based of off interviews and some other on set accounts, he may have been in the suit just as much as Pedro Pascal. His inclusion was one that the website team debated quite awhile and in the end, it boiled down to this - it’s the equivalent of getting David Prowse or Bob Anderson on a Darth Vader multi.

Next is "Will the item I'm getting signed support that many signers?" People collect all different sizes of items, but when it comes down to it, will a 8x10 be able to support 10 people signing it without it looking a mess, and having signatures covering everything up? If you're going to work on a cast item, the bigger the better, especially if you are planning on getting eight or more signatures on an item. The real challenge with the Mandalorian is that there have been no full sized (27x40") licensed posters that have been released, so the next best thing is buying licensed 24x36" posters that were released by Trends International. 

And then finally - "When will I consider this project to be done?" What I mean by this is will your project be an all-encompassing show project (as there will be more than one season of the Mandalorian), or will this be only for Season 1? Because if you are going to be doing an all-encompassing item, you will have to think about each additional person you add, as they'll be taking up room that some other signer could have used - and it's best to wait to add new characters until at least the end of the season that they are introduced in, as you will be able to better determine whether or not they are worth adding to your item.

Hopefully this has helped you with your decision making process if you are considering starting a new multi-signed project.