That is and will never be a valid point. An opinion can be made regardless of the ability to "design" something yourself. If it looks ugly to some, it looks ugly.
Disagree. That wasn't my point anyway, anyone can say "this sucks it's ugly" or "that's great, awesome" but again most of the time will bet you anything those people who "hate something" can't do a better job themselves. There's also a difference between constructive critique and flat out dumb, flawed views like saying "this is trash or garbage" clearly it's not when majority happen to like it, in those cases those select few in the minority nobody cares about. Example, someone just trolls art no matter who it's from with these topics or art threads saying "pfft that sucks haha" and has a rep for doing such, sooner or later someone will call them out on their bs. Now not saying this applies to anyone HERE on this topic, but I have seen this pointless behavior elsewhere. So since you're a believer of opinions, mine as an actual artist is those people with troll comments have no idea wtf they're talking about and probably don't have a shred of artistic talent in general.
I'd agree with you if this action figure was a one-off piece going in a museum, but it's not. It's a mass-produced commercial product whose success is a function of sales. Also, you don't need to be a sculptor to have an opinion on the value of a sculpture.
So a piece has to go to a museum in order to be considered good? I don't agree with that. It doesn't have to go to a museum, most art pieces don't go to museums or some of the best artists in the world's pieces never go to ones, doesn't make them any less good. I can be here all day if I listed the many famous artists or artists in general who have amazing talent yet don't have museum resumes.
I understand you don't need to be an artist or sculptor to have an opinion, though I feel it helps if the ones judging are at least artists themselves to a degree but whatever. As far as I can tell, majority seem to like it vs. a few who don't like it. It is not my favorite Scorpion costume/look ever, not by a long shot but I do think it's interesting because it's different. At any rate, it's still hard, talented work regardless of who likes it or doesn't. This I know from hands on experience. The only wood carving sculpts I've done has been small projects or slingshots. To do a figurine/sculpture with finer details is even more demanding.