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I started a thread on this months ago ..... SS is gouging the hell out of us. I have the money so I pay it because up until XM there was no one else in the game. Just look at old statues vs new ones. My Punisher Com was $250, the Thor PF was $325 and 1/4 Spiderman 1/4 was 299.99. Those might be some of the best pieces Sideshow EVER puts out. The shear size and detail of Thor is insane, but sideshow sees their popularity gaining steam and no competitors so they figure lets keep charging more and see how much we can get. I mean come on ..... for instance a character like Cat Woman ...while popular by no means should she command 399.99 and a 2000 EX edition size.

the DC license is an entirely different animal than Marvel. the big ES sizes are nothing
 
Mine has couple defects

20140624_002536.jpg
 
Your way off on your price here buddy. Cap was $650 delivered to my doorstep. It's dumbfounding to me as to why people are so quick to run out and protect SS. They are gouging you and me and everyone else in this hobby as their prices keep increasing and their quality is sub par and slipping. I haven't seen more then one or two statues of Apoc in this thread without issues and we give SS comfort in their 750 es? Get real with that crap. It doesn't matter if they make 10000 they have a responsibility to their customer to put out a product similar to the one we see when we commit in the form of an NRD. I'll pay 650 for every single statue XM puts out if they all show up as clean as Cap did. Why wouldn't you? Your paying 650 for a hunk of crap in the form of this apocolypse. I wish I could suck at my job and still have clients begging to work with me while I continued to jack up my hourly rate!

their msrp is $800 SGD which translates to about $640 US dollars. Still sounds like a lot, until you consider the number of switch out parts the statues come with. In the end, all I am saying is that we should be expecting more from SS, especially considering the rising costs of these things.

You guys are right, I didn't notice that XM (who I don't know too much about yet) was in a different currency. My bad. $650 to $400 is still a fairly large price difference. I'm not comparing a $650 statue that is 19" though a $600 statue that is 30".

Nor am I really defending or condoning SSC's QC issues. Personally, I have been very lucky and received good statues from them and what QC issues I had have been fixed immediately on their part or I was issued sizable refunds to keep pieces with minor flaws. QC issues are going to happen. It will happen with XM studio. No company is going to always put out perfect products 100% of the time. To me what is important is how the company handles their QC with customers when it crops up and Sideshow is pretty remarkable in how they handle it. They always offer some credit back or a replacement, even for very minor issues. Never once have I had them rebuff a complaint. Is it a bit of a hassle to wait for a replacement part and send in some photos of the broken flawed piece? Somewhat, but it's not a big deal to me.

Also, while many of the Apocalypse's seem to have some issues, to be honest, I have only seen a couple that I would really call serious issues. Most of them are minor blemishes that you only notice when scrutinizing. I think a lot of the QC issues are way overblown, but that is the owner's prerogative and we all have different standards. Some demand 100% flawlessness, others just don't want major issues like totally wrong paint or chips. Personally, I don't mind hand painted statues to have minor variations, that's what makes them unique, edition numbered hand painted pieces and not churned out carbon copies. It's like having an original painting versus a photocopy. So for me, some of these small flaws are fine and part of the character of your individual piece and considering sideshow will likely be more happy to give some credit back for those flaws, it's a win-win.

But here's where the loss is.

Part of the reason for rising costs (besides inflation, rising costs of materials and company expansion to include more employees and products) is a direct result of QC complaints. Because sideshow's customers demand perfection most of the time, sideshow has to spend a lot more money on replacement parts and that cost gets absorbed into higher msrp's on following products. There's a little bit of a "chicken and egg" thing here because you can just as easily say that if their qc was better to begin with, they wouldn't need to spend the money on replacement parts and refunds to customers with minor defects. But like I said before, there are ALWAYS going to be QC issues and the high end collectible consumer base is getting increasingly more demanding and more savvy to problems and more willing to demand replacements and partial refunds. My point is not that the consumers are the reason for higher costs, just that they/we play their part in rising costs as well. It's not a one-way relationship.

Finally, "it's dumbfounding to me as to why people are so quick to run out and protect SS" is a bit strange in this context, since pointing to XM, who has put out a single piece, and saying "see they can do it why can't sideshow!" is an equally, if not more so snap judgement. Sideshow has put out pretty perfect pieces before too. So how about we let XM really establish themselves first before pointing to them as the model of consistency, since that word kind of entails something happens more than once.
 
Totally agree man. It's not that SS doesn't have the artistic ability to put out a beautiful statue. They just have themselves spread to thin in the name of greed and revenue. They can't handle everything being put out right now yet the POs keep coming. Slow down. Go back to your roots and make quality a focus. Seems so easy.

Greed and revenue or catering to customer demands for new licenses all the time? Nothing is black and white.
 
You guys are right, I didn't notice that XM (who I don't know too much about yet) was in a different currency. My bad. $650 to $400 is still a fairly large price difference. I'm not comparing a $650 statue that is 19" though a $600 statue that is 30".

Nor am I really defending or condoning SSC's QC issues. Personally, I have been very lucky and received good statues from them and what QC issues I had have been fixed immediately on their part or I was issued sizable refunds to keep pieces with minor flaws. QC issues are going to happen. It will happen with XM studio. No company is going to always put out perfect products 100% of the time. To me what is important is how the company handles their QC with customers when it crops up and Sideshow is pretty remarkable in how they handle it. They always offer some credit back or a replacement, even for very minor issues. Never once have I had them rebuff a complaint. Is it a bit of a hassle to wait for a replacement part and send in some photos of the broken flawed piece? Somewhat, but it's not a big deal to me.

Also, while many of the Apocalypse's seem to have some issues, to be honest, I have only seen a couple that I would really call serious issues. Most of them are minor blemishes that you only notice when scrutinizing. I think a lot of the QC issues are way overblown, but that is the owner's prerogative and we all have different standards. Some demand 100% flawlessness, others just don't want major issues like totally wrong paint or chips. Personally, I don't mind hand painted statues to have minor variations, that's what makes them unique, edition numbered hand painted pieces and not churned out carbon copies. It's like having an original painting versus a photocopy. So for me, some of these small flaws are fine and part of the character of your individual piece and considering sideshow will likely be more happy to give some credit back for those flaws, it's a win-win.

But here's where the loss is.

Part of the reason for rising costs (besides inflation, rising costs of materials and company expansion to include more employees and products) is a direct result of QC complaints. Because sideshow's customers demand perfection most of the time, sideshow has to spend a lot more money on replacement parts and that cost gets absorbed into higher msrp's on following products. There's a little bit of a "chicken and egg" thing here because you can just as easily say that if their qc was better to begin with, they wouldn't need to spend the money on replacement parts and refunds to customers with minor defects. But like I said before, there are ALWAYS going to be QC issues and the high end collectible consumer base is getting increasingly more demanding and more savvy to problems and more willing to demand replacements and partial refunds. My point is not that the consumers are the reason for higher costs, just that they/we play their part in rising costs as well. It's not a one-way relationship.

Finally, "it's dumbfounding to me as to why people are so quick to run out and protect SS" is a bit strange in this context, since pointing to XM, who has put out a single piece, and saying "see they can do it why can't sideshow!" is an equally, if not more so snap judgement. Sideshow has put out pretty perfect pieces before too. So how about we let XM really establish themselves first before pointing to them as the model of consistency, since that word kind of entails something happens more than once.

OH SNAP! Agreed.
 
You guys are right, I didn't notice that XM (who I don't know too much about yet) was in a different currency. My bad. $650 to $400 is still a fairly large price difference. I'm not comparing a $650 statue that is 19" though a $600 statue that is 30".

Nor am I really defending or condoning SSC's QC issues. Personally, I have been very lucky and received good statues from them and what QC issues I had have been fixed immediately on their part or I was issued sizable refunds to keep pieces with minor flaws. QC issues are going to happen. It will happen with XM studio. No company is going to always put out perfect products 100% of the time. To me what is important is how the company handles their QC with customers when it crops up and Sideshow is pretty remarkable in how they handle it. They always offer some credit back or a replacement, even for very minor issues. Never once have I had them rebuff a complaint. Is it a bit of a hassle to wait for a replacement part and send in some photos of the broken flawed piece? Somewhat, but it's not a big deal to me.

Also, while many of the Apocalypse's seem to have some issues, to be honest, I have only seen a couple that I would really call serious issues. Most of them are minor blemishes that you only notice when scrutinizing. I think a lot of the QC issues are way overblown, but that is the owner's prerogative and we all have different standards. Some demand 100% flawlessness, others just don't want major issues like totally wrong paint or chips. Personally, I don't mind hand painted statues to have minor variations, that's what makes them unique, edition numbered hand painted pieces and not churned out carbon copies. It's like having an original painting versus a photocopy. So for me, some of these small flaws are fine and part of the character of your individual piece and considering sideshow will likely be more happy to give some credit back for those flaws, it's a win-win.

But here's where the loss is.

Part of the reason for rising costs (besides inflation, rising costs of materials and company expansion to include more employees and products) is a direct result of QC complaints. Because sideshow's customers demand perfection most of the time, sideshow has to spend a lot more money on replacement parts and that cost gets absorbed into higher msrp's on following products. There's a little bit of a "chicken and egg" thing here because you can just as easily say that if their qc was better to begin with, they wouldn't need to spend the money on replacement parts and refunds to customers with minor defects. But like I said before, there are ALWAYS going to be QC issues and the high end collectible consumer base is getting increasingly more demanding and more savvy to problems and more willing to demand replacements and partial refunds. My point is not that the consumers are the reason for higher costs, just that they/we play their part in rising costs as well. It's not a one-way relationship.

Finally, "it's dumbfounding to me as to why people are so quick to run out and protect SS" is a bit strange in this context, since pointing to XM, who has put out a single piece, and saying "see they can do it why can't sideshow!" is an equally, if not more so snap judgement. Sideshow has put out pretty perfect pieces before too. So how about we let XM really establish themselves first before pointing to them as the model of consistency, since that word kind of entails something happens more than once.

I'm not sure where to even begin or if it's worth delving into b/c it would highjack this entire thread so I'll keep it brief.

I agree that SSC customer service is typically known for being outstanding in the returns/exchanges/refunds department. From my experience they have been absolutely top notch in this respect which is what keeps me coming back as a customer.

That being said, that has nothing to do with the problems pictured here in great detail and they are (1) delivering a product that differs from the prototype and (2) a seemingly endless amount of QC problems with this production piece.

To completely play down the horrendous QC issues pictured here and call them blemishes is bizarre. Then claiming the customers who dropped $600 + shipping complaints are overblown, only to follow that up immediately stating that these blemishes are what make the statues unique, is simply mind blowing.

Wow.
 
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