Re: Big Chief Studios Acquires James Bond License
I think Big Chief suffers from the same thing that often plagues Sideshow, and that is a real lack of consistency, despite the talent they have working for them. You simply don't know what you are going to get as far as the final production piece goes in terms of paint, in terms of tailoring, even in terms of sculpt detail loss during production. Every single release feels like a very expensive lucky dip, but whereas Sideshow at least has a reasonable and reliable customer service back end, Big Chief doesn't even have that to any consistency, so it always feels like taking a leap of faith without a net when pre-ordering anything from them.
It's not that Big Chief is incapable of delivering the goods, quality wise, it's that the odds of their doing so from one release to another aren't in any way predictable, so consumer confidence really suffers as a result. They are also very light on sharing information with customers and keeping them updated on products and release date changes, which does them few favours. And the frustrations of many dealing with their customer service side are long and well documented.
The only thing that has really kept me around is the strength and core appeal of the licenses they hold, and Bond will have that much going for it, as well. And it is never too late for any company to shift gears, and get their house in order as far as final production quality goes. Reputations can be rewritten by a string of consistently good quality releases, and by doing more to keep customers informed and up to date. Loyalty can be re-established by improving customer service response time and fairness standards. Will any of that happen? Who knows, to be honest at this point my personal confidence isn't high, but it's still something to hope for.
Like most things we'll just have to see how things ultimately shake out, I guess.
