Hey guys, I got my hands on the official Chronicle Collectibles Handbook on "Mitigating Financial Loss During Times of Mediocrity."
Chapter 1: Promise Unattainable Goals.
When making promises, use terms and phrases such as "holy grail" and "Cinemaquette-quality at a fraction of the price" to rouse interest and drive pre-order sales.
Chapter 2: Use Atypical "Sample" Photos.
After the initial excitement surrounding a pre-order wears off, reveal high-quality resolution shots of perfectly-painted sample and label said item as "random production sample."
Chapter 3: Deny, Deny, Deny.
Once international buyers leak photos of actual production pieces, cast aspersions towards original poster and deny any merit of said posts. Ensure the public that you will perform QC personally and that you will do your absolute best in delivering quality statues. (Chronicle Collectibles apologists will do their part in mitigating any pause for concern by casting aspersions of their own.) Continue denying long enough until shipment to US commences.
Chapter 4: Deflect, Deflect, Deflect.
Admit the piece was not as you'd hope and that moving forward, even stricter tolerances will be held while simultaneously deflecting any responsibility. Instead, blame factories of your own choosing, Universal Studios-approved factories, and China's regulations on specific paints.
Chapter 5: Bounce.
Once warranted criticism has reached max levels as US collectors being receiving their pieces, look for a scapegoat to leave the forum boards. Collector's burning of a statue or a subjective "out-of-line" post will suffice
Chapter 6: Bounce Back.
After a brief hiatus, make a few remarks of the piece's shortcomings and focus all attention on upcoming items up for pre-order and . . . . .
Chapter 7: Bankruptcy. (Edit: Chapter 7 to be entitled "Rinse and Repeat" in 2016 and future handbooks)
What I'm trying to say is that I personally don't believe anything Paul says anymore and from here on out, we should not preorder any pieces from CC but instead, wait for actual production photos from in-hand pictures. Looking at some of the posts in the endo thread, this is Endo 2.0 all over again:
Got an advance copy from the factory today, this piece looks really good, I love all the tonal value on this Endo and they got the paint very close to my original paint master.
These will be shipping from China soon.
We've had a handful of cancellations and I believe we have enough on the wait list to cover those. If you were on the fence about this piece, send heather an email and get on the wait list, they will be here soon.
We manufacture in China and we get production samples pulled from the run and sent to us for inspection.
Not everyone gets it right 100% of the time. We are making a few adjustments in 2017 to prevent something like this from happening again.
I feel that the Endo looks like the productions samples we were sent. I've seen a lot of photos in the past few days of a bent piston or some paint that wasn't even, but I think the overall appearance of the Endo captures the screen used Endo.
I'm sorry if you guys that have waited don't like the piece, I tried everything I could to make this as perfect as possible.
I can't wait until our shipment arrives, we'll make sure that they are great or I will make adjustments during the QC process. Even if I have to modify each one by hand I will.
Again, we are going to change our QC process for overseas customers in 2017.
I appreciate all of the feedback negative and positive. Helps us make changes to our process when we get constructive feedback.
Big things coming in 2017 and as soon as we can make a few announcements, I'll share them here.
Paul
Well after going through about 80 of these, the gun is the least of the issues I had with this piece. The gun replicates what I painted pretty well and I like the different tonal values on the Endo.
Fit, Finish and overall look is what I have had problems with.
This piece was made by a different factory and NOT Toynami. We will no longer be using this factory and have fired our rep that was handling these.
Moving forward if it takes a little longer for Toynami to produce something due to their schedule, we are going to wait. I will never get into this situation again and I hope you guys will hang in there with us.
I will say that this is the most proportionate and accurate Endoskeleton made to date in anything under 1-1 scale.
Legacy Effects did all of the prints for this from the original files.
I'm going through these personally and I will QC every last one myself to ensure only the best of what we received gets shipped. I am also making minor changes and fixes where I can.
Thank you for your patience,
Paul
Believe me we have learned from it, if you make Terminators and they aren't Triple Chrome metal plate don't bother.
Also there are very few companies in China doing triple chrome plate that so that's out as well.
No secret that we want to go after the next Terminator film, I will make sure we use a triple chrome plate factory and we charge for the plating even if that means we make a lot less product.
You can't use the paint processes we have here in the states, for some reason that technology has yet to filter down through the factories in China.
Sideshow painted a silver Endo to stay away from the chrome paint finished unachievable in China. I should have done the same thing.
Hot Toys is making tens of thousands of pieces and they can justify injection molding and metal for their Endos. They can triple chrome plate easier on injected parts like a model car.
I admit it, I screwed up, but we strive to make some of the best products on the market and continue to make changes where we can.
I'm sorry for the wait, I'm sorry that the product hasn't lived up to expectations.
The best I can do is to make it right and move on....
Paul
I get that people are disappointed and we only asked people to destroy them that are overseas to avoid high shipping costs coming back to the states.
We offered a full refund or partial credit for new product, but that doesn't seem to be enough for some people. You have to make a spectacle of burning our product on a grill and then say it's all in good fun and a tribute to Terminator.
I've had one foot out the door on the forums for some time, but I am now finished.
Paul
Spoiler:
. I can not believe how well you noticed all these steps
. Believe me I agree in everything with your arguments. I am very tempted to give up for this statue, even more because I live in Europe and here this cost 690 euros. A lot of money for a garbage
