GG Obi-Wan Clone Statue

[tomandshell]

I am assuming that quite a lot of you have seen what happened to Gentle Giant's "Obi-Wan in Clone Armor" statue. I have been disappointed a few times by the difference between Sideshow's prototypes and final production pieces, but they have never let us down this badly. Gentle Giant's latest travesty just takes the cake. This is Anakin's red lips multiplied by a factor of 100. This is just dreadful! Compare the preview pictures with the real thing:

It looked so much like Ewan McGregor that it was uncanny. Now it looks like complete rubbish.

 

[El Roranous]

Ouch, that thing is a travesty.

 

[Boba Fett]

Well, I just cancelled mine anyway, so I am glad I don't feel bad about it.

 

[Batty]

That is really bad! What happened?

 

[Darth Loki]

Jason from MWC just sent out an email about this. Apparently retailers are getting nailed with cancellations. I'm so glad I decided to pass on this. I can't believe they could let something like this happen. This could have a serious affect on people pre-ordering GG items in the future.

Thanks for posting this Tom, I was just going to ask for some pics.

 

[The Godfather]

OMG well this explains the cancellations left and right and I think for the first time ever since I have been in this business Distributors are getting the I am not accepting these calls from me.

Bob

 

[Darth Loki]

That is really bad! What happened?

That is beyond bad. That is a crock and I hope GG loses their ass on this one. I feel bad for any retailers who are going to get stuck with this piece of crap. I really hope GG does something for them.

 

[Darth Loki]

OMG well this explains the cancellations left and right and I think for the first time ever since I have been in this business Distributors are getting the I am not accepting these calls from me.

Bob

Bob,

I'd refuse the delivery of these if you can. I hope they can make it up to you somehow.

 

[BrianK]

It went form looking like Ewan Mcgregor to a young Steven Baldwin. Just awful.

 

[The Godfather]

That is beyond bad. That is a crock and I hope GG loses their ass on this one. I feel bad for any retailers who are going to get stuck with this piece of crap. I really hope GG does something for them.

That right there is the issue Cancelations effect future purchases and allocations so you either take them and know no one is going to be happy or your don't and risk the effects of not taking them with a distributor ect. I am going to be contacting all the major distributors I know and I know alot and making sure they are aware of this problem. This is not what I or any other dealer presold.

Bob

 

[El Roranous]

What a terrible mess. Bob, I hope it works out well in the end. This isn't right on GG's part and I think they should be the ones stuck with the "bill".

 

[Darth Loki]

That right there is the issue Cancelations effect future purchases and allocations so you either take them and know no one is going to be happy or your don't and risk the effects of not taking them with a distributor ect. I am going to be contacting all the major distributors I know and I know alot and making sure they are aware of this problem. This is not what I or any other dealer presold.

Bob

Exactly. I have a bad feeling the dealers are the one's that are going to be getting screwed by this. I know that this has been sold out by most of the dealers I frequent for a while and I wouldn't be surprised to see at least 50% cancelled.

My question for those who may know is, does GG do ES by how many pieces are pre-sold in a given time frame? This will keep a lot of people from pre-ordering in the future and could cause a drastic drop in future ES's if this is the case.

 

[The Josh]

That mucking stinks bad!! Not sure what the heck happened but man did this one fall apart. I was actually considering getting this piece till I started reading what had happened. Glad I didn't that's for sure. Woof!

 

[Agent0028]

I am so disappointed by this, I've been looking forward ot this for what, 9 months I think? I've ordered three gentle giant items and I've been happy with one (Cartoon Leia) I think I'll write them off the list of places to buy from.

Just wondering has anyone seen this in person? I doubt it, but maybe it looks better in person than in the pictures? *sigh* This is disappointing.

 

[Polystoner]

Yeah, this is one reason why I stopped collecting GG. Their SW products are cool and much more prolific than SS, but it seemed with the major pieces I liked, something always went awry. First the wierd Qui-Gon MB, then getting stuck with pre-orders on edition sizes that were huge way after the announcement, the slop paint and wierd eyes of the Leia/R2 maquette, with the final straw being the changes in Slave Leia.

I feel bad for people who get stuck with this pre-order. Hopefully, the entire run of this statue is not like this "compressed head" Obi. Even the paint looks bad.

 

[The Josh]

Bob I hope you can get this worked out for ya because I would hate to see you getting stuck with this thing. This is crappy for you guys if you get stuck with this.

 

[tomandshell]

Several people are taking the position that they should "vote with their wallets" and cancel their order as a way of sending a message to Gentle Giant about subpar product and crappy quality control. Sadly, GG has sold out the run already, and distributors like Diamond have sold to retailers with the provision that the final product may vary. Then those retailers sold to us. Now, if we cancel our orders, the retailers will be stuck with them and their distributors won't allow them to be returned. If they refuse delivery then they could hurt themselves on future orders. Gentle Giant doesn't sell direct like Sideshow, so they aren't the ones who have to worry about mass cancellations--they are getting their money no matter what. To them it's a sold out product and a success. It's the retailers that are really going to be hurt by this--and that is just plain WRONG! The ones who actually interact with and take care of the customers are the ones who will suffer, while GG and Diamond sit back and count their money.

 

[DouglasMcc]

Okay, now let me start out by saying that I agree 100% ... that looks terrible. However, you can still see the original sculpt in the production pics. Its just the face and, especially the chin and mouth area, has been stretched out. In fact, it reminded me of the graveyard/ Necronomicon scene from Army of Darkness. GG paint jobs almost never match the original, so that was to be expected. Its the sculpts that usually save the pieces. Unfortunately, they were 0-2 with this item It also reminds me of what happened with the SSC Willow sculpt. However, the Willow issue had a lot to do with the head being hollow and being removed from the mold too fast. But the statues are solid pieces, so I don't see how that could be the same thing. Either way, I knew after picking up Jabba' throne from Fireside (Thanks Bob), that I was going to have to drop a high ticket item. I agonized over the decision the last few days. Well, thanks GG... you just made the decision easy. However, if you FUBAR my slave Leia, heads will roll :maul

 

[DouglasMcc]

Several people are taking the position that they should "vote with their wallets" and cancel their order as a way of sending a message to Gentle Giant about subpar product and crappy quality control. Sadly, GG has sold out the run already, and distributors like Diamond have sold to retailers with the provision that the final product may vary. Then those retailers sold to us. Now, if we cancel our orders, the retailers will be stuck with them and their distributors won't allow them to be returned. If they refuse delivery then they could hurt themselves on future orders. Gentle Giant doesn't sell direct like Sideshow, so they aren't the ones who have to worry about mass cancellations--they are getting their money no matter what. To them it's a sold out product and a success. It's the retailers that are really going to be hurt by this--and that is just plain WRONG! The ones who actually interact with and take care of the customers are the ones who will suffer, while GG and Diamond sit back and count their money.

I understand that GG won't be hurt in the short run. And I am sorry that good sites (like Bob's) will be hurt on this. However, this WILL catch up with Gentle Giant. I promise you that, if retailers get burned on this, they will order less product next time. This loss of revenue will be filtered back. Plus, if we, the consumers, raise a big enough fuss, GG will have to address the issue. This may not save our Obi, but it will reign them in. Let them know, "Okay, crap, these guys are going to start dropping us like hot potatoes if we don't straighten these issues out. We HAVE to speak with out wallets. Its just sad that good people like the Godfather get hurt in the process.

 

[The Godfather]

Dont get me wrong this kinda thing happens all the time and there isn't really much we can do about it other than complain. I guess I am just more upset as a collector than anything because I thought this statue rocked. Sure we will take cancellations on it ect but in the end that is the bussiness. The same thing happens when someone says the edition is 500 and it comes out as 2000. I am just shocked at how different the Production picture is from the Final Product. As a dealer I don't want my customers to be upset with me over selling one thing and shipping another. Douglasmcc is right to an extent dealers will probably order less but in the end unless you think people are going to stop collecting GG items over this one that will not last long. Maybe the next couple statues won't sell as well but when they are good and have an edition that was lower that it would have normally been it all goes back to normal.