QMx: 1/6 Firefly - Captain Malcolm Reynolds

[slamscaper]

Ahhh daaaaaaaammmmmmnnnnn.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

(sigh)

 

[slamscaper]

./wrists

 

[huntethan2]

Well, turns out that buying that beautiful custom from Marfmaster last year was my best decision in a long time. Anyways, this is a disappointment: I had one in pre-order hoping to use it as a gift for a friend, but I just canceled my order yesterday. The worst thing is that unless somehow sales go well with the Firefly fans not used to the currrent 1:6 standards, the future of the line (and our chances of seeing the rest of the crew) now looks quite grim

 

[karamazov80]

Hmm seems Sideshow isn't the only one with QC issues in big head and altered department. So how much to put a plastic manufacturer back in America? I here Kenner's old warehouse still there wonder if injection molding in USA would be better.

Yeah, it's too bad, but it looks like you have to have locals on the ground working the factories if, like Hot Toys and ThreeZero, you want to make sure you get a quality product. SSC doesn't get my business on many 1/6 scale figures anymore for this reason. Production Ash will probably look more like this figure than the prototype we saw at SDCC.

 

[stshammgod]

I sold my custom awhile back in anticipation of this. Just goes to show you, unless it's HT, it's a big gamble.

 

[HDGuy84]

QMX you essentially pulled bait and switch.

For shame. Jerks.

 

[slamscaper]

Bait and cancel.

 

[davejames]

Hmm seems Sideshow isn't the only one with QC issues in big head and altered department. So how much to put a plastic manufacturer back in America? I here Kenner's old warehouse still there wonder if injection molding in USA would be better.

Yeah I could understand if they had to go a cheaper route with the paint application... but they couldn't even find a producer who could make a good casting of the head or make it at the right basic size at least?!?

I mean, seriously QMX?

 

[rjszar]

As I said before, you expect a drop in quality for the production piece. I can live with that. BUT SERIOUSLY, somebody at QMx has to explain how the headsculpt increased in size. If anything a sculpt shrinks when it is cast, not the other way around. This deserves an explanation.

 

[anwe]

Let's see..
..the original factory couldn't do the quality required. They (Qmx) were recommended a new factory by another company. That company is considered the gold standard in the business. The new factory churned out pre-production figures that were better than the prototype. Do I remember this correctly? WTF happened here?

With the first figure of the series looking like this I can't imagine it will sell that well. And since this first figure was supposedly more expensive to produce than expected the rest would have to come in at a higher price. Things are looking grim.

If this really is the result of that new factory the person recommending it in the first place should be forcibly conscripted into the army and be put before a firing squad. Or barring that at least get a good kick in the balls.

Meanwhile TNG Picard is looking ok and that one is not a prototype..

How will they save this? Buy the next Firefly figure, the exclusive is a good Mal head?

 

[rjszar]

How will they save this? Buy the next Firefly figure, the exclusive is a good Mal head?

I would go for that. Why not? Asmus is doing that for their Gandalf the White figure. Buy, the new Gandalf the Grey and get the new Gandalf the White head to replace the original. If it saves the figure, do it.

 

[davejames]

Heck at this point I would take just an unpainted casting that someone poured in their garage! It would probably still be a massive improvement over this one.

 

[DBoz]

I would go for that. Why not? Asmus is doing that for their Gandalf the White figure. Buy, the new Gandalf the Grey and get the new Gandalf the White head to replace the original. If it saves the figure, do it.

That's bull-**** and a bad precedent to set for the hobby. If the head is so bad, you shouldn't have to buy a whole new figure to fix it.

 

[stshammgod]

Yes, delaying this long to "get Mal right" only to have it come out like THAT is seriously bad.

 

[slamscaper]

They ignored my next two messages. Oh well.

 

[HDGuy84]

Let's see..
..the original factory couldn't do the quality required. They (Qmx) were recommended a new factory by another company. That company is considered the gold standard in the business. The new factory churned out pre-production figures that were better than the prototype. Do I remember this correctly? WTF happened here?

With the first figure of the series looking like this I can't imagine it will sell that well. And since this first figure was supposedly more expensive to produce than expected the rest would have to come in at a higher price. Things are looking grim.

If this really is the result of that new factory the person recommending it in the first place should be forcibly conscripted into the army and be put before a firing squad. Or barring that at least get a good kick in the balls.

Meanwhile TNG Picard is looking ok and that one is not a prototype..

How will they save this? Buy the next Firefly figure, the exclusive is a good Mal head?

My theory is the first production company was doing great- hence the prototype.

But they wanted to charge more to produce.

Which would explain the BBTS preorder fumble of $159.99 to "the corrected price of $179.99" a week or so later. They had to bump the price to turn a fair profit, but also go with another production company that produces less than stellar quality.

QMX is forever labeled "goofs" in my book now.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

I feel for QMX. For the record, I believe them saying that the first factory wasn't doing well and then went to the second one which was supposed to be better. Unfortunately, better is still not good enough. Look at it from their point of view. They have sunk thousands of dollars and months of work into that great prototype. They spent more time and money at that first factory. Who knows if they got their money back. Chances are they didn't. Then they went all in with this new factory and got less than perfect product. I'm sure the money has already been spent for the production. At the very least they probably had to pay a hefty deposit to get the job started, and perhaps a second or third payment along the way. The factory isn't going to give it back--they've already done the work and they have to pay their employees after all. Factory work at that level isn't "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back". So now they're out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for all these figures that everyone is now canceling! They really don't have much choice. Either eat the costs of all these figures, or try and sell them anyway. At least they'll get a little bit of that money back.

It's not fair to the customers, especially those that have already pre-ordered. But QXM is really in a difficult position. A loss like this could very well mean bankruptcy.

 

[davejames]

Yeah I realize it's probably not the way they wanted the final product to turn out, but regardless, they got a lot of people excited for this figure and promised us big things... and yet still totally fumbled at the end. And surely they could have done some better research beforehand, before fully committing to one factory or another?

 

[karamazov80]

I just cancelled my pre-order. I was going to hold off and see if what we saw at SDCC could maybe possibly still be improved a bit, but the silence by QMX tells me that there won't be any further changes made.