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Post by casanova on May 23, 2023 1:50:15 GMT -5
I think it’s more likely there will be a new figure company announced doing hasbro style figures before we get another figure from any of these companies in hand Looking forward to seeing who they will sign and how the concept art look.
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on May 24, 2023 1:32:02 GMT -5
Will Epic have any of their planned retros out before Christmas this year? We're nearly 6 months in and they've just about finished getting Chella's stuff out from moons ago. as far as I'm aware, their expectation is to get Chella Series 2 out (Haku/Tanga/BWO) and their hope is that will begin in the next few weeks (I believe they were hoping it would be well underway in May, but it's been held back to June) so presumably should be completed in July?
from there, Wrestling Trader's "era" of Epic are going live with preorders for Demolition and Powers of Pain at some point in June, with a view to shipping figures with a much shorter timeframe from preorder close to shipping figures. Whether that means that figures will be in collectors hands by the end of August remains to be seen, but they're saying it will definitely be a lot quicker than anything Chella did
personally I think these companies will need to stop preorders, and just move to a direct sales approach - company pays to manufacture the figures (they have enough data to work out the optimum volume needed to generate solid profit, without oversupply for a manufacturer to begin an initial run of figures) and then sell them direct to customers with immediate shipping. no more waiting months on end, and if Epic aren't doing this before January 2024, they'll struggle to keep interest from the market
Correct, hopefully end of June for series 2 and Demo and PoP going up for pre-order shortly after with a very shortened lead time. At the moment the pre-orders are more to know a rough amount to make rather than making capital (will be an element of that though) but we are almost at the end of the tunnel as collectors.
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@Chair.Shot
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WF 10+ Year Member
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Post by @Chair.Shot on May 31, 2023 7:38:49 GMT -5
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Post by biggerbetterbadder on May 31, 2023 7:46:55 GMT -5
They look amazing. Would love to get them, but how long will it take to get them? I ordered Haku last year on July 4. Almost a year now. I’m patient, but ordering a figure and waiting a year is a bit much.
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on May 31, 2023 8:01:23 GMT -5
They look amazing. Would love to get them, but how long will it take to get them? I ordered Haku last year on July 4. Almost a year now. I’m patient, but ordering a figure and waiting a year is a bit much. Obviously the year wait will not happen again. Major part of the wait was the messy takeover delaying things. Wait times will be significantly cut going forward
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@Chair.Shot
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Post by @Chair.Shot on May 31, 2023 8:14:29 GMT -5
They look amazing. Would love to get them, but how long will it take to get them? I ordered Haku last year on July 4. Almost a year now. I’m patient, but ordering a figure and waiting a year is a bit much. Obviously the year wait will not happen again. Major part of the wait was the messy takeover delaying things. Wait times will be significantly cut going forward Ok but they only have 10 months that they can work on figures due to their winter holiday followed by Chinese New Year. Better crack that whip!
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britishbrickfan
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Post by britishbrickfan on May 31, 2023 9:30:12 GMT -5
Obviously the year wait will not happen again. Major part of the wait was the messy takeover delaying things. Wait times will be significantly cut going forward Ok but they only have 10 months that they can work on figures due to their winter holiday followed by Chinese New Year. Better crack that whip! I hope that behind the scenes, they're already working hard on getting prototypes knocked up and final versions signed off for Series 3 and beyond - there is plenty of time to work on a number of figures behind the scenes, and get a number of the upcoming figures actually "signed off" so they can just enter production when they're ready, doing that would easily speed the process up somewhat
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@Chair.Shot
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Post by @Chair.Shot on May 31, 2023 9:55:40 GMT -5
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Post by casanova on May 31, 2023 13:26:03 GMT -5
I’m still missing my Brownstacks or Big Daddy. Honestly don’t remember which one is missing. They promised me to send them both together as the order must have been forgotten. I got just one. I closed the box and decided I am done with whoever is running this dumb company. I really like Warlord and Barbarian but I am not gping to order anything if I don’t get my figures.
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on May 31, 2023 14:05:09 GMT -5
Ok but they only have 10 months that they can work on figures due to their winter holiday followed by Chinese New Year. Better crack that whip! I hope that behind the scenes, they're already working hard on getting prototypes knocked up and final versions signed off for Series 3 and beyond - there is plenty of time to work on a number of figures behind the scenes, and get a number of the upcoming figures actually "signed off" so they can just enter production when they're ready, doing that would easily speed the process up somewhat The pipeline is constantly moving as you can imagine, it’s not a case of finishing series 2 and then holding off for a few months before thinking about series 3 and the future standalone figures, it’s not a case of getting the flow rather than them just being in line.
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on May 31, 2023 14:06:34 GMT -5
I’m still missing my Brownstacks or Big Daddy. Honestly don’t remember which one is missing. They promised me to send them both together as the order must have been forgotten. I got just one. I closed the box and decided I am done with whoever is running this dumb company. I really like Warlord and Barbarian but I am not gping to order anything if I don’t get my figures. There’s still some combo orders waiting for Haystacks as a load arrived damaged, they are coming from the warehouse and WT do have loose ones if you would prefer not to wait any longer
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Post by casanova on Jun 1, 2023 2:00:25 GMT -5
I’m still missing my Brownstacks or Big Daddy. Honestly don’t remember which one is missing. They promised me to send them both together as the order must have been forgotten. I got just one. I closed the box and decided I am done with whoever is running this dumb company. I really like Warlord and Barbarian but I am not gping to order anything if I don’t get my figures. There’s still some combo orders waiting for Haystacks as a load arrived damaged, they are coming from the warehouse and WT do have loose ones if you would prefer not to wait any longer I would’ve preferred to receive just what the promised. If I am told these will be send together, I am just expecting that. Unfortunately it rounds up a picture of an overburdened shop that trys to be better than their predecessors but simply fails. The fact that we never got any shipping notifications shows that there is absolutely no structure. The backlog was said to be cleared by the end of 22 first, than Feb 23. We habe June now and still not everything is cleared. There is no reliable timetable. I know WT is not responsible for Chella screwing up. But they are responsible for their amateurish handling since they took over. They way they habe presented themselves makes me doubt they will be any better than the original Chella team.
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britishbrickfan
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Post by britishbrickfan on Jun 1, 2023 2:13:22 GMT -5
I think the problem here is WT are trying to represent the company in a professional way, without directly casting negative light on the predecessor management. I'm not saying this needs to be a witchhunt, but it's obvious from the various interviews that Luke has had since taking over that he wants to say more than he can about the reasons behind the failure to deliver figures to hand. That said, I agree there needs to be better communication, including setting expectations around timescales for deliveries. If shipments are on the water, there will be an ETA for arrival at UK ports. Obviously customs clearance is a factor, but there must be a way to properly communicate something like "We expect to receive the shipment containing your figures in 4 weeks, it will take a few days to work through the packaging and posting of your items, but we hope you'll receive your outstanding figures in approx. 6 weeks." At least that would be better than radio silence for those who are still waiting for Series 1 figures. I know WT are a small team, but they're focusing on a lot right now, and the last thing they need is further aggro from their customers who are still waiting for figures that were damaged in transit. re. packaging in general, it is a serious issue for many collectors if figures come in damaged cards/bubbles as it detracts from (perceived) future value of the item. If the factory have failed to adequately package/ship these figures, that's for WT to take up with the factory and address via contract level negotiations, but they actually have a regular platform to use to communicate to their customers - 3poajamie what using the podcast to give people a direct line from Luke? being open and honest with the audience would be handy here, especially if they're trying to rebuild faith ahead of Demo/PoP coming up for order
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on Jun 1, 2023 2:52:41 GMT -5
There’s still some combo orders waiting for Haystacks as a load arrived damaged, they are coming from the warehouse and WT do have loose ones if you would prefer not to wait any longer I would’ve preferred to receive just what the promised. If I am told these will be send together, I am just expecting that. Unfortunately it rounds up a picture of an overburdened shop that trys to be better than their predecessors but simply fails. The fact that we never got any shipping notifications shows that there is absolutely no structure. The backlog was said to be cleared by the end of 22 first, than Feb 23. We habe June now and still not everything is cleared. There is no reliable timetable. I know WT is not responsible for Chella screwing up. But they are responsible for their amateurish handling since they took over. They way they habe presented themselves makes me doubt they will be any better than the original Chella team. I get that but they can not be held accountable for a load of stock arriving damaged surely? Easy in hindsight to say “should have done this, should have done that” but it was either they took over and sorted the mess over time or we just didn’t get the figures and potentially had a bigger headache of trying to get a refund off Chella. Which would not have been an easy get
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3poajamie
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Joined on: Dec 1, 2022 17:45:37 GMT -5
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Post by 3poajamie on Jun 1, 2023 3:00:12 GMT -5
I think the problem here is WT are trying to represent the company in a professional way, without directly casting negative light on the predecessor management. I'm not saying this needs to be a witchhunt, but it's obvious from the various interviews that Luke has had since taking over that he wants to say more than he can about the reasons behind the failure to deliver figures to hand. That said, I agree there needs to be better communication, including setting expectations around timescales for deliveries. If shipments are on the water, there will be an ETA for arrival at UK ports. Obviously customs clearance is a factor, but there must be a way to properly communicate something like "We expect to receive the shipment containing your figures in 4 weeks, it will take a few days to work through the packaging and posting of your items, but we hope you'll receive your outstanding figures in approx. 6 weeks." At least that would be better than radio silence for those who are still waiting for Series 1 figures. I know WT are a small team, but they're focusing on a lot right now, and the last thing they need is further aggro from their customers who are still waiting for figures that were damaged in transit. re. packaging in general, it is a serious issue for many collectors if figures come in damaged cards/bubbles as it detracts from (perceived) future value of the item. If the factory have failed to adequately package/ship these figures, that's for WT to take up with the factory and address via contract level negotiations, but they actually have a regular platform to use to communicate to their customers - 3poajamie what using the podcast to give people a direct line from Luke? being open and honest with the audience would be handy here, especially if they're trying to rebuild faith ahead of Demo/PoP coming up for order The card issue has been addressed with the factory, will not happen again. We get regular updates from Luke and Kate and that is what we give on the Epic Podcast episode, as they pay for air shipping at the moment rather than boat it takes around a week from factory to WT. Joey variants will be with us in 2/3 weeks, series 2 towards the end of this month and then Greg shortly after
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britishbrickfan
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Post by britishbrickfan on Jun 1, 2023 5:35:55 GMT -5
The card issue has been addressed with the factory, will not happen again. We get regular updates from Luke and Kate and that is what we give on the Epic Podcast episode, as they pay for air shipping at the moment rather than boat it takes around a week from factory to WT. Joey variants will be with us in 2/3 weeks, series 2 towards the end of this month and then Greg shortly after air shipping FTW!!!!!!
I know boat is cheaper, but this is a great way to rebuild confidence in the line given the volume of backlog they've had (seriously though, if you'd just dropped that as an update on this week's pod, that would have been a great heads up!)
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3poajamie
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Post by 3poajamie on Jun 1, 2023 5:54:25 GMT -5
The card issue has been addressed with the factory, will not happen again. We get regular updates from Luke and Kate and that is what we give on the Epic Podcast episode, as they pay for air shipping at the moment rather than boat it takes around a week from factory to WT. Joey variants will be with us in 2/3 weeks, series 2 towards the end of this month and then Greg shortly after air shipping FTW!!!!!!
I know boat is cheaper, but this is a great way to rebuild confidence in the line given the volume of backlog they've had (seriously though, if you'd just dropped that as an update on this week's pod, that would have been a great heads up!)
We did mention it takes a week from the factory being shipped to get to Epic to then ship out but you’re right, we didn’t mentioned air shipping. Air costs a bucket more but they are just as keen to get these in people’s hands as the customers so will be worth every penny.
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rtec1
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Post by rtec1 on Jun 1, 2023 8:27:30 GMT -5
I think the communication argument is a bit harsh to be honest. From where I’ve been looking it seems that there’s quite regular updates on here and social media from Epic/WT. And from someone who’s bought plenty from Neca, Super7 and Mezco amongst others the wait for figures in hand is very often over a year, and a lot of the time with zero updates or ever changing date updates that I find more irritating than no update at all. Just seems that Epic/WT are still taking the brunt of the flack of Chellas making.
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The People's Poet
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“Alright, if I'm a virgin, how come I know what a girl's bottom looks like?”
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Post by The People's Poet on Jun 1, 2023 17:13:34 GMT -5
I'm totally pissed off with Wrestling Trader to be honest. I'm still waiting on the original Dynamite & Blue Haystacks figures. Last I was told…
“Thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in responding.
We recently posted an updated about an unexpected delay to orders with Blue Haystacks. Unfortunately, a lot of the stock we inherited of these was significantly damaged, so we are currently waiting for replacements from the factory. These are due in soon so we’ll get your items to you as soon as we can.
I appreciate the wait is frustrating, and we are grateful for your patience.”
You know when I received this this response? APRIL 6TH! & nothing since.
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Jonny Flashback
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Post by Jonny Flashback on Jun 2, 2023 1:58:38 GMT -5
I'm totally pissed off with Wrestling Trader to be honest. I'm still waiting on the original Dynamite & Blue Haystacks figures. Last I was told… “Thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in responding. We recently posted an updated about an unexpected delay to orders with Blue Haystacks. Unfortunately, a lot of the stock we inherited of these was significantly damaged, so we are currently waiting for replacements from the factory. These are due in soon so we’ll get your items to you as soon as we can. I appreciate the wait is frustrating, and we are grateful for your patience.” You know when I received this this response? APRIL 6TH! & nothing since. Because the new blue Stacks aren't in yet. Chill man. You could have opted for loose if you were in a hurry
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