3poajamie
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Joined on: Dec 1, 2022 17:45:37 GMT -5
Posts: 660
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Post by 3poajamie on Aug 23, 2023 7:27:06 GMT -5
Sometimes things just don’t work the way you wish. Creating your own business always also involves try and error. Surely ZST didn’t expect the production process, the chinese manufacturers, the shipping and what not to be the way they actually are. There will occur issues where you don’t expect them at the beginning and other things might even go a little easier. Also when you have reached a certain process you don’t want to risk it by trying to fasten it up by changes. I can totally understand that. I rather get 1 wave per year and have a good quality set than receive figures like Smoketrain in a few weeks. I so hate to be right. These are already looking cheaper than the prototypes. I can already here the rubber sound when moving the arms… http://instagram.com/p/CwRa2xgMJjn I’m in the same camp as you for this, would totally rather wait for a good product than a rushed one (pun sort of intended) Then again I would rather not have delays due to someone cheaping out on the shipping rather than paying to have it delivered quicker to prevent a longer delay, 2-3 months on sea when it could have been 2 weeks is a bit annoying. Must be how he got 200k profit from series 1 I guess |
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maniac80
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Joined on: Mar 27, 2014 9:39:20 GMT -5
Posts: 181 
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Post by maniac80 on Aug 23, 2023 7:44:39 GMT -5
Received my Chella (Epic) Toys King Haku figure this week and it is pretty decent. Yes, he is too skinny and the crown doesn't fit as well as I would have liked, but the likeness is good and he fills a hole in my Hasbro/Retro collection.
I also received the shipping notification for my Rush Collectibles Larry Zbyszko. I don't want to judge this until I have it in hand, but chances are I will put this straight on eBay and try to make some of my money back.
The only Retros that are now outstanding for me are Andre, Bundy and Brody from ZST. Once I have these in hand, I think I am done pre-ordering from any of these smaller companies. If a figure that I like is released, I will take my chances on the secondary market.
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britishbrickfan
Superstar
Joined on: Aug 19, 2019 7:02:28 GMT -5
Posts: 984
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Post by britishbrickfan on Aug 23, 2023 7:55:54 GMT -5
Sometimes things just don’t work the way you wish. Creating your own business always also involves try and error. Surely ZST didn’t expect the production process, the chinese manufacturers, the shipping and what not to be the way they actually are. There will occur issues where you don’t expect them at the beginning and other things might even go a little easier. Also when you have reached a certain process you don’t want to risk it by trying to fasten it up by changes. I can totally understand that. I rather get 1 wave per year and have a good quality set than receive figures like Smoketrain in a few weeks. the problem for Zombie is, he's got about 50 talent signed and is yet to release their figures, and at best is managing to put out less than 10 a year
how many of those talent are locked into an exclusive contract which limits their options for pursuing further figure deals with other manufacturers until ZST has released their figure? or how many of those contracts have a time limit which expires soon?
also, Zombie is responsible for everything about his business - blaming "the production process" is an easy get-out-of-jail card for someone who claimed to have scoured the industry to find the best factory for his figures. Now he can't even get them delivered in a reasonable timeframe because "I don't control the ships", well air shipping is a viable option, he just doesn't want to pay for it.
if something isn't right with the ZST business model, he can change it. the fact he refuses to do so proves he has no interest in scaling up or building out his business to be able to handle the level of hype he's associated to his brand
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Post by casanova on Aug 23, 2023 9:42:54 GMT -5
Sometimes things just don’t work the way you wish. Creating your own business always also involves try and error. Surely ZST didn’t expect the production process, the chinese manufacturers, the shipping and what not to be the way they actually are. There will occur issues where you don’t expect them at the beginning and other things might even go a little easier. Also when you have reached a certain process you don’t want to risk it by trying to fasten it up by changes. I can totally understand that. I rather get 1 wave per year and have a good quality set than receive figures like Smoketrain in a few weeks. the problem for Zombie is, he's got about 50 talent signed and is yet to release their figures, and at best is managing to put out less than 10 a year
how many of those talent are locked into an exclusive contract which limits their options for pursuing further figure deals with other manufacturers until ZST has released their figure? or how many of those contracts have a time limit which expires soon?
also, Zombie is responsible for everything about his business - blaming "the production process" is an easy get-out-of-jail card for someone who claimed to have scoured the industry to find the best factory for his figures. Now he can't even get them delivered in a reasonable timeframe because "I don't control the ships", well air shipping is a viable option, he just doesn't want to pay for it.
if something isn't right with the ZST business model, he can change it. the fact he refuses to do so proves he has no interest in scaling up or building out his business to be able to handle the level of hype he's associated to his brand
Honestly when someone with the social media behavior of ZST is openly claiming he made 200k, I’d rather expect the opposite being the truth. Most likely he has failed reaching his profit aims and had to compensate by the claim above. Of course I have no insight, but I have a pretty good relation to money. Earning a profit of 200k is not easy, and it is definitely nothing you do every day. Especially with a set of 6 figures that does cost around 40 a figure it is highly unlikely. I doubt it. However if he did indeed make that profit, there is no reason to change anything as the business model is already working. In this case MAJOR RESPECT to him. |
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Post by newgenandy on Aug 23, 2023 10:38:38 GMT -5
Sometimes things just don’t work the way you wish. Creating your own business always also involves try and error. Surely ZST didn’t expect the production process, the chinese manufacturers, the shipping and what not to be the way they actually are. There will occur issues where you don’t expect them at the beginning and other things might even go a little easier. Also when you have reached a certain process you don’t want to risk it by trying to fasten it up by changes. I can totally understand that. I rather get 1 wave per year and have a good quality set than receive figures like Smoketrain in a few weeks. 1 wave per year would be fine if we were not told the process would be quicker when infact it had taken as long as series 1 Constantly over promising and next delivering at best disappoints, at worse could appear to just be lying. Neither are good. Customer service 101, under promise and over deliver |
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jlaf77
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Oct 1, 2020 21:50:14 GMT -5
Posts: 377
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Post by jlaf77 on Aug 23, 2023 11:45:43 GMT -5
Sometimes things just don’t work the way you wish. Creating your own business always also involves try and error. Surely ZST didn’t expect the production process, the chinese manufacturers, the shipping and what not to be the way they actually are. There will occur issues where you don’t expect them at the beginning and other things might even go a little easier. Also when you have reached a certain process you don’t want to risk it by trying to fasten it up by changes. I can totally understand that. I rather get 1 wave per year and have a good quality set than receive figures like Smoketrain in a few weeks. I so hate to be right. These are already looking cheaper than the prototypes. I can already here the rubber sound when moving the arms… http://instagram.com/p/CwRa2xgMJjn Why are they yellow and not gold like shown in prototypes lol The color is way off and looks terrible |
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britishbrickfan
Superstar
Joined on: Aug 19, 2019 7:02:28 GMT -5
Posts: 984
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Post by britishbrickfan on Aug 23, 2023 15:06:23 GMT -5
Why are they yellow and not gold like shown in prototypes lol The color is way off and looks terrible the figures are yellow, not gold. they've been yellow for some time (there's a few pics earlier showing the torsos during production) so they definitely aren't gold plastic, nor are they being painted gold afterwards |
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@Chair.Shot
Main Eventer
WF 10+ Year Member
Joined on: Jan 31, 2012 4:38:24 GMT -5
Posts: 4,881
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Post by @Chair.Shot on Aug 23, 2023 15:10:28 GMT -5
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Post by newgenandy on Aug 23, 2023 15:34:14 GMT -5
What makes it worse is the card is clearly gold so it accentuates the colour difference.
They should’ve at least photoshopped the card like mattel do to match the figure
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jlaf77
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Joined on: Oct 1, 2020 21:50:14 GMT -5
Posts: 377
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Post by jlaf77 on Aug 23, 2023 17:57:28 GMT -5
Why are they yellow and not gold like shown in prototypes lol The color is way off and looks terrible the figures are yellow, not gold. they've been yellow for some time (there's a few pics earlier showing the torsos during production) so they definitely aren't gold plastic, nor are they being painted gold afterwards Prototypes were way better. They are now a yellow that can't even pass for gold. I think mitch just wants to get his figures out a lot quicker than other companies so he let this slide. No way this should have been approved. They look ridiculous |
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mrh
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Joined on: Sept 1, 2018 0:11:53 GMT -5
Posts: 3,467
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Post by mrh on Aug 23, 2023 19:24:39 GMT -5
The prototype and the final look like two separate figures.
He's going to lose goodwill if he keeps doing that
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@Chair.Shot
Main Eventer
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Joined on: Jan 31, 2012 4:38:24 GMT -5
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Post by @Chair.Shot on Aug 23, 2023 20:26:54 GMT -5
I haven’t had a chance to watch the entire video but from what I watched, Mitch doubled-down on his decision to change the colors. The reasoning? He felt Hasbros were more vivid so his figures should be too. So he compares them to Akeem and Crush….I commented on the video but this time I really hope people let him have it. Doing this AFTER people have paid for it is not cool. www.instagram.com/reel/CwTsWrhsPDY/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== |
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Post by hitmancmedge on Aug 23, 2023 20:37:00 GMT -5
They looked great before, these look cheap and as we all know these things aren’t cheap. I really hope the buyers start weeding these guys out and stop giving them money for crap.
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jlaf77
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Joined on: Oct 1, 2020 21:50:14 GMT -5
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Post by jlaf77 on Aug 23, 2023 20:59:38 GMT -5
I saw mitch's video explaining his reasoning for changing the colors and while i understand it, there is no way he should have done something so drastic without input from his paying customers. He advertised a product looking one way and many people including myself preordered figuring that's how they would look and now the finished product is totally different. I get that things can change slightly from prototype to finish but this was a decision he made and not anything to do with the factory which is what i first thought happened so now hearing he chose this makes it even worse
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jlaf77
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Joined on: Oct 1, 2020 21:50:14 GMT -5
Posts: 377
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Post by jlaf77 on Aug 23, 2023 21:28:02 GMT -5
In my opinion mitch has the nice guy act down but he's nothing but a glorified scalper and seems very shady to me. If you don't preorder his product he charges more than double for it. 78 bucks for ahmed is insane. Why should someone be penalized because they wanted to wait and see what the final product looked like before handing their money to him. Not a good look for a start up company trying to build a loyal fan base.
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britishbrickfan
Superstar
Joined on: Aug 19, 2019 7:02:28 GMT -5
Posts: 984
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Post by britishbrickfan on Aug 23, 2023 23:55:28 GMT -5
They looked great before, these look cheap and as we all know these things aren’t cheap. I really hope the buyers start weeding these guys out and stop giving them money for crap. the problem is, buyers have only preliminary artwork or prototypes to go on when they're "preordering" these figures
then these cowboy companies start the production process, and the final result looks nothing like the preliminary artwork that customers paid money to buy a figure of
which is yet another reason why the preorder model needs to just die a death immediately and let these guys front up the cash required to make their own figures, so they have an incentive to make a product good enough to sell that will recoup their investment
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britishbrickfan
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Joined on: Aug 19, 2019 7:02:28 GMT -5
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Post by britishbrickfan on Aug 23, 2023 23:56:21 GMT -5
In my opinion mitch has the nice guy act down but he's nothing but a glorified scalper and seems very shady to me. If you don't preorder his product he charges more than double for it. 78 bucks for ahmed is insane. Why should someone be penalized because they wanted to wait and see what the final product looked like before handing their money to him. Not a good look for a start up company trying to build a loyal fan base. why is anyone paying for Ahmed at this stage?? it's a load of crap!! the figures fall apart due to the amount of corners they cut in production, there's literally no point buying one |
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mrh
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Joined on: Sept 1, 2018 0:11:53 GMT -5
Posts: 3,467
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Post by mrh on Aug 24, 2023 0:06:32 GMT -5
In my opinion mitch has the nice guy act down but he's nothing but a glorified scalper and seems very shady to me. If you don't preorder his product he charges more than double for it. 78 bucks for ahmed is insane. Why should someone be penalized because they wanted to wait and see what the final product looked like before handing their money to him. Not a good look for a start up company trying to build a loyal fan base.
I think Mitch has made mistakes, and the MOM figures look really bad after production.
BUT I do understand why pre-orders are less -- he is taking no risk. If you pre-order, he is making your figure to order. If you buy it after, he is taking the risk - because if it doesn't sell, he's stuck holding the bag. So he charges more.
You might disagree, but there is a rason
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CMW Toys
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Joined on: Apr 25, 2020 2:03:16 GMT -5
Posts: 490
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Post by CMW Toys on Aug 24, 2023 0:20:03 GMT -5
Ridiculous colour change. Comparing them to figures that actually wore that yellow is hilarious.
The proto looked really good. Colours looked great.
Its a shame for people that ordered this.
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westhejobroni
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Joined on: Aug 4, 2021 21:55:37 GMT -5
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Post by westhejobroni on Aug 24, 2023 1:27:59 GMT -5
Yeah I don't love the color change but I preordered them and will still sit in my display. I've probably set the bar too low given all the antics of these companies. I am glad that I will be getting these figures within the calendar year in which they are ordered which is something none of the other companies has been able to do. Mabel did look pretty good size wise compared to the Yoko and Mitch said its even heavier than Yoko hasbro so should be sturdy. The Save prototype he showed off looked spectacular and hopefully stays that way.
All of these companies are flawed to various degrees so I get it and have orders owed to me from all the retro companies. I give Mitch credit for getting the figures out quickly (I only have Ahmed which I am happy with), having a roster of guys who fit the hasbro timeframe in New Gen era, and he at least went on IG live to comment on it vs what many others have done.
I am still hyped for it, albeit less excited than before. The Epic Powers Of Pain have my attention and could be retro figures of the year with how they looked after seeing the recent pics.
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