Expecting Too Much?

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phc35

phc35

A Fixture
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
951
Location
Sylvania, Ohio
Having Sunday drivin back home from the Chicago Show,I bid the wife adeu and
descended into MAN LAND(the basement) to fondle my new illgotten booty.Opening
2 shrinked wapped packages,I found mould shift on both of the figs.Not very major
,but irritating to me to pay almost $50.00 for 2 54's.Another kit has the coat tales
in mutiple pieces and no directions as to the best seqence to put the pieces on.Again not a major problem,I'll figure it out,but a pain it seems to me.Is it me
or after inspecting these kits and previous posts on figs and anatomy are companys not putting much effort into putting out the best product? IT looked
like an averge 54 is around $25,70's in the $50 range and one kit I spied was at
$210.00!!!

Just a rant.

Jay :angry:
 
Jay, Seems like a lack of quality control to me, and NO you're not asking too much. If you're buying from vendors at the show ask to open the kit to examine it from now on. Not only do consumers need to let manufacturers know of these problems but the vendors as well.~Gary
 
Jay - I completely agree with you and what's been said by Rocco and Gary. And - in my humble opinion, some manufacturers ARE doing less quality control, rushing to produce, etc.

NOT ALL. Guys like Jon Smith and Steve Warrilow - "independents" - are still doing a great job of QC. And when you find even a minor mistake - all you have to do is bring it to their attention and either one will make it right always!

Personally, I'm becoming wary of Verlinden and Model Cellar. I've bought stuff from them with serious casting flaws - correctable ones, like yours. BUT - why should we put up with it? Complain! Name the makers. Let's use the buyership of this forum to get our complaints heard and felt! Maybe we should have a new forum - "Complaints Registry" - clearly and dispassionately identifying serious problems with specific kits. Post photos of the problems. The complaint comments would have to be controlled, mature, objective and subject to proof, but it could be made to work, I believe.

All the best,
Dan
 
I don't want to outright name the names for fear of waking up with a horse head
but one of the companies was one discussed previously about anatomy problems.
Roc E-MAIL me off site and I would be glad to share.

Jay ;)
 
Hi Guys

I've got to come in on this one.

I have had several bad experiences recently with white metal figures from European manufacturers, some of which are down to poor quality control, others to bad or downright awful sculpting. I can't single out a particular manufacturer as these problems relate to products by several of the better known ones.

I think we do have a right to expect things to be better than they often are, and for me, there is no excuse for putting out poorly cast or badly sculpted items in the hope that the modelling fraternity will swallow them.

Let's face it, if Tamiya put out a P-51 kit and there are three rivets in the wrong place, there is uproar. Why then, should figure modellers/painters just shrug their shoulders and consign a poor product to the grey army, without giving feedback.

I used to edit a small newsletter a few years ago in which we (the subscribers) endeavoured to give accurate appraisals of figures and associated products and publications. I upset a lot of folk by telling it like we saw it. Apart from being labelled by some as an anarchistic reactionary, my attempt to bring some honesty into the hobby made me PNG with some folk for quite a while.

Hell, I do this figure thing 'cos I love it, but I do object to paying out hard earned cash for something that has got half a face, odd eyes and 1mm mould steps across the important details.

I agree, we should have a lot more clout with manufacturers but unless we vote with our wallets, they ain't going to give a *. I have stopped buying certain manufacturers stuff recently, as I don't need any more fishing weights.

Just my two penneth ;)

Phil
 
Robert, I also bought a couple of Soldiers figures. The flash is indeed terrible but it can be corrected, other commodities though that can also be corrected, I don't even bothered. For example the head of one of the figures was very bad casted, some putty would fix it, but instead i e-mailed them, and within a week they send me 2 spare heads free of charge. Something similar happened with Pegaso too. I believe that companies do care, otherwise they lose customers. If you feel like you paid more for a low quality figure, e-mail them and let them know.Ask them to replace any pieces that give you trouble and i'm sure that they will do so.
From now on, that's what i will do, and so far i had no problems.
Of course when you pay that much for a figure you expect the best right out off the box, but sometimes it doesn't happen.
Complaining in forums, it won't help that much, instead let the company know your problem. Simple, if they ignore you, they lose a customer. :)
 
I agree with you Robert, and when i said complaining to forums, i was not meant your example necceserelly. In this forum there are sculptors hanging around that work for big companies so they get the messages. Living in the states it could be a problem with European companies, but when you have spent so much money for a figure, a few e-mails and effort i think worths it.
Regarding the whole body that you said, I had bought a figure from Art Girona, and in some spots of the main body there were bubbles from casting. I didn't even bother to try and fix it. I e-mailed them, and within a week a brand new body arrived to my house free of charge.
 
"My situation with Andrea currently is exasperating. I politely e-mailed asking for a replacement part. I got a reply that I needed a coupon form. So, I e-mailed back with all the information on the only piece of paper in the kit (which was factory sealed). I got a reply that they would then need a "copy" of that coupon."

I hear you Robert. I had a similar experience with the same company. A few yeras ago, I bought a kit that was missing a scabbard. I contacted them and did everything they requested only to be sent a letter saying that they would indeed send me the part once I had sent them 11 euros for S/H :angry:
 
Hi all

I must say that I too feel that the quality of certain manufacturers is appaling and were it not for that fact that I have been modelling for a few years and I can sculpt a little many figures wiuld remain in their boxes.

I remeber the quality of Poste Militaire and I regarded this unbelievable. Little or no filling was required and the castings were spot on. Real quality control. Ok they were not as dynamic in pose as many of today but I think only Metal Modeles comes close.

Andrea can be terrible and need a lot of clean up (I need a replacement spetacle for my Gepettos dream. I was gonig to write to thm but after reading this post may not bother. Does anyone have a spare.)

Pegaso can be really bad as Art Girona. Elite are usually ok as are Latorre but my latest from these had serious mould allignment problems.

I buy the figures because I like them but sometimes 2-3 days of clean up and resculpting can put you off. By the time its ready the paint urge has gone.

Could we not start a score system on this site for manufacturers. Then anyone new to the company could see what to expect.

If we delivered a score for each kit-strictly on quality of casting not on the actual kit-an average could be taken and overtime the score would go up od down depending on their quality control.

For example

Poste Militaire would get 9/10
Metal Modeles 9/10
Andrea 5/6
Art Girona 5
etc (these are purely my opinions)

Thanks and regards to all

Graham
 
Robert, from Soldiers i never got a reply on my email. I received the bad pieces in around a week though, just like that. No notices or anything. That would do for me anyway since i got what i wanted even if they never replied on my email.
Same with Art Girona. They never replied, but they send the good piece in a week or 10 days time. So my guess is that you will never get a reply, but the replacement piece instead... hopefully :)

Xenofon
 

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