Missing paint apps - a new trend?

[Dragonblaster]

I wanna reserve judgement until I see him outta the package, but from the packaged pic, boy does Horde Prime's proto look so much better with only the slightest amount of additional details! I mean, from the looks of it, he went from a mere 4 different paint colors to begin with (black, gray, silver and red) to ONE (red)?!?! Sheesh!!

It's nice to see I'm not the only one who is bothered by that.

[redsquadron]

I wanna reserve judgement until I see him outta the package, but from the packaged pic, boy does Horde Prime's proto look so much better with only the slightest amount of additional details! I mean, from the looks of it, he went from a mere 4 different paint colors to begin with (black, gray, silver and red) to ONE (red)?!?! Sheesh!!

Prototypes are often hand-painted, and the figure can (but not always) be sculpted from clay as opposed to plastic. That alone will give it a far better finish when photogrpahed, especially when compared to mass production plastic figure.

[snakeeyes0217]

I've got sad news for everyone...this is only going to happen more as China's middle class emerges demanding higher wages and therefore increasing prices of goods manufactured there. As prices go up, paint apps and accessories are the first things to go.

I've had to do this myself on many toys that I've designed. The factory will see the design, give you a price, and then after you've tooled it, turn around and say this is going to cost more than they quoted. You're so far down the road you can't say no to producing the product so you either increase the price or you cut deco.

We will have to continue to live with these things until we find another third world country (with a government controlled artificially devalued currency) to manufacture our toys.

[hlinhk128]

Maybe someone should start a thread with pics of decoed up prototypes and what the finished versions came out like. It also might be helpful to us who want to customize a bit on our figures, Stinkor will be feeling the wrath of my brush.

[darkmoon766]

I've had to do this myself on many toys that I've designed. The factory will see the design, give you a price, and then after you've tooled it, turn around and say this is going to cost more than they quoted. You're so far down the road you can't say no to producing the product so you either increase the price or you cut deco.

This is how you have to do business? With a company that quotes you one price and then increases it after it was agreed upon? Do they all do that? I would not reward a company who is either incompetent to begin with or shady with their estimate with my business if I could help it.

[snakeeyes0217]

This is how you have to do business? With a company that quotes you one price and then increases it after it was agreed upon? Do they all do that? I would not reward a company who is either incompetent to begin with or shady with their estimate with my business if I could help it.

No, not all factories do this type of thing. But when you are dealing with a Chinese factory, you are also dealing with Chinese culture which has very different rules from Western culture. What we would call "haggling" happens even at the highest levels of business and is perfectly normal. In my experience, it usually ended up being a compromise.

[fball13z]

This is how you have to do business? With a company that quotes you one price and then increases it after it was agreed upon? Do they all do that? I would not reward a company who is either incompetent to begin with or shady with their estimate with my business if I could help it.

well speaking for my company I run, we deal with China and yes some factories will do this, but its not b/c they are incompetent, its b/c the US dollar's value changes so often and normally for the worst, if all these Chinese factories just "ate" the cost on their side b/c of our terrible dollar, we would have a lot of factories going out of business.

[Dr Kain]

And they want us to accept them raising the prices on these toys. They can't even finish paiting the figures and they want us to pay MORE for these things?

Seriously, that blows about the paint. I hope it is just on that one and not the final product. If I recall, Prime was going to be teh original sub exclusive figure. Do you think he would have gotten this treatment if he had remained so? Would he still have his staff?

[dorrmann]

And they want us to accept them raising the prices on these toys. They can't even finish paiting the figures and they want us to pay MORE for these things?

Seriously, that blows about the paint. I hope it is just on that one and not the final product. If I recall, Prime was going to be teh original sub exclusive figure. Do you think he would have gotten this treatment if he had remained so? Would he still have his staff?

Scott has said that missing paint apps and missing accessories are a thing of the past with the price increase. Their costs went up after the sale of the 2012 sub, so they could not raise prices across the board. Therefore, they had to cut accessories and paint apps. With the increase in the price for 2013, they don't have to cut corners again.

[vertigoink]

Scott has said that missing paint apps and missing accessories are a thing of the past with the price increase. Their costs went up after the sale of the 2012 sub, so they could not raise prices across the board. Therefore, they had to cut accessories and paint apps. With the increase in the price for 2013, they don't have to cut corners again.

The only issue I'd have personally Dorr is what happens when they raise the price and we STILL don't get an accessory or a paint app as promised? Do you think this could potentially cause some real ill will with the customer base?

[dorrmann]

The only issue I'd have personally Dorr is what happens when they raise the price and we STILL don't get an accessory or a paint app as promised? Do you think this could potentially cause some real ill will with the customer base?

Without a doubt. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge if and when ( ) we get to it.

[SpideyWeb]

IMG_3070.jpgIMG_3071.jpg

Just gotten my Draego-Man from my local collector shop. Loved the figure with the only issue that when I remove the flaming blade from his hand, I realise that the paint on the hilt were stuck to the hand. It seems that the blade was placed in the hand before the paint dried.