Big Chief Studios 1/6 Amy Pond

[Ex-Parrot]

Classy and measured response from Big Chief, and one of the reasons why I still have a lot of hope for them going into the future, and why I have no hesitation in retaining my Tennant order, or in making a Tom Baker and hopefully William Hartnell one some time into the future.

Every company has their trials by fire, Big Chief's probably came a little earlier than they would have been comfortable with, but they have weathered it, so hopefully it's all up from here. And call me heartless, but I'd rather have such an issue happen on a more 'optional' character like a companion than on one of the Doctor's incarnations, for instance.

One thing that I can potentially see happening is that the value of the Amy Pond figure may increase substantially a few years down the line, if Big Chief manage to keep on trucking and release a whole long line of Who figures, as the hopefully better painted sculpted hair head, the reduced production numbers, and the initial lukewarm response and amount that are eventually parted out and broken down or altered will actually aid in naturally making it a rarer piece over time, and possibly making it more valuable as a result. Stranger things have happened.

They really do need to get the website fixed though, having a broken customer service portal for so long does them few favours in people's minds and confidence. They also need to get their email response worked out for similar reasons. Over the past several months none of the three emails I have sent in regards to one of my orders were responded to. That's just not good enough.

 

[kl241]

Guess that means we won't be seeing Clara anytime EVER.

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Honestly I've always thought they were better off building a base line by focusing on the various Doctors first anyway, and later maybe some key popular adversaries, and then branching out into the supporting characters once they had better established themselves, and collectors had decent sized collections that they may be generally more interested in expanding upon (at this kind of significant price point) just in order to keep the line going into the future.

And even then, they should be asking the fans what supporting characters they most want to see and to add to their collections, rather than just jumping on whoever the main supporting character(s) of the day happen to be. Particularly when the companions often seem to have significantly shorter on screen lifespans than the various incarnations of The Doctor do. Even if they started making a Clara right now, she still may be gone by the time that such a figure saw release. And even though she is popular now, would the character still be seen as such in another years time? Or two? The tide certainly turned against Amy Pond with a lot of fans, towards the latter part of her character's run.

They also need to be willing to walk away from certain projects, if the principals aren't co-operating, or are making achieving a quality result or accurate likeness difficult, and the end result is unlikely to either satisfy customers or put them as a company in a positive light. Still, that's easier said than done, I suppose.

 

[Ex-Parrot]

I just noticed that the Amy Pond signature edition figure page on Big Chief's site has this written on it:

To reserve this item we require a non-refundable deposit of £25
(see terms and conditions)

I didn't notice that ever being on the page before. Nor was it on any of the other figure product pages listed (including the regular Amy Pond edition), including Tennant's sig edition, who of course was released for pre-order long after the Amy Pond pre-order went live.

Was this NRD notice always on the sig edition of the Pond figure, going back to the original orders? Not trying to stir any pots here, and given all the money this piece has probably cost them at this point, I suppose it's not that surprising, I just find it odd that I never noticed that on the site before, or that it doesn't seem to apply to any of the other figures...

 

[Underworld54]

I wonder how the reduction in Amy figures effects those of us who ordered through secondary online stores?

 

[drdandalek]

I wonder how the reduction in Amy figures effects those of us who ordered through secondary online stores?

I would be willing to bet that would fall under the 900 as they had to preorder those as well.

 

[kl241]

You can be sure that Amy will become scalper gold once it sells out, regardless of how tepid the reaction was to her.

 

[The Eleventh]

This picture looks quite good. If I had ordered Amy and she came like this, I'd be happy. The other issues are still unacceptable, but this head could save the figure. BCS have certainly learnt a lot from this release.

 

[Darthgothikus]

I'm planning on stripping my Amy Pond down and water treating the hair today. Can anyone who has already stripped her tell me, does she have full feet inside the boots with the tights right over the feet, or do the legs "plug" into the boots?

Don't want to force anything and end up breaking a peg!

Ta.

 

[MiskatonicNick]

I'm planning on stripping my Amy Pond down and water treating the hair today. Can anyone who has already stripped her tell me, does she have full feet inside the boots with the tights right over the feet, or do the legs "plug" into the boots?

The legs plug into the boots and the boots come off pretty easily.

 

[Darthgothikus]

Cool thanks!

I'll record the process and post results

 

[DGTWoodward]

Dear all,

Spoiler

We wanted to say thank you for your support and kind words. We also appreciate your frank and honest critiques.
There comes a time for any company to have to hold their hands up and apologise when things do not go as planned. Needless to say "Pondgate" was not our finest hour, made all the worse by being our second offering.
We have read several times that we must have "taken a bath on this figure". More like a hosing down with a fireman's hose!
For those none-Facebookers, the alternate head with sculpted hair will be available around August. We will make an announcement nearer the time, so please do not worry you will receive your free portraits.
As some small consolation we can confirm that the edition size has been reduced from the originally advertised 2000 to 900, so your figures will actually be all the rarer. We do not plan on making any more of this figure. We may well offer costume and accessory packs next year, but cannot confirm anything right now. We know how fond of kiss-a-gram Amy everyone is. For the record we had little say in the chosen costume from series 6. Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing...
However, throughout the process we have continued to work on not only the 10th Doctor, but also the 4th Doctor, which will be made available for pre-order when the new website goes live. We have targeted the end of June, but there is a lot of work to do, to get the entire ecommerce back end constructed, together with layaway payments. We will keep you all posted.
In addition to the aforementioned Doctors, we also have started work on the 1st Doctor and have a great sculpt in progress. We are also busily working on both Sherlock and Watson. The costumes are well underway, as are the accessories and we have submitted pack art for approval.
We will be making an official announcement shortly, but we wanted you guys to hear it first - we will have Signature Editions for our Sherlock figures!
The future is looking much brighter and we cannot wait to share what we have been working on with you.
We are working very hard to ensure that every product is up to the standard that collectors demand.
Thanks again for believing in us

The BIG Chief Team

<Message spoilered for space>

And this is why I remain BSC's most vocal supporter. No White Knight's bravado, no fan boy-rhetoric, or apologist's sentiment. Merely that these guys do their best, and are open about it. Even their 'fire hosings" are not ignored or swept under carpet.

Even after my less than flattering review.

Thanks BCS, now that you are refocused on your task, bring on the Doctors and Sherlock figures, with as many Signature Editions as is mortally possible!

 

[wookster]

My review was just sent in, should be up soon... heres my intro and a few pics-

To anyone who is a collector of high end figures you will know a few good rules of thumb… the first is never, and I mean NEVER trust the first pics of a figure that are released (unless of course they happen to be by OMG, Lukazou or Tomm Wong Jnr, in which case you might just want to question how they actually manage to make what ends up in your hands look better than it does in the flesh).

The second is to keep your expectation in check. We all want the best quality product available, and luckily most manufacturers aim to deliver just that, but a lot can happen between A and B, so be realistic!

And the third is take everything you read on a collecting forum with a large pinch of salt. We all have our own agendas, but sadly these hives of scum and villainy seem to bring out the very worst in people. Whilst most are level headed members of a community that want nothing more than to discuss and debate the merits of one collectible over another, there is also a thankfully small (but overly vocal) minority of folks who have nothing in their lives but the ability to go online and whine and cry and vomit bile (you all know who they are… just put them on ignore). That’s not to say anything is beyond criticism, no one improves in any arena unless they receive constructive criticism… but the all-important word is CONSTRUCTIVE.

I’m lucky that I managed to circumnavigate the forums recently, partly because my day job is too demanding now, but also because I sadly choose to avoid them most of time. But I have been told that they have become particularly harsh and unforgiving places of late.

And so it was that I was invited to look over an early preview release of the Big Chief Amy Pond figure from Doctor Who. I reviewed the titular Doctor way back in September of last year here, and though not perfect he was a damn fine representation of the character and probably your only chance to get a high end figure of this particular incarnation. But what is the Doctor without a companion… pretty lost if the show is anything to go by. And luckily Big Chief saw that fact and decided to give us the rather lovely, leggy red head that accompanied Mat Smith’s ‘11’ in the form of Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan). She was quite a brave and bold choice for a second figure, but to my mind an important one. The easy choice would have been to rattle the Doctors in reverse order (would anyone actually buy the Colin Baker version?), then a few key villains and aliens with the companions becoming a bit of an afterthought. After all you couldn’t do Mulder without Scully, Deunan Knute without Briareos or R2 without 3PO, some things just have to come in pairs, and whilst I wouldn’t be ‘bovered’ if they did Katherine Tate’s Donna Noble to go with ‘Ten’, I’d consider Frima Ageymans Martha Jones and a Billie Piper/Rose Tyler would be a must have (even if she does look a bit like Bingo from the Banana Splits).

So, after all the ‘who-ha’ (sorry, bad pun), what do I actually think of the figure?

 

[thamesvalidude]

My review was just sent in, should be up soon... heres my intro and a few pics-

To anyone who is a collector of high end figures you will know a few good rules of thumb… the first is never, and I mean NEVER trust the first pics of a figure that are released (unless of course they happen to be by OMG, Lukazou or Tomm Wong Jnr, in which case you might just want to question how they actually manage to make what ends up in your hands look better than it does in the flesh).

The second is to keep your expectation in check. We all want the best quality product available, and luckily most manufacturers aim to deliver just that, but a lot can happen between A and B, so be realistic!

And the third is take everything you read on a collecting forum with a large pinch of salt. We all have our own agendas, but sadly these hives of scum and villainy seem to bring out the very worst in people. Whilst most are level headed members of a community that want nothing more than to discuss and debate the merits of one collectible over another, there is also a thankfully small (but overly vocal) minority of folks who have nothing in their lives but the ability to go online and whine and cry and vomit bile (you all know who they are… just put them on ignore). That’s not to say anything is beyond criticism, no one improves in any arena unless they receive constructive criticism… but the all-important word is CONSTRUCTIVE.

I’m lucky that I managed to circumnavigate the forums recently, partly because my day job is too demanding now, but also because I sadly choose to avoid them most of time. But I have been told that they have become particularly harsh and unforgiving places of late.

And so it was that I was invited to look over an early preview release of the Big Chief Amy Pond figure from Doctor Who. I reviewed the titular Doctor way back in September of last year here, and though not perfect he was a damn fine representation of the character and probably your only chance to get a high end figure of this particular incarnation. But what is the Doctor without a companion… pretty lost if the show is anything to go by. And luckily Big Chief saw that fact and decided to give us the rather lovely, leggy red head that accompanied Mat Smith’s ‘11’ in the form of Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan). She was quite a brave and bold choice for a second figure, but to my mind an important one. The easy choice would have been to rattle the Doctors in reverse order (would anyone actually buy the Colin Baker version?), then a few key villains and aliens with the companions becoming a bit of an afterthought. After all you couldn’t do Mulder without Scully, Deunan Knute without Briareos or R2 without 3PO, some things just have to come in pairs, and whilst I wouldn’t be ‘bovered’ if they did Katherine Tate’s Donna Noble to go with ‘Ten’, I’d consider Frima Ageymans Martha Jones and a Billie Piper/Rose Tyler would be a must have (even if she does look a bit like Bingo from the Banana Splits).

So, after all the ‘who-ha’ (sorry, bad pun), what do I actually think of the figure?

although the 'Bingo' comment was a bit mean Wooks , although very true and funny

 

[Darthgothikus]

Nice Pics Wookster, but ohh, that hair!

OK, was all geared up to apply the water treatment to 'Ol Pond, gal was stripped and ready for action, then I had a moments pause. What if I screw up either the paint on the face or the soft rubber body? Then I have completely ruined the figure. Decided to go a different route and apply some hair product. See what you all think.....


Bad Hair Day!


Removed the little cotton tie....


Worked in some Bryl***** Hard Wax and...













I think it's made a dramatic improvement! She looks far more lifelike now. Not convinced on the likeness, but I'm happy to display her.





Only problem now? Bloody tights have a massive ladder in them GAHHHHHH!

If anyone from Big Chief is reading, do you have spare tights? I reckon I could do with buying half a dozen pairs. I'd like to try to trim the seams out of them to get the back looking better, but they tear so easily! Might take a few attempts!

Off to eBay to find a nice leather jacket........

 

[DeadLeaves]

The hair looks great! Well done.

 

[Darthgothikus]

"Dude, you're looking at her hair? Have you seen the derrière?"

 

[martyd]

The thing is guys, the product isn't that bad. The sculpted version looks bloody good. You can only do what the licensor allows you to do. It's on my shelf and I will change the head and be happy. Great attempt! Don't be afraid to use Greg's Clara sculpt as soon as possible, (before she quits).
I will buy 10, 4 and 1 and any assistant. I am also in for Sherlock.
Keep up the good work

Where can we see the Clara sculpt?

 

[pixletwin]

Nicely futz'd DarthG.

 

[JonWes]

You know, without the jacket and with some hair futzing she doesn't look bad. I wonder if there's some way to think out the hair a bit on top so it lays a bit flatter?