Big Chief Studios James Bond Series

[Raymond F.]

This is sad stuff when it comes to the Bond figure. What I'm hearing from Bond fans is exactly what I've seen from Doctor Who fans - their figures have a load of problems and don't match figures by other companies, yet no one else is doing them, therefore they'll keep buying out of a combination of gratitude and fear that the line will fold. Goldfinger and OJ do look good but Bond seems to get the same review each time - cartoony sculpt, poor paint job, poor QC, poor body and poor suit, with only the accessories being a win... Yet the line still has their support!

I'm on the fence about getting Bond. That's sad because buying this figure to go with my Shapeways Jetpack would give me one of my all time Grail figures, a Thunderball jet pack Bond. Yet I can't bring myself to put down £210 plus postage.

I think you are exactly right Tom... but it comes at a cost. I learnt my lesson with Bond I won’t be buying from them anymore blindly. I wish I had gotten the head to mess around with and a few accessories. I support it but if the figures were better I’d buy the characters I care less about. At this rate they do not have my money on solitaire or baron... if hot toys was making them and if even they were among marty mcfly 2, ripley, the crow or other characters they phoned in they would still have my money.

This is my number one complaint about these kinds of companies and why i crusade so hard. Game of thrones, Bond, walking dead, lord of the rings, dr who, Harry Potter... I think of these iconic cash cow lines as being heled hostage by the companies that hold the lisence. None of them are putting the effort in and it’s a damn shame.

I do see big chief really trying at least... but threezero for example seems to get worse and worse constantly. It’s truly sad.

 

[Raymond F.]

Take Asmus for example. Deliberately redoing their abysmal head sculpts and re releasing the figures and the collectors are acting like they are doing them a favor. Essentially paying for them to put a slightly better product out that is still quite bad paying way more than they would for a hot toys and quite frankly one of the far superior bootleg companies...

 

[superado]

...well, just got back home from the holidays and finally opened my Connery figure. Good news! ...it passed the Felix Leiter binocular test...it looks like Connery from a distance!

...just kidding. However, someone on the BCS production line must have been using binoculars to QC the parts that went into my box, because the black part of the stand that holds the figure up at its crotch, is missing! I've emailed BCS yesterday, so let's see how they will respond.

 

[chilipep66]

I was with ray as he opened and modded these figures and his review is fair and more than favaorable. The fact that these exist at all puts them ahead of the game here and makes me more forgiving of the flaws. I am happy I saw them, and since I had the exact same custom bond Ray does, I now know I will not be buying the BC Bond, just upgrading certain loose parts and the head sculpt. The other two once worked on (Ray worked for hours to get that result by the way) are great and I’m excited to add them to my collection and get to work on those mods myself.

 

[gido]

I was with ray as he opened and modded these figures and his review is fair and more than favaorable. The fact that these exist at all puts them ahead of the game here and makes me more forgiving of the flaws. I am happy I saw them, and since I had the exact same custom bond Ray does, I now know I will not be buying the BC Bond, just upgrading certain loose parts and the head sculpt. The other two once worked on (Ray worked for hours to get that result by the way) are great and I’m excited to add them to my collection and get to work on those mods myself.

And no sense to try bc suit on other bodies, right ?

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[Wor-Gar]

Considering the figure in your sig, Chili, who could fault you?

 

[Raymond F.]

And no sense to try bc suit on other bodies, right ?

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No sense gido... nothing works! I tried literally everything including bodies with arms swapped from other bodies.. the suit is just a straight up failure.

 

[Tom Day]

The fact that these exist at all puts them ahead of the game here and makes me more forgiving of the flaws.

That sums it up.

 

[davejames]

No sense gido... nothing works! I tried literally everything including bodies with arms swapped from other bodies.. the suit is just a straight up failure.

If not a whole new body, then maybe just adding a bit of padding to the shoulders of the existing body might work. Or at least improve the shape and proportions a little.

 

[spindrift]

Take Asmus for example. Deliberately redoing their abysmal head sculpts and re releasing the figures and the collectors are acting like they are doing them a favor. Essentially paying for them to put a slightly better product out that is still quite bad paying way more than they would for a hot toys and quite frankly one of the far superior bootleg companies...

yeah very scam-like- not supporting them

 

[Raymond F.]

If not a whole new body, then maybe just adding a bit of padding to the shoulders of the existing body might work. Or at least improve the shape and proportions a little.

Davejames yup, this seems like the best option. You are really good at this so I’m sure with custom padding you will stretch this as far as it can go if you give it a go. Hips and shoulders need the most help.

The other thing I’d do if I didn’t have a better option is if shave the chest down a **** ton and I’d get rid of the vest snaps in favor of flat magnets or Velcro.

That should help a lot also

Nothing will help the oversized head issue because it’s a super narrow shoulder tailoring the sale is off. Padding the shoulders too much will make them bulge below the shoulder seams much like it did on all the bodies I tried.

 

[Tom Day]

I think you are exactly right Tom... but it comes at a cost. I learnt my lesson with Bond I won’t be buying from them anymore blindly. I wish I had gotten the head to mess around with and a few accessories. I support it but if the figures were better I’d buy the characters I care less about. At this rate they do not have my money on solitaire or baron... if hot toys was making them and if even they were among marty mcfly 2, ripley, the crow or other characters they phoned in they would still have my money.

This is my number one complaint about these kinds of companies and why i crusade so hard. Game of thrones, Bond, walking dead, lord of the rings, dr who, Harry Potter... I think of these iconic cash cow lines as being heled hostage by the companies that hold the lisence. None of them are putting the effort in and it’s a damn shame.

I do see big chief really trying at least... but threezero for example seems to get worse and worse constantly. It’s truly sad.

I agree with everything here, and I also agree with you about Big Chief trying harder with these figures. I also think it's a good sign that the company is coming here to speak to people in a courteous way. However, I'm definitely out when it comes to buying from them because they've just put the price of each figure up by £20. I literally went there to buy Bond and saw the price had gone up!

That kind of settles it - I'm not paying a penny more for a product than I could have done two days ago just to pay for their nose rub screw up. I could be wrong but I don't ever recall a pre-order price.

from google cache:


just now:

 

[pjam]

It's like a dark dungeon in here. I hope this thread lightens up a bit before I receive mine.

 

[Mr.E]

My expectations are lowering.

 

[Wor-Gar]

My god, where do they have left to go?

 

[DVD1]

They have upped a lot. Captain Scarlet is now £199 and I paid £189
The Bonds up by £20 a pop adds £60 to the set.
I paid £599 and included a discount. Now the set is listed at £689.97 (£90 more than I paid).

I hope this isn’t the direction they are taking for the upcoming Live and Let Die set!!!

At £220+ per figure (plus postage) that’s twice what I pay for Hot Toys figures!! And in this case, twice is not the only way to live (and Let Die).

 

[gido]

I'm afraid it's the way how they want to compensate paint rubs headsculpts replacements...

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[DVD1]

The paint rub issue, only affecting 5% of figures , should be fully compensated for by the factory, as it was their fault .
These increases seem a bit steep : £90 on that Bond set is a hunk of change.
I thought their prices were initially high, but I really wanted the product. These increases really make me want to cut these figures out.

 

[Interrato]

That's not how 2018 should have started :-(

A ) our Far East vendors have been gradually increasing their cost prices to us which unit now BCS has taken the hit on. Sadly pricing is now at a point that we can no longer afford to maintain the previous pricing model.

B ) many UK manufacturers increased their pricing when the dramatic changes in the FX rate as a result of the Brexit referendum were seen. BCS decided not to take the immediate hit on this to allow our fans to pre-order their favourite characters. Now that we are delivering on our commitments we believe now is the timeto move in line with other manufacturers, as we have to pass on some of these FX rate changes.

C) a number of our characters have experienced a dip in demand with the result that we are having to order less from our vendors. Unfortunately this means that set up and tooling cost have to be amortised across smaller production runs which in turn has an impact on the cost price from our Far East partners.

None of us likes the thought of increased prices, but the commercial realities mean that in order to keep delivering and improving on the quality of our figures, we have to pass on a number of these costs. We firmly believe that we are still remain competitive against other manufacturers producing similar products as we strive to keep on improving and producing figures that all our fans enjoy.

Best regards
BCS

 

[Underworld54]

Their prices are already at a ridiculous level for what you get. This isn't good.