I emailed Hot Toys regarding the issue. I met the marketing executive at the San Diego Comic Con this year, and got his contact information. He's a great guy, Raymond is his name. He emailed me back right away and said he'd forward it to higher ups.
To my surprise, I got an email from Hot Toys Ltd customer service:
Hello,
Would you please provide the sales receipt & the photo support for our checking?
We will get back to you soon after receiving the above information.
Thanks!
Remarks: After-sales service will only be provided for first-hand purchase via official channels.
After-sales service is not applicable for purchase on online auction sites (e.g. eBay, Yahoo) and unofficial channels.
Due to the limited edition nature of our collectibles, we cannot guarantee that all accessories or items can be replaced. Please note that over 30 days of purchase or product released for more than 1 year will NOT be accepted. Hot Toys reserves final rights on all replacement requests.
Best regards,
VC/ Hot Toys
Basically.. They didn't address or mention anything to do with the issue, and were just responding to my own personal issue. I bought it from timcent88 so based on the above literature, they won't help me. It doesn't matter for me anyways, I sold mine and took a loss of $90 (buyer was aware of the defects).
I'm trying my damndest to get answers for you all, but it seems like they are definitely avoiding the question.
After handling the figure.. I just get the sense that it will be a widespread issue. The clues are that 4 total shoulders have broke that we know of.. (both shoulders of mine and Ric's figures). There's an instruction page that I didn't receive personally that says not to bend the arms upwards past 80 degrees (which is horse**** considering it's spiderman and $200+... It may as well be a power pose figure).. timcent warns EVERY buyer.. including me.. so it wasn't because of my review.. and mine and clipper's figures problems are 100% identical. Both broke without any obvious signs of breakage, and both have pieces floating around inside the body, causing a rattle sound when you shake it.
Here's the video I took of it that I sent to Hot Toys:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzF3qI_Zu-A[/ame]
Also, for those asking about the suit.. It did feel pretty durable to me. So it will do a good job of holding his loose wobbly arms to the body once they both break eventually.
I tried clipperking's suggestion of holding the shoulder to get articulation but it didn't work for me.. it still just fell out of place to straight up and down positions. This is because you sort of have to push the shoulder back into the torso and rotate the shoulder while pushing it in (it has a shape that allows it to stay put while inserted into the torso).. but once you let go.. it comes out of the torso again and just goes straight down.
You can, however, bend the double jointed elbows up and make him do the chicken dance very easily if you hold him like I do in the video above, while extending and contracting your thumb and index finger repeatedly. So that's good.
)
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