I know it's limited to InArt direct. I personally don't care for the cloak, but a lot of others do and now they are unsure if they will even receive it. I just don't understand why they made that specific piece exclusive, it's essential for most of his looks. Hot Toys does the same thing, but for smaller accessories/extras no one cares about.
I mean, lots of companies make certain things exclusive. Happens all the time. And I’m sorry, but I disagree that it’s “essential for most of his looks.” The Ranger/Strider cloak is specific to a sequence in the film and covers the entire outfit. The only time you see Aragorn wearing it is when he’s the Ranger known as “Strider” hanging at the Inn of the Prancing Pony and the following action scene at Weathertop.
Now checking the Aragorn thread it seems you won't get it even if you order from Kit. Pretty disappointing.
I guess we’ll end up learning which of these third party retailers didn’t purchase from inart directly.
Well, how many people have received Harry Potter so far? Almost no one apart from influencers. Hearing stories of wrist pegs breaking this early is a bad sign, I think this will be a major problem when it starts shipping to more people, especially because there are no spares. I wouldn't even know where to look to find those smaller size wrist pegs. But you're right we do not know what happened, maybe it was user error and the guy wasn't careful enough.
I never said their current production rate is ideal, but hey, they’re literally just starting out and are operating at a smaller scale vs other 1/6 makers. Apparently it does bring another set of spares. Imo, I guess this doesn’t really bother me regardless, as I’ve personally never broken any peg with any of my figures, and if it happened to me, I’d make do and figure out a way to glue it or something. I also am not even a person that is always switching up poses, but if you are, yes that would be incredibly unfortunate.
From what I've heard and seen Gandalf came with a lot more QC issues than just the magnets popping off.
I have yet to been explicitly shown where people have issues with the hand pegs falling off. Perhaps, I got lucky with my copy. However, I feel it’s not the end of the world as most make it seem.
Honestly one of their biggest issues is the influencer batch. I don't know why it exists when all of their figures are long sold out literally everywhere.. They delay the figure by more than a year and then give you the middle finger by sending the first batch to "influencers" that didn't even pay. If you're unlucky and ordered late you will have to wait another 6 months after the figure released. I'm not against batches, but the way InArt does it is irritating. Also the wait should be a lot less between each batch.
Where are you getting that they delay these things by more than a year..? Also, you don’t know if these so-called “influencers” didn’t pay. Imo, most likely a discounted rate, but what’s the problem? They have connections and channels and some level of a platform and outreach. I say this as someone who isn’t fond of these “personalities” for the record. Imo, only Justin and Jedha should receive earlier review copies, but Will and Riley simply have the connections with Johnny (inart’s marketing rep). I dislike the term “Influencer Batch” but IMO, they do it to gain more exposure. Without delving into it more here, it makes sense to me what they’re doing as new people who stumble by these videos will gain exposure to a new company making 1/6 figures and even if they missed out, now they’re aware and know to be on the lookout for future products they might be potentially interested in. INART’s playing the long game here.
Yes, I agree with you that the wait time in between the Influencer Batch and the general public wide release batches should be shorter. They should have more units ready to go, but you have to understand that they do this so they can incorporate whatever feedback they get to improve for the rest, and I assume they’d only do it if it’s feasible for production. IMO, most people who can’t stand the Influencer Batch are simply envious of seeing others with a product before them. That’s just my opinion. An observation I’ve made which also happens with other companies like Jazzinc which is currently upsetting various people and causing controversy due to their “Test Batch”.
You're right about the communication, but they should give us more insight in what their production line looks like. It's pretty frustrating to see influencers receive Aragorn and Harry while you're still waiting on Batman. Just a simple post on Instagram or their official website would be enough.
I think they should improve communication, but to an extent. Like I said before, sometimes they can’t really address or promise too much because technically, they can’t be helping people out that don’t live in their unlicensed regions, which is why they usually always advise to go through the third party retailer. Also, most people expect hard dates, but what if they don’t meet those promised deadlines? They’d only be setting themselves up for more failure. I think the collective community should exercise more patience, that’s just my opinion.
I know Hot Toys has delays, but they are working on far more figures than InArt.
INART is operating on vastly smaller scale with smaller staffing numbers than Hot Toys.
