Re: Molecule8 - 1/6th Scale John Lennon
Gotta jump in. Love both you guys, but I gotta disagree here. They are still pushing that endoskeleton inside their figure. That has not and will not happen. That is, and will be, a lie.
I'm not sure how many "misunderstandings" you guys are willing to let slide before you call it lying. I'm far less tolerant I suppose. I've seen these guys lying from the start. Stated intentions with no follow thru does not count as "we tried" in my book.
I'm giving them slack for being a start-up with some lofty goals. As I said, I would not have stated those lofty goals so publicly (although I don't recall them specifically saying that they would "revolutionize" 1/6th collecting as has been eluded to here). Start-ups make mistakes, I deal with a lot of them. What makes you a better company is learning from those mistakes. So we'll see about that.
For better or worse, this industry is built around pre-selling so you can't really blame them for building hype for an unknown company's first product in order to get people to pre-order and gauge interest and sales. The money that must go into development, sourcing and licensing, especially for an unknown, has got to be high - higher than the established companies who have some cache with the producers. You need to make up for that and it's much better to KNOW you're going to at least break even.
I think their mistake was mainly in hyping the skeleton/body (which I still think in some form will be the base), that and maybe in not waiting to have anything but a sculpt to show. It opened them up to too many questions and criticism that such a thing could be done, work, be affordable, etc. If it was going to just be a great John Lennon figure, well, maybe they wouldn't have gotten the attention they did, but as some believe - any press is good press.
But you and I both have handed over hundreds of dollars (much more than this figure) to total - or almost total - strangers right here on this forum for things we trust will materialize. Some have gotten burned by a very few unscrupulous people, but for the most part, things go smoothly. These people have no skin in the game as a company hoping to grow either, just personal reputations (if you even know who they are behind a handle/avatar.) Vijay has stated he's a collector who wanted to do something better. I'd love to start a figure-making company, but having been involved for a relatively short time on the customs side of things, I can't imagine what it would take to produce a nice-looking figure, with a sculpt from a top artist for under $500-600 as a small player. This may be a loss-leader for them and, because of the backlash, it may just be a loss. I trust they want to continue and will make this work.
I'm not defending some of the allegations here, which if true, are again a mistake but may also be a small company's panicked reaction to people calling them frauds because they missed a shipping deadline, or preliminary clothing didn't look perfect, or they weren't prepared for their PR needs. I don't care if they live up to the hype, if they - eventually - deliver a decent average-level figure. I may never order from them again if the quality doesn't match the price (not the hype) which still for 3 outfits, a guitar and two sculpts is cheap.
Thats a hell of a personal attack. I don't even know who you are man hiding behind your fake forum name there. Exactly why do you feel that's a reasonable line off attack here bringing my personal Facebook feed into things? did I piss in your cornflakes or out-wit you public before or something? both are highly possible, especially the former. 
