Molecule8 John Lennon UPDATE 5/10/18 - SCAM COMPANY!

[Wor-Gar]

To date I have been rebuffed on all fronts as Vijay is still adamant that he is in charge and feels that he should continue to be so.

In charge of what?

And I thought you have had no further communication with him for some time?

 

[x_dekin]

Following my post on here previously, I have had a number of people contact me and I am very grateful both for the support that they have shown and for the information they have provided. This has helped to fill in a lot of gaps in what I knew about the way the company has been run and I believe will prove to be very useful.

I also wanted to say thank you to the forum in general for its response, I had feared getting a lot of abuse for being in any way involved in Molecule8 and for being naive/stupid/idiotic... (enter descriptive of your choice) enough to have been sucked in the way I was.

I’ve seen some of the questions here about the original intentions, licenses etc and thought I could help clear things up and provide a small amount of insight.

Again, as per my earlier post, I have to choose carefully exactly what I can say at this stage but I hope that the following is informative to some extent at least.

All the licences listed on the website are real and have been negotiated with the studios. In addition there is at least one more license, Travis Touchdown, which is not listed and which I was not aware that M8 had taken until after seeing a post on this forum. There may be more that I am not yet aware of also.

I disagreed with Vijay about the number of licenses we took from the outset, you only have a finite amount of time before a license expires and I believed that we had more than we could produce within the timescales allocated.

Vijay said that it didn’t actually take long to produce a figure and he wanted to produce 3 or 4 a year minimum. Looking back now I can’t say for certain whether this was his genuine belief or something he just told me but I did trust his judgement at that time.

One of the biggest points about which we disagreed was why it was necessary to ask for full payments up front on orders rather than just taking deposits. A deposit is enough to show that a customer intends to purchase, there is no need to take a full payment until the figure is ready to be shipped. Pre-orders are taken to gauge interest and forecast the total number of units that will need to be produced. We were a well funded company and did not need customers’ money to produce product.

I’m sure that a lot of people already know this but for those who don’t and are interested, the way it works with licenses is as follows.

You bid on a license and have to convince the studio not only of your ability to pay but of the fact that you can actually do justice to their property.

The license fee is an advance on royalties and the total sum agreed is the minimum guaranteed (MG) number of units that you are undertaking to sell.

If it turns out that you sell below the MG that you forecast, you still have to pay the MG amount of course. If you sell more, you pay the licensor the additional amounts as the units become sold.

It is rare that a license will be paid for fully up front, typically payment is made in 3 or 4 stages with only the first payment due upon signing. The initial investment capital put into Molecule 8 was not largely consumed by license fees as a result of this.

So the licenses that M8 displayed are all real however in the time left, it would be impossible to complete all of them now without obtaining extensions.

For me this has been a disastrous venture not just financially but personally too. Some of the licenses we took were favourites of mine, such as Taxi Driver, Lord of the Rings and Big Trouble in Little China. To know that an opportunity to produce these figures may be being lost is very galling.

I have been working on ways in which to try to salvage something from the situation, either by the possible transfer of some licenses or by convincing Vijay to step down and away from the company.

To date I have been rebuffed on all fronts as Vijay is still adamant that he is in charge and feels that he should continue to be so.

Although I have not fully given up hope of trying to force something, especially with some of the information that has come to light recently, I am still looking at litigation as the primary way forward to retrieve anything from this situation.

I would like to sincerely apologise to everyone that has been negatively affected by their dealings with Molecule8, although I had no control over the conduct of the company the fact remains that I helped to facilitate its creation by my investment into it. That this was done with good intentions doesn’t seem to matter so much just now.

If anyone does have any further information that may be helpful in any way, please do send me a PM. Its all helping to put together an overall case which I hope will prove to have a successful outcome.

Thank you all again for the support and understanding that has been shown.

All those artists' work m8 conned from, have they become Vijay's personal collection or it belongs to m8 properties which you'll get partial of it?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

[tqumer]

In charge of what?

And I thought you have had no further communication with him for some time?

I didn't say that I had no further communication with Vijay Chadha and I am sorry if that was the impression that my previous post gave.

He has become difficult to contact and he ignores phone calls, texts and emails for extended periods of time but communication has not ceased completely.

I have all of Vijay's details, I know where he lives, I have his personal email address and phone numbers, I know his family. It is not possible for Vijay to simply run away and hide, as I said we had been friends for 25 years before this.

Correspondence in one form or another, be it directly or through solicitors, will not cease between us until a resolution has been reached.

Once again, I'm sorry for any confusion that my previous post may have caused.

 

[tqumer]

All those artists' work m8 conned from, have they become Vijay's personal collection or it belongs to m8 properties which you'll get partial of it?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Nothing belongs to Vijay personally. If I am able to get anything from the company will depend upon what resolution is reached be it through the courts or settled beforehand.

I believe that work that Artists have not been paid for still legally belongs to them. That is a great simplification of course and in this day and age almost everything has to go through legal channels. But that is the principal upon which business is based. If you commission work but do not pay for it, you do not own it.

 

[x_dekin]

Nothing belongs to Vijay personally. If I am able to get anything from the company will depend upon what resolution is reached be it through the courts or settled beforehand.

I believe that work that Artists have not been paid for still legally belongs to them. That is a great simplification of course and in this day and age almost everything has to go through legal channels. But that is the principal upon which business is based. If you commission work but do not pay for it, you do not own it.

But that's just paper and I presumed these artists did not sign probably anything useful to protect themselves hence the outlet on social network platforms.

You mentioned you're friends with Vijay for more than 2 decades, so did you know about his history on gaming industry?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

[Underworld54]

Nothing belongs to Vijay personally. If I am able to get anything from the company will depend upon what resolution is reached be it through the courts or settled beforehand.

I believe that work that Artists have not been paid for still legally belongs to them. That is a great simplification of course and in this day and age almost everything has to go through legal channels. But that is the principal upon which business is based. If you commission work but do not pay for it, you do not own it.

The M8 brand is tainted beyond repair, it would be unwise to continue it if you're able to take control.

 

[tqumer]

But that's just paper and I presumed these artists did not sign probably anything useful to protect themselves hence the outlet on social network platforms.

You mentioned you're friends with Vijay for more than 2 decades, so did you know about his history on gaming industry?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Even without paperwork, the work would belong to the artist unless it can be shown that they were paid for the work. Even an email sent to enquire about hiring an artist is sufficient proof that the work done is theirs.

As I said though, this is in principle, in practice many times the potential cost of litigation is more than an artist is owed or able to pay out in advance to take things to a legal stage.

I do know about Vijays time in the games industry although mainly about the UK side of it. The full story was much more complex than was detailed in the newspapers. There were many parties involved and a lot of things happened behind closed doors.

From what I saw of it at the time, and in hindsight now I think I would perhaps look at it with a different eye, I didn't believe that all the fault lay at Vijay's door. He was not in complete control of the company as has been the case with Molecule 8.

 

[tqumer]

The M8 brand is tainted beyond repair, it would be unwise to continue it if you're able to take control.

Yes, that is my concern when I consider this too. I am undecided as to whether even if I were able to take control there would be any point to trying to repair the reputation of the company or simply to try and close things out as fairly as possible to all those concerned. The problem is that until or unless I am able to take control, I cannot judge what the true situation of the company really is.

 

[Underworld54]

Yes, that is my concern when I consider this too. I am undecided as to whether even if I were able to take control there would be any point to trying to repair the reputation of the company or simply to try and close things out as fairly as possible to all those concerned. The problem is that until or unless I am able to take control, I cannot judge what the true situation of the company really is.

Unfortunately whenever people see the name Molecule 8 they'll think of ViJay = Con Man, even with the best intentions in mind you'd never get a fair shake...too much damage is done. Sorry.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

The M8 brand is tainted beyond repair, it would be unwise to continue it if you're able to take control.

Unfortunately whenever people see the name Molecule 8 they'll think of ViJay = Con Man, even with the best intentions in mind you'd never get a fair shake...too much damage is done. Sorry.

Nah, that’s over

 

[SwedishHeat]

If Molecule8 were to come out with a WIlly Wonka figure, it WILL sell.

Look at how long this thread went on, and people STILL bought Lennon, despite everything that we've seen. People don't care if the sculptor didn't get paid. Look at the debate that rages everytime a new Redman figure is shown, people don't care if it's a recast or not. As long as it's one of their favorites, it will sell.

 

[greatlakes6]

If Molecule 8, under new management/ownership, produced a Willy Wonka, Taxi Driver, you would see a very positive response.

 

[DeltaForceChung]

I put Molecule8 in the same avoid at all costs category like Triad Toys.

Molecule8 is still "alive" while Triad Toys supposedly still operates on eBay and along with a couple shell / shill brand names trying to rebuild with leftover crap they're trying to salvage.

 

[Medusoid]

If Molecule8 were to come out with a WIlly Wonka figure, it WILL sell.

Look at how long this thread went on, and people STILL bought Lennon, despite everything that we've seen. People don't care if the sculptor didn't get paid. Look at the debate that rages everytime a new Redman figure is shown, people don't care if it's a recast or not. As long as it's one of their favorites, it will sell.

Sadly true.

Nobody really cares about the people affected by these things so long as they get their precious dollies.

 

[Tom Day]

Is your Thai restaurant still being used as M8's postbox?

 

[tqumer]

Is your Thai restaurant still being used as M8's postbox?

The restaurant being used as the address to send returns to does belong to me and my wife, she is Thai. At the time Vijay asked to have a UK address for returns I saw no issue with it. It was one on the few good customer service acts I had seen the company do, not making European customers have to send returns all the way back to Hong Kong or the US.

 

[x_dekin]

The restaurant being used as the address to send returns to does belong to me and my wife, she is Thai. At the time Vijay asked to have a UK address for returns I saw no issue with it. It was one on the few good customer service acts I had seen the company do, not making European customers have to send returns all the way back to Hong Kong or the US.

And you never thought that's wrong in terms of misleading customers' perceptions? Can you imagine sideshow or hottoys giving customers a return address which eventually leads to a mcdonalds or pizzahut or wonton noodle shop? Would that convince the buyers?

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[tqumer]

And you never thought that's wrong in terms of misleading customers' perceptions? Can you imagine sideshow or hottoys giving customers a return address which eventually leads to a mcdonalds or pizzahut or wonton noodle shop? Would that convince the buyers?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I asked for the address to be stated as Molecule8 c/o Kinkao Thai Restaurant, it was never stated that the address belonged to Molecule8 or redirected to the restaurant surreptitiously.

I did not think that it was misleading customers perceptions to have returns sent here in this manner. I apologise if this was not clear enough and led you to believe the address was a Molecule 8 office but I'm not sure how else the address could have been stated to be clearer, sorry.

 

[Tom Day]

The restaurant being used as the address to send returns to does belong to me and my wife, she is Thai. At the time Vijay asked to have a UK address for returns I saw no issue with it. It was one on the few good customer service acts I had seen the company do, not making European customers have to send returns all the way back to Hong Kong or the US.

Thanks, I appreciate the straightforward reply.

 

[Underworld54]

I asked for the address to be stated as Molecule8 c/o Kinkao Thai Restaurant, it was never stated that the address belonged to Molecule8 or redirected to the restaurant surreptitiously.

I did not think that it was misleading customers perceptions to have returns sent here in this manner. I apologise if this was not clear enough and led you to believe the address was a Molecule 8 office but I'm not sure how else the address could have been stated to be clearer, sorry.

Can you see where that's a bad look for new company trying to earn a customer base?