Re: New Doctor Who 1:6 and 1:4 from Big Chief Studios!
I never said it was Hot Toys quality.
Overall it is very good, especially for a first release from a brand new company, and the head sculpt itself really is great, but there are certainly some issues. The plasticy looking hands, the sloppy paint on some accessories, the rubbery shoes, durability concerns on certain bits of the clothing, the too short neck, all of those are valid criticisms to my mind. Some, though not me thankfully, have also had issue with the red tie staining the head sculpt.
So yeah, it's hardly perfect, or even 'Hot Toys quality' (which usually isn't perfect either, but by now has ironed out most of these kind of issues on most releases). That said, most of those issues are more niggles and minor irritants than outright game killers, at least to my mind. And just how much of an impact any of those issues, if one has them, impacts their enjoyment of the piece varies from person to person anyway.
As a first release, overall, I do still find it to be quite impressive, and it shows a lot of potential for the future of the line. I mean as I said, I don't think this is quite 'Hot Toys quality', but it is still, at the end of the day, very good, and for a first release even more so, especially when you look back at similar early releases even by 1:6 industry leaders like Hot Toys and Enterbay. Big Chief have jumped right into the game as a serious player at the higher end of the market, quality wise. And while they do have some issues to iron out, they are already releasing product that is better than a great many other players in the 1:6 game, and is closing in on the market leaders in terms of overall quality. They aren't there yet in my mind, but they have shown their potential with this release and are certainly players in the game worth keeping a serious eye on.
And when you have a fanbase that has been starved of such high end quality releases for so long, people tend to be a bit more forgiving as they are grateful to finally have quality product to collect...at least at first anyway. And for me, personally, even with the various niggles, I was overall happy with the product that I got, and as such look forward to purchasing more Big Chief Who figures in the future.
I actually think Big Chief 'going dark' over the past month or so is far more concerning, in that collectors and customers will forgive or overlook a lot in collecting a line, but one thing they won't quickly forgive or get over is the feeling of being left in the dark without any information, or being unable to raise a response to issues they may have. That kind of thing will alienate a customer/collector base faster than just about anything else, as if people don't have any reliable information they tend draw their own conclusions for the lack of communication, which almost always tend to lean towards worst case scenario.
No company, no matter how busy, should ever allow that to happen. Even a perfunctory short update along the lines of "We apologise for the delays and thank you all for your patience, just really snowed under right now trying to get everything sorted, but all issues will be addressed, we promise. Will update again soon." would take all of a minute or two, and would at least put minds at ease a bit. There will still be people who are impatient, even some that would be justifiably so, however at least the customer/collector base wouldn't be left completely in the dark and feeling ignored and free to make up their own doomsday scenarios of what is going on.
