Please sign petition for merry & pippin maquette

[Anubis]

Signed for you guys. Hope it helps.

 

[tomandshell]

I signed it. I have no preorders currently in my Sideshow account, and the next thing I order from them will be Merry & Pippin or nothing at all.

 

[gagaliya]

thanks everyone wo signed so far we are doing great only need another 38 to hit 100! please feel free to post this on other related forums.

 

[Rena Gilthoniel]

Signed

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

I signed it! Hope it helps towards the cause!!

 

[gagaliya]

fyi, i was hoping for a response from tom gilliland since he's the dude that said completing the fellowship is a priority for sideshow 3 years ago, but no luck.

Mike did respond, although it's pretty vague, i pointed him to the petition and asked when merry & pippin will be released to complete the fellowship, also asked him to forward the email to whoever is managing this line. Hopefully internally he made the tom guy or whoever is in charge of the decision aware of the situation.

It's insanity to stop the series with 1 statue remaining to complete the fellowship and leave everyone hanging.

Thanks for your email and for your interest in Sideshow Collectibles.

The realm of Middle Earth is very near and dear to our hearts. We totally understand our fans have a desire to complete the Fellowship and we hope that one day it will be a reality. While I cannot speak for items that are not yet fully solicited there are several characters and creatures still yet to cover and we hope that we can make our collectors happy.

Thanks for your email and have a great day.


Best Regards,

Michael Tolentino
Customer Service Manager

 

[FrodoEyes]

What a bs reply. Sideshow? Being vague? There's a surprise!

'We hope 'one day' it will become a reality'?

Also nice of him to reveal there are 'several' characters and creatures still to cover!

Another lame brush off.

 

[DaveMac]

Here's hoping those who want this get it

With Spooktakular around the corner, you can guarantee the SS sales promotion team will be your BFF's for a short while again

 

[Petrolos]

What's with all this "hoping" from SSC?? Am I missing something or why can't they just decide to do it? It's their game! This response is again quite discouraging to say the least.

 

[chaber]

What the heck does "while I cannot speak for items that are not yet fully solicited..." mean, anyways? Not yet solicited? Am I missing something here???

 

[gagaliya]

i thought about putting tom gilliland's email on the petition so everytime someone signs it he gets an email, but decided to play nice and not do that, maybe should have..

i know ss can never comment on upcoming releases my only hope is someone who makes the decision are at least aware of the situation. You be surprised how chaotic it is in those big companies, they might not even realize what's going on.

Oh well wait and see, worst case go custom and do my own merry & pippin, the fellowship must be complete!

 

[bill59]

Thanks for trying gagaliya ...it was worth a shot.

I still live in hope of completing "The Fellowship" too.

 

[gagaliya]

Fyi below is the exchange I had with Igo, who is a sideshow employee. I am not looking for support or criticism, just sharing the info on what happened to this line and how sideshow feels about it.

--------

Originally Posted by gagaliya
The same mentality your creative director tom gilliland committed to the 1/6 lord of the ring fellowship LINE then left all the fans high and dry by abandoning it before releasing the final piece merry and pippin after years of false promises?

Lots of factors were involved with our LOTR line and with how far it went before it stopped - the major one was licensing, we actually werent ALLOWED to make any more after a certain date. So yah, sometimes things are out of your control in life. You've lived life right? Where things might sometimes be out of your control? Or do you live in a magical place where everything goes perfectly the way you want? I would like to go to there...

I am trying very hard to remain civil given your arrogance and mocking response.

The commitment to finish the fellowship series was made in 2011 by Tom, your company had at least 3 years before the license was supposedly pulled. During those years, the same commitment was repeated to the customers all the way until end of 2013, stringing everyone along, buying up each release with the understanding the fellowship will be completed.

Then at the end of 2013, sideshow goes quiet, no response, no apologies, just silence on this line, even after many attempts to understand what happened to this line and the final piece.

Also during those 3 years, many non-fellowship lotr statues were released, yet your company chose not to complete the fellowship.

From Tom Gilliand:

Our main goal as we expressed numerous times now is to CONCLUDE the fellowship in a particular line, this is the line(maquette series) we will be able to do that first. (source: Comic-Con Showcase:The Lord of the Rings - YouTube )

I apologize to this thread for going off track, but the fact this company would come here to peddle the same commitment on a new series after how they treated the LOTR customers just hits a nerve. As someone who (naively) believed sideshow at the time and spent thousands $ purchasing the lotr line with the understanding I will have the fellowship completed, think I earned a little entitlement to be angry.

Igo, i still want to thank you for responding, it really shows as a reflection how sideshow feels about its customers.

This will be my last post on the subject.

Gaga, sorry if my post came across as arrogant, I ended with a quote from 30 Rock but I guess that was lost… reading back I see how it comes across that way. I apologize for that. Trying to get back into the sarcasm swing of things,

LOTR vs MOTU, I get the Fellowship argument and sorry that Merry and Pippen couldnt have been done. We had designs and we ALL wanted to do it, but the license was pulled out form under us before we could finish.

MOTU, there is no 9-piece fellowship commitment, so it should be a bit easier to get this series going (main 2) and follow up with any additional characters (at least 1) should show commitment to this line being AT LEAST 3, if not hopefully more.

 

[chaber]

I agree. I wasn't impressed with the way SS went about shutting down the line. I had bought every one as well, hoping for a Fellowship. But when they basically stopped answering questions about the line, I figured it was the kiss of death. Same thing with the PF line and the never-launched Hobbit line. Managed to sell every one except the Twilight Witch King, thank God, although I'm still trying to sell several PFs.

On the bright side, Weta is doing a fantastic job with their 1/6 statue line! Absolutely no complaints there, and so much more to come for ComicCon!

 

[67L88Stingray]

Can't understand who is pulling the strings there, always seems like bad decisions keep flowing...

 

[xerxes]

Igo, i still want to thank you for responding, it really shows as a reflection how sideshow feels about its customers.

QFT ...and based on the tone he used to reply to you (both times) I'd suggest it's not positive.

I am following the same thread and posted exactly the same thing (LOTR maquette demise) much earlier, without a response. Regardless the excuse that was given SS could have:
A) Notified customers of the time limits the license was constrained by before proceeding with said line
B) Made the Fellowship the priority and just got it done - if they'd pumped one out after the other SS would have finished the Fellowship within the time constraints and still been able to do extra pieces in the line.
C) Not made the ill-judged committment in the first place - What a way to further damage an already less than stellar reputation SS

Thank goodness for Weta.

 

[theguru1]

But when they basically stopped answering questions about the line, I figured it was the kiss of death. Same thing with the PF line and the never-launched Hobbit line.

Can add the Disney PF line to that list as well, which really pissed me off. So far, to this day, the Jessica Rabbit PF has been the last SS item I've purchased.

Luckily I avoided the maquette mess, since from the start I assumed they wouldn't complete it all, no matter what they said. I do have the Aragorn one tho, which was nicely done.

 

[bill59]

I can't argue with any of the previous points made , however I must say I did buy all the LOTR Maquettes and am so glad I did so – even though the Fellowship will never be completed now . It is a shame as the line was/is great and I wouldn't part with any of them . I think I am safe to say Sideshow did a wonderful job on them...but all good things come to an end.

Weta, on the other hand, is doing a fantastic job with their 1/6 statue line and the future for my LOTR collection is looking very bright ...Happy Days!

 

[cstojano]

I bought three of chaber's maquettes and I really think they are phenomenal pieces and in a way stand on their own. I sort of knew the dream was hopeless when they released Sam and Frodo in orc armor, Many were fine with it but I had no interest in that visualization.

 

[entrari]

You can complete the fellowship with weta 1/6 merry and pippin. That's what I did. Still trying to find arwen though.