GG Sucker Punch Baby Doll Statue DETAILS

[heykool69]

I was one of the customer that had to cancel my order with you just in case allocation happened. I'm in the retail business as well. I understand you're left hanging with the bag when a customer cancels out a high price item. I remember telling you I'll take it off your inventory if no one claims it. So do you any
Nice to know you're a member here.

Originally Posted by JasonTD

I just wanted to chime in since I'm on the other side of the fence and actually own a retail store (although I personally am a collector and a fan of Sucker Punch as well). I'm refraining from posting the store name, because I don't want to come across as self-promotiony here.

When the Baby Doll statue originally was solicited, we placed our order with Diamond because they were the first out of the gate with the advertisement for retailers. On very limited items like this one, however, I always expect for something to go wrong with Diamond's allocations and distribution, so I personally placed a matching order with one of our secondary distributors, who we actually use as our primary supplier for Bowen pieces. Since we do our primary business through preorders, I wanted to make sure we were covered on this one.

A couple of weeks ago, we received a notice that Diamond had canceled all our Sucker Punch statue orders, and there was no further explanation. I called our Diamond rep, who looked into it and said their records showed that Gentle Giant had canceled the statue overall and would not be producing it. I knew that wasn't the case, but she was not able to get any further info for me. Since then I've checked with our other supplier, and our order with them still stands. They cut off preorders a long, long time ago and haven't been accepting new ones for many months, and as of now they haven't received any cancellation notices from GG.

These sorts of things drive me absolutely crazy for two reasons. The first is that I always want to do anything and everything I can to get products into the hands of collectors. I'm a collector myself and got into retailing more than a decade ago because it's something I love, and I have perspective from both sides of the operation. When we have a high demand item that is offered and then retracted, we're left holding the bag, and it hurts our professional credibility at the same time that it prevents a group of people I really care about from getting the items they want.

The second part that is infuriating is that having big demand items like this one canceled really slams me and my business financially. I plan and make projections for profits, expenses, and overhead in advance, and I make ongoing business decisions based on those estimates. It's common to have orders allocated or occasionally canceled, and I always build in contingencies for that with our orders from the vendors and distributors. Things really get hairy, though, when we have a large number of preorders for a large value item, all of which suddenly just disappear from our grasp.

So it seems that not all distributors have had their orders canceled at this point, but I'm personally pretty anxious about these statues until something definitive happens. I really want to get Baby Doll out to our customers, and I also don't want a big portion of my job wages to blink away.

[dechirico7]

Originally Posted by AstroWho

Unless you're collecting this whole line. Most people don't want Amber or the rest of them.
I only wanted the Baby Doll like most people.
And now with Baby Doll ending up being such a Costly Piece already, $900.00+ on EBAY, I think anyone that intended to collect the set and got shut out of the Baby Doll will now just end up canceling the rest of them.
It would be pointless to have the set without Baby Doll.

Originally Posted by Tabbykitty

Honestly I agree. I'll keep my pre-order for a bit on the offchance there are a ton of credit card declines or some such, but without Babydoll, I'm cancelling the rest of my preorders.

I just want Rocket. Her character appealed to me the most.
Babydoll was probably the second best character, since she was the focus of the film. But it aggravated me that she had to give herself up in the end. I didn't care for Blondie at all, she was the snitch. Amber was cool, but her character didn't really stand out. However, I did like that she was the pilot. Sweet Pea, eh, she was ok. She sure pushed the -----y sister role well. That is about all she had going on.

[Fanboy]

Originally Posted by AstroWho

All Three Sites that I Ordered This Statue From has now canceled it on me!
What is the Point of Pre-Orders when they Don't Honor them???

I can't speak for any other retailer but us, but it was obvious that this was getting allocated, so we only took a very small amount of orders compared to what we ordered. If worse came to worse we would have had extra pieces and could have eventually sold them at a discount (although how would be complaining if they had extra right now). If we took more pre-orders than what we had ordered, then we would say we are at fault. When you order a huge amount (hoping just to get a few when you know it's getting allocated) and (at present) you get zero, it's tough to take all of the blame.

GG starts with 500 pieces. Shouldn't be too hard to deduct the amount of pieces the distributors order and what was ordered directly from their website. At some point they need to list it as sold out on their site and fill the distributor orders, or else they should never have taken them in the first place (or tell distributors there are none left to order). Instead they take all those distributor orders at the wholesale price and then take all the retail orders at retail prices, then when the product gets released they fill all of the retail orders where they make more money. We even directed customers to order directly from GG to make sure they got the piece, but the division of how the pieces were allocated sound like it's 80% direct and 20% to distributors. I'd never say a person shouldn't get an item if they ordered it direct, but it shouldn't have been that hard to keep track of how many they had and filled all the orders up to 500 pieces and then list it as sold out.

Sadly,at least one of the distributors I deal with hasn't even been told by GG if they are getting any pieces yet. The statue is already shipping, so how can they not know who's getting how many pieces. Throw in that they didn't announce the edition size for the next piece in the line, Amber, and yet they have already told a few distributors they aren't getting that piece either. Not sure how the blame lies anywhere else then with GG.

[dechirico7]

What I don't get is....why did GG decide to do so few of these statues? Is it because these are their first 1/4 scale pieces and they were uncertain how well they would go over?

[thx217]

Originally Posted by dechirico7

What I don't get is....why did GG decide to do so few of these statues? Is it because these are their first 1/4 scale pieces?

Partially because of this.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sucker-punch-2010/

And what WE didn't foresee is the leap in their production quality. This 1/4 SP series are the perfect demo for us. If they were to came out bad. Even limited at 50 pcs. is too much.

Last but not least, GG themselves didn't expect this first one will be this successful.

[FROBAY]

Originally Posted by thx217

Partially because of this.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sucker-punch-2010/

And what WE didn't foresee is the leap in their production quality. This 1/4 SP series are the perfect demo for us. If they were to came out bad. Even limited at 50 pcs. is too much.

Last but not least, GG themselves didn't expect this first one will be this successful.

iTS TRUE. IF the statue was important to you - you would have ordered it direct with a garauntee pre-order, its real simple.

I do feel for the people that pre-ordered elsewhere, but how in the hell would GG know this would be a hit when the movie reviews showed it to be crap.

Its probly the first ever, a movie tanked and is hated (by most) and the collectible goes through the roof. Go figure.

[FROBAY]

Originally Posted by Fanboy

I can't speak for any other retailer but us, but it was obvious that this was getting allocated, so we only took a very small amount of orders compared to what we ordered. If worse came to worse we would have had extra pieces and could have eventually sold them at a discount (although how would be complaining if they had extra right now). If we took more pre-orders than what we had ordered, then we would say we are at fault. When you order a huge amount (hoping just to get a few when you know it's getting allocated) and (at present) you get zero, it's tough to take all of the blame.

GG starts with 500 pieces. Shouldn't be too hard to deduct the amount of pieces the distributors order and what was ordered directly from their website. At some point they need to list it as sold out on their site and fill the distributor orders, or else they should never have taken them in the first place (or tell distributors there are none left to order). Instead they take all those distributor orders at the wholesale price and then take all the retail orders at retail prices, then when the product gets released they fill all of the retail orders where they make more money. We even directed customers to order directly from GG to make sure they got the piece, but the division of how the pieces were allocated sound like it's 80% direct and 20% to distributors. I'd never say a person shouldn't get an item if they ordered it direct, but it shouldn't have been that hard to keep track of how many they had and filled all the orders up to 500 pieces and then list it as sold out.

Sadly,at least one of the distributors I deal with hasn't even been told by GG if they are getting any pieces yet. The statue is already shipping, so how can they not know who's getting how many pieces. Throw in that they didn't announce the edition size for the next piece in the line, Amber, and yet they have already told a few distributors they aren't getting that piece either. Not sure how the blame lies anywhere else then with GG.

Thats the smart move and Cornerstore comics did the same thing, my friends over there told me they ordered from 3 distributers and only pre-ordered a fraction of there intitial order, to be safe.

Again Diamond Distributers is famous for not filling orders, it should be no surprise if you order a hot piece from them...you will not get it, and every store worth a damn knows this, its no secret.

For the future, find out if you LCS orders from Diamond and go elswhere, thats the wise move. Diamond has a handful of stores (personal interest) that will get theres and no one else will, its a fact.

[VS1976]

I hope I get my Amber from BBTS. I should had never cancelled her at GG. Why do I put myself just to save $20? Glad I did not cancel Babydoll. I ordered Sweetpea & Rocket through GG once I found out Moviereplicadirect.com cancelled my Babydoll & Amber.

[Predator]

Its just plain stupid and disrespectful to allow collectors to think they can order a piece from multiple outlets of their choosing, only to pull the rug out from under them come crunch time. Keep it an exclusive available ONLY through GG next time and STFU about distributing through retailers. How idiotic is it to pull a stunt like this when they are poised for a come back.

[Ink]

I emailed entertainment earth today & they still haven't heard from GG about baby doll

I'd be pissed if I didn't already have the japanese version ordered from HLJ. I'm glad I decided to order both versions