Honey Trap - Gentle Giant

[Hellboy]

What does having a backstory have to do with setting an ES.

[ReplicantSavior]

Just the fact that GG shows little interest in doing either.

[Hellboy]

I think it might be more a matter of being spread too thin than a genuine lack of interest. GG has been upping their game as of late. New licenses, expanding their existing lines and venturing into larger scale statues might just have them a bit backed up.

[Silas Loki]

I think Dreamwalker pretty much confessed that Honey Trap was taking a back seat to other projects in the "Ask GG" thread.

If I'm honest, I'm not surprised. I myself have been on a real roller coaster ride with this line, from being massively supportive from concept launch to dismayed at first release of Red Whisper, to grudgingly supportive of the general Are orders.

I said earlier that GG had priced these statues wrong (too high for the market, in general, to bear) and had badly handled their release with respect to the promised back story and associated media. Considering how great these pieces look, I'm amazed that they're still available to pre-order in every outlet that carriers them. My guess is customers are like "ohh nice", take one look at the price and go "next".

GG is realising this, and is concentrating on the cash cow lines, no brainer. I fear we won't see the full realisation of this line. Here's where I come out and say it......GG got greedy. Yep, that's my thinking......this was an in house venture, no licence fees or third parties to pay off, the profits need only go to GG. The could have planned for a bigger ES which would have dropped the piece price (to cover D&D costs, etc) to bearable levels inline with what they (and others) charge for 1/4 scale pieces, and this line would be flying off the shelf. Instead, GG crawled up their own crevice and tried to create an elite cost product......well fail.

Am I pleased this seems to have back fired? Yes, because there was no need for this to happen if they carried out their promises and committed to smart business. Broken promises and bad commercial sense always equals fail.

[VS1976]

I think they got greedy with the success of the Sucker Punch line. The price jumped over 2-2.5 times it's cost. There is no reason why all 5 girls couldn't be released for preorder last year. These were debuted fully painted in SDCC 2012. It has already been twice shown at SDCC events. Are we going to see it third time?

I don't want to be pointing fingers but whoever market this should get a kick on the butt. It's inexcusable to have to wait so bloody long to get these statues to collectors.

[Silas Loki]

I think this is the sort of thing that causes collectors to lose faith in a company to complete what they started. The other problem to consider is that people are less likely to sink funds into a figure at that price if exclusivity isn't guaranteed. Don't get me wrong, I've said it before and I'll say it again, the concept of these figures is awesome.....but, at that price, people also want to think they've bought something special......

[Viper245]

My main issue with this line is the fact that no ES has been announced for the two pieces that are up for order. I have both Whisper and Derby on preorder and would like to know how many are being made of each. This is especially true for Whisper. She has been on preorder for a long time now and still no ES has been announced.

If these turn out to have an ES over 500 then I'll be cutting my orders. Even though these can be had for less then retail, the principle of an overly expensive collectible is the ES should be low to help justify the asking price. Anything over a 500 ES is too many in my mind to justify the price that Gentle Giant has set for these.

[Vallos]

I am hoping for less than 500, but that is also my limit in order to keep my orders active.

[Silas Loki]

Guys, I seriously doubt this line will be sub 500......with no "exclusive", these will definitely be 1K+

And I'm ok with that because in the grand scheme of things, in a world populated by 7 billion humans, that's pretty exclusive. Not to mention, at this price, they could make 7 billion, they sure as hell won't be selling 7 billion.

[Hellboy]

I don't see them producing 1k of any of these. I believe the ES will indeed be around 500, maybe even less. 750 is the absolute max I could see on these, but I could be wrong. I agree would should know what it is by now though.