Eaglemoss /Hero Collector going into administration (bankruptcy)

[JanuaryStorm]

Multiple sites began reporting this yesterday, 7/12/22.

Here's the article from Bleeding Cool:

It has been reported that Eaglemoss Limited filed a Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator today. Greg Connell, Managing Director of InfolinkGazette posted the news, commenting, "Eaglemoss is one of the world's biggest names in licensed collectable, marketing and distributing more than 150 collections in more than 30 markets." Greg added: "revenue peaked at ?68 million but had fallen to ?31.6 million in the last filed accounts." InfolinkGazette is a commercial data collection bureau, including information in the Credit Insurance, Debt Recovery and Insolvency sector. "Calling in the administrators" is a phrase used to bring someone in when a British company in undergoing bankruptcy under the Insolvency Act, with the aim of rescuing the company as a going concern, unless selling to a creditor, or going through bankruptcy is a better solution for the company's investors. Bleeding Cool has confirmed the news through our own sources.

Eaglemoss is a partwork publisher, using the hugely successful European model of publishing or manufacturing collectables in a serialised format. From books, to book series, toys, model parts, knitwear, cutlery, coins and dioramas, the range covered by the partwork model of publishing is extraordinary, mostly sold through newsstands and by mail order. Eaglemoss has, in recent years, extended their market to cover the US and UK geek demographic of comic book stores with their Hero Collector line, including hardcover DC Comics and Batman graphic novels, and toys and models for Star Trek, Star Wars, Orville Tron, MCU, Fallout, Battlestar Galactica, Fortnite, and more, with an accompanying magazine. Eaglemoss also recently announced they were also moving into NFTs. Former Bleeding Cool contributor Chris Thompson left the company back in March, and products began to drop off our radar ? and from Diamond Previews ? in the months since, with a limited line in May's Previews, an Order Again only selection in June and nothing in July.

The Eaglemoss website states that it cannot take orders online right now and to call instead. However, phone lines are closed for the day. Bleeding Cool will call tomorrow. to try and get an update.

Unless some solution can be found, those who are part way through their collections will at least have the satisfaction of an incomplete collection, But for those with the classic build-as-you-go model will just have an incomplete item. Here are a few comments from frustrated customers to the news.

Lee Taylor: This is irritating. I've spent two years building the Ecto 1. Two issues away from completion. It'll be worse for others out there who started Titanic/Deloreon/Enterprise builds, amongst others. They have a lot to answer for. Notwithstanding the staff who could lose their jobs, they have continually let their customer base down. The increase in postage fees signalled something was wrong months ago. An Ecto subscription went from ?41.95 to ?49.99 all because of postage. For those who are stranded with their builds ? what recourse for them (and me?). I just feel lucky that the car is complete and it's just the roof rack equipment left to finish on the build.

William Hoare:I'm was 5 deliveries away from completing the delorean, these parts must be available somewhere, they won't have zero stock

Jack Mayfield: I hope this can lead to another buyer taking over and continuing the excellent product line, which is beloved by thousands of passionate fans and collectors (including me). Eaglemoss' designers, artists, writers, illustrators, archivists, and modelers are fantastic, and I'm not alone in hoping we can continue to enjoy and support their artistry and products in the future.

Matthew Purchase: Such a shame to hear Eaglemoss has filed for administration. My sympathies go out to all the staff involved. I had over ?150 in pre-orders with them. Hope I can get something back or better, the products delivered.

Dankmiral Terence: Whatever the future holds for Eaglemoss I will be thankful for them for getting me into Star Trek comics. The collection, while cancelled just before the finish line was astonishing. Due to real life I've been off the comic front for a while and hope to jump back in soon

We look forward to finding out more as soon as possible, and our sympathies to those caught in the fallout.

Sucks. Was just starting to collect some of their stuff, especially the new Stargate pieces.

[Silas Loki]

I've never heard of these guys - but I think we'll see many more of these niche collector based companies going to the wall in the coming months.

Note to self: be very careful with those pre order $$$

[JanuaryStorm]

Originally Posted by Silas Loki

I've never heard of these guys

They make really great small-scale spaceships from most of the major Sci-fi franchises.

Here's their page on Sideshow.

[generalszabo]

That's really bad news for a lot of people with incomplete pieces

I was very tempted by their enterprise d, but having done some research it seemed this was doomed from the start with poor fitting pieces, overcomplicated lighting design and supply issues

Now people will never finish it after putting hundreds of pounds in

[jeremydmc]

So glad I was able to finish my DC chess sets. I feel for anyone that started a new collection from them and now may never finish. They made some really great miniatures.

[Drakul]

wow, all the people working on builds are going to get ----ed.

[The SHOGUN]

that sucks.

Eaglemoss's Marvel & DC Lead Figure lines were AMAZING.

their WWE Hero Collector lines was AWESOME. I got all the classic late 80s & 90s characters. great little statues.

[Phoenixblazes]

I actually tried once to buy their pieces. But the sale failed and I eventually had to get PayPal involved.

I wanted their Battlestar Galactica ships which looked pretty good. I also wanted their Star Trek ships, but they were just plain horrible. The paint line work for the windows never lined up with the sculpt itself, and it just became an expectation from their customers.

[Sokpan]

In 2020 they switched all shipments from UK to Germany for all EU customers, causing massive delays , lost parcels and wrong items been sent. I for one got 3 same items instead on the one I wanted, and Eaglemoss just did not care to get these items back, they just told me to keep them. Nice of them to do this, but if they did this to all customers, I can imagine how much money they lost. Then in July 2021, when EU required all online stores to capture the tax depending on which EU country the customer was located, Eaglemoss decided to stop shipping to most EU countries to avoid having to adapt their billing system. That in turn stopped many, including myself, from ordering anything. I could only find the items I wanted at BBTS but the shipping and import charges were too high to buy everything I wanted.

While I hate to see them close down, I would have liked to see their product lines continue, especially the ships, but with all the issues they had with their warehouse distribution and shipping, I am amazed they stayed open this long. Hope they can recover, regroup or find someone else to take up their product lines.