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Originally Posted by Submissive421
But it just PCS. I have other statues from different companies under the same conditions and they are just fine. I won't say of my PSC pieces have cracking but most do. Also have leaning problems. So their quality is just overall poor for me. To top it off they take 3-4 years to release statues so it's not worth it to invest with them at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Drakul
Yeah I had huge issues with He-Man. The paint was cracking and then CS completely messed up and it took 1.5 years to get my replacement.
I swore I would never order again but caved for Skeletor which went fine.
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Sorry you both had issues with your orders and I wish I could see your set up and maybe determine the issue. PCS statues are not the only statues that suffer from leaning issues and any statue that has leaning issues is due to the design not being good and many times they dont put enough support to the amount of weight that it properly needs therefore; making the piece lean.
Statues like Sideshow Spiderman PF suffered leaning issues with some collectors because the metal support beam was not strong enough.. I think leaning statues are not necessarily a PCS design fault and many times its because the shady factories in China will cut corners using an inferior support beam inside instead of what they were told to use by the statue company.
The thing is when any company outside of China has to deal with their factories you will discover its extremely hard to work with these factories. Many times Sideshow or PCS will say the production needs to be better or have certain requests to fix and the factory will flat out ignore them, lie and say all is good when its really not.
The only way to fix these defective issues is to either open their own facility in China or a cheap country to have their own operations and not have to deal with a factory that is not run by them.. China seriously sucks when it comes to cutting corners at their factories and just because they can produce it for cheap doesn't mean they should cut corners... Even XM statues suffer these issues...
The reason Hot Toys, First 4 Figures, Blitzway have some of the best QC is due to them owning their own factory facility that if something is not good enough someone like Alex Davis from First 4 Figures can easily go in say fix this and they will listen to him..
The problem with Sideshow and PCS is when they say to the China Factoy fix this, they silently laugh to themselves and push it off to ignore the fix and slide it under the carpet.. Unless its a huge issue like Thanos, the factory had to re-produce an entire new batch of the full statue since the corners cut by the factory were too widespread that the factory couldnt hide behind those issues.
Since PCS and Sideshow make excuses that they can't indvidually inspect every piece during the productions run is nonsense because that’s exactly what First 4 Figures does.
PCS has some of the lowest ES runs and their team could be there during production to inspect every piece and make them fix things not up to par.
There can be many factors why paint can crack and I am pretty good at being a detective when it comes to finding out the root source of the problem.
Any chance you can upload some pics of the cracked paint... Are the cracks more like Crazing or has the paint flaked off? If its flaking off, sometimes incompetent factory workers will forget to prime the statue and with any painting job if it is not primed or primed properly that can later result in cracking and flaking paint...
There is a possibility the person that worked on those specific PCS statues that are now cracking forgot to prime it and honestly the only way to catch a mistake like that is each phase of the production needs to be inspected and then go to the next step after it passes inspection.
For instance, when my Father and I use to contract Finished Basements there was a step of inspections that a code enforcer does and you have to pass before going on to the next part of the job. After we put up wood beams, inspection, then fire proofing, inspection. Electrical, inspection... Once those 3 inspections pass then you are allowed to seal it up with Sheet Rock (walls).
If you put the sheet rock up for the walls and those 3 steps were not inspecting before hand you would never know if you wired the electrical wrong or needed more fire proofing until it was too late and an issue arises from the faulty work. That is how mistakes can be discovered, but Im sure these factories on many steps go on to the next step without First inspecting that the last step was done properly,
So when the factory is in the priming stage once complete there should be an inspection to make sure they are primed correctly and then once passed they can then be allowed to proceed in painting the piece. There have been times where this was discussed on this forum in the PCS section that sometimes the factory will forget or for whatever reason not prime the piece and that can be the reason those particular pieces are cracking...
In these situations I definitely blame the shady incompetent factory more then PCS, but what I hold PCS accountable for is to at least have someone from the PCS company be there at the factory and when its time for Priming I feel they should have someone along with the factory inspecting the priming stage and each phase the statue goes into needs to be reinspected by a PCS member and not some “I dont care factory worker”
Crazing is a term used on Porcelain statues that when a temp fluctuates fast it can effect it by seeing those vein like cracks and crazing can come from contamination that enters the piece in a non sealed area or noticable fluctuation in temp.
If you ever seen a old porcelain piece like some of the Disney pieces suffer crazing due to the Porcelain material being effected as I mentioned of 2 ways crazing can begin. Crazing unfortunately, is irreversible unless it’s completely repainted. The good thing is Crazing is more rare to happen to a resin statue versus porcelain is a softer material alowing it to expand easier in wamer conditions or shrink in colder conditions making it easier for crazing issues.
Also, humidity levels can effect pieces and just because you have other pieces not PCS in good shape doesnt mean the way you have them now will not be effected in the furute.
Do you mind telling me the setting you have your collectibles in because their are ways to keep them at Museum settings. When you learn how materials react and understand methods that Museums use it can help preserve your collection for a lifetime in Mint condition. Its not easy, but possible...
Something in your settings can cause the cracking and whether it’s contamination, the air is too dry maybe or something else.. With mass porduced items like these its the luck of the draw if you cant keep them in perfect settings and paint needs oxegen to breath with some kind of moisture in the air because when the air is too dry it can also crack paint.. Cut off oxygen completely and the paint will definitely crack. But, if the factory forgot to prime it then sorry to say the only way to fix it then is to have it repainted and make sure its primed before the new repaint..
If the factory didn’t seal it correctly it can result in the statue deteriorating faster than your other statues.
You really have to think about not having too much humidity, but also not having it too dry and in the later years of the statues life little altercations to what you cant see in the air can result in some of these issues..
Also, another reason I stay away from poses that might be too dynamic resulting in later leaning. I knew right away that the Spidey PF would give some collectors leaning issues and I didn't want to risk it with that piece so I stayed with my Spidey Comiquette and LSB instead.
PCS did have many issues within their company and thankfully all my pieces I received from them are all Minty Fresh.. Of course thats after getting a few replacements like for a hand or something small and once that came they are all good.
My oldest piece is the first Shao Khan they did from MK9 And its still perfect as well as the Akuma vs Gouken EX.
What pieces are cracking for you?
Drakul, that really stinks it took them 1.5 years to get you a replacement for He-Man and I feel your pain. You should have never emailed them and always call! Even if you are an international customer I would have bought a phone card to call them.. Its too late now since all is handled through Sideshow now, but when PCS was doing there own customer care I noticed emailing them took forever to fix an issue, but if you called them they literally fixed the issue for you that same day!
Im not sure why no international buyers would just call them and honestly everytime I called PCS customer service was excellent and very helpful.. They failed on the email side and Im sure if you were emailing them that might be why it took 1.5 years to get it.. Everytime I called them it was handled very fast and I feel you could have been helped better if you called...
I am taking an educated guess that you never actually called them and tried communicating through there horrible email system to get help. If a company has a phone number and even if its out of country getting a cheap phone card makes more sense then using email...
Why do so many buyers and retailers use emails for customer service. Customers should always demand a phone number to get help. Emailing is garbage for customer service! Dont allow it and speak up if a company is only using email to communicate because that is bad business..
It is not good and people need to start getting back into the you have to CALL for cusomter service to get proper help. Calling and speaking to a physical person is always best versus not knowing where your email is in line to be read and if an employee by accident skips over your email.. I cant believe so many trust to contact customer service with emails... Imagine looking at a list of bombarded emails over taking one phone call and specifically speaking to the customer at that moment is more efficient and personal that will result in better help!
You know PCS did have a customer phone number and by me we have phone cards for $5 that can call anywhere in the world for super cheap! Plus, if you can afford these expensive statues I beleive you can afford a phone call to call them internationally.. I never understood when people were complaining that they are not getting a response from PCS, but all you had to do is call them!
Thankfully, I was able to get fast replacements from them and they did have a phone number you could call to make things go faster then email before they went to Sideshow for customer service.
Even though Darkness took forever with PCS’s production in the end he came out LEGENDARY!
Sometimes to keep your pieces at Museum quality can cost more then the statues themselvs, but in order to really maintain them for decades in Mint condition you have to go down to microscopic level and understand the slightest thing in the environment can break down the items marerials.
Many pieces get corners cut and its not just happening to PCS.. You honestly should not hold PCS fully accountable when its really the factories even lying to PCS.
Try to work with these China factories and you will discover they play by their own rules and laws. Also, another reason why molds are being stolen and recasted, Counterfeits.
Also, the reason I was asking what pieces you have cracking because during many of these productions PCS had to stop production and transfer everything to another factory. The factory was not doing the job PCS expected from them. They then had to spend time and resources to transfer everything to another factory..
Thats the difficulties working with horrble China companies. China should really respect business etiquettes more and operate like the rest of the World; (Honorable Business). All China factory owners can seriously go right to Hell, I wish bad things for them. Did you know the same factories producing our authentic products are also the same factories after hours producing all the counterfeits. Thats why the counterfeits look almost identicle to the authentic product but, are always made with much worse cheaper materials so, they can sell it for dirt cheap...
Thats why knock offs can look real, but most the time fall apart fast from the inferior materials they use to produce it.
These factories have no respect for the customer or the business producing with them and it is up to companies like Sideshow and PCS to really be down there throats threatening to take their business elsewhere, but these factories know they have the upper hand since there are not many factories out there that specialize in high end statues like these.
So, its like the factories have American companies as well as any outside company that has to deal in China by the ballz in Vice Grips. Its like Sideshow and PCS are scared to put Real pressure on them to operate honorable and instead they always will defend their China partner even when they decieved the customers with cut corners..
This is the same reason you hear and see many Sideshow pieces with QC issues as well. When they are not owning their own facilty then they have to play by the Chinas shady factory rules and it is actually only getting worse as more new statue companies are all using the same factories over loading the factory with too many projects that they can actually handle. Unless, you are Someone like F4F or Hot Toys with their own facility resulting in much better QC!
With My Thanos the factory cut corners by doing a horrible Rotocasted method. ( Method for Hollow parts) On top of them maiking a lot of him hollow they did the proccess wrong so he had lots of resin inside on one part of his head as the other 80% inside his head was hollow...
Sideshow had to make the factory do an entire new run after production was already complete to produce more the correct way and fix what the factory clearly did on purpose to save on cost. Why in the world would they hollow out a portrait when that part of the statue is small. I feel a protrait should always be slolid. The new batches I can verify are now completely solid.. I also have picture evidence of one Thanos head’s broken open and you can see it’s literally egg shell thin and hollow underneath when another broken head of the same portrait had to be broken from a newer batch which was completely solid..
Thats the problem when companies like Sideshow say they have a team out there in China for there production makes me scratch my head because if they have a team there why would they ever allow the factory to rotocast a Portrait when they are already a small part of the statue and should definitely be solid resin inside...
If customers never had to break open their piece for a replacement then we would not have discovered this cut corner by the Factory and the structural integrity of the hollow portrait was very weak.
I barely hit it with a hammer and it shattered like glass, but with the newer solid portrait of the same head from the new batch I had a very tough time breaking it and actually had to hit it several times with the hammer to break.
I made a video and its crazy how much stronger and durable a solid portrait is compared to a hollow rotocasted portrait.. I can understand Hollowing out certain areas to a statue, but to hollow out the Portrait to where its egg shell thin on the other side is nonsense.
If Sideshow and PCS had there own facility I can guarantee many of the QC issues would be resolved.
