Anyone else frustrated by the waiting?

[Gyro Zeppeli]

This is in part a reaction to companies like HMO, Kinetiquettes, Pop Culture Shock, Prime 1, and First 4 Figures. I lay no real blame on these companies as I understand a part of the reason why this happens is beyond their control.

Anyone else getting really frustrated with the cycle? New licenses and IPs are announced, maybe a teaser here and there, and then sometimes a year or more before the piece even goes up for preorder? From there, it can take a year or more before we actually get the statue, and that is assuming no delays.

It is really wiping the excitement of the hobby from me. It's hard for me to look forward to new products when they are always so distant away. Sometimes I think I would rather not know about these new acquisitions and such until closer to the actual preorder timeline. The worst is the constant radio silence. It is either radio silence, or "We are working on it" responses.

Again I know a lot of this cannot be avoided, but it is still tedious. When there are many products not yet released, and IPs without a single statue out, it can be upsetting to see that same company announce ANOTHER license grab.

Is there anything that can be done to reduce these insane wait times?

[dao2]

Not really for me. Obviously I would prefer if they were shorter but I'm not too bent out of it. I have stuff coming in from years ago anyways so it's kinda like a small constant stream.

[ReTardist]

The funny thing is most companies can't actually afford to produce their own statues. So they take preorders to pay the factories production costs. Most of the time it takes the factories 6 (give or take) months to finish a production run. If ANYTHING goes wrong, everyone loses. It's a real tightrope walk for sure.

[qz33]

Gyro Zeppeli I think the issue is really with Pre-Ordering

I know we always want to pay the lowest prices possible. I'll always be into statues but for me POs are becoming more rare and a thing of the past.

I'd rather not go through the hand wringing of when,how,IF a piece will come out coupled with the overall future of a line and or company as well as the continuation of my personal interest.

If things don't go my way I've got the headaches of figuring out how to handle it which I'm tired of and is worth the ever decreasing possibility of paying more instead of guaranteeing taking a loss.
I'm changing to being more a consumer of statues instead of a lender for these companies.

[Gyro Zeppeli]

Originally Posted by qz33

Gyro Zeppeli I think the issue is really with Pre-Ordering

I know we always want to pay the lowest prices possible. I'll always be into statues but for me POs are becoming more rare and a thing of the past.

I'd rather not go through the hand wringing of when,how,IF a piece will come out coupled with the overall future of a line and or company as well as the continuation of my personal interest.

If things don't go my way I've got the headaches of figuring out how to handle it which I'm tired of and is worth the ever decreasing possibility of paying more instead of guaranteeing taking a loss.
I'm changing to being more a consumer of statues instead of a lender for these companies.

With the waiting involved these days, I am starting not to see a point in pre ordering at all. Look at the PCS Chun Li. If for some reason I still want that statue three years later (when it actually ships), I can just buy it online. If it is marked up, then so be it. What is the alternative? Paying $100+ for something I won't see for ages. If I end up not wanting it once it is out, I can't get a refund on that deposit so I wasted money anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised if the non refundable deposit is the main source of revenue for these companies. They probably love it when preorders cancel over the years while customers get fed up of waiting for something.

Just as a quick example I looked up the Prime 1 Maria statue from Bloodborne. I think we got a hard confirmation that she was being made about ten months ago, and she is currently estimated to come out around March 2018. That is nearly a two year turn around, not to mention before then I think we knew about the Bloodborne license for awhile. That's insane. Prime 1 announced Street Fighter on top of a bunch of other licenses recently, but not a single Witcher statue has shipped. To my knowledge a whopping five 1/4 Witcher statues have went up for preorder and not one of them is even close to shipping.

[PermaGrin]

I just got to the point where I shifted gears and dont wait for POs, just wait for releases. PO and all the "hype" beforehand just give me insight into if I want to waste some money later on down the line. Not only that, but waiting allows to see inhand first to see how QC went.

Yeah you might have to pay a little more in the aftermarket...maybe, sometimes they are cheaper.
I consider it paying for convenience. Convenience of not having to deal with the 1-2 year waiting game.

[dao2]

Originally Posted by Gyro Zeppeli

With the waiting involved these days, I am starting not to see a point in pre ordering at all. Look at the PCS Chun Li. If for some reason I still want that statue three years later (when it actually ships), I can just buy it online. If it is marked up, then so be it. What is the alternative? Paying $100+ for something I won't see for ages. If I end up not wanting it once it is out, I can't get a refund on that deposit so I wasted money anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised if the non refundable deposit is the main source of revenue for these companies. They probably love it when preorders cancel over the years while customers get fed up of waiting for something.

Just as a quick example I looked up the Prime 1 Maria statue from Bloodborne. I think we got a hard confirmation that she was being made about ten months ago, and she is currently estimated to come out around March 2018. That is nearly a two year turn around, not to mention before then I think we knew about the Bloodborne license for awhile. That's insane. Prime 1 announced Street Fighter on top of a bunch of other licenses recently, but not a single Witcher statue has shipped. To my knowledge a whopping five 1/4 Witcher statues have went up for preorder and not one of them is even close to shipping.

Sounds like you're a bit angry about it but just wait like you said you got a plan anyways.

All of the Witcher statues will probably ship with relatively quick succession. Also they may be pushed back but Geralt's pretty close to original release date.

I mean it sounds like you want to get excited about stuff, hell it sounds like you do actually get excited, but are kinda salty that you can't get it fast enough. Years is a long time, I'm sure everyone wishes it was better. But there's limits to what you can do.

Companies need to PO stuff for revenue like was said above and sure they can hold off on announcing licenses but I'd imagine people prefer to hear they have them. Also it lets them have time to get the word out. There aren't commercials for these things so word spreads slow, even in forums and fb people find stuff all the time and are like "wow I wish I saw that before". Hell you can look at the license threads themselves and peppered in between people talking about the new licensing is people discovering they have it. So why not announce it?

Faster would be better, but it's a reality that most people live with :< Oh and I doubt many people cancel for them to really care about the NRDs. The reason they do it is so they don't get orders and people cancel (which is OFTEN when there is no NRD).

[Dave Mac]

Another point on the wait is that with so much competition and new companies coming through, no licence is set firm and something better may come along but your funds are tied into a first look product.
Frazetta licence is a good example of how different companies can offer seemingly bigger and better things after there has been an initial release by one company claiming exclusivity. Some PO''s are still valid but only for low edition sizes which I think some companies are aiming for.

[Glencairn]

I never PO anything, dont have patience to wait years and I am sure I would lose interest, also when I buy statues I need to see several reviews first.

[NinNin]

Originally Posted by Gyro Zeppeli

Anyone else getting really frustrated with the cycle? New licenses and IPs are announced, maybe a teaser here and there, and then sometimes a year or more before the piece even goes up for preorder? From there, it can take a year or more before we actually get the statue, and that is assuming no delays.

It is really wiping the excitement of the hobby from me. It's hard for me to look forward to new products when they are always so distant away. Sometimes I think I would rather not know about these new acquisitions and such until closer to the actual preorder timeline. The worst is the constant radio silence. It is either radio silence, or "We are working on it" responses.

I totally understand where you're coming from. I can say that I reluctantly dropped the Prime 1 DC New 52 line because they announced the Rebirrh license acquisition. Really took the excitement away from what I still think are amazing pieces.

The frustrating part is that it is already going to take years before their New 52 line is complete and who knows how long before they reveal anything for Rebirth. Not to mention they haven't told us the scale they'll be working with for the Rebirth line.

It isn't a problem for those that don't mind buying multiples of characters, but I just don'thave the space. Furthermore I'd prefer to have the most modern depiction of the characters, which is also hard because of these reboots and statue turnaround time. I'll probably just end up getting the classic versions and call it a day.