Aspen Matthews Statue - Page 38

oogahonk · 05-19-2010, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by riky

The statue is gorgeous, and the facial sculpt is breathtaking, but the companies quality control history (and the time it has taken to resolve those issues) scares me a bit. Looking at all those fins that look paper thin makes me nervous. Maybe they are made of a material that is more durable then it looks? In the end it will depend on the price point for me. If the statue is close to $300 at retail I have to be confident that there wont be any issues with it, and if there are they will be resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

Riky, I think that what occurred with the Kiani statue shows that Aspen has excellent quality control. I know that Frank personally travels to China to check on the statues throughout the process, but you can't tell by looking at a new product if it is going to fail 3,6 or 12 months down the road. My original Kiani Lava base never actually failed, but I received a replacement base regardless. There are not many, if any, companies out there that would go through what Aspen did to make right by their customers. Most companies would have been content to push out their next statues and collect more money while leaving broken statues on peoples shelves. Bear in mind that the Aspen Matthews statue that we are just now seeing was set to debut last year. As for the possible quality of the fins we can look at the Grace statue that has 2 sets of 4 translucent wings that are of the highest quality. I will admit that I am uneasy buying from Sideshow, Gentle Giant, or even private retailers because with them what you buy is what you get most, if not every, time. Buying from Aspen, especially following how the handled the Kiani base issue, is a no brainer for me because I know that they feel responsible for every statue that is sent out with their name on it, and to me that is the best guarantee. As for your guess on price point, you are probably pretty close even though Frank has stated that the more pre-orders they get, the lower the price will be. Remember there are no definites in life, Aspen could do everything right with this statue, and then UPS drops it at the shipping center.

benhernandez · 05-19-2010, 11:29 PM

OOG, couldn't agree with you anymore.

Not only does Frank care about the satisfaction of the customers but Peter as well and the rest of the Aspen crew. That in itself says a lot. They will do theyre best to do right by Michael and his legacy.

riky · 05-19-2010, 11:39 PM

You make a very solid point oog. I appreciate the time you took to write that. Alleviates some of the worries I am having about preordering. It really is a beautiful statue.

bjread · 05-20-2010, 07:22 PM

My only concern with this piece is a a possible Black Armor....I just want to know if there will be one and possible look....I would LOVE to buy both but won't be able to afford it....would like to know BEFORE buying time so I can make an informed decision....either way....by the end of the year an Aspen Mattews piece will be sitting on my shelf.

koten · 05-21-2010, 12:44 AM

Wow, that is one sexy statue! Great work! When can I buy this statue?

Crazy 88 · 05-21-2010, 09:53 AM

Can't wait to order this in July Previews.

koten · 05-21-2010, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy 88

Can't wait to order this in July Previews.

Ok, that's what I needed to know.

Crazy 88 · 05-21-2010, 12:56 PM

I remembered reading in a previous post by Frank that it would be available for order in the July Previews. So, ya... I hope that is when we can order.

Barak85 · 05-22-2010, 07:23 AM

@Crazy88- Yup you're right, it will be in the July previews and shipping in September

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankm

All,

We'll have this listed in the July 2010 Diamond Previews catalog for items shipping in Sept!

Yes, (for all you naysayers!) this statue is already in production. In fact, I have the first sample statue on my shelf here at work. I'll be heading to China too in order to help do QC on the final production run!

Yes, the more initial orders we receive on this statue, the more we can make and the less it'll cost all of you! So please don't hesitate if you want one of these beauties. Just a small difference in the production run can help sway the cost quite a bit!

benhernandez · 05-24-2010, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by riky

The statue is gorgeous, and the facial sculpt is breathtaking, but the companies quality control history (and the time it has taken to resolve those issues) scares me a bit. Looking at all those fins that look paper thin makes me nervous. Maybe they are made of a material that is more durable then it looks? In the end it will depend on the price point for me. If the statue is close to $300 at retail I have to be confident that there wont be any issues with it, and if there are they will be resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

Riky and the rest of the SF members,
Let’s not say that Aspens QC is at fault for the recent Kiani Lava base issues or the Reg. Kiani base issues. There was no quality control issues on the Kiani statue, the problem was with the engineering of the base which was a rare piece and of itself design. Frank, Phillip and Chris have explained it to us numerous times what the problem was and that not all statues had this problems. Now in regards to the “turn around” of the new bases, let’s remember that lots of testing needed to be performed to make sure that the new bases wouldn’t warp or begin to lean within time. They had to test numerous mixtures of resin to make sure we still got the look that we fell in love about this piece. They didn’t just add an easy fix up that would change the look of the statue but reengineered. I’m sure that for every new base they were testing had to take 2-4 weeks and if it didn't work properly they had to go back to the drawing board. So to say that Aspen QC is at fault is just wrong. They did the best that they could to turn these around as fast as they could. Frank has been on here many times giving us updates, and explained to us how the procedure was done to get these bases to us. From what I know from speaking to Frank is that this statue has been ready for a while now and was ready to be debut for over a year but they chose to delay the debut until all the Kiani Bases issues were resolved. To me that shows that Aspen clearly cares about its fans and not just about pumping out statues left and right for profit.

From what I’ve heard the new base is much simpler than the required engineered base that the Kiani statue had. In other words the new statue will most likely have a hole in the base for a peg that might be on the statue itself to hold itself up like most traditional statues do.
I am more than confident that the new statue and any future products from Aspen will be amazing pieces of work that would make Mike proud and make us proud to own those pieces.