Dao, wow, sorry to hear that... Do you have any close up pics you wouldn't mind sharing?
Sure, I don't have an amazing camera so hopefully this will do. It starts off great at the neck and head except for the unpainted pins at the end of the head (they said they were supposed to be unpainted, but v0v.
Then moving on to the middle it looks so lazy. Just one flat color, not weathered or anything like the neck, and it's also a thick layer although you can't tell that well in the picture.
Then going at the tail end it's even worse. The windows have some paint spilled over and you can tell when the lights are on, and also the weathering job looks like they just got bored and decided to drop some ink and spray stuff on it. The ring also looks a little "plasticy" as well.
Here's an overall shot.
Beyond that I was thoroughly unimpressed with QMX over the whole affair. Beyond the completion time there were some issues with the model too. I had to wait a while to order as I didn't have the money when it first came out unfortunately. But I've seen the pics, people got the crates filled with nice custom cut grey foam to keep theirs produced. Mine had a HARD piece of styrofoam and a bunch of packing peanuts.
I was pretty damn pissed that they cheaped out on my packaging as it makes repacking bad, it looks like crap, and it also caused some damage. The engine light on the top back was snapped off (if you look in the 3rd pick you can see the separation). It was just hanging by the wire and I had to glue it back on, and both of the shuttle wings had come off as well and I had to glue all 3 parts back on.
And a non-shipping damage problem as well, one of the base peg holes had some gunk in it which stopped the stand from going in. I tried picking at it with an xacto knife to no avail. But such can happen as long as they replace, and they did. After receiving my replacement I asked if they wanted the old one back (they made no mention and there was no label). No word for 3 weeks, then I get an email with a shipping label to the "FX Company" or somesuch (can't remeber 100% the name). Then later I get an email explaining they want the base back.
Because of the damage I would normally ask for a replacement or return it, but I LOVE firefly and I waited a damn year for it. Who knows how long a replacement would be, and no doubt the paint job would be just as lackluster. So I ended up keeping it, but pretty much disappointment is the entire story of the Big Damn Replica for me.
I'd say a proper price is more around $1000 or so (it's a lot smaller then you'd think). Now the fact that it was made in America does raise the price substantially, but it doesn't show in the end product. I have other things that were professionally done in the US, and it shows. I've seen better paint jobs come out of China (MR Falcon for example, and it cost the same and it's 3x as big too :|).
I also own a couple other QMX products, the shirt and the newer Mal pistol replica. The shirt is godawful, it's a little more expensive than an average licensed tshirt but with the same average quality material, and whatever pressing/decal/printing whatever they used is terrible. After a few months it began to crack so much I couldn't read the words. I have $15 tshirts from ebay that have held up fine, theirs is crap. The Mal pistol is ok, from a few feet it looks great. Up close it looks pretty ugly, and it's also very fragile. But for $90 I think that's a fair price.
Now if they only would make full metal replica like they said and keep it at a fair price (yeah right
) but they came out with that instead. And they go all nazi on anyone who would do it in a community like the RPF, so no more runs like Badger did with the model 47a (PM me if you have one you want to sell ^^).
IMO it's a shame someone better doesn't have the firefly license because they don't do it justice. And the only reasonably priced artisan replica that I saw was one of their original (possibly first one) the stealth viper from BSG. Beyond that overpriced claptrap.
/rant over
