ANOVOS issues (ANOVOS ONLY discussion)
- Thread starter Art Andrews
- Start date
It's not just Star Wars. Communication and updates have been hit-and-miss for years with their Star Trek and BSG stuff, but even when there are problems and communications breakdowns they always come through in the end. I know the silence is frustrating, but have faith. I'm expecting things to remain somewhat crazy until after TFA opens.
--Jonah
--Jonah
Chief Bast
Well-Known Member
I would pretty much echo everyone else's comments regarding ANOVOS delays and less frequency on their communication. I have a small, yet slowly growing concern since I also have several pre-orders outstanding myself. I also can't help wondering if there may have been too many product lines announced in such a short period of time, extending the delays even more.
That being said, I'm an undershirt away from completing their "Monster Maroon" ensemble and couldn't be more satisfied so far. Anyone who has tackled this uniform knows the obvious challenges and to see it produced on a mass scale, even with delays, is quite impressive.
That being said, I'm an undershirt away from completing their "Monster Maroon" ensemble and couldn't be more satisfied so far. Anyone who has tackled this uniform knows the obvious challenges and to see it produced on a mass scale, even with delays, is quite impressive.
Gnar Gnar Jinn
Well-Known Member
Don't forget all the secret behind the scenes stuff and is most likely has cooking to match up with the new films... These projects have probably pulled them away from getting orders out, and would explain the lack of communication as Disney is keeping stuff pretty hush hush
tubachris85x
Master Member
I wouldn't really accept that as an excuse to delay fulfillment of orders. While they are trying to fulfill their contract with Disney, what's the point of being in business if you don't release a "product" you're accepting money for? That is how EFX got to where they are now; they took too many projects, perpetually leaving everything in limbo, yet, these people can still hold a license to "sell" star wars products? I don't get that business model.
With EFX's reputation, I don't understand why LFL/Disney feels that is acceptable. Perhaps everyone that made those pre-orders on their unreleased items need to get their money back.
But you know what? How many people are complaining that paid for something, yet not getting refunds? Is that not an option? Did EFX state a "release" by date? If that date has come and gone, that agreement is NULL, and I'd be getting charge backs done. Though, if people are still holding out hope for EFX to pull through, ya'll are making EFX feel that it is acceptable, because YOU'RE NOT TAKING YOUR MONEY BACK
Got Maul
Official Licensee
Hi Everyone,
Sorry about the delay in responding to your requests. As you can imagine everything from Celebration onto this point has just been a total blur. There have been a many side projects that have came about due to Celebration and sadly, none I can really speak to here. Regardless, a quick word on the state of the company since this year : As you have all witnessed, Anovos has grown by leaps and bounds just in this uncompleted year alone. As a result, we've had to take on many more employees and grow by at least three times where we were even one year ago. During this process, some of you have observed even our processes have changed, mostly in our prototyping capacity, moving nearly primarily to a 3D scan and print of Lucasfilm Assets. While this has sped up our processes in prototyping areas, our manufacturing outfit still had much learning to do in the ways of 1:1 armor, helmet and soft-goods creation. In fact, many of the delays you've seen in our Star Wars product has been the result of alignment of new techniques.
Regardless, while the delays have been frustrating, the long hours in conversation, sweat, and tears have yielded results that have left myself in awe , even after five years of doing this. Its become clear to me that the quality standard the team has set for itself, has been the highest I've ever seen, even beyond my own expectations. From The Force Awakens goods to renewing the classics of Star Wars, Star Trek and even BSG, we've not only grown in company but also standard that we've held ourselves too...and consequently, this alone, having to go back and re-do prototypes after prototypes, have been the primary sources of delay.
While our higher standard of quality has become our own challenge, we've been working diligently to create processes that protect the product's timeline as well as effectively bring communication to you in a more standardized way. We have worked our program to bring projects from concept to landed in slightly less than a year, we have also looked at expanding our customer service to also now include a channel through social media. Lastly, our policy of no-question refund policy has stayed true, if the wait has been too long and you need to invest elsewhere.
All together, it has always been about bringing you the best experience possible. This year of massive growth has shown us even this best of intention will be its own challenge if steps are not taken to protect the the most basic foundations communication and product quality .I can assure you, that's exactly what we're doing, giving it our all, sometimes in moments of rest, but mostly in moments in between the insanity. My team and myself refuse to give up in succeeding and meeting your needs in both communication and product development.
Now on to questions.
Great news on this guy, we are in manufacturing. One of the main causes of delay was the extra cost we decided to incur when we saw the first prototypes of the project. We first began with the pants being standard high pants, but quickly discovered (when our male model put it on) that the second you did anything but breath, your stomach was showing (or at least your undershirt was). One of the company standards we have is to "reduce the breaks of imagination" and in this case, seeing someone's stomach is definitely a break. The question then became, whether you lower the jacket (thereby interrupting the high waisted bomber like accuracy of the jacket) or replicate the high waisted pants that was used during the fighting scenes of the movie. We opted for the latter and maintain accuracy of the fighting pants by making the rarely seen "high-waters". They look funny coming out of the box, but when worn, is clearly the right choice.
You're absolute right, there is no excuse for this particular product being past one year. Frankly, I have no excuses for it and have made it a prime model of what to learn from and grow with our old and new team. We took our licks with this one but am happy to say that the dawn is finally near
The good news on the belt rig is that they are on US soil being packaged for shipment. The end is very near on this project.
Heard loud and clear. The good news on the Han Belt is they are being packaged now. So the end is finally near on these items.
Thanks ! Will keep the lines open as much as I can !!
hopefully this is helping.
We are not working with EFX on a blaster pairing at the moment.
We are targeting November/December for the Tie Pilot ensemble completion and ready ship date.
The construction timeline is not foreign to the industry. Our approach is unique to Anovos. We tend to bring people much earlier into the buying timeline, at the concept stage. This helps us gauge demand ahead of time, instead of making product now, and then selling inventory. This approach has allowed us to launch multiple products and reward those who "invest" by giving them the best possible price in the Tier system (and also giving them an "any time" refund policy). Thus, while it feels like a longer timeline, manufacturing is still the same, but the time of money exchange is definitely longer.
We are working urgently to fix this and are committed to restoring your faith among all our lines !
Much appreciated. It truly was a Monster of a project. To finally see it come to fruition is dream come true.
Chris, its a matter of business model and LFL has allowed us to choose our models, as long as we fulfill and provide customer service. As explained earlier, we choose a much different approach to market that the brings buyers in much earlier into the concept portion product design rather than after product has been made. We reward those who invest in these projects by offering the lowest price possible while at the same time providing an easy to execute parachute should anyone want a refund for the time taken. We understand and respect the investment that people make, and want to make access to information and their money as easy as possible through the process.
Again this is very different and a number of reasons went into why we chose this model. The number one reason being, the concept of "clearances and sell offs of inventory" rewarding the unfaithful. In the conventional business model of high risk of inventory, typically, a product is made and put out on the shelf. The demand of the faithful consumer is high, they get theirs and when the demand dies out and a company is left with inventory, the company then goes on sales/clearances and rewards those who were less than faithful or deal mongers. By Anovos reversing our process, the faithful get our best price, while deal mongers are dealt with the risk of obtaining nothing, which I always felt was the better process of rewarding the loyalty of the our fans. But, just like the conventional system has its pro's and con's, so does our reverse system, of being brought in early and creating a longer wait period.
The choice always belongs to the consumer. In the conventional system, you only get one choice, "buy when there is inventory." With our system, you get at least one other choice, "Buy early, get a better price, wait longer" OR "buy at inventory, higher price, but wait shortest."
Sorry about the delay in responding to your requests. As you can imagine everything from Celebration onto this point has just been a total blur. There have been a many side projects that have came about due to Celebration and sadly, none I can really speak to here. Regardless, a quick word on the state of the company since this year : As you have all witnessed, Anovos has grown by leaps and bounds just in this uncompleted year alone. As a result, we've had to take on many more employees and grow by at least three times where we were even one year ago. During this process, some of you have observed even our processes have changed, mostly in our prototyping capacity, moving nearly primarily to a 3D scan and print of Lucasfilm Assets. While this has sped up our processes in prototyping areas, our manufacturing outfit still had much learning to do in the ways of 1:1 armor, helmet and soft-goods creation. In fact, many of the delays you've seen in our Star Wars product has been the result of alignment of new techniques.
Regardless, while the delays have been frustrating, the long hours in conversation, sweat, and tears have yielded results that have left myself in awe , even after five years of doing this. Its become clear to me that the quality standard the team has set for itself, has been the highest I've ever seen, even beyond my own expectations. From The Force Awakens goods to renewing the classics of Star Wars, Star Trek and even BSG, we've not only grown in company but also standard that we've held ourselves too...and consequently, this alone, having to go back and re-do prototypes after prototypes, have been the primary sources of delay.
While our higher standard of quality has become our own challenge, we've been working diligently to create processes that protect the product's timeline as well as effectively bring communication to you in a more standardized way. We have worked our program to bring projects from concept to landed in slightly less than a year, we have also looked at expanding our customer service to also now include a channel through social media. Lastly, our policy of no-question refund policy has stayed true, if the wait has been too long and you need to invest elsewhere.
All together, it has always been about bringing you the best experience possible. This year of massive growth has shown us even this best of intention will be its own challenge if steps are not taken to protect the the most basic foundations communication and product quality .I can assure you, that's exactly what we're doing, giving it our all, sometimes in moments of rest, but mostly in moments in between the insanity. My team and myself refuse to give up in succeeding and meeting your needs in both communication and product development.
Now on to questions.
Great news on this guy, we are in manufacturing. One of the main causes of delay was the extra cost we decided to incur when we saw the first prototypes of the project. We first began with the pants being standard high pants, but quickly discovered (when our male model put it on) that the second you did anything but breath, your stomach was showing (or at least your undershirt was). One of the company standards we have is to "reduce the breaks of imagination" and in this case, seeing someone's stomach is definitely a break. The question then became, whether you lower the jacket (thereby interrupting the high waisted bomber like accuracy of the jacket) or replicate the high waisted pants that was used during the fighting scenes of the movie. We opted for the latter and maintain accuracy of the fighting pants by making the rarely seen "high-waters". They look funny coming out of the box, but when worn, is clearly the right choice.
The helmets are being made now and will be the first things shipped for costumers. We are looking at only a couple months left on their manufacturing timeline.
You're absolute right, there is no excuse for this particular product being past one year. Frankly, I have no excuses for it and have made it a prime model of what to learn from and grow with our old and new team. We took our licks with this one but am happy to say that the dawn is finally near
The good news on the belt rig is that they are on US soil being packaged for shipment. The end is very near on this project.
I would love to order their Shadow Trooper helmet. Especially when it's still under the 1st tier price (&, let's face it... I probably will), but I don't want to. I want to wait till I get, at least one, of the many products I've already ordered from them. Or at the very least, see & read reviews of items you guys have received from them.
The wait time on the Han belt has reached eFX levels at 14 months.& those orders were paid IN FULL! At least with my eFX orders I'm only in as deep as a deposit.
Heard loud and clear. The good news on the Han Belt is they are being packaged now. So the end is finally near on these items.
Thanks ! Will keep the lines open as much as I can !!
hopefully this is helping.
We are not working with EFX on a blaster pairing at the moment.
We are targeting November/December for the Tie Pilot ensemble completion and ready ship date.
The construction timeline is not foreign to the industry. Our approach is unique to Anovos. We tend to bring people much earlier into the buying timeline, at the concept stage. This helps us gauge demand ahead of time, instead of making product now, and then selling inventory. This approach has allowed us to launch multiple products and reward those who "invest" by giving them the best possible price in the Tier system (and also giving them an "any time" refund policy). Thus, while it feels like a longer timeline, manufacturing is still the same, but the time of money exchange is definitely longer.
We are working urgently to fix this and are committed to restoring your faith among all our lines !
Much appreciated. It truly was a Monster of a project. To finally see it come to fruition is dream come true.
Chris, its a matter of business model and LFL has allowed us to choose our models, as long as we fulfill and provide customer service. As explained earlier, we choose a much different approach to market that the brings buyers in much earlier into the concept portion product design rather than after product has been made. We reward those who invest in these projects by offering the lowest price possible while at the same time providing an easy to execute parachute should anyone want a refund for the time taken. We understand and respect the investment that people make, and want to make access to information and their money as easy as possible through the process.
Again this is very different and a number of reasons went into why we chose this model. The number one reason being, the concept of "clearances and sell offs of inventory" rewarding the unfaithful. In the conventional business model of high risk of inventory, typically, a product is made and put out on the shelf. The demand of the faithful consumer is high, they get theirs and when the demand dies out and a company is left with inventory, the company then goes on sales/clearances and rewards those who were less than faithful or deal mongers. By Anovos reversing our process, the faithful get our best price, while deal mongers are dealt with the risk of obtaining nothing, which I always felt was the better process of rewarding the loyalty of the our fans. But, just like the conventional system has its pro's and con's, so does our reverse system, of being brought in early and creating a longer wait period.
The choice always belongs to the consumer. In the conventional system, you only get one choice, "buy when there is inventory." With our system, you get at least one other choice, "Buy early, get a better price, wait longer" OR "buy at inventory, higher price, but wait shortest."
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Westies14
Master Member
I may have missed it somehow, but during this thread options that we'd have to weigh in on for the Han belt rig have been mentioned - at one point we were told to keep an eye out for an email soon. Are there still upgrades to purchase or options for weathered/clean?
It's exciting that the belts are being packaged, but I've been excited about that since May! Any projection of when they'll ship? Same for the Bespin ensemble- what's the latest? I'd love to do this for Halloween this year but need to order boots from another vendor to complete the suit. I'll invest in something else for the fall if these items are unlikely to be ready in time.
Let us know! Thanks for the updates.
Edit: PS - Could you snap some pics of the production belts to tide us over? We'd love to see them!
It's exciting that the belts are being packaged, but I've been excited about that since May! Any projection of when they'll ship? Same for the Bespin ensemble- what's the latest? I'd love to do this for Halloween this year but need to order boots from another vendor to complete the suit. I'll invest in something else for the fall if these items are unlikely to be ready in time.
Let us know! Thanks for the updates.
Edit: PS - Could you snap some pics of the production belts to tide us over? We'd love to see them!
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Dao2
Well-Known Member
I hear that getting a refund from EFX can be quite difficult...
Got Maul
Official Licensee
Hi Westies , I can try to get a pic from the marketing team and get some clearance to throw it up here. As for the upgrades, the email for the han solo stuff will come out. There is one automatic upgrade in there that I think you will be quite pleased to hear about, considering it is our form of mea culpa for being so late. Just keep an eye out for this as I am pushing to have the letter sent either this or next week.
As for the Bespin ship date, I have to get back to you on this. I need to see how far along in the process we are.
Thanks for the update, Got Maul. The gist of what I was trying ot convey was actually encouraging folks to not give up. I've been watching your Trek endeavors for years, so I know sometimes the communication is spotty -- or absent altogether -- and sometimes there are misunderstandings, but that you guys always make good. Always.
That said, I have a couple questions. I'll send them to you in a PM. Please read and answer. *chuckle*
--Jonah
The gist of what I was trying ot convey was actually encouraging folks to not give up. I've been watching your Trek endeavors for years, so I know sometimes the communication is spotty -- or absent altogether -- and sometimes there are misunderstandings, but that you guys always make good. Always.That said, I have a couple questions. I'll send them to you in a PM. Please read and answer.
*chuckle*--Jonah
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Got Maul
Official Licensee
Snowtrooper is still in re-model. The story on that is that we finally got extra special access to scan the whole costume in from the archives, rather than just bits and pieces. Now that we have most of the costume, we've decided to simply Print key pieces, such as the helmet, goggles, backback, front plate and details. Once we have these, we are moving into prototyping for clean up and off to China for the run !
Mr Mold Maker
Master Member
Pardon is this has been covered all ready, but all I've seen for Kylo Ren is that you plan on making it.
Will the Kylo Ren and Episode 7 Stormtrooper helmets be purchasable separate from the costumes?
I also saw you won't have updates on Kylo until closer to the film's release, is that true for the Trooper as well? I've been dying to get one after seeing your VII helmets in the tested video.
Will the Kylo Ren and Episode 7 Stormtrooper helmets be purchasable separate from the costumes?
I also saw you won't have updates on Kylo until closer to the film's release, is that true for the Trooper as well? I've been dying to get one after seeing your VII helmets in the tested video.
Got Maul
Official Licensee
Kylo, just like all our costume accessories, will be broken out and purchased separately from the rest of the outfit. Just in case you were wondering, we are having to have that special fabric woven and post treated to mirror the finish of the original. The same is true for the EpVII TFA Stormies. As for actual release dates, you'll just have to wait and see
russellsch
Master Member
Thank you very much GotMaul. The updates & news you provided is very encouraging. I can't wait to start receiving the items I've ordered, & reading the reviews & seeing the photos of things I've not order, from others who have.
Westies14
Master Member
Awesome. Love that there's a happy surprise to look forward to with the Han belts, and can't wait to see them! The one last bit - with them being this close, is there a new projection of when they'll start shipping?
Of all the items I have on pre-order from Anovos, this is by far the most exciting for me. I've wanted this belt since I was a kid. It was one of my favorite items on display on the Science of Star Wars tour. To know it's being done right - accuracy commensurate with the access you guys have been granted - is so gratifying.
Of all the items I have on pre-order from Anovos, this is by far the most exciting for me. I've wanted this belt since I was a kid. It was one of my favorite items on display on the Science of Star Wars tour. To know it's being done right - accuracy commensurate with the access you guys have been granted - is so gratifying.
tubachris85x
Master Member
Best news I've heard in awhile
tubachris85x
Master Member
It was rumored you guys were attempting to make the pack functional, is that still on the table? I've had my ideas about making that work while not compromising accuracy
astralrayn
Active Member
Kylo, just like all our costume accessories, will be broken out and purchased separately from the rest of the outfit. Just in case you were wondering, we are having to have that special fabric woven and post treated to mirror the finish of the original. The same is true for the EpVII TFA Stormies. As for actual release dates, you'll just have to wait and see
Curious about the post treatment. Everything I've put on the fabric has matted it down and ruined the texture and deapth. Can you give any hints about it? Is it a substance you are able to spray/roll on, a substance you are washing in, or are you pressing it in like a screen print? I'm assuming it keeps the fabric flexible so it'll move just like the vids we've seen?
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