ANOVOS issues (ANOVOS ONLY discussion)

[Mara Jade's Father]

I thought Anovos said they were going to stop with the preorders and sell only in stock items?

Yes, I thought that too.

There is no problem with pre-orders. However IMHO, they should only do that once they have gone further enough into production to predict an accurate ETA (give or take 30 days). I seem to remember that the longest I had to wait on MR was a couple months and that was a planned ETA. Not sure if that is true or not, it has been a while. But I do know that I was never upset with MR because of long wait times.

 

[Pepperbone]

Seriously doubt it. In no way would they pull the plug on Anovos before Efx.

Good point.

 

[ggriffaw]

Maybe no one with a business operations background get involved with high end props because it isn't a good business to be successful in. Development costs are high for the volume of sales.

It seems like a business you get in because of having a passion in the field, not because it is a great return on investment.

 

[Davy Jones]

This line made me laugh:
"When we approached this legendary helmet three years ago, we were faced with the most unique challenge to our replicative capabilities: There was no real helmet ever made to cast, 3D scan, or base our engineering from."
They must not be aware of the 3D files used for the CGI in the actual movie or that MR made this helmet years ago from those 3D files.

That line is poorly worded and misleading. Later on they confirm they started with digital from production assets.

 

[Art Andrews]

Delivery Estimate Winter 2020 is insane.

This line made me laugh:
"When we approached this legendary helmet three years ago, we were faced with the most unique challenge to our replicative capabilities: There was no real helmet ever made to cast, 3D scan, or base our engineering from."
They must not be aware of the 3D files used for the CGI in the actual movie or that MR made this helmet years ago from those 3D files.

While one might question the wording, they are correct. There were no physical helmets made for the films, so unlike their usual approach of scanning original assets, there was nothing to scan. Pretty sure everyone who knows anything about the movies know that the 3D models (not scans) used in the movie have been floating around in the community for years and years. I am not as sure as you seem to be that the MR helmets were based off those models, but that is neither here nor there with regard to this discussion.

When you couple the statements you posted with the bullet points Davy Jones posted it seems pretty obvious they used the original models as the base of their helmet.

 

[StevenBills]

Man, $600 is a lot for just a helmet. I got my complete OT TK kit back in the day for $650. Couldn't imagine spending $600 for just a helmet...

SB

 

[Fett_Ish]

Man, $600 is a lot for just a helmet. I got my complete OT TK kit back in the day for $650. Couldn't imagine spending $600 for just a helmet...

SB

See, this is my problem. I think that they (prop business like Anovos and RS, not people doing runs in the JY) ask too much. Maybe they cant sell enough quantity to "mass Produce" and get them cheaper, I don't know, but I think it is more "people are willing to pay'. There is no way that helmet isn't marked up 200%. Licensing, R&D, I get it, but if it costs $300 a helmet to produce then the market for people to buy it is already small at $350 and at that price more than a handful need to be sold to make a viable business (not a hobby). At 600 if you sell 100 thats 30 grand and that is what I think gets us where we are.Larger than needed markups for the sake of making a "premium" product that could be sold cheaper Multiply that kind of markup/profit over all the products and it becomes real money. I am not bashing as I would pay alot for the things I really want, though I enjoy putting things together so completed props arent really my thing, but I honestly think nearly all prop replicas are far overpriced and will continue to be because of a rabid fanbase that shells out the cash for the things we covet. I could be way off base, but I think there is something there, though I realize I am generalizing a bit here.

 

[karmajay]

Most helmet makers in the Projects section charge 500+ for a finished helmet and that does not include any padding etc on the inside.

 

[Synz314]

Man, $600 is a lot for just a helmet. I got my complete OT TK kit back in the day for $650. Couldn't imagine spending $600 for just a helmet...

SB

It's not just Anovos. That's the good thing with building a Stormtrooper costume. They're relatively cheap when it's just a bunch of plastic pieces.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Man, $600 is a lot for just a helmet. I got my complete OT TK kit back in the day for $650. Couldn't imagine spending $600 for just a helmet...
SB

It's not just Anovos. That's the good thing with building a Stormtrooper costume. They're relatively cheap when it's just a bunch of plastic pieces.

To be fair, the $600 helmets are (from what I understand) fiberglass, not vacuformed ABS pulls. There's a big difference in both quality and time-to-build. A fiberglass piece will take many times longer to build and finish. The 'premiere' helmets also have greeblies machined out of metal and not cast resin. I don't know how the other, newer, helmets fare, but comparing the premiere Kylo to the standard TFA TK (which cost half as much), the difference in build quality is pretty big. The TK feels like most ABS pulls... there's some flex... the hardhat-liner inside isn't particularly impressive or comfortable and so on, whereas the Kylo is nicely lined inside and comes with extra padding so that you can tailor it to your comfort. It also just feels more like a 'real' helmet overall, despite being made out of plastic. Six hundred dollars is still a lot of money, no question, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the fiberglass helmets cost almost as much (or more) to produce as an entire vacformed TK suit.

Anovos still have a huge communication problem though. I had a fairly long chat with one of their customer service reps the other day about the whole thing. They're aware that they have problems... and promised for really-real that updates would be coming soon on the various delayed items (and suggested that the Kylo suits, which I'm not interested in, are actually finally close to being delivered)... but yeah... we'll see. With Celebration just around the corner, and doubtless a lot of EP9 stuff in the pipeline, they're going to need to gain back a lot of trust at this point to get that stuff moving, and the best way to do that is to start delivering and communicating with all those who have pre-orders in already.

 

[rudolpht]

They need those preorders to keep flowing in to pay for s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶h̶e̶ C̶E̶O̶'̶s̶ l̶i̶f̶e̶s̶t̶y̶l̶e̶ past releases.

We'll I called in the bluff, and have been waiting on a refund of >$4100 of all pre-orders since last July after waiting for 6 months on a refund for a couple select items. Since last JULY, despite many seemingly sincere attempts to rectify. I think I'm on the fooled me once, fooled me 11 times.

I hate to go to Celebration in Chicago just to use a 4 day pass to protest for four days.

 

[oblagon]

We'll I called in the bluff, and have been waiting on a refund of >$4100 of all pre-orders since last July after waiting for 6 months on a refund for a couple select items. Since last JULY, despite many seemingly sincere attempts to rectify. I think I'm on the fooled me once, fooled me 11 times.

I hate to go to Celebration in Chicago just to use a 4 day pass to protest for four days.

Sorry to hear you're another one of the stories where Anovos has stolen your money. I would suggest you contact the California attorney general and put in a complaint to get your money back.

 

[FastballSpecial]

Waiting since October for a refund request. They have stopped replying to me.

 

[oblagon]

Consumer Complaint Against A Business/Company

1197 East Los Angeles Ave Suite C301
Simi Valley, CA 93065
(321) 373-7787

 

[Don93]

I think one thing that is frustrating is we saw many costumes Anovos had on display and were taking pre-orders for at the last celebration which I doubt will be delivered before Celebration Chicago.

 

[Art Andrews]

Just going to repost my own posts from early Dec. Consider this a final warning.

Several posts from within the past 4 days have been edited or outright removed. You are welcome to post your experiences and opinion but posting false statements as fact or attempting to drum up a personal attack is not acceptable here.

For the purposes of this discussion, an opinion is a member expressing a belief or position.... such as "I hate broccoli." A false statement is a member posting something as if it were factually accurate that is easily proved false... such as "the sun is made of puppies." Please don't try to be coy, look for loopholes, or test us on this point.

 

[Pepperbone]

ANOVOS is proud to celebrate the forthcoming shipment of the
STAR WARS Sandtrooper Helmet Accessory
with this new opportunity!

Celebrating the completion of our first production run of the popular Sandtrooper helmet variant, we are re-offering this product to those who had missed out the first time!

Having ordered the First Wave of this, I should be excited. However, I'll just wait a bit.

 

[Weldon]

It’s my belief that, under most normal circumstances, a business actually completing and shipping a product should not warrant ‘celebration’. It should be a regular occurrence.

 

[Jagjaguwar]

Yep, and as far as I’m aware, “forthcoming” is a fancy way of saying “hasn’t happened yet.”

The helmet I ordered a year and a half ago was was “forthcoming shipping” or “shipping soon,” too, right up until it wasn’t, and was delayed multiple times.

That being said, I hope they do actually ship one of these pending items. We’ll see.

 

[ggriffaw]

They added a photo of the Clone Trooper removable faceplate. It is different than the fan made design.