LMAO, ive never heard so much crap in all my life, a two week buy period for a high end Hasbro? Or am i reading that wrong?....insane .
lee
Lee, & Jamie
"High End Hasbro" ??
You are indeed reading it wrong, and this is why:
Alot of folks put an enormous effort into helping create this prop/model.
To name a few who donated parts or knowledge for this specific project: Barry, Bryan, Larry, Myself, Morten, Mark Tognaci, Mike Salzo, Jay Pennington, John Eves,John Goodson, Mark Dickson, Lee Malone, Rob-"who painted the master", MVERTA, Scott Alexander, and a ton of others I dont even know about.
The entire corporate knowledge of anyone who knew anything about this prop and had something to add was welcomed and utilized when and where possible.
The folks at EFX, are not the "COLD CORPORATE MAKE A BUCK AT ALL COSTS MONSTER that HASBRO, or KENNER, or a host of other companies that have been ripping all of us off since we were kids.
The folks at EFX are one of us. Guys that grew up building models, and enjoying the same movies we did. Guy that got tired of the crap that toy and model companies and the like handed us in exchange of our hard earned money.
They got tired of being screwed. They stepped forward and felt they could do better, and they did.
Barry Jones was the creator of HALCYON Models. He was a builder, like the rest of us who dreamt that he could be so bold as to challenge the REVELL's and MONOGRAM and make a series of kits that the rest of us wanted to buy. They were awesome kits and are Highly collectible to this day.
Larry (Larbel) Leung made the coolest light sabers when most of us were still hunting for the rare Graflex or trying to put together a saber from hardware via HOME DEPOT. Larry, a fan, made, sold, AND delivered some of the nicest and accurate fan made sabers anyone had ever seen long before most had even thought of doing so.
Bryan Ono, is THE go to guy when anyone wants anything manufactured.
The long list of companies he has worked for, is only dwarfed by the list of the ones currently chasing him.
These are the main guys who have tried to bring the best possible collectible all the while fighting Corporate "decision makers" and licensee executives most of whom weren't even BORN when these movies came out and wouldn't know a screen used prop if it bit them on the ass.
On top of that, anyone here ever tried to have anything MADE IN CHINA?
Try it sometime. Let me know how it works out for you.
Speaking of China, everyone here, always complains that these items are TOO expensive. Well, the only way to make it so YOU can afford it, is to produce it in China, and do so in a way that quality does not reflect that it LOOKS LIKE it WAS produced in CHINA.
So it has to be perfect, and it has to be cheap.
Somewhere, there is a balance that makes the most number of members here happy. Anyone with any sense would realize, you can't please everyone.
Re: the XWING Specifically, The above chaps, were from MR and probably as frustrated as much as each of us regarding how MR did business and treated, us, the collectors.
They set out to do better and put their money where their mouth was and LEFT MR and I feel they have done a great job. I would hope that they would be treated with a bit more respect or at least courtesy than what has been demonstrated here by a few members. Just because they are not friends of yours, doesn't mean they are not friends of many folks here.
If you don't like the product, don't buy it. However, don't belittle the enormous effort someone else made in trying to make a cool representation of an model / prop that would please as many of us as they possibly could.
If you can do better, go for it but if ya cant, then encourage the guy next to you that steps forward and takes on the challenge.
It's a Collectible. If the run gets shortened, which makes it even rarer, you should embrace the increase it will have AS a collectible. I doubt anyone will ever make another Licensed Xwing again.
Bottom line, alot of heart and soul when into the EFX XWING to make sure it wasn't like the ICONS version and it wasn't an overpriced HASBRO.
That it looked as much like the film used prop, and achieved the highest level of quality and the lowest possible price and retaining its collectible value for the foreseeable future.
That's why I feel you misread it Lee.
And Jamie, you should just know better.
best wishes,
Frank
The collectibility for this piece just went through the roof with that announcement. We will be seeing some of these on eBay at twice their amounts... and being sold!
