juno
Sr Member
I recently bought two of the Skele-gro bottles from Hotshot. (http://www.therpf.com/f13/hp-cos-skele-gro-bottles-list-closed-118790/) One was a gift, and one was for me, so I decided to remain anonymous on the purchase so that my friend wouldn’t know I’d gotten her one. (It’s her fave Potter prop.) The half up front was a little disconcerting, as I don’t know Hotshot, but there were a lot of folks welcoming him to the board, so I assumed he was a known quantity. He delivered the bottles in a timely fashion, via priority mail with tracking and insurance.
My bottle was well packed with a form fitting spray foam insert. However, one of the arms had broken off. This happened to a lot of folks’ bottles, and it isn’t a big deal. I was surprised that he’d foam-filled it (a way to save on resin – I assumed $85 meant it was a solid resin piece). What was a big deal, was the amount of air holes (innie bubbles) and goobers (outie bubbles) the piece was covered with. The bottom decal hadn’t been trimmed enough, and so there was decal material crumpled up by the hand. The spraypaint had that weird effect that sometimes happens when primer dries as it hits the piece. The base was warped (I’ll come back to that later) and the skull looked like it had been repaired but poorly painted over. I was completely disappointed.
I e-mailed Hotshot and he quickly responded that after so many bottles, one sometimes slips through the cracks. He told me to send it back and he’d send me another one. I paid for return priority shipping with insurance and tracking. I didn’t wait terribly long for a new bottle, and it arrived packed as before, and this time the arms were intact.
However, again there were goobers, air holes, and poor painting (there were even a few paint brush hairs left in the paint), seemingly no semi-gloss clear coat, warping at the base and a hole in the back near one of the ribs. I again sent Hotshot an e-mail. This time, he replied that the hole was poked (I’m not sure if he was implying that I poked it or the postal service did. The hole was in the back where the insulation sat, and the carton was undamaged.) The warping was meant to make the piece look like hand-made pottery (this warping isn’t present on the real prop), paintbrush bristles “happen,” and that I was being picky about the air holes and goobers.
You can view photos of the bottle here: Skele-gro - a set on Flickr
The bottle looks good from about five feet away. I had friends happen to be over both times, and both times the comments were, “That almost looks nice.”
He said he couldn’t do a return because “I've shipped this twice, and lost a bottle out of it( the first one was tossed and parted out)”. (Remember, I paid to return ship to him, so I’ve now spent about $95 on this replica. Also, the first shipping would be part of the purchase price.) He offered to send me a kit so that I could paint it myself. I could keep or return the bad bottle as I saw fit.
I wasn’t ecstatic, but I wasn’t unhappy. I told him I would take the unfinished kit and assumed I would keep the bottle. After all, I did pay $95. But I did add that if he was going to refund my return shipping fees I’d return it. He then replied again, offering me different options. He would send me the kit and I’d keep the bottle (what I thought I’d agreed to), send back the bottle and he’d send me a kit plus refund the difference. He also wondered why I would want to keep the bottle if I didn’t like it. Well, I had made my decision to keep it before he’d offered to refund the difference.
I want to note that our conversation was consistently polite. Hotshot wasn’t rude, even when implying that I was scamming him. The conversation ended when he said he needed to sleep on it.
I’m just going to keep the bottle and just chalk up the expense to a lesson learned. I just expected more for my $85 / $95. If I saw this piece in a store, I wouldn’t spend more than $40 on it. Instead, I paid artisan prices for an assembly-line piece. With the RPF, I assume that the people making things love props as much as I do, and understand that we’re a detail-oriented bunch. I pride myself on making things that I would be happy to put on my own shelf, and I will gladly refund or replace or attempt to repair any problems someone has with my work.
Now, normally I wouldn’t take all this to the forum. However, I did a little searching around and was made aware that I’m not the first one to notice Hotshot’s poor assembly-line practices:
Rhett Martin - HotShotDraw - AWHotshot (BANNED) - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum
Anyone else got stung by a crappy proton pack kit? - Page 2 - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum (Read this post in particular: Anyone else got stung by a crappy proton pack kit? - Page 2 - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum)
Hotshot clearly has talent, but I think his quest to make money off his replicas gets in the way of making truly beautiful things.
My bottle was well packed with a form fitting spray foam insert. However, one of the arms had broken off. This happened to a lot of folks’ bottles, and it isn’t a big deal. I was surprised that he’d foam-filled it (a way to save on resin – I assumed $85 meant it was a solid resin piece). What was a big deal, was the amount of air holes (innie bubbles) and goobers (outie bubbles) the piece was covered with. The bottom decal hadn’t been trimmed enough, and so there was decal material crumpled up by the hand. The spraypaint had that weird effect that sometimes happens when primer dries as it hits the piece. The base was warped (I’ll come back to that later) and the skull looked like it had been repaired but poorly painted over. I was completely disappointed.
I e-mailed Hotshot and he quickly responded that after so many bottles, one sometimes slips through the cracks. He told me to send it back and he’d send me another one. I paid for return priority shipping with insurance and tracking. I didn’t wait terribly long for a new bottle, and it arrived packed as before, and this time the arms were intact.
However, again there were goobers, air holes, and poor painting (there were even a few paint brush hairs left in the paint), seemingly no semi-gloss clear coat, warping at the base and a hole in the back near one of the ribs. I again sent Hotshot an e-mail. This time, he replied that the hole was poked (I’m not sure if he was implying that I poked it or the postal service did. The hole was in the back where the insulation sat, and the carton was undamaged.) The warping was meant to make the piece look like hand-made pottery (this warping isn’t present on the real prop), paintbrush bristles “happen,” and that I was being picky about the air holes and goobers.
You can view photos of the bottle here: Skele-gro - a set on Flickr
The bottle looks good from about five feet away. I had friends happen to be over both times, and both times the comments were, “That almost looks nice.”
He said he couldn’t do a return because “I've shipped this twice, and lost a bottle out of it( the first one was tossed and parted out)”. (Remember, I paid to return ship to him, so I’ve now spent about $95 on this replica. Also, the first shipping would be part of the purchase price.) He offered to send me a kit so that I could paint it myself. I could keep or return the bad bottle as I saw fit.
I wasn’t ecstatic, but I wasn’t unhappy. I told him I would take the unfinished kit and assumed I would keep the bottle. After all, I did pay $95. But I did add that if he was going to refund my return shipping fees I’d return it. He then replied again, offering me different options. He would send me the kit and I’d keep the bottle (what I thought I’d agreed to), send back the bottle and he’d send me a kit plus refund the difference. He also wondered why I would want to keep the bottle if I didn’t like it. Well, I had made my decision to keep it before he’d offered to refund the difference.
I want to note that our conversation was consistently polite. Hotshot wasn’t rude, even when implying that I was scamming him. The conversation ended when he said he needed to sleep on it.
I’m just going to keep the bottle and just chalk up the expense to a lesson learned. I just expected more for my $85 / $95. If I saw this piece in a store, I wouldn’t spend more than $40 on it. Instead, I paid artisan prices for an assembly-line piece. With the RPF, I assume that the people making things love props as much as I do, and understand that we’re a detail-oriented bunch. I pride myself on making things that I would be happy to put on my own shelf, and I will gladly refund or replace or attempt to repair any problems someone has with my work.
Now, normally I wouldn’t take all this to the forum. However, I did a little searching around and was made aware that I’m not the first one to notice Hotshot’s poor assembly-line practices:
Rhett Martin - HotShotDraw - AWHotshot (BANNED) - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum
Anyone else got stung by a crappy proton pack kit? - Page 2 - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum (Read this post in particular: Anyone else got stung by a crappy proton pack kit? - Page 2 - Community - Ghostbusters Fans Forum)
Hotshot clearly has talent, but I think his quest to make money off his replicas gets in the way of making truly beautiful things.