Hello Everyone.
I see that there are still lots of questions so I am copying a post that was made on Rebelscum from our Star Wars SBU, Bryan. Hopefully this will address any further questions or concerns you might have.
Here is a summary of MR's resolution to this issue with the Special Ops Helmets. We know that there is no "perfect" solution, so there will be some who will accept this plan and there will be those who will not. Unfortunately, no matter what plan we determine to be the most sound, we will never please 100% of the people and we apolgize for this.
We understand that there are 2 issues, the plaque and then some QC issues with the painting, glue on the lense, etc.
1. 100% of the remaining helmets that are in our warehouse will be opened and inspected per our QC Spec. This includes the collateral envelope with the plaque and the QC issues with the painting, glue, etc. Any helmet that is determined to not meet our specifications will either be returned to the factory to be fixed or it will be destroyed. The total number of helmets must remain at 750 pieces.
2. The new plaque will not be indvidually numbered, it will say "Limited Edition of 750", or something similar to that.
3. If the helmet has the original numbered plaque, IT WILL BE REMOVED AND REPLACED with the new plaque. As you can see on e-bay, there is a perceived value to this original plaque. If we were to keep them included, there will be more out there and it would now make it more unfair to more people. When we issue a statement that states the "official" plaque is the new one, that may make them all the more valuable to some people. Currently, there are X number of people who have these original plaques. I say "X" because we do not know the exact number. And that is the maximum it will ever be. So, if you received a plaque, just consider yourselves one of the lucky ones, unless you want to send it back, which is really what we are requesting. But, obviously, that is strictly voluntary, since we cannot force you to send anything back.
4. It appears that people who are missing their plaque is actually missing the entire collateral envelope, which not only included the plaque, but the Certificate of Authenticty, Prop Story, Warranty information, etc. We will replace the entire envelope and its contents.
5. To address the reissuing of number plaques one last time. . .
a) We cannot reprint any nuumbered plaques since we do not know how many are actually missing and more importantly, we do not know which numbers are missing.
B) There are duplicate LABELS not duplicate plaques. This makes it impossible to determine who gets what numbered plaque.
c) In order to reprint the plaques with numbers we would have to track down every helmet out there. This would be impossible since, as many of you know, some helmets have changed hands several times already. And some may have been purchased by "walk ins" at an Authorized Retailer. Not everyone comes to these forums (Rebelscum, RPF, Sir Steve, etc) or even our website, so there would be no way to communicate with everyone. Just 1 duplicate plaque will not only compromise the value of your helmet, but it would also be a violation of our license with Lucasfilm.
6. We cannot place numbers in the helmet because if we were to get any requests for replacements, there would be no way to replace that helmet with the same number. We can only make 1 helmet with each unique number. So if there was a problem with your helmet, it would be impossible to replace it with the same number.
7. Everyone who has a helmet can get the new collateral envelope with the new plaque, prop story, Certificate of Authenticity, and product brochure. (The sales brochure was included with the original product, so please do not think that we are taking "advantage" of this situation by sending you advertising. Most people would want everything that was originally included.) This program even includes those who did not purchase their helmet from an Authorized Retailer, like e-bay, etc. The new collateral envelope and plaque will be available through your Authorized Retailer or through Master Replicas. Amy will inform you of this procedure once it is set up.
We our trying our best to expedite the printing of the new plaques and collateral. We will let everyone know the schedule to complete this program as soon as we can. Unfortunately, it is still the Chinese New Years holiday in Asia, so we have not been able to fully implement this program yet.
8. When we say the product is "oversold" that means that the orders for the helmets exceeds the edition size, in this case 750. So there is a "wait list" for cancellations from our Authorized Retailers.
9. If the above resolution is not satisfactory to you, please return your helmet to your Authorized Retailer for a full refund of your helmet INCLUDING shipping. We have instructed our Authorized Retailer to accept returns and issue refunds with no questions asked, and please accept our apology with our assurance that are doing everything in our power to prevent this from happening again.
10. If you did not purchase your helmet from an Authorized Retailer, unfortunately, for obvious reasons, we cannot refund your money, you will have to go back to the person/store that you purchased it from. However, as stated above, we will still supply you with the new collateral envelope and we will honor the warranty for any defects that you may have with your helmet.
We are now working with our internal QC department in Asia and the factories to determine how this happened. New systems and procdures will be implemented immediately to prevent this from happening again.
Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience.
Amy and I will not be answering or addressing any further questions that we feel has been answered before. However, please feel free to post any comments that you may still have, if you feel the need to. This is an open forum, and that is what we want it to remain to be.
However, we will still be reading your posts and if some one comes up with a relevant issue in regards to this helmet that has not been raised before, Amy and I will be glad to respond.
Thank you once again for your patience and understanding.
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