SDCC08 - Dr WHO Replicas!

mfxreplicas said:
Firstly Straker I haven't ducked any questions as you have implied. Anyone who asks a question I answer and I think everyone here will attest to that fact. Was the head CNC'd or cast. CNC'd actually, etc. etc. etc.

Secondly have you bought one of our sonics? If you have and you feel you were miss sold the item then simply return it in good condition and we give you a full refund without question.

With regard to the accusations you make this is simply a no win argument and no matter what I say you will simply pick holes and try and argue the opposite just as CT does. Afterall CT is the guy who claims he can make the most accurate sonic even though he also admits to idealising several props and clearly states his to be made from different materials than the originals! Like I said he says whatever suits his purpose at the time. His sole aim in this is to cast doubt on our products I the hope that it will bring more sales his way. If he's your prop guru then feel free to buy his product and not ours. No one is forcing you to purchase either. You're free to do whatever you wish with your money. I am not forcing you to buy my products if you even have. You have free will. If you feel the MFX sonic is good and acurate then great. If you don't then don't buy it but please don't 'demand' that I enter in to some senseless debate with someone who is steeling from me to satisfy your curiosity or attempt to sway your opinion. I have free will to.

With regard to the claim this is advertised as 100% screen acurate I would refer you to my website;

http://shop.mfxwarehouse.co.uk/collectibles/prop-replicas/collectables/sonic-screwdriver.htm

I don't actually see that wording there but, nevermind, it states clearly that there have been minor changes to accomodate manufacture and improve aspects but that the piece is aesthetically accurate.

It's easy to argue one way or another if something is 100% accurate and 'simply put' NOTHING can be 100% acurate. Even the simple fact that the components on the original where mchined by hand while we have ours produced via CNC immediately negates this. The finish changes fractionally between the two processes.

It's like those Persian carpets where they put a deliberate mistake in the pattern because, in the laws of their religion, only God can achieve perfection. Did we machine these to a tolerance of a 10th of a mm. If so then you'll argue that it shoudl have been machined to a 100th of a mm or a 1000th of a mm to be 100% acurate.... in your opinion!

In addition there are several sonics so to which one do you refer? Each machiend by hand and each with subtle - and some times major - variations.

So I strive even further to make it 100% accurate. I hire the guy who machined the original ones, I buy the metal stock from the same metal supplier, I don't use an etch primer to help keep the paint on because, well, the originals didn't. I buy all the componenets from the same stores, I turn all the pieces on the same milling machine and the same lathe and what will I get. I product that costs $3,000 each that no-one can afford and, AND it's still not 100% accurate because that's simply not possible.

So what we have is a product that may vary in tiny areas. subtle nuances. Someone finds a picture of 'a' sonic and says the curve on the ribs on the body look fractionally more rounded than the MFX one! Okay, well, on 'that' sonic maybe they were but on two others they're not and so it goes on and on and on and on!

I am completely satisfied that we have done everything within our power to make this as acurate as we possibly can. We had access to an original prop - not all props - just one as this is the one the art department deamed their best sonic. they have the choice in the matter and I, as a license holder, can not 'demand' to see the others. There's rules to this and if this is the one the art department on doctor Who deem to be their 'hero' prop then that's the one I copy. We took numerous measurements with digital micrometers, we measured, photographed, dissasembled, we questioned and we were thorough. We chose the acurate materials - maybe not bought form the same stockist or metals produced by the same foundry. Even the aluminium may be a slightly different grade but it is brass and aluminium just as the originals were.

So, go ahead. You can argue and nit pick it all to pieces. You can find photographs and screen grabs and analyse and extrapolate all you like and each time you will find somethting different. The lens on the camera that took the photograph was different, the image was compressed a fraction or widened to make a more aesthetically pleasing picture in a book. Publishers don't care. I've seen my work distorted to hell in photographs. They're not printing them for you to measure, they print them to look nice in a magazine or book! So you will always find some variation, some minor aesthetic difference and shout "Aha! not 100% accurate!!!" and you'll be right and you'll be wrong.

I could spend the rest of my life answering questions about every tiny thing that someone has extrapolated form a phtograph or claims to know. I could spend weeks writing up my own Blog defending every nuance. Ultimately I'd be defending myself against so called 'overwhelming evidence' presented by an indivivual who has a very clear 'agenda' and axe to grind against me. He's not searching for truth and the perfect prop. He's searching for profit! He is selling you a product. He will always skew whatever so called evidence he has in his favour because of that 'agenda'. So if I go and start getting in to detailed debates with this guy (someone who is steeling from me and bad mouthing me even though he has never met me and knows nothing about me!) and his so called 'evidence' it will never end because it can never end. There are no simple answers. He said the head on our sonic was cast. He insisted he new and presented 'evidence'. He's wrong of course and several peole with common sense on this forum could, independantly, also see that it wasn't and that it would actually be a silly way to manufacture when you can simply have them CNC'd as we do. But he was adamant and claimed to have 'evidence'. I could go on defending all his agenda skewed claims....... but I won't.

Why? because it would be a complete waste of time because he has an agenda and for the fact that there will never be such a thing as a 100% acurate prop. It's a complete falicy and it doesn't exist. The only 100% acurate prop in existence is the original and even they often have new parts added as filmign goes along meaning they're no longer 100% acurate to the prop seen in the previous episode or series.

You're asking the impossible and I can't deliver the impossible. All I can do is the best job I can. I spent two years making this happen. It was a lot of heard work and I think we've done a pretty good job. If you don't think we have then send it right back and refund you entirely. Same goes for anyone else not happy or who thinks we've done a poor job or have cheeted you in some way. The fact that no-one has done this should tell you something.

Fact is it ultimately comes down to opinions. In my oprinion I've produced a screen accurate sonic. In yours and CT's opinion I haven't and the opinions of all the people on this forum will differ from one to the other or somewhere inbetween.

What you're asking me to do is 'change your opinion'. Fact is I don't want to. Have it, keep it, it's yours. Treasure it as it's the thing that drives you to the keyboard every day and encourages you to write down your thoughts. Having opinions is good. The world would be a dull place if we all had the same opinion.

Now, that reallyis my final word on the matter

Best
Neill

P.S. a forum administartor has informed me that CT has now been banned. I want to make it clear that this was nothing to do with me. I wasn't about to complain about his illegal operation as it simply draws more attention to him. He got himself banned all by himself.
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mfxreplicas said:
And just one more point Straker. On another thread, while debating the comparative costs, you suggested that customers who bought our sonics had incurred additional cost from having to return faulty goods.

Anyone who had a sonic with a fault had their courier costs covered. We aranged pick and return of the items with no cost to the customer, via exactly the same service they paid for when purchasing the item in the first place. In the UK this was registered post and the US and worldwide this was via Fed-Ex. All repairs and return of the products was done 'immediately' In many cases we repaired and returned the sonic the same day.

Just wanted to clarify that point in case your factualy inacurate statement caused any of my customers concern.

Best
Neill
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Thank you Neill, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

I'm not trying to make accusations, I just wanted you to address the questions raised and have the matter put to bed once and for all regardless to what CT says simply because those questions have been raised by more than one person. I'm not asking you to change my opinions, let's face it this is a forum where opinions can be stated freely and because of that we all come across opinions that are different than our own that is life and that is the real world. Because I'm not asking you to change my opinion I just wanted address of the issue of the accuracy claims taken head on. You have done that and I think everyone here is indeed grateful of that.


As to the last post about the extra charges incurred shipping back and forth via FedEx, From what I had read it appeared that the shipping costs were coming out of the buyers pocket, if I had misread that then I apologize openly here and now to anyone this caused concern about. I'm a big enough a man to admit when I am wrong.


Again Neill, thank you for coming back on site. I apologize to you and anyone else if it appeared that I was attacking you personally but I wanted to have the only man that could end this debate to end this debate once and for all here on the RPF. No hard feelings Neill, and thank you.
 
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Straker, in my instance Canada Customs charged me taxes based on the cost of the goods. That cost IS incurred by me, but is not MFX's doing or anything...it is simply my government trying to butt in and charge me taxes...and in a province with 13% tax...
 
Primrodo said:
Straker, in my instance Canada Customs charged me taxes based on the cost of the goods. That cost IS incurred by me, but is not MFX's doing or anything...it is simply my government trying to butt in and charge me taxes...and in a province with 13% tax...
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Oh no, I understand that. My mistake was in misunderstanding that the buyer was also paying the FedEx fees to re-ship the sonic too. Clearly, I was wrong there and I freely admit it.
 
Straker said:
Oh no, I understand that. My mistake was in misunderstanding that the buyer was also paying the FedEx fees to re-ship the sonic too. Clearly, I was wrong there and I freely admit it.
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No problem, there was never anything like that on my end...I had SEPARATE issues with FedEx though...MFX arranged a pickup and they took a week to do so, after saying 24 hours. I am finding that FedEx in Canada bites.

No problem misunderstanding...its a big thread!
 
Primrodo said:
No problem, there was never anything like that on my end...I had SEPARATE issues with FedEx though...MFX arranged a pickup and they took a week to do so, after saying 24 hours. I am finding that FedEx in Canada bites.

No problem misunderstanding...its a big thread!
Click to expand...


Yes, I recalled that Naked Mole Rat mentioned on post...I think 777 that the cost of shipping back and fourth was a third the cost of the Sonic, I thought he had to pay for it but I didn't see that indeed MFX paid that part themselves.

I'm just glad that Neill came back on site to talk about the other questions concerning accuracy and construction and therefore close the debate for us which, as tenacious as I was about pressing the issue, was all I really wanted to see happen otherwise I think the debate would have gone on much much longer, too long in fact as I believe the debate already was. :sick

Now I think we can all move on...until the NEXT replica sparks some debate anyway (just a joke, folks! just a joke)
 
I did get hit (finally) with customs fees from FedEx on the third shipment. $14.33, I called FedEx and asked them to cancel the charges...and they did!

It never hurts to try, and every once and a while, it works!
 
Hi Straker

I really appreciate your post and for your taking the time to consider my, very lengthy, post (gawd, I can go on a bit at times :rolleyes).

Also thanks to others for their kind words.

All's well that ends well.

Many thanks
Neill
 
Birdie said:
Yeah, we had had this guy guarding the MFX:

anhhd.jpg
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the DOCTOR said:
Ah, "STORM"- I'd really like to see him in the flesh...
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What the bloody heck is that thing?!? :confused

I've seen every Dalek story in the modern Doctor Who series, and I've NEVER seen a Dalek that looks like that! :confused
 
That thing would scare the tar out of me less than a normal Dalek. Why? Because when I see that I know I'll be dead a lot faster. Beautiful build and design.
 
mfxreplicas said:
Hi Straker

I really appreciate your post and for your taking the time to consider my, very lengthy, post (gawd, I can go on a bit at times :rolleyes).

Also thanks to others for their kind words.

All's well that ends well.

Many thanks
Neill
Click to expand...

Well, it may have been a ramble, but it convinced me to buy one... well that and the fact certain Deep Purple boo... er... rareties I've been selling from my collection did rather better than expected!

Cheers

Doug
 
Howard gets all the credit for this! I have not seen him make an update on this since October. If I missed it, please point it out. I felt like playing with this a bit. Don't have photoshop, wouldn't know how to use it if I did. Done in paint.

whoplaque2.jpg


I am not trying to do ANYTHING other than show a tweak! No sales or interest intended. Howard did ALL the work on this. I just changed a logo!
 
mine's stopped working as well and I was only able to start really playing with it on Christmas day and by new years day it had stopped working, I've been trying to contact mfx by the web form the email on the page and I've even left a voicemail and still have had no reply. what should I do?
 
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