Why is it that the liscence holders for Star Wars props and costumes almost always go belly up? Either their products are not up to par or they just never deliver and collectors are out their hard earned money. Not only are fans like us they type of crowd that wants to build the stuff ourselves, but half the time it's because of situations like this where if we want a specific piece we have to make it ourselves if we ever want to own it. Or in some cases we have to make it ourselves because there is no officially licensed version to buy.
(Though personaly speaking I have a hard time thinking of an officially lisenced product - at least an expensive / unmodified piece as anything more than a collectible. ) It's hard for me to wrap head around why these companies can't stay afloat. You'd think that with all the demand there is and having access to the original pieces for reference that they could easily turn out a high quality, screen accurate product, in a reasonable time and at an affordable price. Why had no one gotten it right yet? What makes it worse is that most of these people start off as fans. I just don't get what's so hard about it.