PropShop announces TFA Props!

I forgot this - PropShop FAQ page:

Prop Shop FAQ.jpg
 
A shame that they went bust. Had the opportunity to take a look at the props live at SW Celebration. Prices might have been a bit high but they were just amazing.
Though a good friend of me lost a 5 digit amount of money spent on props he never received.. :-(
 
According to rebelscum, efx announced at sdcc they will be picking up products from the PropShop license and are beginning work on the burnt vader helmet.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
Psab keel said:
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.
Click to expand...

Well, Master Replicas as far as I remember couldn't agree with LFL on a new contract, so they lost the license, and went under shortly after.

As for Anovos, as much issues they have, negative feedback, horrid delays of products already paid for well over 2 years ago (myself included) they're the only ones actually turn around products. Anovos's priorities to the customer is questionable with a business model akin to a "Go Fund Me" campaign until they raised enough money to make OTHER products than what they originally advertised.

EFX? Man, they should have died years ago, but it's amazing to me they're still existing. They're hardly putting any out any products, so who's keeping them afloat? How can they stay alive with such limited income? Master Replicas was still producing more products in the short time span leading to their end than EFX has in at least the past 3-4 years.

The fact EFX still holds an LFL license still is a miracle, and to me, appears that it's not so much about being a "quality" or "good" company to hold one, but more about the people at the top who managed to continue using their own connections to stave off an inevitable ban hammer,
 
Psab keel said:
It's hard for me to wrap head around why these companies can't stay afloat.
Click to expand...

probably just like any other businesses, it is one thing to be good at your niche, but that doesn't necessary mean you are also a good business manager, while it might be relatively simple to do a small run of 50 pieces of props on RPF from your garage, but probably quite different when you have multiple product lines, thousands of orders to fill, deal with licensing, marketing, sales, accounting, customers support, social media, managing overseas factory, logistics etc etc, my guess is most of these companies are small businesses with only a few employees who has to multi-task in everything, one cash flow problem and you are gone.

Not sure about the stats for other parts of the world, but in Australia, apparently 90% of new businesses will go under within their first 5 years...........

Then again, even if you are a one man show, it is still no excuse to delay a product for years with next to zero communications to your customers, surely you could find the time to write a quick email once every second months?
 
I think a big part of the problem is offering too many products all at once. Start with literaIlly two and deliver them within a reasonable time frame. These companies spread themselves too thin and want to offer too many products without building their business enough over time to naturally hire more employees to help keep up with the demand.

As your staff increases and more revenue streams in then you can expand your product line. You ever notice how short a time span it usually is before the lisencees start offering a variety of new product often before they've even delivered their initial product?

If you need a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe to start a business, maybe you should consider not going into business. I can't think of a single business outside of the prop/ costume community that asks potential clients to give a start up company capital to build said business. Most companies start from the ground up with the founders investing their own money into it to get it off the ground. As it grows they look for investors to help, but that initial investment comes from the people starting the company. If I were to start a business I would never feel comfortable asking for money up front unless I'd already had a steady track record of sales so that I knew without a doubt that I could make good on their investment.
 
Last edited:
The earlier OT Anovos products had and some still have the long delays before shipping. They have made adjustments in their processes and the more recent products have been delivered in reasonable timeframes. They have listened to customer complaints and made adjustments. After the remaining older Anovos products are shipped for the first time, the multiple year wait for paid products should be over.

A company that is willing to make changes based on customer feedback, has been delivering many products, and has continued to develop new products is good in my mind. I don't have any hesitation to order from Anovos if I like the product. I do have several of the older items on order that still have not been delivered. They aren't doing the extremely long pre-order periods before production starts any more.

Efx appears to be able to deliver PCR helmets reliably. I don't think I would have enough confidence in them to deliver a $500+ item with a preorder. Other than the PCRs they don't have a good record over the last few years for delivering or even creating new SW products.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
I think way too much has been made about the statements causing people to say Anovos is crowd sourced or it is a ponzi scheme. All they said was money from one product goes towards developing new products. That is pretty standard business.

The issue I had with the early Anovos model was the extremely long pre-order periods before any production started on the product. This causes the early purchasers to have excessively long waits. Unfortunately for some of the products like the OT Stormtrooper helmet kit, Shadowtrooper helmet kit, Vader wingman, etc the wait has been excessively long for most purchasers. I have no idea why those have taken so long other than giving other products like the OT Stormtrooper full kits and completed helmets priority.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
This thread is more than 3 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.

Similar threads

ghostryder
Mandalorian props featurette
Replies
2
Views
352
Halliwax
Halliwax
SuperSnarf400
Roman Props MK1 / ShtokCustomWorx Chassis Question
Replies
10
Views
639
SuperSnarf400
SuperSnarf400
AxeKando
The Bad Batch animation props
Replies
14
Views
839
AxeKando
AxeKando
_Lee_
Lets see your Vader cracked helmet props!
Replies
0
Views
425
_Lee_
_Lee_
CAPNSTUNN18
TFA Flametrooper Part Search
Replies
0
Views
285
CAPNSTUNN18
CAPNSTUNN18
Back
Top