Boss Fight Studios 1/12 and EPIC HACKS

bat said:
Can confirm, working in biotech. My multi-decade year career since my PhD has been a repeat cycle of inventing cool solutions to overcome previously intractable challenges only to have C-suite execs and academic founders run me out and revise history to pretend they invented my work. Happens every time something works out in the lab. I think it is universal across creative endeavors that the people actually creating rarely have enough power or a sufficiently big voice to counter the powerful players who swoop in and claim credit when something of value is created. Those bellowing "I BUILT THIS" through the media megaphone probably didn't. But they hold the megaphone.

Sorry for Erik and Catrina. Many of us have been there and we understand that it was actually you who built the thing.
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To get on my soapbox for a minute, that's the trouble with great man theory. Part of it is human nature (it's easier to remember one guy than 100) and part of it is opportunists who love to steal the spotlight. I can't begin to imagine how many people toil away only for someone else to steal the fame and fortune for their creation. Watson and Crick are an infamous example, taking credit from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. Lizzie Magie, the original inventor of the board game Monopoly, is another.

It must happen all the time, only for the creator to think "it's not worth it" and move on or spend their whole life fighting back only to die penniless.
 
Finally received Sonja in Canada.

I love her. I'm glad I two just to customize. The display options are fantastic. I didn't have to heat anything out of the box. She moves well and still holds poses. The articulation allows me to hit things most martial characters don't.

The execution on each head is perfect for me. I think they're one of the few companies that has ever nailed a yelling face, carrying it right into the eyes. The paint on all of mine are perfect, except one default head seems to have a double dose of blush but whatever I've got extra. The hair colour is perfection. All the sculpting and paint work and even the fact that the stuff is rubbery so it doesn't feel like it's going to break if she topples over.

I love this.

I have not had any of their 6-in figures, and there's just something about the quality of the plastic and how this thing moves and even disassembles, that just feels great to me. What do you guys call it, hand candy? This is mine.

This figure just beats the s*** out of the LC effort. As a huge fan of all of those characters, those figures always felt brittle and poorly articulated to me. And something always looked off on the faces. I am glad this and the Frazetta Vampi are in my life.

This is one of those figures where now that I have it I would like to get other things from the line. Maybe those skeletons? Anyone have any 6-in endorsements?

I immediately pre-ordered the steampunk variant now that I know what I'm getting.

My only complaint is if you can slide the boots and gloves off, I do think bare feet and hands should have been an option, especially since those are included with the naked bodies that you can get. I'm going to assume this is also the champagne blank they are selling?

And yeah I know we just had a big threat about how s***** the dude is, but this particular figure delivered. Please tell me he's not also the sculptor and designer, because those are the people I'm trying to reward with my limited patronage. I at least have to get that Amazon they solicited.

Between maximum Spidey, this, and silver age Superman and the new Supergirl, I'm just so happy. Sometimes you forget it's really about the inner child Young me is just so happy with myself for these toys and a bunch of other reasons I won't bore you guys with. Toy therapy. Outstanding.
 
This thread is such a bummer for me because I really like several BFS lines, mainly the Fraggle Rock and Popeye Classics lines, but learning about the owner being so terrible really sours my opinion of the whole company. I guess I'll have to do some thinking to decide if I want to keep supporting the company and all the other employees or give BFS the Tesla treatment. I assume there will be another Fraggle Rock wave coming, and I was hoping there would be another Popeye Classics wave, too. Does anyone know if they'll have a stream this year to announce and tease upcoming figures?
 
The thing I always try to remember is there are two sides to every story and sometimes one side is just louder. Not saying that is necessarily the case here but I'm not basing my buying habits on it.

You could find someone at every company that believes something or does something you don't agree with I'm sure.

Megalopolis/Premium DNA is a different story because they actively screwed over their customers but I'm not involving myself in the inner politics of a company.

If I like their figures I'll buy them.
 
Bills all day said:
This thread is such a bummer for me because I really like several BFS lines, mainly the Fraggle Rock and Popeye Classics lines, but learning about the owner being so terrible really sours my opinion of the whole company. I guess I'll have to do some thinking to decide if I want to keep supporting the company and all the other employees or give BFS the Tesla treatment. I assume there will be another Fraggle Rock wave coming, and I was hoping there would be another Popeye Classics wave, too. Does anyone know if they'll have a stream this year to announce and tease upcoming figures?
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Forgot Fraggles were a line. I do want that Mokey.
 
altcunningham said:
And yeah I know we just had a big threat about how s***** the dude is, but this particular figure delivered. Please tell me he's not also the sculptor and designer, because those are the people I'm trying to reward with my limited patronage. I at least have to get that Amazon they solicited.

Between maximum Spidey, this, and silver age Superman and the new Supergirl, I'm just so happy. Sometimes you forget it's really about the inner child Young me is just so happy with myself for these toys and a bunch of other reasons I won't bore you guys with. Toy therapy. Outstanding.
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This world has gotten into a lot of trouble with people choosing 'sides' over facts. You can think Andrew is a gigantic steaming pile of shit, AND recognize that the company he runs made a good toy. They're not mutually exclusive and it's not a betrayal. Andrew was the art director before he was the Chief Whatever Officer he's decided to call himself now. So he definitely wasn't the sculptor or the designer. If anything he may have done the control art for her, but I don't know either way.

As for rewarding the actual people involved... I mean...? Look, that's shaky at best, but I don't mean that as a judgement. You either can support Boss Fight knowing what the owner did, or not. I don't think it's worthwhile to try to justify it. Nor do I think you need to justify yourself. Do what makes you happy. But the people that work for Boss Fight have chosen who they work for. So if that's something weighing on your mind, just remember that choosing to work for someone that would destroy lives like Andrew did is a choice they made, so they're not inherently more worthy of supporting than Andrew himself.
Again, I'm only saying that in the sense of 'there's really no difference here.' Support them or don't. Totally up to you.
 
And at the end of the day, consider it this way:

The reason Damien and myself have railed against Andrew is *because* we know what happened, the circumstances surrounding it, and the people involved. Had we not aired it all out here, would you have known? Because no one involved with it was talking. No toy media outlets spoke about it. Boss Fight put out a statement that made it seem like all roses, so you would have never assumed a thing.

Now, our personal reasons for being upset are because we know Erik and how good of a person he is, and how hard he worked, and how he helped that company. We have some skin in the game with him being our friend. But with that said, a cool toy is a cool toy, and even I have to admit that it is difficult to look the other way when something is cool. Even I might have to buckle for the Garfield figures because I've wanted them my whole life.

Another example, I abhor the politics and ethics of places like Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby, but damn, if that isn't a real good chicken sandwich and Hobby Lobby is the only craft store that sells my Vallejo paints for customs near me. No one should judge you for patronizing who you choose. You can appreciate the product without liking the people behind it.
 
Yup. And as an addendum to that; It's important to keep in mind that there's a few of us out here with fairly good first- or second-hand knowledge of what happened. For US that's a really good reason to speak out and not support this company. But we shouldn't, as a rule, just assume everyone is going to tag along with us and believe everything we say just because we say it and it sounds plausible.

I'm 100% not blind to the fact that I am inherently an unreliable source. It would be wholly ridiculous and unfair of me to say 'this happened and you should treat everything I say about it as fact.' Especially when I can't necessarily reveal everything I know (in fact, maybe only 50%) or specifically where that knowledge comes from. Maybe people that know me fairly well are going to be inclined to take that as good enough for them, and people that don't know me as well are going to rightly not feel comfortable just taking my word.

That's okay. I only say anything at all about this situation A) to explain why I no longer support BFS after being their biggest cheerleader on Fwoosh, as my sudden absence would probably eventually be noticed and B) because I think it's worthwhile to at least have what info out there I can share and let people make up their own minds. No shade on anyone that either believes it and still wants to buy cool toys, or who isn't sure if they believe it enough for it to affect their spending habits.
 
Yeah, this news is a drag. I don't like shopping with cognitive dissonance but at the end of the day a lot of what I buy has dubious ethics attached. Ah capitalism. I've only recently just dipped my toes in Boss Fight with some ebay'd Bucky O'Hare pickups at the end of last year, and I finally picked up some of the Wave 1 Fraggles from a Macy's sale. Red Sonja just came in, too, and she's surprisingly good and will likely land on my top 10 of the year list. Really really like her and was looking forward to new 1/12 HACKs. That's my complete BF collection. Overall I'm glad they are around and putting out toys and I'll continue to cherry pick and finish my Fraggle lineup. Though I'd probably prefer NECA had made these Fraggles. And they also have their own specs-in-eyes.

I can't imagine if you are an action figure/toy designer you have a lot of options for where to apply your trade, so I wouldn't fault anyone for working for them, and I'd still want their bread buttered. It's the same thing in a lot of niche art professions. You try to ride the train as long as you can and hope when you fall off you have enough nuts saved for wherever the road takes you from then on. But you don't have a lot of bargaining power. Unfortunately in this kinda situation there is no un-ringing the karmic bell. Community is important in this collector world. We should all be helping out, not backstabbing. If you're reading this Mr. Boss Fight Boss, I'd advise you from moving away from the "can't make an omelette without... " attitude. Or someday somehow, you will be the egg.
 
Is anyone else here collecting the Popeye Classics line? I'm curious what other folks think about the latest wave and the line in general. I thought the wave 3 figures are the best so far. None of mine had any QC issues, and they all felt solid and moved well. The character selection was great, too. I'm excited to add Rough House, Toar, the Goon, and first appearance Popeye to my collection.

Will there be a fourth wave? I really hope so because I really want Geezil and a clothed Alice, plus King Blozo, Nana and Cole Oyl would be great. I have no idea how sales for any of the past waves have been. At this point, I assume the characters are so obscure there's significantly diminishing returns. I just hope sales are high enough for the most recent wave to justify one more wave.
 
Bills all day said:
Is anyone else here collecting the Popeye Classics line? I'm curious what other folks think about the latest wave and the line in general. I thought the wave 3 figures are the best so far. None of mine had any QC issues, and they all felt solid and moved well. The character selection was great, too. I'm excited to add Rough House, Toar, the Goon, and first appearance Popeye to my collection.

Will there be a fourth wave? I really hope so because I really want Geezil and a clothed Alice, plus King Blozo, Nana and Cole Oyl would be great. I have no idea how sales for any of the past waves have been. At this point, I assume the characters are so obscure there's significantly diminishing returns. I just hope sales are high enough for the most recent wave to justify one more wave.
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I bought Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto when they were on sale super cheap at Amazon a while back but that's about the extent of my Popeye familiarity so I never really planned to go any deeper.
 
Not super familiar with Popeye mythos either — and I also grabbed Popeye and Bluto on sale on Amazon — but the more obscure characters are far more interesting to me. Had planned to pick up Castor Oyl with the Jeep and I wouldn't mind picking up the Goon and Toar at some point.

I'm fairly certain there hasn't been any word on additional waves. I'm sure the current economic climate has made a lot of things tentative even if there were plans.
 
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