Premium DNA

Earthworm Jim Wave 1 Update

FROM OUR PARTNER EAST IP

East IP is a leading firm in China assisting American companies in enforcing their intellectual property rights against infringements. See WWW.East-IP.com for more information on the firm.

East IP has been representing Premium DNA since mid 2024 in investigating and pursuing legal solutions against infringements of our rights as well as those of our licensors, such as Interplay. This includes advertisements and sales of products leaked from sub-factories of our (now terminated) authorized suppliers.

We have over time taken steps to stop any unauthorized production and sales by these parties based upon both intellectual property rights and contractual rights. Steps are being taken to clean up the market of unauthorized goods that remains in the hands of resellers our previous supplier can not control.

FROM PREMIUM DNA

Premium DNA holds itself to the highest standards in always delivering fans and collectors products that live up to our promise of premium quality. When Earthworm Jim suffered from inconsistency and errors across the production run, we could not, in good conscience, deliver those goods to our customers.

Unfortunately, we were also misled repeatedly by a sub-factory in China, which ultimately led to the need for an exhaustive investigation into violations and enforcement of our IP rights.

In order to protect the investigative measures in China, the privacy of other companies being affected by infringing activities of this supplier, and the rights of our IP holder partners, we were prohibited from providing updates to the public until reaching a resolution.

We have taken steps to resolve affected products as we move forward with new products that have been in development, and have exciting news starting with Earthworm Jim...

FREE EVIL JIM FOR DNA PRE-ORDER CUSTOMERS / INTERPLAY RENEWAL


Our partners at Interplay have been supportive in helping us protect our contractual rights, and their ownership rights, in China. We are excited to announce that they have allowed us to offer our new Evil Jim figure free of charge to anyone who pre-ordered any of the Earthworm Jim Wave 1 products directly from Premium DNA.

*** If you ordered any of wave 1 through us directly, Evil Jim will be automatically included as part of your order free of charge ***

Evil Jim will also be made available to order directly through Premium DNA, as well as our retail and distribution partners.

PLEASE NOTE: The only official release of Earthworm Jim Wave 1 into the market is the Toycollectr Exclusive Jim, which was manufactured first and passed QC inspection. The others did not meet our standards.

There will be many noticeable fixes to the figures’ plastics, deco, articulation, and scaling. Each figure will also include a stand, as advertised originally. The packaging will have tamper proof demarcation to verify authenticity.

PREMIUM DNA - INTERPLAY PARTNERSHIP RENEWAL

We are also pleased to announce we have renewed our license with Interplay for an extended term and will be developing new releases for both Earthworm Jim and Clayfighter.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Premium DNA has actively been acquiring new licenses, building new partnerships for global distribution and retail, building our new website, and moving new products through production with reputable long-term factory partners.

We will begin revealing the first properties and releases in the coming weeks as we embark on a long term plan that celebrates the past, present and future of video game properties and related IP. Many of these programs and products have been in development for years, and we are thrilled to start sharing them.

An important conclusion we have made from dealing with the realities of international manufacturing, and as collectors ourselves, is that the collectibles industry has relied too heavily on long pre-order windows and wait times. This has often made for a poor customer experience and an impediment to collecting. To address this issue, we have changed our release and production strategy to prioritize in-stock drops and short, partner-driven pre-order windows.

Our pre-order windows will only be as long as is necessary for our retail and wholesale partners to compile their orders. These pre-orders will be strictly for products near completion. There may be occasional exceptions for specialty items (i.e. vehicles and playsets), but these are limited.

Short waits, fast deliveries, and the best collectibles in your hand. That is our renewed commitment. We hope others will follow suit and elevate our industry as a whole, with renewed focus on the experience of the fans that make it possible for us to do this amazing work.

Premium DNA Toys · 13894 South Bangerter Parkway, 200, Draper UT 84020, United States
 
What an absolutely bizarre ride this company's existence has been.

I have their Battletoads figures and EWJ and Psycrow. They're pretty nice figures! But WTF.

I can't lie and say I want them to go under. Because I selfishly hope they can fulfill these orders and move onto something else because I'd still absolutely love to have properly scaled Banjo and Conker figures for my shelf.
 
Can I just tell you all, I know people are going to poo-poo on this, and maybe use me as a conduit for your directed anger and doubt, and that's fine:

This is legit. I have been privy to this from the jump, I knew this was going on. The story about the factories not receiving payment and so they listed them on Ali to recoup costs is total bullshit. They ripped off PDNA big time.

The fact that Interplay is involved should give some credence to that.

I know what you're going to say "What goes around" and all that. But genuinely, GENUINELY...if you value anything I say at all, know this much: they very much come from a place of earnest.

I will not speak to their business acuity. I have told them repeatedly about their manner of communication or lack of. I have even offered to be their social media guy. But overall, they want to make cool toys and they want to sell them to you, in all earnest. They really are fans first, who really want to do great things.

Some stuff that has happened are of course of their own doing, and again--I won't, as their friend, speak to that. Some things were 100% out of their control. But absolutely none of it with malicious intent, and none of it done with the intention of ripping anyone off. If anything, over their heads would be the apropos descriptor.

And they have some BIG, BIG stuff coming. Really cool stuff. Like, jaws are going to drop cool.

I'm not asking you to take pity on anyone. Feel your feelings, speak your peace. I won't fight you on it. I'm just trying to offer a little perspective. Chalk this under another example of Rick naively trying to find the good in people, if you must. But, in the end, I am just speaking from my experience.

This will be my only contribution to this thread.
 
I'm not going to say I won't buy from them again, but I 100% would never trust them enough to give them any money up front or even when something is in stock. I luckily got my money back from Megalopolis before it completely went to hell, but yeah, not going to trust them.

If it was something from an IP I really loved and it wasn't made by anyone else, I'd preorder from BBTS if I decided I needed it.
 
Boy Wonder said:
Because I selfishly hope they can fulfill these orders and move onto something else because I'd still absolutely love to have properly scaled Banjo and Conker figures for my shelf.
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I totally get it.

But I'll never stop pointing out that -whatever they do- started with stealing from and BRAZENLY lying to customers. Period. Fuck these cunts.
 
altcunningham said:
Is this just for DNA and these lines or Megalopolis and that whole downfall?
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Both. I was talking here more about DNA, but overall, both. It hurts me personally to see the hate thrown at them. Ben in particular. He is my good friend. We speak every day and he is a good man, a father who is doing his best to support his daughter and make some cool stuff that hopefully people like and appreciate along the way.

And I know appearances there: "Of course you're biased if you're his friend". And that's fair. But I know some stuff, and I know I know Ben, and he's never steered me astray. Not once, not ever. And I am aware maybe this will taint some of your guys' opinions of me, but...I have no horse in this race, other than defending my boy.

I also know some of you have these ideas of these sleazy schemers, these Machiavellian moustache twirlers who are out to steal everyone's money. But it's just not them. And again, it hurts as a friend to see these things said about them when I know it's the furthest thing from the truth, or at the very least, pieces of a very fragmented puzzle that isn't the complete picture.

But at the end of the day, I can't change minds. I can only share what I know to be true and allow people to draw their own conclusions.
 
altcunningham said:
Is this just for DNA and these lines or Megalopolis and that whole downfall?
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Couldn't be both. The Westover Scumbags have been very clear that nothing bad happened with Megalopolis, that it is still an active 'content creation' company, that they never did anything wrong, and that the two companies are entirely separate and having nothing to do with each other despite being owned by the same guy, and staffed by the same family members. I bet Matt's wife Kailey is the 'treasurer' for PDNA, just like she was for Megalopolis. (Edit: Before submitting this post, I actually looked it up just to see and OMFG I was actually right about this, Jesus Fucking Christ).

What with inflation, I wonder if she's upped her salary from the previous 60k/year to steal from people and be absolutely fucking incompetent at handling money (if we believe Mega's literal only defense). I'm sure Kim Westover is also over there collecting a paycheck happily after stealing from people.


RicksNerdLife said:
I also know some of you have these ideas of these sleazy schemers, these Machiavellian moustache twirlers who are out to steal everyone's money.
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Let me be clear about that; I don't credit any of them with being intelligent enough for that. I am more than willing to take at face value that they're incompetent dipshits that 'accidentally' stole a bunch of money from people. That's, honestly, never been the primary problem.

The problem was the lies about who owns these two obviously related companies, where the funding for PDNA came from given they owed lots of people lots of money as Megalopolis, etc etc. The problem was NEVER genuinely taking responsibility for screwing so many people over. The problem was coming back to this community with their hands out after refusing to even fully acknowledge what they had just finished doing to the community. They're dishonest users.

I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt that they want to just move on and make cool toys that everyone likes and be this awesome brand. No doubt at all. The problem is how they're choosing to go about getting there. Even if they go on from this point forward to be completely on the up-and-up, it won't change how it all started. It won't change the lack of transparency. It won't change that they took peoples' money and ran off with it. I don't care if they lost it in bad business decisions, lost it in Vegas, or spent it building PDNA. They've never even made any attempt at all to make amends for any of that, or offer anyone compensation. They just took, lost it (or used it), and popped back up again with a new thing for everyone to give them money for. But, scout's honor, they won't steal from you THIS time. They only had to be crooks to get started, now they're gonna play it honest and true.

They are everything wrong with the world of business. Failing upward on the backs of other people. Losing other peoples' money and not even showing a shred of guilt for it. I don't care whose friends they are. They're fucking disgusting and I genuinely hope they lose everything and spend the rest of their lives supporting themselves on whatever jobs they find the most distasteful and embarrassing.
 
See--this is the sort of thing I didn't want to be getting into.

But as a case in point, showing just a sampling of misinformation: Kailey and Matt have been divorced for three years. She's not even a part of the company anymore. Just one thing there to highlight since it was there at the beginning.

Again, I can't and won't get into the back and forth, as you've made your feelings known ad nauseum, and I won't attempt to change your mind.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
See--this is the sort of thing I didn't want to be getting into.

But as a case in point, showing just a sampling of misinformation: Kailey and Matt have been divorced for three years. She's not even a part of the company anymore. Just one thing there to highlight since it was there at the beginning.

Again, I can't and won't get into the back and forth, as you've made your feelings known ad nauseum, and I won't attempt to change your mind.
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I'm not trying to fight with you - but I think it's important that the reality of it be out there. It's not like you saying 'I like Ben' undoes all the actual stuff he and Matt did. I think you saying 'they mean well' and things like that, even unintentionally, obfuscates what they did and seeks to give them a pass for it all. A pass they don't deserve.
If my friends stole from a bunch of people, I'd be telling my friends to fix it, not telling the victims to trust me that actually my friend is a cool guy.

And Kailey being listed as the treasurer of PDNA was to my point that they set PDNA up with literally the same people that were running Mega - her not being there now isn't material to that point.


Anyway, I'm not going to be offended if you don't respond. It's fine. I get where you're coming from and you get where I'm coming from.
 
Yeah... I have to say that a business that took people's money, delivered no product then pulled up stakes and opened a new venture taking other people's money without making it right for the customers that were out their pre-order cash isn't something I can easily overlook. Its even worse that they haven't delivered on subsequent orders either.

I can respect your friendship RNL, but they never made people whole who paid them money for product that never came - and unless or until they make it right publically they are not an operator I would ever trust with my money.

My stamce is probably easier to hold because I don't care even a little bit about Battle Toads or Earthworm Jim or Banjo and Kazooey... but even if they held a license I did love there is a zero percent chance I would let them hold pre-order money from me.

If Geoff Beckett showed up with a new action figure venture I would damn sure go nowhere near it.... these guys are in the same category.
 
I’ve always been of the mind they’re more incompetent than nefarious, though they didn’t mind pulling the ripcord and landing safely following the Megalopolis fiasco. That’s not an attempt to excuse anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that incompetence led to them getting into an apparent bad deal with a factory that resulted in all of this mess.

Very curious to see how these new Jims compare with the ones sold dirt cheap on Ali. Not that I bought either or plan to, but I’ll watch from afar.
 
Didn't they try and sell shares of Megalopolis to customers? I suppose the best you can paint them is...they're incompetent businessmen. But oh...what incompetence. Did they even have financial advisors or accountants to tell them what they were doing wasn't the right way to do things? Obviously it's gotta be hard dealing with companies overseas, especially if you can't speak their native tongue. And don't have a representative over there representing your best interests. But we've seen so many companies pull it off. We have also seen small companies just out of money and not be able to fulfill their orders (several Kickstarters I can think of). But we've never seen those companies product actually made by the factories and sold without the toy company's consent. So there's gotta be more to the story than just...bad factory. We're missing some part of the story.

I know I won't order directly from them. If their product somehow manages to actually get made and make its way to retailers...maybe I'd begrudingly try it. I do still have some preorders for their Mars Attack figures open on BBTS, but I laugh those off along with the Marvel Select Annihilus and War Machine preorders I still have open.

I can understand keeping the same company name if it's tied to licenses they previously had. How long could those license deals last? Otherwise, may have been best to just create a new company and have the creators stay out of the limelight. Keeping the same name just keeps the controversy going and is a giant albatross to wear around your neck.
 
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