Time for a comic book update  

 

Is that a request, or do you have something to share?

 

Once the art and colouring is complete for issue 1, it will go to the printers and be sent out.

 

In the meantime, this is the most-recent update (8/11/19) from artist Natephoenix, featuring previously-unseen pages:
Natephoenix - Comics and Art

 

I don't know what the going rate is, but I've been meaning to sell mine on. It's used but in good condition with the original box and with no stickers applied. The RRP of the regular Bastards was $120, does that seem fair? I also have a weapon pack and a prospect pack if you were interested in either of those and wanted to buy them together.

 

Hey Tarrn, thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it's the holidays and I just flew home to see my family, and I'm spending money like a drunken sailor!!

My post was ill timed cause I can't really be thinking of buying more stuff til all this craziness dies down.

I'll get back in touch with you after the holidays and if you still wanna sell it, we can talk!!

Sorry for the bad timing.....thanks!!

 

That's cool, I'm in no rush so I'll hold it for you until the end of January, PM me when/if you're ready. (I am in the UK though, so there may be some additional cost on international postage.)

 

So, are these old stock or reissues?

I know there was some drama about the molds being kept by the factory and Maas and Spence and Maketoys (not sure if the posts still exist). If these are new runs then someone is making them.

 

So far as I'm aware, Mayhem Mekanics currently has neither plans nor capacity to produce new figures, and yes, FansProject still has the molds, so they are not new stock ordered by Mayhem that I know of. Also, the Bastard packaging is not Kickstarter packaging, so it's from the second run of figures, but the Otomo is a Kickstarter/Online exclusive produced wholely for the figure Kickstarter. My first assumption is that RTB has bought someone's collection and may have very limited stock of these figures; if that is the case, the figures are second-hand and RTB appears to be selling them as New - that would be a bit dodgy on their part, but obviously I can't be sure. Alternatively, they may have bought in sealed stock from a supplier who had a few boxes of unsold figures.

I've emailed RTB to request more information regarding where these figures came from, and also messaged them on Facebook; I will post their responses in due course.

 

Just old stock.

 

Okay, so I said I'd post RTB's response if they replied to my queries, and here is their response:



Bit of a curveball, really; they're either lying through their teeth to a customer here, or they're not, which is equally-disconcerting... I mean, yes, it could very well just be old stock they found in the back room - or it could be a new and unauthorised run produced by the factory. I don't like bothering @CZ Hazard but it may be time to bring this to the IP holders' attention. I've asked them to confirm if this is a new production run or if it's just old sealed stock; I'll post the reply when/if it comes.

 

I don't see a contradiction. They are brand new stock that have been stored at the factory that serves as the warehouse as well.

If stored well, they are indistinguishable from newly made ones.

 

It has been pointed-out to me that I'm probably overthinking this. Will see what RTB says in the clarification if they do respond again, then go from there.

 

I always find it very strange when any business says they ‘found stock’.

If you couldn’t account for it, and just found it one day in the ‘back room’ you shouldn’t be in business.

 

As a friend of mine suggested earlier, it could be entirely possible that the factory has decided they can no-longer afford to cling to the stock that FP opted to withhold until the debt was paid off, and they've released some of it to retailers. Factory warehouse space is valuable, after all, and having some stock just sitting there is going to generate costs after a while.

 

Yeah we know that the factory still had stock that they were holding. Tony just managed to get some of it.

 

Interesting.

To be fair to RTB (and their older site chimmunmung) they do find old stock sometimes. They recently found an amount of the Six Sigma bots in both colours and that toon Devastator figure for someone - these were old and not easy to find new.

I also got the Minerva action figure off them which was a warehouse find.

Be interesting to see what develops with these unrustables and if they pop up elsewhere.

 

Could easily be a warehouse find. I've been a warehouse manager for years. It's definitely not uncommon to "lose" a box or two between shelves only to have it reappear later during a cleaning. And I've worked for huge companies. I expect these tiny companies don't have the resources to have a fully staffed warehouse with daily & monthly inventory audits, so it's even more believable. It'd be no different than going to your backyard shed and finding a box full of your childhood toys you always thought your parents threw out 20 years ago.

 

There you go, bringing back memories of my neighbour stealing my G1 figures out the back of a moving van when I was 6... T_T

 

This will be the factory trying to recoup some of their losses by releasing them to the market. They have every right to do this and its official/kosher/above board.

I will go further and say that had the factory have been amazing at holding this stock as long as they have to give a period of exclusivity to the original kickstarter backers and retailers who supported the company early on. It absolutely sucks how everything went down with the company, but the production factory have been incredibly fair at all times.