So, I wrote this in another thread, but thought it may be interesting on it's own. Lately we have been seeing some heavier then normal delays with figures which have been attributed to factories.

2 such releases were Scoria and Kronos. Both upon final release seem to have similar issues, which becomes evident is caused by the factories themselves (Stripped Screws, Chipped Chrome (Scoria)/bad paint application (Kronos), Lose Joints (maybe not factory), and so forth).

Now I know in both instances there were initial visits that occured before the "mass production" phase. But in both cases, I don't believe, or it wasn't posted that there was a QC person on hand from the 3rd Party company during the assembly phase.

FansToys has said they will be hiring some one to be at the factory full time to address QC moving forward.

My question is, should this be the new norm? I think it should be. I really like FT's approach to this. It seems like these factories don't have any pride in their work, and don't mind spitting out shit.

For a $15 toy, that is okay. For a $160-$200 toy, it's definitely not.

What do you guys think?

 

If I ran a 3P company, I would (or do it myself if possible).

 

Fans Toys certainly seems to think so (now).

 

nah..I'm completely fine with paying increasingly high prices for pieces of shit.

 

It depends on the scale. If they're producing thousands, then yes. If it's just a small run, then you may get away with handling the QA on your own.

With FT, from what I gathered, they handled QA the same way they did with Quakewave. The problem was the scale of production. They produced way more Scorias than Quakewaves and QA became an issue - hence the need to hire a full time engineer to supervise production.

 

Any company that wants to be great would have strict quality control guidelines.

If things continually go wrong, some people will just say screw it and ship out bad products.

Or from the beginning they are not interested in being a great company.

 

3rd Party transformers, like a lot of stuff, are manufactured in China, while 3rd Party companies generally aren't based in China. This means that if they want to spend time actually inspecting the stuff at the factory rather than trusting pictures and samples sent through the mail, then it's flights and time off work (They generally don't do this as a first job).

It would make sense to have someone local on the ground to keep an eye on things, but I guess that would be a part time job too, and how would you advertise a job like that? I wish it were easier for the companies to insure that everything that left a production line thousands of miles away was 100%, but I don't think it's that easy unfortunately  

 

No, but the factory managers that already work in these factories need to be held to account.
If I don't do my job properly, I risk losing it. It should be no different anywhere, right?

 

If prices increase because of this, Won't there be a thread attacking these companies of price gouging

 

I'm irritated that some don't have them still.

Any company that refuses to value build quality gets none of my money, simple as that. If higher qc means higher prices then so be it. MT obviously have some full time QC people and that's why their stuff is amazing.

 

I'm sure everything has to be okay by the 3p company first before final production begins. So the companies should be in the know. So if that is the case, I'm starting to think they are just trying to make their market date. I'm jaded...don't listen to me.

 

dunno about full time, but there should definitely be someone there fore the actual builds/production runs.

 

that would be make the figure cost more...

 

I keep seeing that the figure will cost more. But shit at $200 a pop, that cost should be included.

Not to mention, FT seems to be doing it for free. Prices on the Dinobots has not increased.... YET.

 

Retailers + producers will find all sorts of excuses to raise prices, but to me if the figure can't be done right within a reasonable price, then don't make them. When retailers and producers collude to sell subpar figures to consumers, what they are doing is hastening the end. "Greedy in the long run" should be the motto, not "I'll take everything I can get right now and worry about starvation in the future."

 

Some companies make poor quality figures, like daca or KFC
Just don't buy them

Chrome is fucking stupid and should never be used again

Problem solved

 

no

 

Yessir, we know both the 3Ps and the retailers are getting a nice profit out of these transactions. THEY need to absorb any additional costs to ensure QC themselves (like it sounds like FT will do) or this little gold mine of adults paying stupid money for toys will dry up.

i don't like buying items with QC problems. Even bad paint really bugs me. Ive definitely got enough toys to keep me and my children happy forever, so if buying toys isn't fun anymore, i for one, won't have a problem walking away.

 

I would love it if the QC was improved on these expensive figures. I would probably buy more of them if I felt like I was really getting my money's worth. When these toys go over the $100 mark I feel like I shouldn't have to do anything to fix it once I have it in hand. There are so many threads on here I follow because I think a figure looks awesome, and then it gets released and I see the list of issues the figure has, and it's a deal breaker for me. Yesterday I still had some hope for Kronos. Today I canceled my preorder. The odds of me receiving a problem free figure are not in my favor.

And I'm worried about Scoria V2. If Fans Toys does have a QC manager there full time then maybe things will be cool. But right now I feel like some of these companies are at the mercy of their factory. Like the factory is saying "You need us more than we need you."

 

Factories, by nature, usually have a quality check. Theirs are just shitty.
And I could see the factories having little incentive because these runs are a small fraction of their overall business.
So so they need outside QA? depends on if we keep buying thier shit, bottom line.
But if they did, probably need someone intimately familiar with the design to spot the errors. I don't wonder why daca had to do it himself.
Note: this is 100% speculation aside from factories inherently having qa.