I have heard things , but wanted to see what other info was out there aside from the facebook groups.
Here's one straight from a disgruntled CF member because it's still fresh enough to piss me off. I didn't know much about the third party figure market back in 2020 and had watched a few videos from Justin's Collection. Being that he has a pretty big following I went ahead and pre-ordered Gametoys Sephiroth and Cloud in early 2021 from them.
Mid to late 2021 I start seeing things popping up. On here, on the r/hottoys subreddit. People saying they aren't getting their orders. TW sending out private messages to bigger name collectors asking them to hype up how good the TW shipping is in exchange for a kickback (free figure or large store credit kind of kick back). And all of these were with actual screenshots of these exchanges.
End of 2021 rolls around, I'm a little nervous at this point, but I paid off both figures in full prior to seeing these things and they've been sold out everywhere.. So I'm in it at this point either way.
Sephiroth is released but they never email me about him. I email them after 3-4 weeks of seeing people receiving the figure and their customer service basically says, "Oh ****, we forgot to reach out to you.... Yeah, uh, how do you want us to ship it?"
Told them my option, got the shipping details right after. Got the figure pretty fast actually. Okay, weird, but, logistical issues happen. Maybe they just drop the ball a lot and that's not great business but whatever. Not going to buy from them again but we're 1 for 2.
January 2022 rolls around, Cloud comes out. Everyone is getting the figure. KG, Giantoy, OSK, etc.
Nothing from TW. February... March... I reach out and ask when they expect stock. "We don't know, COVID has caused shipping delays. Probably end of the month, maybe April."
April rolls around, nothing. Finally the word is out, Kit says all Gametoys shipments have been made and all distributors have their stock. TW is getting a flood of emails from people who pre-ordered Cloud with no update, so they send out an email, "Sorry the figure is delayed, if you want a refund we understand or how about a big coupon! There's shipping delays on getting our stock in,
we swear."
By this point the cat's out of the bag. TW never got their stock, there's not going to be any stock because they can't get any because of how well the figure sold. So they're trying to figure out how to kick the can down the road enough to get people off their back.
As was talked about in the FF7 remake thread, they're most likely running a pseudo ponzi scheme. Take the money from one set of pre-orders to fill another business expense, try to re-coup, keep repeating until you get caught with your pants down.
**** TW, shame on Justin's Collection, and do not order from them.
To end on a happier note. Kit from OSK literally made some phone calls and tracked down a figure locally for me. Had it shipped to him to inspect it, then shipped it to me. So everything from here on out I've ordered from him. Cannot recommend him enough. Most of you know that in this thread though.
