Thundercats statue on preorder

it's all at hard hero for preorder ya'll. but could someone please tell me what the artist proof means? there's the lion statue with TBA limited edition. and the signed proof which i understand it's more b/c it's autographed. but what's the limited to 100 artists proof mean? does that mean u'll get a certificate of authenicity or something? and u wont with the "normal" one? http://www.hardhero.com/thundercats.html

It just means that the statues were "looked" over for any flaws during distribution. How true is that is anyones guess. The only difference I can tell is that 100 will be signed by the sculptor and the next 100 won't. All in all there will only be 200 of these produced? I guess that explains the hefty price tag. Hope I helped

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_proof

With 100 for artist's proof and another 100 for signed artist's proof, I wonder what will be the final edition number.

Good to see the lowered price of $199

F*ck it. i just preordered mine. i cant believe I hesitated even for 1 more hour on this after all of my hoping and wanting for new Thundercats stuff. I'm not sure when this is coming out exactly though, month-wise but i cant wait. There's a spot to put in what other figures you'd like to see made in while ordering. I put in Jaga and Grune. i think that'd be a cool action display. and they'd probably make a ghost of jaga and maybe grune too variant. did anyone else preorder? what did you want to see made?

Thanks! This is front page worthy!

This is my take on how many will be available. That there will be an availability of the "regular issues" of no more than 500 perhaps no more than 1,000 since those seem to be numbers that closely match previous statues. In addition you will have the signed proofs and unsigned proofs. All together you can probably expect less than 1,000 to be made

If you look at their Conan statues the regular issues have 500 made and 100 signed proofs, 100 unsigned for a total of 700

This is also up for pre-order at AFX (http://www.shopafx.com/thlist.html). Price tag is $159.99 which is about what I expected the e-tailers to be selling this for. I doubt this is an "Artist Proof" however.

"Copperkid, post: 24231" said:

I'm not sure when this is coming out exactly though, month-wise but i cant wait.

Quarter 1 of 2010 according to AFX.

With http://www.shopafx.com offering this at $159, we can expect similar deals from other sites. Of course these will likely be the regular non artist's proof versions.

Hard Hero has clarified the number of Artist Proofs. There are only 100 Artist Proofs total. When you order you can choose to have it signed or leave it unsigned by selecting the option on the bottom left of the screen (signed) or bottom right of the screen (unsigned). But there are only 100 Artist proofs available. This corrects the info we posted initially on the front page.

"grizzlor, post: 24241" said:

Hard Hero has clarified the number of Artist Proofs. There are only 100 Artist Proofs total. When you order you can choose to have it signed or leave it unsigned by selecting the option on the bottom left of the screen (signed) or bottom right of the screen (unsigned). But there are only 100 Artist proofs available. This corrects the info we posted initially on the front page.

Actually, I posted that there would only be 100 AP statues. What we needed clarification on is the total number of statues being made. Are there only 200 statues being produced total, or is 200 the number being available on their site, and more being sold on others?

I thought it was clear that there was only 100 AP statues. :confused:

Well, I broke down and pre-ordered 2 signed statues! Yes I said two, the statue has grown on me and will be a centerpice in my Thunderctas collection. Can't wait!!! Yay!

There are 100 Artist Proofs made total, which means Paul Bennett, the sculptor artist reviews them as they're finished to make sure that they meet his vision and are error free, paint perfectly applied etc.

You have the option to choose to have your Artist Proof signed by Paul (I am assuming somewhere on the base as opposed to across Lion-Os face and torso) or you can have it unsigned depending on your preference. You have two options on the order page.

But only 100 Artist Proofs are made.

The limited edition statues (ie: statues you buy once the Artist Proofs run out at hardhero.com, or the ones available for pre-order from shopafx.com) are not checked by Paul, but they do go through a quality control process to make sure that they're the high quality statues that you expect for your money. There is no set number of limited edition yet, its still to be announced. I am guessing the final numbers produced depend on the pre-order numbers and expected demand, orders from comic book stores and specialty stores etc.

For anyone in the UK, I've just been in touch with hard Hero and they will not ship here, which is a bummer for us.

AFX will ship to the UK for $70. This looks to be the only option. Has anyone ever dealt with these guys? I'm a little wary, as they'll be taking the full amount and not just a deposit like Hard Hero.

Simply gotta have this, any other options around guys?
Merged Post:

EDIT: probably should have read the t&c before posting that!

"Do you charge me for backordered or preorder items?
If you are paying by credit card (Visa, Master Card, American Express, or Discover Card), you will never be billed for an item until it is ready to ship from our warehouse. If you are paying by PayPal or check / money order, payment is required immediately."

Much better. And plenty of time to cancel should financial situations change between now and January, unlike with hard Hero.

Thanks so much for posting that link, mesepher! Really cannot wait for this...

Grizzlor... thanks for clarifying that. I actually did think it was 200 AP (100 signed and another 100 non signed). And as MannyC mentioned it looks like the final edition number would be around 1000.

I still haven't placed my pre-order. I am in a dilemma. On one hand I want to support Hard Hero directly, by purchasing the statue from their site. And after paying $200, I will likely have to pay international shipping in range of $50-80. (US customers have to pay $15)

If I go with other sites I will atleast save $40 on the statue before shipping. This savings is beneficial in the long run.. if I want to be able to afford all their other Thundercats statues.

Wait.. after reading the post by Thomas I just noticed the "AVAILABLE IN USA ONLY" message on their site. So I guess it's pre-order on another site for me.

Merged Post:
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HH10053&mode=retail
BigBadToyStore has it for $20 less at $180

http://www.nsidecollectibles.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1327&zenid=10835ee92b9646545535999986bfb05c
NorthSide Collectibles has it for $199 but with free shipping.

Most other sites are offering this at $179. So looks like the 20% discount by AFX with the savings of $40 is indeed the best deal.

EDIT 2:
Tried getting a shipping quote to India... AFX doesn't have my country listed :sneaky:. So I decided to check what would be the closest price to Asia.. checked Singapore.. USPS Priority Mail International at $86.

BigBadToyStore ships to India via USPS Express Mail at $89.99.

And that's why statue collecting is a very expensive hobby especially.. for non-US fans. It's not only the item price but the shipping that takes the bigger chunk. Sometimes even if the statue is made of PVC and is not really heavy, due to dimensional weight measuring they still result in heavy shipping prices.

Oh well.. I will end my rant now and see what alternative I can come up with :(.

Do you have a pal in the US that you can get it shipped to who can take it to the Post Office and ship it to you from there?

grizzlor said:

Do you have a pal in the US that you can get it shipped to who can take it to the Post Office and ship it to you from there?

Yeah I have few friends there who could do that, though I think I will still end up paying another $80+ on shipping it here anyways. (On a related note, besides my other friends.. Manny actually picked few items for me from Comic Con last year and shipped it to me. He was really kind enough to take that trouble for me.. through that chaos of Comic Con, for which I am really grateful for :)).

And I guess it's really not just the shipping price I am worried about, it's the chance of damage to the item via USPS. Few months back I shipped Koto Iron Man statue where the USPS shipping also included insurance. The statue arrived in broken condition at the wrist and shoulder. And I was still forwarding emails, making calls between my post office and USPS to claim my insurance... which has so far not come to light.

After that I decided I will never deal with USPS for statue shipping. I still use them for action figures, books and other items via ebay. But statues which has likely chances of damage.. will not be replaced (paid for) by USPS.

I can't bear to have my Lion-O statue in a damaged condition.

I think I will ship it to my friend's place and have it collected when he makes a trip back here next year (lot of waiting though)

I also recently registered at myusabox.com and currently have a NY US shipping address for mail forwarding, but that is quite expensive as they use only private carriers like FedEx, DHL and UPS. But the best part is the item reaches me in 3-5 days. I have their used service for other toys and books, but a single statue will definitely be over $100 in shipping.

good luck to you man, i hope you get one. you gotta do what works for you. i'da purchased from somewhere else probably so save even $20 but i got an AP version since i so excited about this and this is really going to be my first ever statue.

Hard Heroes has done upset me. I am not a happy camper now because they said that even though my address is a US address they do not ship to military overseas. A bunch of crock if you ask me...Im going to ask them if they will ship it to my dad in Puerto Rico but that means it will go to Puerto Rico then Germany.

Im through with them. I guess Ill have to deal without my statue.

Great Job Hard Heroes in supporting the troops overseas :lionomad:

"MannysCollectibles, post: 24274" said:

Im through with them. I guess Ill have to deal without my statue.

Why not order with ActionFiguresXpress?

"Thomas., post: 24275" said:

Why not order with ActionFiguresXpress?

I have already but not the artist proof,anyways they will probably cancel my order as well.

I think i may have overreacted but i did find a way around this issue. There are several companies who will provide you a physical address in the states and forward the package to APO addresses. Ill have to pay extra for that service but I will at least end up with the statue.

Im still a bit mad that Hard Hero wouldnt ship to a military address since technically APO addresses are New York based