[RETRO] Grapplers & Gimmicks by Hasttel Toy

[casanova]

Just watched the vidoe. Poor Savio had to go trough this for almost 10 minutes. Anyway…

The discoloration is kind of an issue for me. While I understand that „final color may vary“ means that the proto colors and production colors are not 100% identical, the overall appearance however shouldn’t. This is becoming an issue with Mitch. I wouldn’t mind color differences from proto to production as long as they don’t feel like a significant drop in quality (gold ≠ yellow; red ≠ sun faded red). He really needs to fix this and get the Chinese fabric more on point.
Really starting to be frustrating.

Edit: forgot to mention: the shirt appears to be painted on a skin colored body (look closely at the cut joints at the arms). This might be the reason for the sun faded red effect. It should be an easy fix with Vallerjo red + water + soapie. Easy but unnecessary.

[drnickriviera995]

Oct 27, 2023 4:41:50 GMT -5 walter7paisley said:

The only Mitch figure I'll be getting is Bulldog. The "final product colour may vary" and "this is not a toy for children" just put me off. If these are gonna come out discoloured and fall apart upon holding then there's no point in spending £50 on them, imo. If I want to spent £50-80 on a fragile statue I'll get one from a reputable model company. Hasbro style figures aren't exactly Sideshow models.

Yeah, I dunno, imagine if the Quebecers came out with their red shirts a washed out milky color like that. Someone joked about their shirts being orange, but that may not be far off from what we've seen out of the last few figures changing from the advertised protos. Maybe he needs to take time and not approve production until the factory has the colors correct. If it takes a bit longer, so be it, I mean as long as we're not talking 2 years, but if it goes to 6-8 months, and he delivers the advertised product, it would probably benifit him in the long run.

[casanova]

Exactly. It’s also kind of sad because (most of) the 3D sculpts are incredible.

[casanova]

Just reposting this from the old thread as it is a noteworthy variant in my eyes.

http://instagram.com/p/CyWU2luMa94

[@Chair.Shot]

King Mabel’s figure is mentioned on the first post. I have heard people complain that it was too dark. There just isn’t enough meat of the bone for me to get it as I already have the MoM Mabel and wasn’t a fan of his heel run.

Part of the issue with the concerns over the Savio figure is the lighting and cameras used. Mitch was live streaming (primarily using his front facing camera) in an oddly lit room (mixed lighting due to his display cases). These could factor into the colors appearing less vivid. As always, I will do an in-depth review when I receive it (including using multiple types of light sources).

[@Chair.Shot]

I had a mixed situation with Mitch recently. He shares pretty much everything that people post of his figures. I tagged him in the nice shots I took a month or so ago; they all went unseen. Not a big deal to me; I just try to give credit and appreciation to the people who make this possible. Then a few weeks later, a more popular page reposts my photos which Mitch then shares. I have very few followers so I’m not out to be Instagram famous by any means but it definitely struck me as odd.

Sometime later, I messaged him after seeing Oscar was for sale again. I had wanted to know what other figure was shipping at that same time. I heard nothing all day which was a little odd because Mitch has always gotten back to me within minutes. He had also been active all day on social media. So I commented on a post asking why he was ghosting me - BOOM: instant response (and subsequently deleted the comment).

Because I have interacted a bit with the 3POA guys, Mitch has assumed twice now that I live in Europe and that I should deal with Rock and Roll Collectibles. He deals with all kinds of people so I give him a pass on that one but it still stuck out to me.

[casanova]

Oct 27, 2023 8:53:16 GMT -5 @Chair.Shot said:

I had a mixed situation with Mitch recently. He shares pretty much everything that people post of his figures. I tagged him in the nice shots I took a month or so ago; they all went unseen. Not a big deal to me; I just try to give credit and appreciation to the people who make this possible. Then a few weeks later, a more popular page reposts my photos which Mitch then shares. I have very few followers so I’m not out to be Instagram famous by any means but it definitely struck me as odd.

Sometime later, I messaged him after seeing Oscar was for sale again. I had wanted to know what other figure was shipping at that same time. I heard nothing all day which was a little odd because Mitch has always gotten back to me within minutes. He had also been active all day on social media. So I commented on a post asking why he was ghosting me - BOOM: instant response (and subsequently deleted the comment).

Because I have interacted a bit with the 3POA guys, Mitch has assumed twice now that I live in Europe and that I should deal with Rock and Roll Collectibles. He deals with all kinds of people so I give him a pass on that one but it still stuck out to me.

The dude never came back to me. Even when I was asking about his exclusives I had in my basket. If you are not US based he doesn’t care. Nothing wrong about outsourcing this to rockandrollcollectibles, but not even replying to an indirect customer is kind of a poor behavior. Just send a short polite answer. My money is as good as others. I wrote it before, he definitely triggers me the wrong way.

[@Chair.Shot]

That’s a shame to hear. I guess the best way to get responses is to ask things publicly.

[casanova]

Oct 27, 2023 9:27:52 GMT -5 @Chair.Shot said:

That’s a shame to hear. I guess the best way to get responses is to ask things publicly.

That’s not my style. He kind of answered this way too. I’m a believer in karma, so everything will be allright. 🤣

[3poajamie]

He’s always very responsive and polite to me, haven’t spoken in a while though

[@Chair.Shot]

Same here (up until the story I posted). Even during the Yellow vs. Gold debate, he kept it mature and polite. That helped influence my decision to make other purchases as well. Hell, even when Kanik was having his meltdown, I tried to be a peacemaker and felt that I was saying things that were more beneficial towards Mitch. The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that Sal is behind this sudden change of heart lol. Who knows what is really going on anymore. I’m just in it for the figures!

[casanova]

Oct 27, 2023 15:26:50 GMT -5 3poajamie said:

He’s always very responsive and polite to me, haven’t spoken in a while though

Doesn’t surprise me. He wouldn’t want to upset someone who might be of promotional interest… 🤣

[casanova]

Oct 27, 2023 15:39:59 GMT -5 @Chair.Shot said:

Same here (up until the story I posted). Even during the Yellow vs. Gold debate, he kept it mature and polite. That helped influence my decision to make other purchases as well. Hell, even when Kanik was having his meltdown, I tried to be a peacemaker and felt that I was saying things that were more beneficial towards Mitch. The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that Sal is behind this sudden change of heart lol. Who knows what is really going on anymore. I’m just in it for the figures!

Perhaps Sal has taken over Mitchs social media accounts to make a little extra to finally being able to pay for shipping… 😂

[machofan396]

Oct 27, 2023 8:53:16 GMT -5 @Chair.Shot said:

I had a mixed situation with Mitch recently. He shares pretty much everything that people post of his figures. I tagged him in the nice shots I took a month or so ago; they all went unseen. Not a big deal to me; I just try to give credit and appreciation to the people who make this possible. Then a few weeks later, a more popular page reposts my photos which Mitch then shares. I have very few followers so I’m not out to be Instagram famous by any means but it definitely struck me as odd.

Sometime later, I messaged him after seeing Oscar was for sale again. I had wanted to know what other figure was shipping at that same time. I heard nothing all day which was a little odd because Mitch has always gotten back to me within minutes. He had also been active all day on social media. So I commented on a post asking why he was ghosting me - BOOM: instant response (and subsequently deleted the comment).

Because I have interacted a bit with the 3POA guys, Mitch has assumed twice now that I live in Europe and that I should deal with Rock and Roll Collectibles. He deals with all kinds of people so I give him a pass on that one but it still stuck out to me.

Stuff like this is why I don't buy into Mitch's whole "I'm just the little/nice guy" act. Aside from reselling his own figures on eBay at scalpers prices and justifying it by saying on a podcast "the big companies do it why can't the little guy". I remember way back when on instagram when he was posting render teaser pics of the Godfather basically in a 'what do you guys think?' context. I asked if the face was still going to be worked on, it doesn't quite resemble the Godfather. Boom. Instantly blocked. He comes off as the 'by the fans for the fans' retro guy, but if he asks fans for constructive criticism and opinions, it better be only praise. 

[mrh]

Oct 27, 2023 15:39:59 GMT -5 @Chair.Shot said:

Same here (up until the story I posted). Even during the Yellow vs. Gold debate, he kept it mature and polite. That helped influence my decision to make other purchases as well. Hell, even when Kanik was having his meltdown, I tried to be a peacemaker and felt that I was saying things that were more beneficial towards Mitch. The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that Sal is behind this sudden change of heart lol. Who knows what is really going on anymore. I’m just in it for the figures!

What's the Kanik story about?

[@Chair.Shot]

Ehhh it’s kind of a mess. I don’t want to get into the whole thing because I would probably get details wrong but I’ll do my best to give a general overview. The short version is that people were feeding information to Kanik (Cardona, Myers, or Sterling - I really don’t know). Whoever it was was showing him messages or telling him that Mitch was trying to get involved in the Bendies business. This lead to Kanik attacking Mitch on social media. Again, there is more to it than that but I’m trying to keep it simple. I can’t say what was true or what was justified - all I can say is that dirty laundry like that shouldn’t be handled in public.

Something about the situation rubbed me the wrong way. Like everyone came off looking bad. Whoever told Kanik about the situation or showed him messages or whatever might have been riling him up. It seemed almost like someone intentionally causing drama. I have no personal knowledge of that so I can’t hold anyone accountable for that and I don’t want to speculate any further. It wasn’t a good look for Kanik as posting to multiple social media platforms over a few days and then finally going off on someone isn’t professional. Period. I don’t care if you are a small toy company or the President. If he felt justified in his own anger then I think there were better ways to handle it. That is what I tried to help him see/do and he wasn’t having it. And it definitely made Mitch look bad as he appeared to try and either cut Kanik out of the bendies business or compete with them. There is so much more to it which is why it’s unfair for me to get into anything beyond the basics. The Facebook post was eventually deleted and Kanik took down his posts/stories on IG. It hasn’t really been talked about and was swept under the rug which is for the best.

At the end of the day I hope it doesn’t lead to tribalism or division. The Figure community is better as a whole when people can work together and compete to be better.

[casanova]

Who is Kanik?

[@Chair.Shot]

The guy who does a ton of behind the scenes work for Major Bendies and Big Rubber Guys. From the sounds of it, Kanik handles the day to day work while Cardona is big picture (bonus points to anyone who gets that reference!).

[3poajamie]

Oct 27, 2023 16:23:10 GMT -5 casanova said:

Oct 27, 2023 15:26:50 GMT -5 3poajamie said:

He’s always very responsive and polite to me, haven’t spoken in a while though

Doesn’t surprise me. He wouldn’t want to upset someone who might be of promotional interest… 🤣

For the promotional interest…by the promotional interest

[jpower25]

I didn’t order Ahmed Johnson from G&G because I thought it looked a little off in the photos posted and knew there was a version coming from ZST. In retrospect I wish I would have ordered from Mitch because the ZST version is too realistic looking. The head sculpt doesn’t fit in with the Hasbro style. I like the direction G&G is heading and didn’t hesitate to order Droese.