Warning For Indie Creators! - Shocker Toys/Comics, GBJR Toys

[Matt Doc Martin]

Based on the contract, you can't help but get screwed over.

[Weeto]

Companies like Shocker really f**k up the business prospects of other small publishing companies and harm the reputation of all small publishing companies.

I have ambitions to go into publishing if I can get my small graphic design/ printing company into a good financial position and producing small scale comics could be a possible entry gate into bigger publishing projects. I would hate to be thought of as a similar company to these jokers.

I wouldn't expect any comic creator to accept a deal like that offered by Shocker. I certainly wouldn't offer contracts like that to someone as they have zero flexibility. Shocker appear to be expecting 'first choice' on all publishing rights and that is a ludicrous idea. There aren't even any buy out clauses or anything like that and if a creator signs with that lot then their properties are practically being stolen.

[KJ!]

From their website:

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"February 3, 2011,
The Indie Spotlight Tick and Mucus Tick action figures have arrived ahead of their brothers and sisters and are up for sale right now. If you pre-ordered more than The Tick from Indie Spotlight Series 2, you should be getting an email tonight. We thank you for your patience as we got every detail perfect and hope you love these guys as much as we do. When you hear from us next, we'll be at Toy Fair 2011 with exciting news on a NEW action figure line we've been dying to announce. Meet us back here in a little over a week! Click link below for more images."
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So. Series 2, from 2008 is still not finished. The exclusives from SDCC 2010 are also still not finished.

Shocker has announced the line up to wave 5 or 6, but has yet to do wave 2. They've also announced a slew of spin-off lines - Golden Age Spotlight, Anime Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight, only to have those fall by the wayside too.

They then announced they were starting a comics publishing deal.

Now, they're about to announce another new line.

All this is being done without actually MAKING the toys from the previous lines that customers pre-paid for.

Shocker Toys is clearly a Vapourware company, and these new announcements are being done for one reason: to stimulate the checkbook of potential buyers, unaware of the years of misery they await.

And apparently they're working with Diamond again, too.

Creators, toy collectors, whoever you are - BE CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH SHOCKER TOYS/COMICS.

[HamsterRage]

Now that this is stickied, I can't help but feel the title of the thread could be better.


And damn, just saw on Shocker's forum that Hack/Slash is now licensed to Shocker.

Tim Seeley is a nice guy, and Hack/Slash is a strong property. I sincerely hope he doesn't get screwed over.

Tim's a good friend of mine and a former co-worker at Devil's Due.

We've talked about that issue, after what went down with DDP I think he took precautions with Shocker this time around.

[KJ!]

Tim's a good friend of mine and a former co-worker at Devil's Due.

We've talked about that issue, after what went down with DDP I think he took precautions with Shocker this time around.

That's really good to hear.

[KJ!]

This is NOT my photo.

This was supposedly the flyer up at SDCC 2010 (I did see what I believe to be this in photos at the time of the con, too.).

Okay, 3 weeks after SDCC for them to be shipped.

It's now February 23rd, and they haven't been mailed out. My math may be a tad rusty, but isn't that just a smidge more than 3 weeks?

They would have known, at the time, that 3 weeks was never going to happen. Turn-around times for factories in China and the shipping involved means that if those toys weren't already on the water at the time that message was put up, they were never going to make that 3 week deadline.

To be fair, they finally released ONE figure last week. There were 2 or 3 variations of it, one financed by, and thus exclusive to, a guys blog.

I'm not sure if this particular figure was ever meant to be an SDCC one, I didn't think it was, and it's not listed on that flyer anyway, but I thought there were more than that offered, offhand, like a Grendel.

I'll need to check up on that.

So, bottom line is that you've still got people waiting for SDCC 2010 exclusives, some paid for in May last year. Shocker is now attempting to head into comics publishing, hence the thread, and they made one figure finally, with 3 different paint variations. 1 figure in a year for the marquee line.

I really hope creative types read the sticky, I'd hate to see anyone get screwed over by this crap.

[Paploo]

Wow, haven't posted here in awhile but am surprised I missed this thread- Shocker Toys is sort of infamous for their shenanigans in the toy collecting community.

Stuff like the never-manufactured, completely bizarre Shoulder Action Figures*, constant delays, licenses that never went into production have made them toymania.com's JBolt for agggggesss.

They actually did get some toys out that weren't that bad quality wise, but yeah, they have a dodgy air due to assorted things over the years.

*action figures! for your shoulder! THIS WAS A REAL THING

[KJ!]

They seem to be quiet on the comic front. I don't know whether to take that as a good or bad thing.

While 3 figures have arrived to customers FINALLY (which sounds better than it is, as I think only 1 was supposed to be an SDCC exclusive? And all 3 are just repaints of the same figure anyway), they still have not shipped the majority of the exclusives that were SUPPOSED to be available at SDCC 2010, and were their exclusives for that Comic Con.

They're trying to get into the 'Comic' part, but they've got the 'Con' part down pat.

Here's a link to their offerings for 2011, just in case anyone is interested in seeing what does, and does not, see release. Note that this is a link to BigBadToyStore.com. They do not charge before arrival, and are not associated with Shocker Toys' behaviour in any way. http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/s...h=shocker+toys

That's quite a bit from a company that has yet to release the second series of its toys that were due in 2008, and that had all of ?1? figure released last year (with a repaint, I think?). Also note the addition of new lines - 'Anime Spotlight', and 'Golden Age Spotlight'. Again, this means that lines will be made available to various subsets of fandom, who have not heard of, or dealt with, Shocker Toys before. We've seen this in the past: target a group (eg that music group, GRAW or whatever it was), don't make the toys, string them along as long as possible, then, even though everything was done online, demand that they send snail-mail to ask for a refund. No-one I remember ever actually got that refund that they mentioned.

This sadly means that these items are either currently available, or WILL be available, on the Shocker Site Store in the near future. They charge immediately, via Paypal, and Paypal only gives you 45 days to dispute charges, useless for most Shocker products. They have also changed their details/email address mid-last year. There was talk of this being done out of fear of claims, but I cannot substantiate that in any way, and again, the 45 day rule would mean they were in the clear anyway.

That's all I have, just thought some may be interested, and with the new lines being put up for order which will attract buyers unfamiliar with the company's reputation, please let your friends know that if they want a product, to order it from someplace reputable that won't charge you until the item is actually in stock.

[MacQuarrie]

TAgain, this means that lines will be made available to various subsets of fandom, who have not heard of, or dealt with, Shocker Toys before. We've seen this in the past: target a group (eg that music group, GRAW or whatever it was), don't make the toys, string them along as long as possible, then, even though everything was done online, demand that they send snail-mail to ask for a refund.

The band was GWAR; they can be seen in the movie EMPIRE RECORDS (in Mark's drugged-out dream sequence).

[Artful Angie]

Wouldn't it be worth mentioning to PayPal that this could be considered a violation of PayPal's policy, and have them reported for it??

I look at it like this, so please correct me on any of this if I'm wrong:

Shocker says you can prepay for the figures, but it'll take more than the 45 days allowed by PayPal to dispute a claim, so after that they are in the clear about keeping your money and saying there were "delays" in shipping.

Then PayPal should have and enforce a policy that says you can't take money from customers for something you can't deliver in the 45 days dispute timeframe.

Does anyone know if they have such a policy? Or why they allow companies to take money for something you can't deliver on for a month and a half?