18th Boss Fight thread

Posted by: @supercamel-1982

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I wonder how someone could possibly, legally, buy someone out of a company without them knowing?  And again, I know we don't know for certain if any of this is true.  But that just seems near impossible.  But I would have no idea. 

But if Erik and Catrina were founders and part owners, as was Andrew, I don't see how Andrew could ever legally and effectively buy Erik and Catrinas part/ownership of BFS unless they directly sold it to him.

 

I don't know how much value anyone puts in anything I say. I'm absolutely willing to admit that I am always going to be cagey about who I talk to and when, because I feel it would be inappropriate to say 'X said Y.' So you take anything I have to say with the exact amount of salt that you feel is appropriate based on what you know about me.

What you are reading out there is largely true. That's me knowing some details about the situation and not my speculation based on anything from Reddit (I didn't know the Reddit post existed until after I learned some of the details). Erik and Catrina did not willingly leave BFS. And the primary person that's still there is not, perhaps, someone you'd like to give your money to if the manner of those two leaving the company bothers you.

What I will say, for what effect this has on anyone, is that I won't be supporting BFS any longer. I've cancelled my pre-orders and I won't give the company another cent or signal boost. Anyone that knows me and what I've said about BFS in the past can draw their own conclusions as to how serious this is for me to react that way, or how sure I am in the knowledge that I have.

Welcome back, KD; I was hoping you'd be refreshing the page once a day to see if we were back up like I've been doing.

I've made the same decision to stop buying BFS stuff and cancel my POs; which knowing how much God hates me means they'll reveal the MicroNauts homage series later today.

@adrienveidt Good to see you too. Yeah, I was checking once or twice a day to see if we were back yet. Was starting to fear this was 'the big one' and it was all gone for good. Not sure how much longer we can expect this old house to get patched up before someone decides it's not worth the renovation costs, as it were.

It definitely sucks what's going on. I'll say that, with the information I have, it was an incredibly easy decision to bounce and ditch all my outstanding pre-orders. I'll also say it was one of the shittiest decisions I feel I've ever had to make in my entire life in regards to my toy collecting. And that includes things like downsizing several times. The reality is that the Fantasy and Greek HACKS are among some of my favorite, most beloved things that any toy company has ever made. They're things I've spent quite nearly my entire life wanting to have.

So when I say 'easy decision' -- this was something that mattered to me, even if it doesn't matter to anyone else when the facts inevitably trickle out.

I definitely would put value in what you say KD, especially when it comes to this company.  I know you collect many different things, and I have seen your posts on may threads for many companies and toy lines here on The Fwoosh.  But you have been a supporter and collector of BFS from the moment they began.

I feel the two toy facts I know most about you are

1.) You have always been a supporter of BFS.

2.) You think very little of Super7 for never addressing or fixing their many, many QC issues and think Brian Flynn is an ass clown.

So, for you to no longer want to buy from BFS and cancel your pre orders, I would take your word that you genuinely feel some scandalous s*** went down.

@supercamel-1982 I appreciate that. And yes, I -do- strongly dislike Brian Flynn. Thank you for noticing. One small correction, though - purely being pedantic here; It's not about me feeling some scandalous shit went down. It's about what I am aware of. Definitely pedantic but, I think, an important distinction.

Still, I'm absolutely not telling anyone what to do or how to feel about it.

Can someone link the Reddit post?

@tsi  I think this is the one everyone is talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ActionFigures/comments/1ch2ye3/erik_and_catrina_arana_gone_from_boss_fight/?rdt=46631

I had to get a new car last week a couple months earlier than I was planning, and tossed stuff from the old to the new on the lot before driving away.  Yday I took the new in for her first car wash and cleaned out the old stuff before driving over, and discovered I have yet to have opened Athena, Eurayle v2, or the other Roman I got.  I dunno what I'm gonna do with them.  I had gotten a silver Female blank off ebay to bash with the Blokees Classic Arcee to make a Micronauts Lady SpaceGlider and haven't even taken the blank out of her box, either.

I think this is how all the Millennials feel watching that show about all the horrible shit Dan Schneider did to the girls on those Nickleodeon shows.  You still love the actual product, you still love the creators you watched make it; but now it's all got a stink you can't get away from.

Is everybody else hoping E&C might join up with Dave to make a new company?  Is Dave happier freelancing as a project 'floater'?  Do E&C even want to stay in the toy industry at all?

@adrienveidt  I'm good with my existing BFS figures. Different time, different team. Whatever happened after, the HACKS figures I have were made by Erik and Catrina and I'm glad to have them. The 'stink,' for me, is just that I don't think I'll ever be adding anything else to that collection. Which means I am now sitting down with them and trying to figure out what I want and what I only wanted as part of a future collection. Like, if we're never getting HACKS Pirates, I don't need any fodder items I specifically got for that. If we're never getting more Greeks, I don't need some of the figures I only kept in preparation for having more Greeks. And so on.

My fantasy collection is definitely getting trimmed just because I bought a lot of it in anticipation of having a huge fantasy collection and now that's not going to happen.

From what I was told of Dave's departure from Boss Fight, it's unlikely he'll be working directly (as partners) with any of them ever again. And he seems content to be living in China acting as a go-between for lots of companies. Can't imagine that changing.
Erik and Catrina love toys. It isn't 'just a job' where they got screwed so they'll go do design work for Ford or something. We'll see their names again on some awesome toys, in time.

Bummer to hear about the drama with the BFS staff.  Was definitely one of my favorite lines before the quality started to decline.  I have to admit I've had a hard time hitting the purchase button on the latest releases because of this.  

I'll still get whatever new knights they crank out, but otherwise I feel like im pretty much out.  The newer releases aside from Accord & Asperity folks just aren't doing it for me for the price.  Hopefully another good 1:18 picks up the torch on the fantasy stuff someday.  Joy toy does some really cool armored stuff, I could see them making some really great knights and such

Well, that sucks. I was just about to grab some new Saurozoic Warriors too, but after reading all of that I have a nice pit in my stomach. Bucky O'Hare brought me to BFS and the only person there I've interacted or spoken with over the years was Andrew as a result. I admired their other stuff from afar, even had to talk myself out of the Lucha stuff because I just don't need it, but I would always sing the praises of the company because they seemed like they went about their business the right way and just so happened to be located in my backyard in Massachusetts. I definitely don't feel like I can support them any longer though, and if someone like KD feels the need to sever ties then what happened must be ever worse than what's been sort of made public. I would never claim to know anyone well whom I've only interacted with via social media, but hostile, corporate, takeover definitely isn't something that would have ever entered my mind as being a thing amongst the partners at BFS. Such a shame.

Found there's a 5day old post on the reddit thread responding to some of us here:

Wow!  Well, that does explain how he could have bought out Erik and Catrina's ownership without them selling it directly to him or even knowing about it.

This whole thing is so unfortunate.  I'm sure in every company no matter how big or small we collect from, from Hasbro to Neca, Mattel to Jada, some kind of backstabbing, corrupt, underhanded, or shady s*** goes down.

But when it's a small owned business like BFS. Especially a small owned business where you've been able to interact with the owners/creators, it just hits different.

I've always liked everyone on the team, they've always been so kind to take and answer questions.  So, to see this happen (if all true), even if everything done was legal, it feels very unsettling and it's disappointing.

I wonder when we'll see or hear anything about the next Wave of Fantasy with the Orc Chieftan that is bigger, then the little characters like the Dwarven Warrior, The Hafling Thief, and the Inn Keeper.

I kind of thought those might have gone up for pre order at this point.

well it is the end of May & no news from BBTS about the wave I pre-ordered that was to arrive by now