R2-D2 Statue Cancellation

Today we have some more bad news for Gentle Giant. The company announced today that the R2-D2 statue has been canceled.

The R2-D2 statue originally scheduled to ship December 2007, is being canceled and will be resolicited.  At this time, we don’t know what the new ship date will be or if the pricing will remain the same, but as soon as we have new information, we will be posting it on our website and sending out an email.  For those members of our collectors club who have already placed a pre-order through our website and would like to keep your original pre-order, please confirm this AFTER the new information is sent out.

I think this is another sign that Gentle Giant is struggling in the market. My guess is that the R2-D2 statue is being canceled because there was not enough orders for it. The question is will it ever be made? If you read their announcement, they don’t sound too confident.

There are some other possibilities. One is that production on the statue has been held up for one reason or another. A second possibility is that Gentle Giant is making more of an effort to sell direct through their web site. In this case, it is possible that orders were low so Gentle Giant canceled it to resolicit through their web site to make more of a profit on it. Either way Gentle Giant isn’t saying, but we will see what happens in 2008.

Gentle Giant Indiana Jones Mini Bust and Statue

Gentle Giant updated their blog today with info on the Indiana Jones mini bust and statue. Releasing in July, the Indiana Jones mini bust depicts Indy in his trademarked leather jacket, fedora and whip from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It will stand 7.5 inches tall and retails for $55. Here is the picture we have of this so far.

In addition to the Indiana Jones mini bust, comes the Indiana Jones on Horse Statue, a 7-inch scale statue of Indy, standing 11 inches tall and retails for $210. Here is the official image.

Gentle Giant is now taking pre-orders on both of these items. See Gentle Giant Gets the Indiana Jones License! and Future Indiana Jones Products from Gentle Giant for previous coverage.

Gentle Giant Product Cancellations [Clarification]

Cool Toy Review today reports that Gentle Giant has had to cancel some of their products that were recently announced. Gentle Giant is canceling the Will Turner and Captain Barbossa animated maquettes from the Pirates of the Caribbean line. They are also canceling baseball cap, ultraviolet pen, canvas patch, and embroidered patch planned for 30 Days Of Night.

The main reason manufacturers cancel products is due to little or no demand from retailers/distributors. This may or may not be the case here.

This is not good for Gentle Giant and might be an omen of things to come. Many of the fans believe that Gentle Giant has begun to branch out too much, causing them to be spread too thin lately, rather than focusing on their core properties, such as Star Wars.

It is my belief that in addition to spreading themselves too thin, Gentle Giant has begun setting edition sizes too high to be “limited editions.” This combination of problems has caused their products to be in much less demand than in previous years. This can be backed up by simply looking at eBay. Outside of the super limited exclusive editions, the majority of Gentle Giant products can be had on eBay, often much lower than retail price or even cost.

Update: Gentle Giant sent out an e-mail to collectors tonight with a clarification on the situation.

Hello Gentle Giant Collectors,

We just wanted to take the time to clarify some information regarding our Animated Pirates of the Caribbean Maquette line. Although we announced the cancellation of distributor orders for Will Turner and Captain Barbossa Maquettes at the beginning of this week, we are still producing the 2 items. These items will be available directly through Gentle Giant and limited to 1,000 pcs world wide. They will be available to purchase through our website www.gentlegiantltd.com in spring of 2008, and are currently still available to pre-order. We have not cancelled preorders previously placed through the website. You must be logged into your account to see the pre-order.

Thanks,
Gentle Giant Ltd.

So to clarify, distributor orders were canceled, but Gentle Giant is still producing the item and selling it directly through their web site. I’m guessing that there was not enough demand from retailers/distributors for these items, so rather than scrap all their plans they decided to sell it exclusively through their web site. I’m betting that with the current retail situation, we are going to see more direct sales like this in the future.