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.