3A’s Zombkin Update is More Frustration
UPDATE: A comment from Ben — see below — now has me wondering exactly what is happening. Does anyone have a link to an official post from 3A that makes it clear which set/toy is shipping next week?
As was mentioned in the comments to my “Will There Ever be a Zombkin?” post last week it seems like the Zombkin action figure will be shipping soon. The order was placed on October 31, 2011 and the promised delivery was March, 2012. I don’t need to run you guys through the calendar math to show how long 3A has sat on the Zombkin money.
UPDATE: This paragraph is wrong or right or something. I usually don’t feel this stupid. Well, thanks to this post at The Fwoosh I now know that 3A is only shipping part of the Zombkin order. You see, the announcement at the 3A Production Blog only promises that the 12-inch scale Zombkin will be shipping “next week.” The smaller scale — sold as part of the set — will be shipping “slightly later on” . . . which means anything. Considering how well 3A understands calendars that could mean anywhere from a week delay to waiting another eight months. We do not know. Everything before this may be wrong. No idea what is exactly scheduled to ship. See the comments.
What is even more annoying is that I had to get the news from a source other than the company that has my money. What happened to the 3AVOX newsletter (first mentioned here) that was promised to be our source of news? Last year 3A posted to their blog:
We are going to start sending out a weekly 3A info newsletter that will keep you up to date about 3A and that our supporters might find helpful.
We have found that using the blog, forum or twitter doesnt always work for a concise version of issues pertaining to 3A, whether it be shipping, upcoming product, events etc ! When issues such as the Zombie redo, the 3AA shipping snafu, this newsletter will be the front-line of official 3A info!
So if you have not signed up for the 3A newsletter, please do so. The first edition will go out this week.
As we all know the newsletter is not weekly and, as near as I can tell, hasn’t been released since March (thanks to this ToysREvil search we can follow 3AVOX). I had grown so separated from 3A’s work that I hadn’t even realized that it had been so long. How is it 3A can keep taking money and not have toy collectors across the web asking “why?” and “when?” and “WTF?” for so very long? This lack of communication and slow delivery isn’t exactly new for the company.
So now I have to wait for two packages instead of just one.
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I think you’ve mis-read the post slightly in regards to the Zombkin vs. the regular Zombs. The Zombkin set (1/6 and 1/12 figures) is shipping, while the AP Zombs that were sold as sets and blind-boxes are shipping later. They’re not going to ship part of a boxed set, they’re talking about two different products in a slightly confusing way. Being annoyed is one thing, but spreading mis-information jut makes it worse for everybody.
@Ben – Is that what they mean? Their post has very little in the way of details — not even a photo — and is quite confusing. I couldn’t see why anyone would ship part of an order but the way it is worked it sounded like the 12-inch were shipping and 6-inch later.
Woah. I just pulled up the webpage — https://www.bambalandstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=apzombkin — and am even more confused. Technically, I bought an AP set. The official title on the Bambaland site is “Action Portable Zombkin Set” while the graphic has a different title so now I have no idea what is shipping next week.
So, thank you. I agree that the facts need to be correct so anyone reading this knows what is going on. But can you state for certain that it is the orders placed on October 31, 2011 that is shipping next week? The terminology they’ve used isn’t making it any easier to understand what is up.
I would sent the ThreeA Support twitter an @reply asking them what exactly the story is. Danil will at least go find out or clarify, but sometimes the posts can get pretty confusing because nobody at 3A is a native English speaker as far as I can tell.
Both scale Zombkin figures are shipping at the same time and in the same package if I remember correctly.
AP Zombs are something totally different.
The confusion was probably caused because (a) Gimbat tagged the Ap Zombs delay on the same line as Zombkin for some reason and (b) people mistook “AP Zombs” as slang for AP Zombkin.
As much as Gimbat annoys me on the forum with some of his talking down to fans (all the mods do this, not just him), he’s been doing a decent job of getting shipping updates up on the blog the last couple months.
He’s at least trying to better the communication which is more than I can say for ThreeA themselves.
it seems like 3A has a problem with mass producing 1/12 figures, and seems to explain why the 1/12 versions take longer to ship. i remember reading Wood saying the 1/12 drop clothes were harder to make than the 1/6 versions. sure bigger seems easier to mass produce, but why tie yourself down and promise something that wasnt gonna be shipped together. hopefully 2 different scaled figures wont be offered like that again.