Customizer feedback

[norinradd]

There are a lot of customizers who cast parts for action figures and sell them on line. Some of them are very reliable, others not so much and some have issues that can come up from time to time. I thought it might be good to create a new topic to share stories and feedback of these customizers and their business practices with others.

If you have had any experience with or know the following customizers, please feel free to post your stories below and if I have missed any, please add them to this topic as well.

-Alyosha = Broken Arrow Customs = http://www.brokenarrowtoys.com/

-Greg =Glassman Customs = http://home.comcast.net/~glassman6/CustomSite/CustomSite.htm

-Onyx Phoenix Productions = http://onyxphoenixproductions.ecrater.com/

-TofuJesse = http://www.tofujesse.com/

-Vortious Customs =http://vortiouscustomaccessories.ecrater.com/

[norinradd]

In the past I have ordered from these stores. Here is my feedback:

-Alyosha Broken Arrow Customs - He has had trouble with his site (as well as his health at one time if I am not mistaken). The quality of product is always good and he has sent extra packed in items which were not ordered at times. The negative, is that sometimes there have been delays in items (I am still waiting for, but not holding breath, a Tank Girl Gear custom set which I'd ordered in 2010. I have since simply purchased the figure I was intending to create. Alyosha is great for the community and he is one of the longer running custom stores around.

-Greg at Glassman Customs is a great guy. He offers alot of unique pieces which he casts and hydroshrinks from other toy lines giving more variety for the figures you make. He seems to use a lighter resin for his casts and the quality is always good. One of the things I really like about ordereing from him is his communication. He replied to and communicated with me regaurding questions I had about my shipments. His shipment time was approximately a month from order to delivery-whihc is fast in comparison to others. I felt secure ordering from him and would do so again.

-Onyx Phoenix Productions is another great site with good custom pieces. Their site has it's own forum which certainly makes communication more direct, unless you are like me and grow tired of having to remember too many passwords for too many forums. I don't go on onyx phoenix forum enough to remember my passwords, but for some this would be a great feature. The last time I ordered from them was during the holdiays a few years back, so one can understand a delay in shipping of items, The items I'd ordered had almost take two months to arrive, but again it was during the holidays and I was replied to as quickly as I'd e-mailed. Good Communication (if on there site) and great products.

-TofuJesse is a site I have orderd from, but have grown increasingly frustrated with. His prices are great compared to some of the others, but communication has become poor to non existant (if anyone knows this man and is aware of any health issues or other problems, please let me know). My first order from him was shipped out a little over a month after the order was placed and was received with the exception of one minor piece - the others items were of good quality. I e-mailed Jesse and explained the missing piece, he told me he would send it right out, so to save him from having to pay shipping of one small item, I ordered more items. Thist order I placed was about a year and two months ago and I still have not received that order (some of the items were out of stock, but my card was still billed right away). His site does have a neat feature that will e-mail you when an item you'd like comes back into stock. This feature can be dangerous as, if you have a poor experience and do not recall it, you may order again on impulse based upon the desire to acquire that newly stocked item. I had e-mailed him about the missing piece earlier and he had assured me that it would be sent, but when I placed the next order and e-mailed asking for an updates on the order status, he just disappeared. I have just placed another order, for items which were labeld as being in stock, and while I was right away billed for the order, it has been days and the order is not being displayed on the site as shipped/completed. Once again, I have e-mailed and received no word. I am now ready to cancel the order and request refunds. If anyone has reason why I should wait, feel free to let me know.

Vortious Costums-Dennis is one of my favorites, because the items he produces are great (some need a little sanding down or finishing-but for good reason-HE IS FAST), and he is great at communication, and is really easy going to work with. He has several times made adjustments to my orders and swapped out items. He has sent extras to me and even been fantastic about walking me through the assemply of some of his more complex kits (which are really cool). Oh yeah, his shipments arrive super fast two, hence the reason to sand some of the work down. I have actually been shocked to see items I ordered the week earlier in my mailbox. He has great business skills as well as casting skills. Probably my top costumizer.

I hope this info helps some of you. Please share your experiences as well, positive and negative feedback.

[RodimusVTS]

Thank you Norin I greatly apperciate your feedback for my site, Vortious Customs. I was looking for the thread that I had posted on here a while back to post my Halloween sale, and saw your reveiw thread in the list, and I am very glad that you liked the speed I had back then. I've gotten even faster since the begining of this month, becasue I have gone full time with casting, and am now running with a turn around time from order received to shipping out of less than to 1 week. I'm running orders from Sunday through Wednesday, and Thursday through Saturday. I'm currently just about done the orders for Sunday through Wednesday of last week, and prepping the parts list for the orders from Thursday through Saturday so I can start working on making those parts next. I'm hoping to continue to keep this as my full time job, and it's only with the help of you, and my other customers, who let other customizers know that I'm not the kind of caster who's going to screw them over like some casters have in the past that my business will continue to grow, and prosper.

 

Thank you again,

Dennis Plourde

AKA Rodimus VTS

AKA Vortious