DIMIC

It’s so depressing when you really look forward to something and when you open it, the happiness turns sour. Well, unfortunately, this happened with our Capcom Classic Mega Man 25th Anniversary statue…

You might remember reading Ingis’ post on this statue. He was so happy when he saw this statue. He loves Mega Man even though he can’t play the games (they’re too difficult for him, shhh). Don’t get me wrong, I love him too and I couldn’t wait to have him here. Well, to say that it was an unusual experience is an understatement. Frustrating, that’s more like it.

The first annoyance was the fact our credit card didn’t get accepted. Since we’ve encountered that particular problem before with Sideshow Collectibles (Belgium has stricter rules which conflicts with the US when giving them access to take funds from your card), we also have a prepaid credit card. But even that one didn’t get accepted. So we had to use Paypal. Not that that’s a big issue necessarily, but the annoying thing is that we need to pay right away. I don’t like paying right away for something that gets released months later. But this isn’t what caused our headache…

I was happy when he finally arrived at our door. Happy that is until I had to cough up 53.23 EUR which amounts to 70.72 USD. Yeah, just 20 bucks short of the actual statue cost and the result of which (I believe) of not having an custom clearance attached to it with the correct harmonized code. Ah well, that’s the life of an international collector. It’s sucks big time but we’re used to it. I wasn’t happy but as long as we have the statue, it doesn’t matter that much. Of course, that’s where I was wrong…

Our original statue.
Before I even got it out of the box, I heard something that made my heart sink in my chest. Something was rattling in the box. That can’t be good… And I was right. His left foot wasn’t only damaged where it connects with the leg, it’s was also broken. Not completely loose but seriously broken nonetheless. And it didn’t stop there. Oh no. Missing paint, scratches, glue residue, a broken light panel and the light up function that didn’t function at all. Needless to say that I contacted them right away to get a replacement. But that was easier said then done.

First, they wanted us to return the statue. Now, I don’t mind doing that but not without getting a replacement. And that was the start of our wonderful experience with the Capcom store distributor called Digital River.

Returning the statue required us to bring it to a UPS shipping location but since this isn’t the States, the closest is a drive of a few hours away. And without a straight answer whether or not we would get a replacement, I don’t think so. Then they said that they would refund the statue (when they received it back) and we had to re-order it. Yeah, don’t think so. The whole reason of getting a replacement is that we don’t have to pay custom fees again. Since we already lost 70 bucks on it, I wasn’t planning on doing to again. Eventually, it came down to us actually calling Capcom support because they wouldn’t take responsibility because it didn’t appear to be caused by transit, which isn’t cheap either. This still baffles me. They’re the handler of the Capcom store but when something goes wrong, they won’t take up responsibility?

So, we called the Capcom customer support. Which was closed because they were at SDCC which I already suspected. So we had to wait until they got back in the office. Eventually, we got them on the phone and had to send pictures of the damaged statue. Suddenly, we got an email of a purchase of a Mega Man statue. So I’m guessing, that’s our replacement. Not any word from Digital River though…

Our replacement.
Finally, our replacement arrived. And luckily, I didn’t hear any rattling this time, so I got my hopes up that finally we got a good one. I should have known better…

Chips, missing paint, glue residue, a broken light panel, fingerprints, smudges and worst of all, very, very deep scratches on both his chest and the front of his pants. Not to mention that the box (not the shipper) was beat up. So much for replacement. It’s about as bad as our original one… But hey, at least it lights up right… Right.

So, we contacted both Digital River and Capcom customer support right away. We never heard from Digital River and it took Capcom thirteen, thirteen days to respond. And guess what, no replacement! While, when we first send the email, they still had it on sale. You probably can guess how pissed off I was. Oh, and did I mention that the day before we got the Capcom email, we tried to call them? Or that the day after, we got an email from Digital River? And the best part? They don’t even communicate well with each other. Capcom said we didn’t need to return the statues while DR wanted us to. And the best part? Yesterday, I saw that they had the statue back on sale again so we tried to call them. Even left a message on the voice-mail to get a call back which they do offer. Never heard back but did get an email this very morning/night from Capcom saying that DR refunded us. That’s great, apart from the fact that that wasn’t even the main reason we called. Strange coincidence isn’t it…

So, after receiving the first statue on the 15th of July, today we got an email stating we’re getting a refund. That’s almost a month and a half later. And not even a full refund at that. We only get the actual statue cost refunded, not even the shipping cost. And we got the more expensive one because that one had tracking which was recommended because if it got lost, they wouldn’t take responsibility. Like they ever do…
And of course, we can’t even buy it since it’s all sold out now. I’m not that easily pissed off but they succeeded. I don’t know why Capcom, such an established company (even though I get the feeling that they don’t pick up when we call anymore)  trust their online store business in the hands of Digital River. This isn’t the first time DR screwed up (anybody remembers the Ni No Kuni debacle?) and it won’t be the last time. What will be the last time is us ordering anything fragile with them no matter how much we like it.

The statue itself
Even though I don’t really feel like it, I am going to review the statue itself on here as well. And you probably thought it would never happen… I tried to take pictures that show of the awesomeness of this statue without showing the flaws too much. But that you can’t really see them on the pictures doesn’t mean that they’re not extremely visible to the naked eye.

It’s an amazing statue if you don’t have any flaws. I love the metallic, glittering paint and it really depicts the classic Mega Man. If I had to nitpick, I’d say that the position of his hand is a little weird. I’d turned it around so that his hand is supporting the buster from below instead of the back, just like the silver statue they’re going to release. But that’s just nitpicking.

Since I really love this statue, it really suck that it’s so damaged. We can’t even let someone repair this since it’s also on the shiny parts of his body. Maybe someday we’ll buy it on Ebay or a fellow collector, anyone who can guarantee that we’re getting one that’s flawless since obviously, Capcom/Digital River find this too hard…

Item reviewed: Classic Megaman 25th Anniversary Statue
Type: resin
Variations: none
Rarity: Not that rare for now but if you want to take a chance, I wouldn’t wait too long.