Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: aspen, Comics, mike turner, statues

Playing With Statues

Published Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:21:33 -0600

In June 2007, under the title STATUEFORUM/ASPEN COMICS EXCLUSIVE: FAUX BRONZE KIANI STATUE, ten limited edition statues of the Mike Turner characer Kiani were solicited, to be hand painted and numbered by Aspen's Dan Cope. This would be authorised by Turner's company, Aspen.

They cost $750 plus shipping, with a $375 payment up front. They quickly sold out. Payment had to be made in 48 hours.

The castings had not arrived but were expected in the next month, with shipping no more than two weeks after that. The piece stated "THIS TIMETABLE IS NOT GUARANTEED". Boy howdy.

Well it took a little longer, September in fact, for the statues to arrive. And soon we even had a base. But by mid December, the prototype paint job had not been started. That happened in January.

And then pictures of the painted statue started coming through.

However in March, these hadn't been signed off by Mike Turner, who was suffering from cancer and was in great pain. Naturally no one wanted to push things. Mike died in June.

There then seemed to be a problem with the bases, which needed replacing. The Certificates Of Authority had however been sent out, which featured the very last art by Mike Turner, as sketches.

By October 2008, two had been shipped.

And by January, three with assurances that 2009 would see all remaining seven shipped., which was reconfirmed in April.

But by early 2010, still with concern about bases, no more had shipped. And one of them was returned with a breakage. By September with no more news, the restives were no longer just restless with one user posting;

THIS WAS BORDERLINE REDICULOUS, NOW IT HAS BECOME A FULL ON BLOW OFF BY ALL PARTIES INVOLVED WITH THIS PROJECT. ITS BEEN 3 YEARS OR LONGER WAITING ON THIS. ARE YOU SERIOUS? ASPEN ACTS LIKE "WE ARE WORKING ON IT" AND, NO DISRESPECT TO STATUEFORUM, ACT LIKE ITS ALL AN ASPEN ISSUE, BUT SF TOOK MY DEPOSIT. I AM STILL COOL ABOUT WAITING, BUT LETS GET THIS FIXED FOR PEOPLE 4-10. SOMEBODY HAD TO SAY SOMETHING. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

Dan Cope posted;

I accept a large part of the blame as I truly did not think my schedule would get to a point where I would not be able to turn these out in a timely fashion.

What I was told last was that Comic Statues was going to find a replacement painter to complete the project once the replacement bases were delivered so that it could be finished off.

While Aspen appeared to be waiting on a decision about what to do – continue as they were, go with a replacement painter or refund the money paid to them.

Another poster wrote;

I'm also one of the collectors who prepaid for one of these Faux Bronze Statues. I don't know about the rest of the collectors who only paid a deposit of half the cost, but I paid in FULL. Not $375 up front then $375 plus shipping due before statue ships. I paid $750.00 up front over three years ago.

About a year ago (which was two years after I paid), I started to inquire about this Faux Bronze Kiani Statue and just thought it was too long to wait. I've spoken to Danny (of Comic Statues who took the money) via e-mail and phone and he said he was going to refund me. He even said I was the first person to ask for a refund and was surprised nobody else was asking. He assured me I would be getting a full refund. From then on, I would contact him about the refund and he said give him more time. Up until about May of this year when I contacted him, Danny hasn't responded back to my numerous inquires about the refund. In fact, I've e-mail him numerous times just last week. E-mailed him, e-mailed comicstatues business, and carbon copied Drew. Still, no response from Danny. Frustrating to say the least.

And another wrote;

1. Danno painting the statues was part of the deal for me, so I would NOT be happy if they would be painted by someone else!

2. It's ok for me some of you prefer a refund instead of getting delivered, but I am not. I just want to get the statue (I got #4 assigned) and hope that it will come out as advertised within the next couple of months.

3. I respect Danno saying he's busy with other things, but I somewhat don't understand why he then offered it at all. Sure, there are many things, both business and private, that could come into one's way, but then this project would be part of a working shedule, which also has to be worked off.

4. What I would want is that there is more transparency about the future process of this project. So I ask everyone involved to keep us updated, a thing you haven't always done satisfyingly in the past 3 years.

And then we learnt;

Everyone knows that these statues were to be painted by Danno but Danno was not aware that he was going to be so busy when he committed to the project. In addition, we later found out that the bases had a flaw but Aspen took care of it by producing them again. But, the new problem was the same again, when will Danno paint them. Everyone was patient but that only goes so far and it has gone beyond that.

Now, wanting this to end, I spoke to Danno and let him know that the only solution was that he had to get them painted and painted quickly. He had committed to something that patient buyers purchased because of his talent. He then asked for help painting. He just couldn't do it alone. Not losing the integrity of his work, he felt that if the base coats were done by an excellent painter, it would take a load off of him and he could do the rest. So now Danno has professional paint help and Frank is going to send the new bases to the painter who will then send his finished work to Danno. This is what Danno asked so he could finish the statues and he has now been given what he needed.

I have spoken to everyone involved and it seems there are no excuses or reasons for these pieces to not be finished in a reasonable amount of time. Drew has helped along the way just to be kind, not because of any other reason. He had no involvement besides just trying to help. For that, we are all grateful.

Now, specific time lines of what is going on will be given as it is received.

I will be sending Aspen a shipping address this coming week so they can send the bases. As the new bases are prepped for Danno, I will post it so all will be aware of when it is happening. Once Danno paints each piece, I will also post it.

Well, statues, bases and replacement bases were shipped where they were meant to. As of yesterday the status was

As it stands now, all three of the replacement bases were completed and shipped out (though RRPilots arrived broken).

Danno has two complete pieces on hand to finish up with two more in transit to him. We're hoping he'll get these completed at a rate of about one every two to three weeks.

So that means no more have yet been fully completed since January 2009…

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