Yes. There is no way on earth they woke up one morning and thought, "Gee, we're in deep financial strife, let's stop taking orders immediately and close up shop later today..." So, as you say, there would have been a period of time - maybe even a sizeable period of time - where they were taking pre-orders, knowing the business was tanking and that they'd never fulfill those orders in a million years. Which is an extremely scummy thing to do. There are individuals who are out for literally thousands of pounds. I noted a BCS group on Facebook where fans tried to express their anger at this, but the owner of the page was clearly a BCS fanatic - and a bit of a control freak to boot - so would shut down conversation on the topic, which I found amazing. Someone who wanted to side with BCS, and all that it's done to the fans, rather than calling this for what it is - namely, a pretty piss poor situation to have created.

The prices were always pretty high because of the niche nature of the product. Like the William Hartnell example I used in the video... they made 500 of those (although I seem to recall them flogging another 200 in a different coloured box later on but let's park that dodgy, "We've sold out... oh, no we haven't!" practice), so they weren't making the kind of volume that a Hot Toys would do; those figures are generally made in the low thousands. And with that increased production comes economies of scale that Big Chief just weren't able to employ. Cancel Reply

Lol exactly my experience too. That and rude replies when I complained. They will not be missed. And no one is getting their money back I’m afraid.

I have a few figures 8 9 10 11 12 13 Clara rose and war doctor and 4 and third

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But a spotlight needed to be shone on how shoddy this whole operation was. Just a joke.

Yes, that is what I mean in the video by contacting your card supplier - nine times out of ten it will be someone's bank. They're one and the same :)

Yes, some great licenses like Bond and Doctor Who, however, some bizarre licenses, too. Like 'Only Fools and Horses' and 'Dads Army'. Warmly remembered by people "of a certain age", but not begging for licensed merchandise. Even Peaky Blinders was a pretty niche license to chase, in a lot of ways. So between some of the bizarre license choices (all of which would cost money), and the factory delays, it feels like they kept soliciting new items to keep money rolling in, but it was all going to fall in a heap eventually. And it did.

Sorry to hear your situation. It's sadly a common one with this company, that was clearly ran incredibly badly. I think any leftover figures would have gone into a pile, so Begbies Traynor could see what could then be sold to make some money and thus legally couldn't be given to customers, no matter how loyal and how much money was owed to them. Of course, if a savvy business knew it was going to be wound up, it could have sold any amount of stock BEFORE calling the receivers in, and made some money for themselves. We have no way of knowing if that was, or wasn't, the case. But certainly if we start seeing Big Chief product in numbers at any shops it would be worth asking when and how they got it. But honestly, I think the whole thing was so appallingly ran, that a great deal of stuff simply wasn't made, so didn't exist in any way, shape or form to be sold to anyone. These guys were hopeless.

I know several people who were waiting and waiting and waiting for Delgado to come through and, nothing. Somehow the company has managed to burn through over a million pounds in cash and figures announced years and years ago still don't exist in any material way. No wonder former fans of this business are %$^!ing ropeable about it.

@@theDWshow Thank you. And the one in the photos looked just incredible, if you ask me. Alas. Sorry you never received what you ordered. I remember you mentioned Colin Baker in the video.

@@calvinfranklyn5499 yes indeed. And you know, I could have made a video just raging about the situation and asking the (rhetorical) question, "WHERE HAS THE MONEY GONE?!" but although I - and so many others - feel that way, I think it was better to just stick to reporting the figures and letting the people out there know the score.

@@theDWshow yeah I think you went the right route, for sure. It was informative and saved me the trouble of trying to understand aspects of the jargon in that letter we all seemed to receive. I was grateful for the video. 🪐🛸🕰️

Yes, they expanded out into so many ranges, which can’t have been cheap to do. And would have added to the cost of doing business.

@theDWshow Yes and it must have been expensive when they were making so few units of each item

You're welcome :) It's just extraordinary that BCS has burned through over a million pounds - almost 900,000 with consumers alone - and there's very little to show for it. I paid for that 6th Doctor almost three years ago, myself. All these years on, it appears they didn't even get a batch of heads made, or his coat tailored, or basically anything at all, let alone something approaching a finished product. Yet the money is gone. Ditto for the Delgado Master figure, and so many others. A mind-boggling amount of money gone... for nothing.

Thanks mate. And while I'm in the hole for a little bit of money, which is annoying and I'm as furious at the Big Chief clown show as anyone, it's nothing compared to some, who have lost thousands. What a horrible situation it is.

Sorry to hear that, man. No one deserves to have lost money to this company. I see a lot of pissed off people out there. And with good reason.

You're very lucky on two levels - one, that you got a refund at all and two, it was only a tiny amount of money anyway. Some people are out for thousands.

Yep, they were clearly stringing people along and giving themselves a wage, based on things they couldn’t deliver.

I understand the point you're making, but until Super 7 goes out of business, owing over a million, I think Big Chief still have their hands on the clown shoes and keys to the clown car. An incredibly hopeless bunch.

@theDWshow They do bear similar traits from taking a long time to get their figures out to QC issues with the figures. With Transformers and G.I Joe, they're particularly laughable since Hasbro would render their versions redundant including making a voyager Tarn for half the prize.

Yes, indeed. An example of them actually getting something done. The flip side of the coin being, however, that they started selling them at a massive discount almost immediately, so anyone loyal who pre-ordered and waited all those years, overpaid by quite a lot. Just another example of Big Chief pissing off its fans, even when it made something. A total clown show of a company.

Yes, how long did Ming take?! Was laughable. Then to add insult to injury you could buy them £50 cheaper from Sideshow!!! A British company’s figures you can buy cheaper from a third party American company! Jokers. Won’t miss them and their crap headsculpts.

@@adamstar7516and people wonder how they went out of business...