To be very clear here, the complaint with this run lies in Scaletta's communication, not the quality of his work or his ability to deliver a finished product.
After nearly a year and a half of waiting patiently, we made our final payments for the project in November 2018.
January 23rd of 2019, after being asked when shipping would start, he said "Next week."
On February 16th, when asked about it again, he said "My artist is painting parts and I'm putting lights in the hammers."
On March 2nd, five weeks after the "they're shipping next week" announcement, we'd still heard nothing about shipping and asked why. He said "the devil is in the details, there's nothing to worry about." Not really an answer to our question.
On March 11th, he finally posted tracking numbers... but not for all of us. Only about half of us had sets shipped, the rest would be shipped "later".
On March 24th, the tracking number I'd gotten FINALLY shows some movement (dropped off at the post office, etc), suggesting he'd earlier only printed labels, and just finally actually delivered packages for shipment.
On April 5th, I finally received my shipment... only to discover it was incomplete. I had the head and armor, but no clothing and hammer. That was when, for the first time, Scaletta let us know that the figure was actually being delivered in two shipments, and the rest of the parts would come later. When asked about the second shipment with the hammer, he again said "no worries" and said he only had to put batteries in the hammers and they were done.
On April 14th he gave more people tracking numbers for their half-set.
April 30th we asked about shipping, and were told hes on a business trip and will continue shipping when he gets back.
May 19th, with no word from him, I asked again about the rest of the figure. "No worries, it will be awesome" was the response. We then had a big discussion about the need to communication and transparency, and being realistic with his timelines so we stop getting these "next week!" estimates and blowing past them by months. We were all willing to wait as long as it took, we just wanted a clear idea of what to expect. Bear in mind at this point some people had still received no portion of their set.
June 27th, he tells us everything is finally done and he's packaging it all up.
July 9th, with no further word for two weeks, someone asks again about the shipment. Scaletta says they are packed and will be picked up "tomorrow." Again, we have a big discussion about a lack of communication is making things more frustrating than they need to be.
July 12th, we get tracking numbers for the remaining pieces of the set, and by July 16th it looks like everything is underway, including to people who as of yet had received nothing.
On the 24th, my package arrives, and I'm excited to finally assemble Ronan. I do so, the set looks great, it's pretty easy to figure out even with no instructions... and then I realize I have no hands. The original project post said it includes head and hands (since Ronan's hands are blue), but I don't have them. I ask, and nobody else seems to have them either. That's when Scaletta chimes in and says "Oh yeah, I told you a long time ago you had to mail me hands to be painted if you wanted them", even though nobody in the group recalls being told that. So after all that waiting, all that back and forth, people finally get their sets and, in order to complete them, now have to mail a set of hands to Ukraine, wait for them to be painted, and wait for them to be mailed back. Whereas if the communication had been better, they could have mailed their hands months ago and had them back by now. It's just one more delay in a train of delays.
I'm an artist, so I'm just going to paint my own hands. It's not the end of the world for me. But for some people in the group, this was a bit of a let down.
And I want to be clear, I'm not posting this information to warn anyone away from jumping on a Scaletta project; He has given me zero reason to doubt that he will A) Deliver the product he promises and B) that it will be a quality product. I'm posting this just so people can be aware of what they should expect, and go in with eyes wide open.
We all have to be patient people, it's the nature of this hobby. Waiting a couple of years for a figure is nothing new to us. I just feel like communication is important, and if you're clear with your communication, you can avoid a lot of stress and frustration from your customers down the road.
No more customs for me.
