Action Figure Woes: Fans defending mediocrity.

I hate it when so-called fans defend mediocrity out of fear of the company "taking away their toylines". I've complained about Mattel quarter assing stuff and expecting unending praise for delivering sub-par product.
I've done the same with Super7... had this blog been around when SOTA did Srreet Fighter, I would've complained about the QC when my brand new Chun Li's arm refused to stay attached at the shoulder, or how my First Sakura broke at the leg and ended up becoming Hannah Montana... don't  ask. Hell, even McFarlane would've gotten some flak with the abysmal QC that his MGS2 Figures had.

And, while I've been somewhat lucky with the NECA figures I've reviewed here,  I've mentioned the warnings on how to operate a NECA figure.

To this day there are people blaming the customers for "mishandling" their NECA figures due to breakage...
That is a big pile of bullshit.

Let's be brutally honest here: NECA's toys look AMAZING!!!
They nail the likenesses of the actors 95% of the time... (not too convinced on Carl looking like Schwarzenegger)
The problem lies on their QC. Seems like the plastic they use mainly for their joints is a tad too brittle and it's prone to breaking. Add some thick layers of paint that basically seal the joint shot and you have a recipe for disaster.
Paint sealed joints + Brittle plastic... you need to "treat" the figures begore pulling them out of the package.

There are people who believe that having brittle plastic in the joints or joints that get sealed up by paint not not be factory defects due to bad quality control. They believe the customers are stupid for not doing the rituals to open a NECA toy. Passing the joints through near boiling water, heating up the joints, cutting "paint seals" with an x-acto blade, offering virgin sacrifices, the usual... and that it's OK to Do so... No, it's not OK.

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WARM UP JOINTS, BREAK GLUE/PAINT SEALS, REGLUE BROKEN OR UNGLUED PIECES ON A BRAND NEW ACTION FIGURE. ANY COMPANY THAT REQUIRES YOU TO DO ANY OF THESE "RITUALS" CONSISTENTLY HAS BAD QC... PERIOD!

To put it in more understandable terms: If you buy a new Shirt, you should be able to put it on right after you bought it... right? If NECA was a Shirt company, you'd have to have needle, thread, buttons ready to reinforce ecery seam on the shirt. Reinforce and reattach buttons. Last but not least patch any holes the shirt may have before using said shirt you JUST BOUGHT AT THE STORE. If I had to do that to a brand new shirt that I just got at the store,  I'd say that the Quality Control is shit... same principle  applies to every item that is supposed to be ready to use straight out of the package. In this case action figures.

If NECA finds a way to fix their quality control issues 12 point where they are a random occurrence and not a constant they'd beat every other collectible company in the West. They'd be better than diamond select, DC collectibles, McFarlane Toys, and other comoanies that make mid-range collectivles with heavy details in the sculot and near super articulation... othwrwise, they'll become the next SOTA...