Sideshow Collectibles will be the official U.S. distributor of all collectibles by Pop Culture Shock , and fans can purchase all upcoming and existing collectibles now. Going forward, Sideshow will be the only option for U.S. distribution, and during San Diego Comic-Con, Sideshow will have the first of their exclusives up for pre-order.
Exciting Announcement from CEO Anthony Adams and EVP Mark Martin:
First of all, we would like to thank all of our great fans and customers! Everything we do, we do for the passion of our fans and for the love of the hobby as we are collectors as well. Without you, none of this is possible and we appreciate your unwavering support.
We have made a lot of changes over the last nine months. We have changed our production process as well as moved to new factories. This has allowed us to catch up on delayed statues as well as increase our product quality as evident by the recent releases of Ryu 1:3, Conan 1:3 and Zangief Ultra, just to name a few. We moved the company to Charlotte, NC and launched our very successful Facebook Group for our fans to gather and discuss PCS collectibles as a community. Also, we completely redesigned our website. Now, all this is great, but we have also had a few challenges.
At the end of 2016, we successfully completed production on 10 statues and they all shipped to our warehouse in the US in December 2017/January 2018. Our intent was to schedule one statue per week, so we would have the capacity to unload the containers. A great plan but U.S. customs had other plans. Almost all the containers were held for inspection. Some were held for a couple of weeks, some well over a month. This caused us to have multiple containers arriving to our warehouse every day for two weeks. The whole team participated in unloading the containers, which caused delays in shipping and customer service.
Around the end of March, due to circumstances outside of our control, we lost a customer service representative. Although we were able hire another representative in mid-April, it takes time for a new hire to learn about or product and customers. This Company was built on delivering 1-2 statues per month, not 10 statues. This combination caused us to get extremely behind on customer service. We deeply regret this current inconvenience to our customers, as it is not in line with our own expectations for our company.
So, what have we learned? We are great at making awesome statues and collectibles. Alternatively, we have struggled with customer service and shipping. What do you do when you are great at art, want to focus on the art, yet still make sure our amazing fans have a great overall experience including customer service and shipping? In our case, the answer was to partner with those who have mastered the process and have excelled at it for years.
At this time, we are pleased to announce that PCS Collectibles has come to an agreement with Sideshow. Sideshow is the industry leader in direct to customer sales, distribution, customer support, and shipping, just to name a few. Not only has Sideshow been a leader in our industry, they have been a great partner to PCS – taking a personal interest in our success. Starting in July, Sideshow will become the online and global distributor of PCS collectibles on their website Sideshow.com.
So what does this mean for you?
Well, to start, future pre-orders and remaining in-stock items are now available directly on Sideshow’s website. PCS will be shutting down the ability to order from our current website shortly. The first items you will see launched exclusively at Sideshow will be the WWE Ultimate Warrior, Ryu Ultra and FINALLY 1:6 scale Street Fighter figures to name a few. You will be able to RSVP for those items during SDCC at Sideshow.com.
Sideshow will need some time to prepare their customer support team for this transition. Immediately following Comic-Con Sideshow will handle all customer service requests and shipping of PCS products. Prior to that time, you can still contact us directly.
Once this process is complete, information on your open orders will be made available through Sideshow.com. Amongst the many advantages of shopping with Sideshow, you will finally be able to see all of your pre-orders online as well as use and earn reward points on PCS items!
You will be able to call, email and chat with Sideshow for questions concerning your existing and new orders. Sideshow’s 20+ Customer Support staff are available every weekday from 6am to 6pm PST – yes, that is 12 hours a day!
I know this might be a lot to process, but we feel this is the best way to give our fans the greatest experience possible. You don’t buy just the collectibles, you also buy the experience. The experience extends from the rush you get when preordering that special piece, to talking to customer support, to the joy of opening the long-awaited item when it arrives with that new statue smell. You will still get the same great quality and products from PCS while getting the great customer experience from Sideshow.
This will also allow PCS to go back to what we do best, focusing on making cool collectibles!
More details to come as we approach the July transition.
Your Fellow Collectors,
Anthony and Mark