Wishes to Art of War - (Request for statues, what scenes, who to make, etc.)

Hi Again to everyone in this wonderful community board by skullknight.net (Kudos to the maker and everybody who maintain this site)!

My name is Eric and I am currently in-charge of marketing and ebay sales from now on and propagating the news we have here.

Firstly, for sure some of the members here really want to request or voice out anything with regards to product development to us Art of War, but the unavailability of staff to hear our your opinions until have been probably one of the problems since AOW basically lacked people who can attend to foreign inquiries and suggestions. Technically, we lack people who can manage the website in English and improve on the graphical interface but I am now trying to offer more possibilities to enjoy the labor of love products we produce by trying to retake better product image photos for the viewing pleasure of the open public and fans of Berserk and thinking of our other better ways to be closer to the heart of the loyal fans we have.

I have joined them this year and am trying to get out the real voice and aspirations of our fans thru this forum. So please be frank and do not mind to tell us anything here. I will try my best to get the message across to Boss accordingly. If you have character requests for statues, please try to put your wishes here by either, posting a picture of the pose or scene you want us to materialize or even the page and volume number in the Dark horse comics series (for our reference) and we will take it into consideration. As you know, the stages of product development in perfecting the molds of the statues really takes sometime for us to complete, ranging from 6 months to 1 year, thus quite expensive as it is and very long patience indeed is needed.

This year, we are trying to boost the speed without degrading the quality so if you have anything you would like to request, we will consider them all based in popularity. You can include your description on how you would like them to look, like scale size, color, other special effects and also suggested price level as well.

Also on top of everything, this year will be a quite a new start for AOW in a sense, because we will be also officially making statues and products of HOKUTO NO KEN or Fist of the North Star Manga series as well, starting with the release of the 1/1 scale real replica size of the Kabuto Helmet worn by Ken in the comic series. This is momentarily keeping us busy aside from the production of the Grifitth and development of other products underway this mid-year. ;)

Please keep us on your watchlists and also share your opinions using this forum/thread.

We all wait to hear from you as we open this thread officially (thanks so much for Sknight and the web administrators of this wonderful site)..

Ok until then,

c/o Eric :)
 
Hey again,

I would love to see a few more full size action figures for some closure to my collection. Maybe the rest of the members to Guts' rag tag band. Maybe a Farnese or maybe her servant aka the warrior of wind.

Or maybe some reissues of some older ones. How about a non-exclusive or not limited to 100 or less Zodd apostle form, or some diorama figures. I would love to see Guts as the 100 man slayer ducked under the tree with bodies every where. Or a regular non Kuri Puck figure. Maybe even some more Hawks.

I'm sure everyone here might agree,we need more apostles, how about the snake guy, or the moth girl. Too many to list. Trust me there is a market in action figures too. Alot of people love to pose them in their own battle scenes. Thanks for throwing up this suggestion thread at least we know you guys are listening.Keep up the great work!
Respectfully, Destroyer
 
Hey Eric,

I really love everything art of war produces so I don't really have any suggestions other than to surprise me with more great high quality work! I am looking forward to the 1/10 scale Skullknight on horse (I believe I read that on the Zodd Senma description on art of war's site)... so I guess I would suggest making more 1/10 scale ones in addition to the skullknight one.

I was also wondering is it at all possible to find lower shipping/handling prices? Maybe look for other carriers that might be a bit less than what you guys currently use? I absolutely love the products of art of war as I mentioned, but man when the shipping cost 25% of what the item cost it really gets expensive and makes me think of not purchasing it. I purchased 3 items recently from art of war and the shipping price was 22,500 yen (215 dollars)... Ouch. Thankfully money is a renewable resource, but still 200 dollars for shipping... I could have got another art of war product for that price if I was forunate enough to live in Japan.

I don't want to keep sounding negative, but another suggestion I have is to improve Art of War's site and the method of accepting purchases. It felt like I was buying something from just a regular guy off his amateur site (if you're unfamiliar with it, you have to fill out the first "proposal to buy" form, wait a day or so for them to email you back, and then from there you can click a URL to purchase it via credit card). Oh and the form to purchase view credit card ONLY in japanese, ouch! It's hard to blindly give a credit card number to a form you can't actually read... I kept hoping I was hitting the yes/ok/submit button instead of the cancel one. So my suggestions would be to stream line the order process (maybe not have to wait for that email, just have users directly pay), and also to definitely have a English credit card form!
 

Dennis1981

Berserk Rulezzzzz
Hi Eric,

I would really like to see a statue from when Guts cuts and rips his own arm off in order to keep saving Casca. (As shown in Volume 13.)
Would be one hell of a statue.

Already thank you for your time and interest in our requests.

The Guardian.
 
Hi Eric, glad to see an Art of War representative here ! Welcome.
You sure have found the right place, full of extreme fans ;)

The initiative is really appreciated. Art of War need the voice of fans like us to perfect their productions.

1/ I think that the first thing we all deplore concerning the statues is the accuracy and the fidelity (to the original design) of the human faces.
The faces of Guts and Griffith statues are sometimes really far from the design drawn by Miura in the manga.
It's the most popular complaint we are used to stress in this forum.
I think that plastic artists have to be REALLY carefull concerning the face sculpture.
A face is the first caracteristic of a character. Please, respect the resemblance.

2/ The second regular complaint is the fact that you are always making the same characters.
I mean, Guts, Griffith, Zodd... ok, there are strong and beautiful characters but we need other characters
Locus, Serpico, Schierke, Farnese, Casca, apostles etc...

Otherwise, I am REALLY satisfied by most of Art of War statues (unfortunately, some of them are rather missed)

Concerning my wishes, I will formulate the regular wishes we (fans) have here in France :

-Keep the 1/10 scaled statues (1/15 is way too small, and 1/6 way too expansive)
-A Locus statue Horse Riding 1/10 is our cherished dream !
-Diorama with multiples characters are REALLY appreciated (the WONDERFULL diorama Guts&Slann is really popular and loved here)
-We all want a Shierke and Serpico statues. It begins to become a priority for Art of War.
-Concerning the prices, I think that Art of War become really excessive.
A 1/6 statue for 75000 yens... even if it is your best painters who paint it, we have never seen that (personnally, I am shocked and disappointed). Berserk is aimed for the young adults, we are NOT all 40 years old rich salarymen. Please, revise your tag prices.

locus110nm0.jpg

A 1/10 scaled Locus on Horse will be AWESOME !!!

I will post my personnal wishes (the scenes I wish to see on statues) later.
 
Thank you for you the honest opinion and all, yes, I agree with all of you guys about the shipping costs, I know that it could get really expensive somehow. Upon consideration of past experiences and cases, we have found out that in the cases of accidents we have experienced on top of our professional packagers efforts, majority of the limited items that have been damaged by SAL and SEA (due to the rough handling of them and very very long trip before it gets to you) were very heartbreaking. We found out that the items were damaged due to exposure to vibration (long-standing) which could have probably have occured during the SEA shipment process or probably the time stress the item is being carried and processed. The boxes were perfectly ok but the items inside were reported to have been broken so that only reason could have been the stress due to time in transit and boss said that in order to protect the complex statues and shorten the time, we might have to sacrifice the better service of offering SEA and SAL.

Mind you guys, the process for the insurance claims on SEA and SAL is nearly another suicide in terms of bureacracy and paperwork, as compared to EMS, which we are confident to be 99.9% safe based on experience, with tracking and better service if accidents arise, the papers move faster than those concerns made by SEA or SAL. Thus, the drastic change of policy to offer only EMS for now. (Personally, if for some clients who really are concerned about paying taxes, we are mostly confident that by sending items very safely via EMS, it is all right to take a risk about the lower declaration of value as is requested) -- we do not recommend it though for insurance value compensation concerns in case of anything happens though, so please weigh the risks first prior to requesting such things as well.

Our only want is that our labor of love will arrive safely to your places which can be left for many generations and still be appreciated by many other people. This is the best service we could offer your our loyal fans, supporters and patrons that you can be proud of your collections. If by offering a half-punch service the items will just be destroyed, then truly it is a heartbreaker, not only for you, our fans, but for us since each item is serialed and produced in limited numbers and if one is broken then, there will be fewer to exist then.

So we just have to admit that we beg for your kind understanding about it, who knows, in a couple of years, sending by EMS will be very cheaply or other alternative methods such as UPS and Fedex will be cheaper as well and will not result clients to pay hilarious taxes just because of varying customs laws and regulations per country (especially in Europe).

Please take note that yes, we are doing something about the ordering process in the home website as well about the English credit card thing....

Thank you again for everything and until then...^.^Vv++
 
Hi Eric


My main complain would be about the way AOW is doint since last year. Too many different scales. The statues are really too pricey. For instance, the SK2 costs me about $800.

And above all, I can't understand that AOW uses old projects to make new ones like it is with the pvc statue Guts Birth of the ... Or like it was with the 1/15 guts and Griffith horse riding. I think you should also communicate about the repainting projects because it is somehow really frustating to buy a very limited and expensive collectible like the SK2 or Zodd Senma and see that a new version will be made.... I am really disappointed on this. AOW statues are awesome ! the paint job, sculpt, well you are at the top compared to many companies you can believe me, I am a collector of many movies, comics and I think you have the best products out there. But these statues are limited items, once it is sold out, I would think it is over, and I am waiting for other NEW projects. You can't play with this for any reason.

For AOW future, I hope we will see new characters because most of us become bored of Griffith, Zodd or Guts. I have a lot of your items : statues 1/15, 1/10 on horse or not, music box, busts, action figures ... I think you should focus on new characters, make simple statues with nice poses and keep 1/10 scale. Dioramas would be really great but well I don't want to imagine the price for such pieces ...


I am a fan of what AOW did for many years. Just don't take bad decisions for what is coming.

Thank you for your time and your interest :serpico:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I will have to echo the sentiments expressed here so far. I would wish for AOW to lower its prices significantly and to focus on making new and original characters. If you are afraid that they might not sell well, make them in low numbers at first (and you can always make more later on, like you did with the beherits), but I truly believe that you are losing a lot of opportunities by only catering to the same characters. People tire of collecting different poses of the same guy, they want new faces. :guts:

Art of War Japan said:
We all wait to hear from you as we open this thread officially (thanks so much for Sknight and the web administrators of this wonderful site)..

You're welcome, it's a pleasure to have you here. :serpico:

The Great Destroyer said:
Maybe a Farnese or maybe her servant aka the warrior of wind.

He's called Serpico.

The Great Destroyer said:
Or a regular non Kuri Puck figure.

I have to second this idea. Aside from the busts sculpted by Kentarou Miura himself, there has never been a statue of Puck in his normal state. It'd be nice to have one.

Fusiongt said:
I am looking forward to the 1/10 scale Skullknight on horse (I believe I read that on the Zodd Senma description on art of war's site)... so I guess I would suggest making more 1/10 scale ones in addition to the skullknight one.

It's been sold out for months man.

Fusiongt said:
I was also wondering is it at all possible to find lower shipping/handling prices? Maybe look for other carriers that might be a bit less than what you guys currently use? I absolutely love the products of art of war as I mentioned, but man when the shipping cost 25% of what the item cost it really gets expensive and makes me think of not purchasing it. I purchased 3 items recently from art of war and the shipping price was 22,500 yen (215 dollars)... Ouch. Thankfully money is a renewable resource, but still 200 dollars for shipping... I could have got another art of war product for that price if I was forunate enough to live in Japan.

Honestly there's no real alternative. EMS is actually rather cheap compared to the other high quality services available (and you pay no custom taxes most of the time, while with UPS, DHL, Fedex and other such services you'll pay each and every time), and SAL means taking the risk to break your items. Not to mention that when reaching heavier weights, SAL loses a lot of its attractiveness. What we pay is simply the price of distance, as Japan and the US/Europe are at opposite sides of the world.
 
Hi Eric !

I appreciate you come to us, to ask for our wishes :)

But I think it will be too difficult to concentrate the desires of everyone, maybe Skullknight.net administrators could launch some VOTE? The number of votes could help you knowing if a project is possible. ^^ like Locus Horse Riding 1/10e, I vote 'yes' ^^ I want it ^^

My opinion about what other people said:
- 1/10 is a correct scale, I prefer it :serpico:
- We understand the new griffith statue is 1/6 but the price is HUGE :isidro:
- I think high shipping costs are normal for such a heavy statue (SK2 on horse), unfortunalety it is the standard price. :(
 
The Great Destroyer said:
Or maybe some reissues of some older ones. How about a non-exclusive or not limited to 100 or less Zodd apostle form,

Please no :p I already have 3 Zodd Apostles. Also guys shipping is expensive but I don't know how you expect Art of War to fix it. I appreciate how well everything is packaged for the long journey to the states.

I'd like to see characters that haven't been released. Pippin, Corkus, Serpico, Irvine, Farnese and Locus in 1/10 scale. The piece I'd want most right now is a 1/10 Irvine seated and playing his Lute. :beast:
 
@Kenji-kun and Drakull: 1/6 scale is expensive yes. but please dont stop producing the items in 1/6 scale :)
They look simply amazing! For me its also lots of money and i have to to abdicate on some other things for it too. But still i think its damn worth it :ganishka:

But you are right, 1/15 and smaller ones suck :(
I pay a few more to get a 1/10 or 1/6 amazing big statue

@ shipping problem: Dear Eric, yesterday my packet arrived!!! and with EMS the customs at my border cannot charge me any fees!!! PERFEKT!!! :guts:
Yes EMS is expensive, but I had sooo many problems with both late shipping and damaged items, and not to forget the high fees I have to pay at the broder... with EMS I get the packet very fast and don't have to pay a cent extra. :)

Items look great, I LOVE THE Guts: Kingdom of Falconia but again dear Eric, the Guts: Kingdom of Falconia in 1/10 or even 1/6 :) would be simply breathtaking, and i am sure many people would be willing to pay more...

@regarding Faces of the statues: Kenji-kun wrote it and I totally agree!
That's very important, because it's somehow the heart of a figure, that's the thing most people look at the first place... and please tell that to your team!
 
Yes, thank you for all those who posted their comments, I am examining what can done and improved. I can say that it is really expensive to develop new products while estimating the numbers that will sell soon so that we can concentrate on new products. Up until now, it has been around 200-350 items per statue and due to the time it takes to sell everything out, chances are products will be on a 50 pcs and at most 100 from now on, so that we could easily hop on different projects and variety. The way I see it, items will be very few this way and fewer means a higher price to keep on this style.

We will try to listen and take into consideration your voice from fans and please just feel free to suggest anything and if you have particular request, that would be very great as a help in thinking about servicing you guys with superb products.

sincerely,
AOW
 
Hello AOW!

We've actually discussed a similar topic about statue/diorama wishes in the past. Here is the link to the forum thread.


To sum up, here are some of the characters that we are dying to see in statue form (1/10 scale):
Spirit of the Berserker Armor (dog)
Serpico
Schierke
Erica
Sonia
Roshinu
Mozgus
Mozgus Disciples
Azan
Irvine
Locus (transformed)
Grunbeld (transformed)


Here are suggestions for Dioramas:
- Serpico vs the Kelpie: The scene where Serpico fights the water creature Kelpie in front of the church in the pouring rain.
- Schierke and Sonia: The scene where they are sitting together on the docks with all the birds surrounding them. Beautiful!!!
- The Reuniting Of Guts and Casca, Mozgus-saga: The scene where Guts finally meets Casca again and holds her close to his body on top of the castle ruins...
- The Hundred Man Fight: The scene where Guts slays 100 men when he was a Hawk Soldier. I think a cool diorama will be him resting against the tree holding his sword, with dead bodies all around him...
- Ganishka sitting on his throne on top of a pile of skulls in Wyndham, from volume 27.
- The Skull Knight fighting against Zodd. Any of their fights would do.
- Irvine playing his instrument in the forest, by his campfire, while Sonia listens. In volume 29.
- Carcus in the arms of the female demon.
- Rakshas gracefully evading the punches of the Tapasa.
- Cute faced apostle Roshinu and Jill in some kind of sweet pose, maybe hugging.
- Young Guts stabbing Gambino.
- Guts vs. Griff in the snow.
- Zodd vs. SK outside the eclipse.
- Guts and Casca during the sacrifice.
- Schierke riding the back of Guts/Berserker.


Here are some pictures to model from:
griffithcasca_hug.jpg


guts100tree.jpg


gutscasca_eclipse.jpg


gutscasca_hug.jpg


gutscasca_rope.jpg


gutscasca_tree.jpg


irvine.jpg


schierke_berserker.jpg


schierke_dock.jpg


serpico.jpg


These are just a few of the statues that we would absolutely LOVE to have. :guts: Thanks so much for looking through!
 
Hi DirectorDK-san,

Wow! That was a fantastic example! I hope the others can use the same style when suggesting new ideas for new statues/scenes to be made, that will make it easier for us to refer to when planning for the upcoming projects. The suggestions are clear because we can easily refer to those scenes in the manga and if the other would like to suggest, we hope you can append such particular scenes like that and maybe we can poll sometime then which to make.... have a great day and thanks a lot for the help and support.

Eric ^.^
 
Maiku said:
Please no :p I already have 3 Zodd Apostles. Also guys shipping is expensive but I don't know how you expect Art of War to fix it. I appreciate how well everything is packaged for the long journey to the states.

I'd like to see characters that haven't been released. Pippin, Corkus, Serpico, Irvine, Farnese and Locus in 1/10 scale. The piece I'd want most right now is a 1/10 Irvine seated and playing his Lute. :beast:
I was talking action figures.You have 3? Sell me one?
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Hello Eric and welcome to SK.net! Thank you for valuing our opinions and asking for our feedback. All I want is a 1/10 scale Rakshas statue!
 
Great propositions from DirectDK.
I would support :

- Serpico vs the Kelpie: The scene where Serpico fights the water creature Kelpie in front of the church in the pouring rain.
- The Reuniting Of Guts and Casca, Mozgus-saga: The scene where Guts finally meets Casca again and holds her close to his body on top of the castle ruins...
- The Skull Knight fighting against Zodd. Any of their fights would do.
- Irvine playing his instrument in the forest, by his campfire, while Sonia listens. In volume 29.
- Young Guts stabbing Gambino.
- Guts vs. Griff in the snow.
- Guts and Casca during the sacrifice.
- Schierke riding the back of Guts/Berserker.


--->In addition of a 1/10 scaled Locus on Horse, here is what I think would make killer statues ^^ :

diorama04on3.jpg

If it concerns the 100 men fight, I would like to see Guts&Casca like that. A great improvment in their relationship.

diorama02yg6.jpg

A classic, engraved in all fans' hearts

diorama05kw7.jpg

Farnese haunted

diorama01ie8.jpg

This scene has an heavy meaning (in addition to its visual beauty), we can almost feel compassion for Mozgus' Apostles.

diorama03ks2.jpg

I think Art of War is really good to sculpt muscles. Like in the diorama Guts&Slann, I want to see another Guts "naked torso". Here, it is the first time Guts can relax thanks to the seal oh Schierke.



--->If Art of War wants other great ideas for Guts statues, here are the poses I would higly advice :

gutspose01kb5.jpg

Maken armor :carcus: ... What else :George Cloney:

Guts-Isidro.jpg

Beautiful pose, Guts at his best !



If Art of War wants some poetic touch, here are my feelings :

gutssleep02td0.jpg

Guts is not only a Demon Slayer blinded by his anger.

gutssleep01sx8.jpg

Guts, having a rest... really rare, and very cute. A unique view.
 
I agree with DirectDK and Kenji choices

Here are my preferences, the statues I will buy for sure ^^ :

First is Horse Riding Moving state at 1/10, locus can be a nice idea
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2867/locus110nm0.jpg

My 5 prefered dioramas from top propositions :
1 - http://www.berserkstatues.com/skdotnet/aowrequests/guts100tree.jpg - Guts in Blood with 2 or 3 dead bodys on the ground, should be awesome!
2 - http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3425/diorama04on3.jpg - I luv' Guts with his helmet !!
3 - http://www.berserkstatues.com/skdotnet/aowrequests/serpico.jpg
3 - http://www.berserkstatues.com/skdotnet/aowrequests/griffithcasca_hug.jpg - Statues in the snow are beautiful :)
4 - http://www.berserkstatues.com/skdotnet/aowrequests/gutscasca_hug.jpg
5 - http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2075/diorama05kw7.jpg - Can be a sexy figure ! And because i want a 1/10e Farnese !:)
6 - http://www.berserkstatues.com/skdotnet/aowrequests/schierke_dock.jpg - I like that scene ! but I don't know how you can "make" the birds Oo
7 - http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4073/diorama02yg6.jpg

Now If I have to give a personnal choice...I'm definitively crazy with Guts 1/10 Horse Riding, maybe you could make Guts and Farnese at 1/10 ? :) hehe I know it is a dream^^
 
First off I would like to say thank you AOW for releasing so many awesome Berserk statues. While I understand that some design choices are results of limitations due to either price point or feasibility, I would still like to let you know some of the things I dislike about the more recent works, as well as reiterate a few of the previously stated opinions.

Smaller than 1/10 scale is very unappealing to me, especially considering that after all the fees and shipping (which will be similar if not equal to what i pay for a 1/10 scale AOW statues) I end up paying around 300 dollars for a tiny statue.

Buying more non-diorama statues of Gatts and Griffith is also very unappealing-I have 3 full glass display cases of mostly them. I would consider purchasing dioramas, but again I do not like smaller that 1/10 at all. Supporting characters and apostles others mentioned are great ideas for new statues.

Mounted statues are only appealing in 1/10 or larger- SK mounted II is AMAZING compared to my Sk mounted I

Faces have been inconsistent and not the most accurate.

I know ALOT of the people here would LOVE to be able to pay in American Credit Cards (AMEX, MC, etc) or paypal instead of having to use bank transfers.

I also feel that the packaging for the statues has gone down to a degree compared to the old boxes- e.g.-no more metal corners, sturdiness of the cardboard.

Here's one of my personal favorites for a diorama
sp.jpg
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
EnderZero said:
I know ALOT of the people here would LOVE to be able to pay in American Credit Cards (AMEX, MC, etc) or paypal instead of having to use bank transfers.

Paying with credit cards has been possible for quite a while already (thank god as it's by far the best method of online payment). My VISA card works perfectly on AOW's website.
 
Aazealh said:
Paying with credit cards has been possible for quite a while already (thank god as it's by far the best method of online payment). My VISA card works perfectly on AOW's website.
hmmm tried to use my AMEX awhile ago once they announced they accepted cc and it was all Japanese cards
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
EnderZero said:
hmmm tried to use my AMEX awhile ago once they announced they accepted cc and it was all Japanese cards

I can certify you that it isn't limited to Japanese cards. However, American Express is not as widely recognized as Master Card and VISA, so I recommend switching to one of those two. Here's an excerpt from AOW's website on the available payment methods:

info-4.gif
 
Hi Thank you for posting some helpful information about our website to those who experience difficulty in using the payment system. Since majority of the clients are Japanese as of now, the credit card mainly accepts major Japanese credit cards aside from Regular international ones such as VISA and MASTERCARD, unfortunately, AMEX is not catered by our gateway provider as of now, however, for some customers who insist on paying via Paypal (AMEX is usable we suppose), we usually agree that there will be an additional 7% on top of the amount as the transaction fee for using Paypal, as we widely know that it is quite expensive to use this as a transaction payment method.

For the manual on how to input your credit card numbers on our secure server, here is the English guidline prepared in order for you to successfully pay for your order thru the website. We guess, if you follow it step by step normally, it should be all right.

http://www.art-of-war.co.jp/english/cart/card_pay_manual.pdf

anyways, if you have further concerns, you can always contact us directly and our staff will try to answer your question as soon as we can. Thank you for all the clarifications posted here then.
 
hi Eric,

are you planning to bring out a few kits?
i think a small number of 20-50 kits should be sold quickly and guarantee you a profit ... would be nice for both fans and ArtofWar

looking forward to your answer :guts:
 
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