Bad Cat Blog thinking about dropping JSI jets

[VMF115]

In a nut shell JSI is thinking about dropping JSI Jets, this is due to poor communication and quality control issues coming from the factory that JSI used..granted I can say they dropped the ball on this big time.

However I think since JSI is new to the game we should give them a chance to redeem themselves in this matter.

I look forward to seeing the the J-11 in 1/18th and I seriously doubt JSI will make an unpopular S-2 scheme for the F-14.

Lets give them a chance.


http://www.talesofthecat.com/

[MCalamari]

I support businesses doing what they think is best ...

That said, I agree with you. I'd like to see JSI continue to have a wide market. I had my JSI tanks out last weekend.

[JoeS]

I think its Bad Cat dropping JSI given the issues, and not JSI dropping the jet line...

[Black Lion VF-213]

I can confirm BadCat is dropping the JSI jets line altogether.

For the past three months Rob and I have been dealing with Merit regarding two special lighted edition spotcats I purchased from BCAT back in December. Both were severely broken when I received them. When I mean broken, I mean broken landing gears: front gears, completely crushed radars, broken gear doors, and the clincher – the back shell of the rear fuselage weren’t even attached all the way. With a little wriggling I could have removed the back shells and looked deep inside. I didn’t because I didn’t want to tamper with the evidence.

Rob tried everything he could including shipping them to Merit. They claimed they would fix them free of charge. Well the discouraging thing is that Merit didn’t actually fix them, they removed more parts from both of them to use in repairs for other planes’ claims, etc. They removed the rear landing gears and their associated doors, stole the radars and some of the pieces in the second foam shadow board (sidewinder rails and tailhooks).

They sent them back to Rob claiming that they could do nothing for them with an even more outrageous claim that I the buyer broke them intentionally. Rob was very upset (of course I was LIVID) but very patient with them trying to get the issue resolved on my behalf.

However he can attest and I can too that dealing with a Chinese company is very different than working with an American run company. Merit is an American tax ID’ed company but they are run exclusively by Chinese. The Chinese mentality is “once you pay for it, that’s it buddy, I’m not doing anything more for you. I gave you a good price, and I don’t care if the quality was crap, you should have known better not to buy it.”

I work for Boeing in supply chain management and we have Chinese suppliers and they have gotten better at dealing with us over several years. Also our suppliers are big timers; they’re dealing with Boeing, not model collectors. Big difference. That’s not to excuse Merit or JSI. In my opinion they suck royally.

Rob mentioned that I was not the only case he had to deal with against Merit like that. He told me he decided that there’s no way he’s buying their upcoming jets or even their next F-14 release. Which by the way is not the Iranian, it’s VF-111.

Rob was great to work with. He offered to comp me completely on the two fiasco lighted spotcats. I decided to do some things in trade instead and he’s just as content with that as well.

Since one of my good friends here at Boeing works in commercial licensing, should I give her a call and see if their department could hassle JSI or Merit regarding let’s say…..oh trademark issues over their F-15….just to push them around a little? Hah!! Just kidding.

[NightVyper]

Wow that really sucks, up till now i have only heard of minor issues. I think it sucks big time they screwed you and Badcat. i guess that is why badcat took the f14 off the site?

Curious what does Boeing have to do with a northrop grumman plane?

[dragon53]

deleted

[Black Lion VF-213]

I typed F-15 in my post. Boeing's jet.

[NightVyper]

It didn't register. I do think you might actually be on to something there. it would be no surprise if the factories are not getting proper licenses. They can be a lawless bunch with Knock offs every where. some companies have a kind of steven segal above the law mentality and i am sure that is worth looking into. tho they should wait to release them first.

[coreystinson]

Interesting stuff. I don't know that all Chinese vendors behave in this manner though. I have good luck dealing directly with BBI in the past, and also some other distributors that are Chinese owned or involved. However, Merit is and has always been on a plane of chicanery all their own. In years past they would go through sales reps at a rate of about one every two months. Hindsight suggests the likely reason why.

In my case, I last year asked Merit to file a freight claim for some damages in a shipment. I was told I would get a credit against a future invoice. Never got the credit, but found out later that they filed and pocketed the freight claim proceeds anyway because the trucking company came back on me trying to collect the damaged goods! That is not the first time I have had problems with Merit over minor issues like this that they could have easily corrected or worked with me on at little to no expense to themselves.

This sort of thing, combined with the F-14 issue, suggests that I have not much interest in working with them in the future either.

Rob tried everything he could including shipping them to Merit.

[aferguson]

with business practices like that, how can any chinese company expect to survive?

Certainly explains JSI and Merit thumbing their noses at everyone over the spotcat fiasco. It will be interesting to see how many buyers thumb their noses right back at future JSI and Merit offerings..

[coreystinson]

It will be interesting to see how many buyers thumb their noses right back at future JSI and Merit offerings..

I already dropped plans for about $5,000 in purchases from Merit two months ago simply due to their consistently poor treatment of retailers.

At this time I also have no plans to support further JSI / Merit offerings either.

[Mitch]

If even half of this is true (and I'm sure it is) than I will not be buying anymore of their products.
Seems to me that there are alot of Chinese companies that work in this fashion and I cannot support their games.

[tmanthegreat]

This is too bad for future JSI/Merit releases, but at the same time, it is also inevitable. While I have a good example of an F-14 that arrived in near perfect shape - and which has held up for the past several months without incident - all the other QC issues as have been described are simply uncalled for and not acceptable. I will hesitate to purchase any large JSI jet in the future because of the F-14 fiasco.

The fact that Merit and JSI were slow to provide any customer assistance is also uncalled for. The retailers and customers were left hanging and likely lost money on these large planes as they had no recourse to deal with defective models that were returned. Obviously, that is bad for business.

Hopefully the retailers will continue to carry some of the smaller JSI items to keep the 1:18 market from fully retracting. However, I totally understand retailers not wanting to take a risk on the larger aircraft and a repeat of the F-14.

[NightVyper]

it is not all chines companies/factories. one of my clients got i think like 10,00 board games with bad package printing, the red looked pink and they fixed the problem no question. But this same client had problems with 1 or 2 factories before they found this one. some of the problems are communication, technical issues and some are straight up bad business practices.

[usmcchet9296]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Merit Int.
I doubt JSI is directly involved with this
Merit on the otherhand has a long track record of being idiots

[Shin Densetsu]

If even half of this is true (and I'm sure it is) than I will not be buying anymore of their products.
Seems to me that there are alot of Chinese companies that work in this fashion and I cannot support their games.

I think it's true, Black Lion has a good reputation here, and what he said sounds legit. In another thread(don't remember where but it's here somewhere), it was said that the Tomcat mold was actually BBI's.

Had they come out with it, sure shipping would have been a bitch(considering the heavy plastic they used on their Hornet, which BTW, is incredibly durable), but I have a feeling we wouldn't be seeing as many broken cats and leopards out right now.

Also, surprised that VF-111, wait, okay not surprised because VF-111 is popular but that's another squadron scheme inaccurate for the mold.

[Sabrefan]

I don't blame Bad Cat at all. The F-14s were a mess from the onset, and who knows if JSI will learn from their mistakes.

[coreystinson]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Merit Int.
I doubt JSI is directly involved with this

I also had that suspicion. It is probably time for some retailers to contact JSI directly and explain the reality of the situation should they wish to continue marketing product in the U.S.

I for one would be happy to sign a joint letter with other retailers.

[coreystinson]

Had they come out with it, sure shipping would have been a bitch(considering the heavy plastic they used on their Hornet, which BTW, is incredibly durable)

Not really. For items of this size, you are usually paying based on volume as opposed to actual weight anyway. A heavier plastic might have increased somewhat the cost of the item, but shipping would not have been impacted much.

[Black_Dragon_One]

in defense of mert they sent me the extra landing gear that they promise it took some time to ship it from china but i finally got it..

i live in cali so it a little easier to just call them

[tko211]

I personally have opened and handled close to 30 Tomcats since the release and I have observed the following:

1. The Special Editions seemed to have the most problems in terms of unusual amount and types of broken parts

2. I have had 4 Tomcats ship with glued front landing gear (would not move to save your life)

3. only 7 of the 28-30 Tomcats shipped had the radar dish in tact. the rest were all broken.

4. Even with inspection from retailers prior to shipping the radars arrive broken.

5. I have quit even caring about the radar dish on Tomcats because at this rate I simply expect them to all be broken, and by lowering my expectation I am now never disappointed and now only pleased when I get one that isn't.

[Black_Dragon_One]

I personally have opened and handled close to 30 Tomcats since the release and I have observed the following:

1. The Special Editions seemed to have the most problems in terms of unusual amount and types of broken parts

2. I have had 4 Tomcats ship with glued front landing gear (would not move to save your life)

3. only 7 of the 28-30 Tomcats shipped had the radar dish in tact. the rest were all broken.

4. Even with inspection from retailers prior to shipping the radars arrive broken.

5. I have quit even caring about the radar dish on Tomcats because at this rate I simply expect them to all be broken, and by lowering my expectation I am now never disappointed and now only pleased when I get one that isn't.

the f14 you personally painted for yourself what squadron is it

[immeww2]

Just from reading this post I think I've finally made up my mind not to get an F-14 since I was on the fence about getting one from the day they first came out. I'll spend the $$$ on the KT and jagd instead.

[Black Lion VF-213]

Zack mentioned that he has seen the special lighted edition come with more problems than the standard versions. I would agree with that. My two were the lighted and were far far far far far worse than some of my coworkers' standard F-14's. Couple fellas' Cats had broken radars. But not like mine. Mine were beyond recognition. There's had like one little tab broken. So minor that with beginner modeling skills one could re-attach it and voila, good as new. Or an over use of CA glue around the front windscreen or instrument display leaving the typical CA fog/haze.

Most of my coworkers bought multiples so that they could do multiple squadron repaints. I've bought two from them to make up for my losers.

I am about two weeks away from completing VF-33's 1992 Final Cruise CAG bird. Minimal decaling; mostly stenciling. It will be sweet!

I have several former Tomcat maintainers or plane captains or engineers I work with at Boeing who went ape@#$@# when the Tomcat came out. Their first thoughts were, "when did the Tomcat contract a disease"

I've got one former VF-143 and one former VF-2 plane captains from the late 70's and early 80's who are doing their squadrons' customs. I even have one guy who was in VF-84 during their last 3 years with great photos not seen on the internet whose doing a 1994 repaint. Cool thing I noticed when looking at his photos is that yes VF-84 from 1992 to their last days in 95 did have the NACA gun vents like the JSI represents along with the ECM bump on the beavertail. However no ECM bumps under the wing. Therefore he's going to sand them down. Basically if you've seen the movie Executive Decision, that's exactly what they looked like. He's doing Dale Snodgrass' last CO jet when was CO of the Jolly Rogers.

Can't wait to see that one!

[tko211]

I personally have opened and handled close to 30 Tomcats since the release and I have observed the following:

1. The Special Editions seemed to have the most problems in terms of unusual amount and types of broken parts

2. I have had 4 Tomcats ship with glued front landing gear (would not move to save your life)

3. only 7 of the 28-30 Tomcats shipped had the radar dish in tact. the rest were all broken.

4. Even with inspection from retailers prior to shipping the radars arrive broken.

5. I have quit even caring about the radar dish on Tomcats because at this rate I simply expect them to all be broken, and by lowering my expectation I am now never disappointed and now only pleased when I get one that isn't.

the f14 you personally painted for yourself what squadron is it

I painted a High Vis Black Aces scheme (the one with the white tails, red stripe and spade)

I am also planning to paint a Low Vis scheme of some kind but have not settled on the squadron.