8 years ago the Fallout fans and the internet lost their minds when a long awaited "premium" Nuka Cola collectible didn't come in a bottle. And not just any bottle, a collector quality and at least transparent bottle.
It may sound trivial to non collectors but as avid CE collectors and Kickstarter backers, we're aware of the disappointment. The Fallout games have had a number of problematic Collector's Edition and backer/pre-order type disasters. For example a low budget nylon budget as opposed to a duffel bag
Even when they do get it right, it then becomes a distribution and promotional nightmare where the retail and distribution partners hoard what should never have been a scarce product and forget that whole point of the novelty is to be enjoyed
We see that this has all resulted from two key problems 1) Bethesda / Zenimax treat such merchandise as one-off novelties and a burden, not a core part of their business. These are elements that do not deserve the same attention as their core business - games. These are simply one-time ideas to be executed as cheaply and easily as possible, a distraction from the building of the games 2) Based on the first point, they are just engaging typical sourcing agents who not collector aficionados themselves and are usually geared for larger volume, reoccuring chain retailers like Walmart. Having do these outlier requests is something they don't usually understand and not normally worth their time. For the game developers and western companies in general, whether they are indie or mega-corps, most will have had no experience with Asia, manufacturing or supply chain ecosystems. For both sides, the other side is a completely alien, foreign world that neither is investing much into properly understanding and treating the job as a one-off.
It is sins like these that inspired this business, we are not just sourcing agents that are uninvested in both providing a quality outcome but also co-creating the same joy and satisfaction from a great collector's piece that we would like to own and show off ourselves when done right. That's the difference