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Hi Everyone!
Just wanted to report that I am in the shop and making sharks to fill orders again today. It has been a very good week! Another priority in between orders is the continued assembly and painting of our prototypes of our All New 1/12 scale 25-Inch long Ultimate Bruce Collector's Set Sharks. I write once again "assembly" as the production sharks are made as kits for us to mold and assemble as such; so I have to assemble them for photos in non-permanent and non-damaging ways that also will truly convey what a finished production shark will look like. As all have learned since 2008, they ALWAYS look even better and more detailed in person! In this effort, although due to recent events we feel some pressure to rush ahead, we are still balancing out our needs as well as filling preexisting orders where needed first and foremost. Those that know us know there's much to look forward too. We are VERY excited to try and get them out rapidly for Pre-Order, and to release the All new LOW prices. Indeed, I spent all winter while snowed in [for maybe 4-5 months!] recreating all of the Ultimate Bruce sharks. There has never before been anything like these in accuracy and richness of detail; especially in this scale. I promise that they'll be more than worth the wait. In other news it looks as though the doctors get some of my time over the next months for this and that. Looks like only a few days here and a few days there. Nothing to write home about. The priority now is getting those Pre-Order busts completed and shipped as well as all the sharks due in May to their patient and rightful owners. As far as the next few months we want you to start preparing yourselves for us to release the 25-inch Ultimate Revenge Bruce to complete the Ultimate series, AND the big ½ scale Bruce Dorsal Fin, AND the All New 1/6 Scar Face Brucette Bust, AND the Entirely New LIFE-SIZED Great White Shark Bust, in full attack pose. We have a few more but are going to hold on to them for now until we are able to make good on all our orders, pre-orders, prototypes, private commissions and getting all healed up and 100% better[er] again. Tomorrow I believe is the best time for us to release the true account of one of the most INCREDIBLE opportunities that my family was ever given a few years back that I have never yet shared publicly. It is an amazing story that will surely hit you like a .50 cal going off! More about this then tomorrow! A good day to all my friends today! Mike
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Hi Friends!
Dictionary.com defines "Aboveboard" as: "In open sight, without tricks, concealment, or disguise." Recently in the Jaws Community it came to our attention that another artist had made an attempt at producing his own Bruce Shark for sale. Sadly, this individual has attempted to copy-cat everything he could from us ranging from the shark's features right down to our unique wooden-style display stands and our long established photography style. He even directly copied our OLD prices, the funniest part! But the most disturbing part about this whole situation is that this artist freely gave a well-known "Jaws Collector" one of these sharks as a gift and in return this collector decided to whole-heartedly review and endorse this imitator while slighting our family's 8+ years of hard work. When questioned about this completely unethical behavior we were met with hostility and told that we were offensive to the copy-catting artist. Now, everyone is free to have their favorites, however, we've fielded a great amount of email asking us about this questionable display of ethics and so far EVERYONE see's clearly what is a cheap knock off of us and not even an accurate Bruce depiction... except for the aforementioned "Jaws Collector". One old saying captures this incident perfectly. It explains how a bribe can blind the eye of the receiver and pervert justice. We would like to make it clear to our customers and all fellow fin-fans that every single review about every single Shark City Ozark shark has been earned. No "Freebies" have ever exchanged hands in order to receive "Glowing remarks". Our work stands on its own without having someone "in our pocket". We are purposely holding off on posting our All New Low Prices on our 25-inch Collectible Sharks just because we will not be rushed by this "copy-catter". We'll post more photos, descriptions, and reveal the new low prices soon. I am getting stronger every day and recovering well ahead of the curve. Thank you friends for maintaining us as the Professional Industry Standard since 2007! Mike, Cathy, and the Entire Schultz family of Shark City Ozark Mike wanted me to update and thank you all for your kindness and support, and especially your prayers. He is on the mend and getting stronger everyday.
The Dr. said it was a Perfect Storm of "Bad Things" to cause this sort of spiral. Her assessment is that he worked himself into his current state of exhaustion. We tend to agree. He's been burning the candle at both ends and the middle trying to please everyone. Thankfully the lung infection that came out of nowhere during all this while he was so weak is nearly beaten. The antibiotics and breathing treatments did their job last week and he is no longer coughing up blood or struggling for every breath. Being able to breath freely is allowing him to sleep finally. And sleep means healing so he is doing much better every day now. Can you imagine no sleep or food for nearly five days and nights with the agony of 180-237 heartbeats per minute A-fib? He is able to eat simple foods so he has stopped losing weight [he was losing 1.4 pounds a day!]. The funny thing is that every time he slept he told us he'd been dreaming of eating ribs and burgers and buffets of food! He is now finally hydrated and his electrolytes are well balanced. He's even steady on his feet now! So it is apparent that his body wants to be healthy and that all the guesswork of our family Dr. is paying off. He probably won't be back in the shop again this week which is driving him crazy. Thankfully Mike was well ahead on the list of due sharks. Thank you all for caring and checking in and for your effectual Christian prayers. Cathy Schultz I like to play a little multi-player every now and then. I bring this up because I too see things in some of these games that cause me to react in some surprising ways. One of the games I play is known for it's long-term ~bugginess. In fact this is the most commonly discussed point on the forums and social media for this one game in particular. It is loved by many, but the game suffers some bugs that have not been addressed by the developers, many dating back to 2012. Loved but a source of consternation at times. It's made me happy and it's frustrated me depending on those few little things that never get worked out.
Why I bring this up is that I recently tried to relate some of these multi-player experiences to our business with inventing and supplying sharks all over the world. Our sharks can be found ranging from the shelves of fans like you and I to the shelves of the biggest names in Entertainment across many genre's. You know that we not only make these static collectibles as well as having provided animatonic sharks and creatures for 5 films to date. Our collectible sharks can be spied over the shoulder or on a desktop of many a star's interview, some 'Making of's' and even during several Sharkweek's! So you'd think that after over 5 years of supplying thousands of sharks globally that we'd have every conceivable aspect of 'shark-making' down to a science, right? Not yet I think. I feel that we mostly do but we are still constantly finding ways to improve our sharks. At first we used only one kind of resin and in only one way. Since our first sharks back in 2008 we have discovered all new resins and all new ways to improve them, to make them stronger and far longer lasting. Today's SCO sharks use up to 3 forms of resin, and the larger ones are filled and even include internal spines made of wood or metal! But back to the point of the letter being that the plain fact is that if we are still finding ways to make our sharks better and more affordable, and the whole buying experience even better, then this means that we have not quite perfected things yet. So once again I write to ask my friends and customers what sorts of things would you recommend we explore to better our 'Shark-Making' business? Some have suggested attractive boxes as you would see Sideshow art delivered in or Diamond select style packaging as for a Hobby-Store shelves. Some have suggested including even more accessories. Some have suggested that we offer some of the sequel sharks with a more updated style and updated/life-like paintjob. Some of these things we already offer and have been providing hundreds of customers in our open customization offers and especially in private commission works. We can do many of these things and more. But many of the extraneous things have been cut-back in order to provide these sharks at far better prices. Take packaging for example; right now we have to buy boxes in bulk and Bubble wrap in gigantic wheels that barely fit through our 4 foot wide shop's side door! We spent more on shipping materials alone last year than we made in profit our entire first run of NTT Bruce shark's! And we found the same to be true with fancy packaging like the 'Big-Box' collectible businesses ship their art in. It would have to be purchased in bulk to be affordable, and would be much more expensive to offer. An expense that all businesses simply pass on to their customer's in a higher price. Something we have been battling to keep low despite an eroding U.S. economy since 2009. But surely there are some things that you all see that we can improve? Please Private message us your ideas and thoughts as you all have in the past when we have asked your advise. Email us or PM us through our Facebook. Remember that we have explored many things already, and implemented many customer ideas also. Also, with only 3 of us Schultz's left making sharks we do have some constraints to consider, but perhaps your idea might be one of those 'Eureka Moments' that free's us up to be able to provide our sharks better or more affordable or dare we dream to hope that we could produce them even quicker? Any and all advise and suggestions will be not only appreciated but studied and experimented with. Thank you all ahead of time for always being so active and helpful to us! Mike, Cathy and Rachael Schultz Shark City Ozark |
Mike V. SchultzOn The Bench... Archives
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