Yep, less than 2 weeks away from launching the THIRD Sequel Shark in our 25 Inch long Ultimate Bruce Shark Collector's Set, The All New Bruce 3D!
Our posted goal of also releasing the final Sequel Shark in the 25 Inch Ultimate line, The Revenge Bruce is still set before the end of the year, time permitting. Also we may be limiting the number of sharks that we sell each month. We are working through the Pro's and Con's now as to should we only advertise selling a limited number of sharks per quarter or not. This way we could advertise that we are selling Edition numbers 'X through X' of the 'X' shark for this quarter and first come first serve... We are not quite sure which is the wisest way to proceed as yet. The problem that we are trying to solve is that every single time without fail that I fill all Paid in Full orders and get caught up, another large amount gets paid off super-early and instead of being able to finish prototypes and release other sharks all I ever get to do is fill orders. Not a bad problem to have for sure. And I am grateful for the orders and the sooner I can get friends their sharks the better. But I have so many things that could be added to our Online Catalog right now if I just had the time to add them. I have a ½ Scale Bruce Shark Dorsal that is INCREDIBLE, and an all NEW Life-Sized Great White Shark Head in a Full Attack pose that includes the gills that is one of the best sculpts I have ever made, and it is AWESOME.... So Friggen Awesome that it doesn't even need a laser-beam strapped on...baby! So, as it stands we are also trying to get so far ahead of things as to have sharks fully completed before people Pay in Full with the goal of which being that we can publish our wait times for shipping a shark down to 3 weeks maximum. Also in other news, this month is the month to pay your shark off in full if you seriously want to beat the Christmas frenzy and get your shark shipped for sure well before the New Year. Every year we have people beg to be included in getting their shark shipped early, well in time before Christmas; but all the way up to just one week before Christmas! No, I cannot make from scratch 22 of the 3 foot long sharks and get them shipped in time for Christmas just a few weeks before Christmas... So if you want it before the big day then PLEASE do us all a huge favor and start working with us clearly to get your shark paid in full including its shipping and handling for us to have plenty of time to build it along with dozens of other last minute rush sharks. I think that is all the news so far with the exception of releasing that one of our goals is to have the first 10 Bruce 3D Sharks already made before we go live with their Pre-Order in 2 weeks. That is a goal. Some have taken our goals as posted promises, but a goal is something that we want for our customers and are working very hard towards making happen. We don't always meet a goal but we like people to know what we are trying to do for them. Yes, as with all our sharks they will be numbered in order of paid in Full status and yes they will ship with our Family Signed Certificates of Authenticity and a free stand of which we are working to decide on. Did I mention that this Bruce 3D shark is posed in an action-pose very much like you might see it on film? And did I mention that just like the screen used shark that the fins are all modeled on and blended to the body, making this shark we hope more affordable? And did I mention that yes of course we would love to customize your paint, details and gore level for your shark so please communicate clearly with us what you have in mind so we can work towards your dream shark! And did I mention that this Bruce 3D shark is modeled more after the full sized shark used in the final scenes rather than the many other miniature, or sea World Display, or cable-controlled, or animation or partial sharks that looked nothing like each other? * For more details on some of these items look back a few posts for a taste of what we will be releasing in just a few short weeks! Mike
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How could I not share this INCREDIBLY kind and Excited review of our Huge 1/6 scale Bruce Bust? Thank you Brian McMahon for taking your time to do this, you made our week sir! "This is my BRUCE. A 1/6th scale replication of the most famous shark in cinema history, JAWS. Made for me by master craftsman Mike Schultz of "SHARK CITY OZARK". As you can see the work is flawless. I would be genuinely shocked if anyone could ever come as close as this. Mike also has many other talents and his company is breaking out as one of the leading designers in the industry. It doesn't end with JAWS, but it sure as hell started there, lol! So check out "SHARK CITY OZARK" . Impeccable work for reasonable price. Thank you Mike and Cathy! Sorry I took forever to get you some pictures. I gotta get my 3 footer BRUCE in there TOO! Photos courtesy of Brian McMahon - Thanks Brian!!
The rest of the full-sized mechanical shark's are out for delivery today for Brannon Carty's awesome new Shark movie! If Brannon wants to go into further detail on his page I'll reserve that for him.
But we can tell you that these sharks are BIG and AWESOME! We are spending today cleaning the inner shop and getting back to full time production on all these shark orders stacking up. Our current goal is to get everything due in the next 30 days completed and shipped out in the next 2 weeks time. Then I will turn my attention back to the 25 inch Ultimate Bruce 3D shark for release. That's where we are at. Of course as we have touched on in the last few updates, we do have a few ~Serious~ and BIG surprises up our sleeves to release quite soon too.... * You won't believe your eyes once again! Mike SCO By way of an update I want to share what Neil shared with us today:
************************************************************* Hello Mike. Bruce has arrived today!! I'm so happy. He's amazing just as I knew he would be. I love the paint job you have given him, not too much, not too little. He is already on the shelf but I shall send you a pic of me holding him for the gallery this weekend. Thanks so much for all your hard work and passion. It is clear to see in this beautiful replica. ************************************************************* Next -- I wish to share that the mechanical 12-foot female White Shark for Brannon Carty's film "The Shark" is completed and being crated for shipping. Just you wait until you see this BEAUTY in action! Also I would like to remind the community of something I posted earlier this year as far as other artists releasing their shark products; No matter who releases whatever they release, or when they release it, we will release what we want and whenever we wish. No hard feelings when we do so now. We will compete to beat, and I do fully mean to compete to be the best around. Whoever does not like competition can just not like it. If the world can have a choice of hammers, blenders and baseball bats, then so too with sharks. And this family's goal is to put out the obvious best all around. It's simply how we survive. No more holding back an item we have slaved to make a prototype for just because someone else yet once again, somehow, had a similar idea? May the best shark products win and all the better for the fan community to have their pick of things for a change. We may have to be picky about what we release and when we release it because we are so slammed on keeping up on orders, private commissions and film FX props; but like any Gold Medal contestant, or any ball player, we will do all we can to be the best and stay on top. Nothing wrong with that. One jealous `shark-artist` attacked our family's work a few months back in a fit claiming we had no right to post that we felt that our last shark was our best shark yet. Seriously. But more importantly than his ill feelings, it is just simply vital to want to do your best, be the best, try your hardest and do all you can to make things incomparable, unbeatable and awesome. Your favorite stars, whether film or sports, have such a healthy competitive attitude. And it is one of the main things that made them so great. So yeah, we are going to do all we can to not just compete but to dominate whatever is in our power to work such. So if someone beats us to a release of something that we already have, then ours will be released as well for sake of competition. And it will be far more accurate, more dynamic and painted just like what goes before the cameras. That's it. Yet another Happy collectible's customer, yet another mechanical shark for a film ships out, and yet another post about this American family's right to thrive, produce and give back to a fan community that has given so much to us since 2007. Thank you Jaws and shark fan community, you all ROCK! Mike Hi Everyone!
Most importantly a respectful THANK YOU to all of you men and women who have served and are currently serving our nation. And a same level of great thanks and respect to the families that support you. Praise God Almighty for the American Military and the selfless sacrifices they continue on all of our behalf's. It is so sad that America’s inmates are pampered so gently and fed 3 square meals a day when our soldiers only get two meals a day now, and suffer such disrespect via politicking. American Soldiers, you all deserve much better than you have been getting these last several years. Thank you for your faithfulness to our people and Constitution. We thank you for your living example of what Semper Fi stands for! Also by way of update I want you current customers that are expecting sharks in May and June to please check your emails over the next several days. Don’t forget to check your SPAM folders as well since we are sending out another large wave of shipping notices for sharks once again. Lots of sharks shipping out! This last wave took over 3 weeks of 12 to 14 hour days, 7 days a week. But we are finally finished and more than just caught up again. We again have sharks EVERYWHERE! They line the work-tables, the business office and they line the hallway to the office and we even have a wall of them packed and ready for shipping Tuesday stacked in our living room! Since we are exhausted, since we have worked so hard and honestly just because I say that we deserve it and in honor of Memorial Day of course we are taking the long weekend OFF! Yes, for once we will relax. First time in a long time. Yes, email too. "But I am waiting on my shark!", one may protest... We understand. It is one of the most exciting things you will most likely ever order and wait on; so we totally understand. Thankfully we are still maintaining a shipping lead of between 2 and 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Everyone in turn has always gotten their sharks and almost always well ahead of their assigned due dates! Rest assured after we rest up we will be back on the line in the inner workshop making sharks. We are good about that sort of thing, as our professional reputation among the various communities bares witness. We are so proud of our long earned and solid reputation not only in the FX and museum industries but among collectors and fans. It just makes so many things that much easier to have a good name like this. Regardless, my tired mind rambles. Happy Memorial day weekend my friends. Please remember what the day is really all about and who it is really for. And remind yourselves what our freedoms have cost the family’s of the soldiers. We were never conqueror by the nazi’s or Russians or terrorist muslim states or other enemies of our Christian or Constitutional foundations and freedoms, simply because of American men and women who had the brains and the backbones to stand up and defend us all. Again, thank God Almighty for what the American soldiers’ have won us all. All of them gave some, some of them gave all. Mike SCO Working on the Shark Production line in the Shark-Shop again today:
We are casting and assembling the all new Sled Sharks this week! Alongside we are also completing the 3rd wave of orders for May, so please watch your emails for ship notices! Out in the other building chemicals and materials are are still arriving for the life-size Great White Shark in production for Brannon Carty's new film, "The Shark". The girls are also working on simplifying our sharkcityozark sales site since we are still getting emails asking us if we sell sharks and how to buy one? Yes we do and go to www.sharkcityozark.com is the answer of course, for your choice of about a dozen kinds and sizes! The 25-inch Ultimate Bruce 3D still awaits her debut for when we are caught up enough on orders and jobs to be able to handle the increased order load for releasing yet another new product this year. Almost 20 different sharks and in different scales and poses since 2007! Across the way one of our secret releases sits in all his glory awaiting his debut as well. A real shocker for the entire Shark Fan Community, and one of our funnest ideas we think so far... Nuff Said, have an Awesome day my friends! Mike & Cathy Alrighty here we go!
Those with paid in full 3-foot sharks and paid in full Ultimate Bruce Sharks that are due or within a month of coming due should keep a close eye on their emails for notification from Cathy that their shark is completed and ready to ship once shipping fees are settled! How’s that for being 45 days ahead of schedule again for the most part for 3 months in a row?! AHEAD! Our history has been on time or slightly ahead but finally we are really making even better strides in customer satisfaction! If we can keep this pace up then we will drop our wait-list times down from the current 90 days, perhaps back down to 30 to 45 days once again. Imminent upcoming releases are the nearly completed all new 3-Foot long Bruce Tow Sled Shark and the 1/2 scale Dorsal Fin. Just so you all know, the 1/2 scale dorsal fin is actually life-sized for a real life mature Great White Shark! The Sled Shark is still on time and with the guiding hand of none other than the man who ran the real film shark, Cal Acord, we have surpassed all our goals for this incredibly amazing never been done before piece of movie magic history. Never before had anyone dared attempt what these great FX men made possible. I dare say had they not done it back then, then our modern favorite films today would not be anything like they have been. And finally after these two huge offerings are released we want to proceed with the next sequel shark in the 25-inch long Ultimate Bruce shark Collector’s set which of course is the eagerly awaited Bruce 3D. For these smaller offerings we must have ample time to fill the tsunami of orders that follow their release as well as larger items to help offset the smaller items high costs and labor expenses. Thus our timing of the 3D shark’s release. As we have answered in nearly a hundred repeat emails and on FaceBook postings over the last few months, the Bruce 3D we have delayed due to the 3 films that we provided FX for last year and the two that are in pre-production so far this year. As you know the filmwork and private commissions are the backbone of our business and all else including meals, sleeping, and providing collectibles revolves around them. So far, as we have reported in our previous 2014 updates, we are still fully on track for everything that we wanted to offer. Actually with maintaining a 30 day minimum lead on shipping our paid-in-full sharks we have been able to slowly work our way ahead of schedule to co-release the 1/2 scale Dorsal fin along with the Sled and Bruce 3D shark items. We like to surprise ourselves like this! Our goals for the rest of the year, should our schedule remain this stable, are to release the final Ultimate Bruce Shark Collector’s set piece, The Ultimate Revenge Bruce Shark and a full-scale Dorsal Fin recreation based on a copy of one of the actual props! We also want to finally release the full-length 1/6 scale Bruce Shark as well, whose titanic proportions make it a hair over 54-inches long! We have wanted to since we provided FX for SyFy’s Ghost Shark, but too many other commissions and orders have not permitted us the spare time to gear-up such a huge set of molds and their dedicated shop-space until recently. Also we are releasing that we will no longer hold back releasing our prototypes due to others releasing their artistic offerings. We are simply going to start opening up our storage of prototypes for pre-order as long as we foresee the ample time needed to fill their orders for each release. In times past we have withheld releasing items as others beat us to releasing exactly what we were advertising. Great minds think alike is all I can say, and if someone else releases something similar to our products either before or after us than good luck to you and may the fans have a joyously hard time deciding which to collect. My fear was once of upsetting or stepping on the toes of other good artists. I release today that we will release what we want to release and when we want to release it from now on regardless of any other artist or organizations and their plans. No other artist upsets me when they release a shark, and shark‘s are not copyrighted. Example; I love Paul McPhee’s art, and he’s been a good friend to us. Some other people have not lived up to Paul’s appreciation and kindness towards us and our products. Others have released busts and small sharks and have succeeded or failed on their own. 99% of fans and artists are so very kind and cool to socialize with but there is that volatile and jealous 1% that causes strife. This part of my message is that we are gearing up to release more sharks than ever for our sake and the sake of the 99%. As far as the future is concerned if you would like a taste of what is literally in the works right now then just know that 1/2 and 1:1 scale does figure very, very heavily in the near future! And if this is not ‘Wow-Factor’ enough, then just know that one of our deepest held secrets will be found out soon enough, and boy is this one going to shock and hopefully thrill more than just our movie-shark fan communities! That’s all I am saying at this time. Many continue in their kind sharing of our photos all over social media and in forums and bringing us new orders and we thank you. Thank you all so very much for your kind emails, your overjoyed reviews on forums and collector blogs and for honestly advertising how cool these sharks really are for us. Thank you! Every sale helps make every future product more affordable and possible. We love being this busy all the time and pray it stays this way! Have an Awesome day friends, we thank our customers for their kindness and continued appreciations and support. Mike & Cathy Hi Everyone, here is a brief update on what to expect over the next few weeks and month-ish:
We are back from Planet Comic Con 2014. We were told that most records for that facility and for the Planet Comic Con were broken as far as attendance related things! It was a great trip! To those currently waiting on their Paid in Full sharks do not fret, all Comic Con orders come in place after yours. We are fair folks. In fact we finished a huge wave of shipments the week before this Comic Con and have another full wave to ship out both this as well as next week too! We are almost a FULL MONTH AHEAD in FILLING ORDERS! Next; we updated our Shark City Ozark Sales Site with many new shopper friendly functions last month. This month we are updating many products with new photos and videos as well! We will also be releasing a few new products that have been waiting for a long time to have their turn. We've even added a fun survey for you For those that have invested in their own early edition of the 3-foot-long Sled Shark we will have many new photos up some time later this week. We know that you will be pleased with what you see. We can now release that we have been closely advised once again by Joe Alves on many of the details of the Sled Shark and we are thrilled to finally also get to release that none other then Cal Acord himself has guided the construction of our All new 3-Foot Sled Shark and Tow Rig since the middle of last year! Cal has worked hard with us through providing photos and sketches and kindly enduring long question-filled phone calls helping us to get things just as they were over 30 years ago. Our background in providing museum displays, coupled with his daily hands-on work with the Tow Shark have seriously made what we believe to be the most historically accurate re-creation in miniature of this particular mechanical hero shark, ever. It is a wonder to behold and we are honored to be providing Cal his very own personally customized edition of the all New 3 Foot Tow Sled Shark within the next month or two, just by way of thankfulness. What a great guy folks, he is truly a good friend to us at Shark City Ozark and he really cares for the fan community. It is with Cal’s own guidance that we have been able to understand and replicate faithfully in 1/8 scale not only the nuances of the shark but also the ever changing sled rig’s amazing superstructure. He has helped us to discriminate the modifications that were made to the rig to improve it during filming and to incorporate the best of its features in just the right ways. It will be yet another fine addition to the discerning Fin-Fan’s collection. Although there have been a few delays, as with any project, it will soon be ready for molding and shipping. For those that have been waiting for us to release the last 25-inch-long sequel sharks; the Bruce 3D and the Revenge Bruce, it looks like we may have a go within the next few months. Yes, the 1/12 scale, 25-inch-long Ultimate Bruce Shark Collector’s Sets will finally be completed, just as we promised. Only four films, one major relocation and my broken ankle stood in the way. What an adventure! We have a high confidence that the film we have been waiting on to begin Pre-Production will no longer be delayed. We believe that pre-production will be settled around the May or June timeframe and allow us to release these final 2 Ultimate sharks. Not bad considering all things. Especially when many of our shark products were released a full quarter early, with some of them simply being surprises! We love those kinds of surprises. Until then we want to release, hopefully, this incredible 3-foot Tow Sled Shark and most likely the big 1/2 scale Bruce Dorsal Fin. These larger items are what helps pay the bills so that we can survive offering the smaller and far less profitable sharks. Because a shark takes a ton of work to create from a bottle of resin no matter how large or small it is, and it is only through the larger items that we can continue to afford what the smaller ones cost us to offer in labor. Imagine making several dozen model kits from liquid resin each week, cleaning them up, assembling them, painting and detailing them, packing and shipping them and keeping up with the full time job of the communication and book-keeping all while running an active FX shop and providing commission pieces and toy prototypes etc.... Hard work and FUN! And we wouldn’t have it any other way. EVER! We have many fun stories from Comic Con to share with you friends, and believe it or not, more new products and product news that is mind blowing in and of themselves; but this will all have to wait until the next blog. Just back from the road trip, we have several weeks of crazy hours to make it through to achieve many of these newer goals and commitments. You all have a wonderful and exciting week ahead of you, ENJOY it! Mike We just wanted to share with everyone some of the new happenings with the Schultz family and our sharks.
First off, we had mice! Not rats but itty-bitty field mice. They got into our shark mold storage building. I found them when I retrieved our giant 1/6 scale Ghost Shark body molds to the workshop. It was undamaged thankfully. They did damaged a few molds including the new Bruce 3D mold. Aside from that the other molds are no longer in production so things are not as bad as they sure could have been. For those that have kept up with my personal page on FaceBook you now know that those mice and their friends are in mice heaven, or other place... Something I was more than happy to help with. They have the entire planet to live in and enjoy but when they try to eat our molds they cross the line. I am sure you understand. For those that are more sensitive about animals you will be pleased to know that the circle of life was maintained and other animals’ lives were enriched with a free mice-value meal. Also, we are trying our hand at selling at Planet Comic Con in Kansas in March. We have been to these events before as guests and now we'll try it as vendors. We hope that this time we can more than pay for the trip! We will have a space in Artist’s row. Our plan is to bring some prototypes and take orders. I also plan to bring our stunt shark copy of the Ghost Shark animatronic to attract attention. We also plan to release/unveil a few new products there as well. Time will tell what we can and cannot pull off. Our short term goals here are to sell more sharks and meet Lee Majors and some Star Trek actors at Planet Comic Con! For those on the fence about ordering a shark I again advise to do it while you can. We even offer interest-free Flex-pay options to make it easier. I say this as I am optimistic about having funding for at least one of these films actually survive, and you all know that once we start pre-production on a film that we will have to suspend the order buttons on the sale’s site until we can wrap our parts in filming. For those waiting for your shark I know that you will love it! Our production times are down from 90 days maximum to almost 46 days max wait time with some sharks shipping within a few weeks of being paid in full, How’s that for service! Keep your chins up everyone. Live this week like there is no more next weeks. Be encouraged and be a Blessing if you can. Life’s short. And life is tough too; well at least the first 100 years or so... Mike Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to share that we will be adding scale and life-size dorsal fins to our catalog very soon.... WOW! These are too cool. As cool as you can picture it I can tell you for sure that they are even COOLER! Have an awesome day! Mike SCO |
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