The question on a lot of people's minds were "Are FireFigures Legit?"
So I decided to try and ask a few Ubisoft branches in Asia to see if they had any info and here's Ubisoft Singapore's reply..
(I covered their names just in case they weren't comfortable with it, and mine too as I'm paranoid like that.. haha!)
So there you have it, they aren't licensed to make these products. Our fears were right.
Your friendly blogger doing his part for the community! :D Will update more info if there updates in the next few days so watch this space!
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Edit: I was thinking of adding some comments to clarify why I posted this in the first place, but it seems there are some people who are very unhappy with what I did..
Anyway..
I'm not saying Fire Figures are a scam. They have not shown any evidence of that so as the saying goes, they are innocent until proven guilty.
My question was, "Are these figures licensed by Ubisoft?" as there has been no mention of the agreement by Ubisoft to my knowledge. Many others were also asking the same questions on Facebook as well as forums. Since there was no confirmation of this, I decided to ask Ubisoft Singapore and Ubisoft South East Asia if they had any info. Why them and not other branches? Firstly I'm from Singapore so I asked my local Ubisoft branch and I believe seeing somewhere that Fire Figures were based in Asia so why not ask those who are closer to the source?
Ubisoft Singapore replied while Ubisoft SEA did not. My intention was to get more info, not to get Ubisoft to shut them down. Of course by bringing this to their awareness, I'm indirectly doing the latter but in this day and age, are you telling me that Ubisoft won't find out about this sooner or later?
However, the figures are not licensed whether Fire Figures are a scam or not. There's no 2 ways about that and informing people was my intention. I never told anyone not to buy these figures nor do I plan to. Unlicensed stuff are everywhere, I'm aware of that. It's your money, your choice. I have no say in that. I'm not going to condemn you or judge you in any manner if you decide to continue buying the figures. For all I know, I might even buy them someday. That's how good the figures look! But the fact remains that these figures are not licensed.
Why do I keep harping on the fact that they aren't licensed since I already know there are so many unlicensed stuff out there. Based on the screenshot, Ubisoft apparently will attempt to close their FB page which means they aren't happy about it. If Ubisoft decides to crack down
on Fire Figures, then what?
There's always a possibility that a new company that no one knows about could be a scam, like it or not but that's the worse case scenario which hopefully and I believe won't happen. PayPal has a window of 45 days to open a dispute should such a thing happen and we can and should make use of that in case the worse happens. What I'm more concerned about is, if Ubisoft shuts them down, what happens to the orders? It could take days, months or never.. that is impossible to tell. Do we get a refund then or do we get just 1 or 2 of the Assassin figures and the rest never get produced? It's hard to say but if I'm going to put down that much money on their products, I would like to be assured I wouldn't have to worry about this. Basically by having a legit license, I will be more confident in the company.
So go ahead and buy their products if you wish, it's your call but be aware of the possibilities mentioned. As I was typing this out, I read on their FB page that they are in talks with Ubisoft so it may all end well. As a collector myself, I do want to see Fire Figures do well with the Assassin's Creed figures, of course preferably with a proper license. As much as I'm concerned about the lack of the license, I too am impressed with the figures. As much as everyone else, I too want these wonderful 1/6 scale figures..