I don’t know anything about it, but I assume Corvus Belli knows about it because that was posted by the Infinity At Nova Open page and then reposted by the official Infinity Facebook account.
Its there still. I wouldn't call it Operation Rip Off. Just another Spanish company paying sculptors to sculpt what they sculpt for them instead. The poses are equally boring and bland as the ones we get though.
Corvus Belli doesn't own hexagons and scifi. I like Corvus Belli miniatures, but if other manufacturers can make miniatures of similar quality and aesthetics, that is nothing but a win for us. Just as long as they are not trying to trick people into thinking these are 'official Infinity' miniatures. Honestly the whole 'Intellectual Property' idea is a serious threat to creativity. It started out as a good idea, but like most good ideas that come in contact with the general population, it was quickly corrupted to be the opposite of its intended purpose.
The idea originated at Las Vegas Open, with the Bostria Kuang Shi. I've got one myself. To my knowledge, there was no fallout from that move (Bostria was even interested in getting his hands on one.) So it's not surprising that other events are following the same idea.
Joel got the idea from me, for the Drunk Yuan Yuan for the Rose City Raid, the LVO was just scheduled earlier on the calendar. :P Regardless, I got permission from CB before I had it made, they stipulated that so long as it is entirely a new sculpt and not re-casting any existing components, then it would totally be fine.
So still no sign as to what the exclusives they've ditched modeling and production time for as Vallejo "promotional exclusives" are?
Não! They are required to devote themselves entirely to fulfilling the demands of the peat!!! Anything else is prohibido!
They sure are! They're not, however, allowed to complain about SKU bloat or production bottlenecks when these things are continuously of their own creation and could be avoided. Crazy how that works right?
Sure they can, since they know what steps are most effective for their company to fix and avoid them, just like you can do for your own company. Crazy how that works, right?
Sure, but this isn't contributing to SKU bloat since these aren't being sold through their distribution channel. And given the number of models they manage to put out each year, including big box sets, I think they have their production schedule mostly worked out. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but from where I'm sitting they seem to be doing a decent job of things.