Re Fleurbaixtoys - are these guys a legitimate operation, any info would be welcmd (1 Viewer)

[MadPiper]

Hi Gang:

I have been trying to determine if Fleurbaixtoys in Australia is legitimate or note. Have received a few emails saying they are, but any time I email to get details on prices,
so that I can make out a money order - I never hear from them. The "owner" supposedly has bought a number of toy soldier companies, yet if I try to search for reviews about
this company nothing comes up. Also he's emailed me saying the has TOY ARMY WORKSHOP figures, but again, when I placed an order with him, he has not come back to me, a to confirm this or b to finalize the cost of my order. What should I do? Any critical analysis or suggestions regarding this persons legimate operation, would be most welcomed. Cheers and happy new year gang.

Kindest regards Geordie

 

[theBaron]

Hi Gang:

I have been trying to determine if Fleurbaixtoys in Australia is legitimate or note. Have received a few emails saying they are, but any time I email to get details on prices,
so that I can make out a money order - I never hear from them. The "owner" supposedly has bought a number of toy soldier companies, yet if I try to search for reviews about
this company nothing comes up. Also he's emailed me saying the has TOY ARMY WORKSHOP figures, but again, when I placed an order with him, he has not come back to me, a to confirm this or b to finalize the cost of my order. What should I do? Any critical analysis or suggestions regarding this persons legimate operation, would be most welcomed. Cheers and happy new year gang.

Kindest regards Geordie

Welcome to the forum!

As a new member of the forum, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt and offer you this suggestion: Use the forum search feature and search the forum for "fleurbaix" and read the existing posts. There has been a discussion of his status, including the fact that he is a cottage-industry producer, and that there are family or health problems involved, if I remember correctly. In any case, there has been a discussion of his status, and it'd be a good idea to read the existing posts.

Prost!
Brad

 

[gk5717]

This is not a direct reference to this particular company, but if any person or company does not respond to questions, I would not touch them. If they don,t care or take the time to answer imagine the problems if your order doesn,t arrive or there is some sort of problem.
Gary

 

[hotel3alpha]

Welcome to the Forum!

John from Texas

 

[Obee]

Geordie,

this is the most recent post about the demise of Fleurbaix

http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/showthread.php?30333-Fleurbaix-Toy-Soldiers

As you will read, the company is no longer trading, as far as I know, so I wish they would close the website and so stop all this 'bad feeling' in our hobby.

John

 

[wayne556517]

That reminds me mate do you still have that set i bought over the bloke with the cart ??

 

[trooper]

To elaborate further on my text quoted by Obee, Father Greg was the original owner of Fleurbaix and purchased a lot of companies including Toy Army Workshop, Music in Miniature and a large proportion of the Mountford Miniatures artillery pieces. Judging by some of the figures he photographed and published on Treefrog he tended to mix pieces from different companies so that they bore little resemblance to the original concept. He died some years ago and his sons said that they were going to continue the business but IMO they lacked the historical knowledge necessary for such a venture especially with such a large and varied quantity of figures. There was an unsubstantiated rumour some time ago that the company was going to be put up for sale but nothing seems to have developed. If such a sale did occur it would take a considerable amount of time, effort and research to re-assemble the master patterns back to their parent sources. Sadly it would seem that those pieces are now lost for ever. Trooper

 

[Mirof]

owner Gregg Simon deceased 2012

 

[Obee]

That reminds me mate do you still have that set i bought over the bloke with the cart ??

yes, its still here ..... I hope to bring it back to some sort of condition so he can fit into your dioramas, but will do 'before and after' pics to show off

John

 

[wayne556517]

Mate i forgot all about it,you have your work cut out for ya.

 

[MadPiper]

Welcome to the forum!

As a new member of the forum, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt and offer you this suggestion: Use the forum search feature and search the forum for "fleurbaix" and read the existing posts. There has been a discussion of his status, including the fact that he is a cottage-industry producer, and that there are family or health problems involved, if I remember correctly. In any case, there has been a discussion of his status, and it'd be a good idea to read the existing posts.

Prost!
Brad

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Brad, here is the email I got from the above firm, so it is very confusing:

Nov 23, 2014

Hi Geordie
First of all not all we make is on the Fleurbaix site. We have between 2,000 - 3,000 moulds, where we cast the figures from.

In answer to your questions, no we don't have any ordering button or prices on site. People usually email, us with what they want and we give them prices. Before you pay, we will give you a price for shipping, this price will be the actual Australia post price to ship to you and this will determine on destination, size and weight of package.

Please don't think this price will enormous, as it won't be. The payment methods we accept are PayPal, credit card, bank transfer, money order etc.

The currency to us does not matter, I have given you prices in USD, as I thought you lived in the US, but we want you to be happy, so if you want British pounds, Australian dollars, euros or any currency we are happy to give you prices in it and use it for the order.

I hope this information helps a little with your questions.

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The fact that he sent a recent mail, in November is confusing, the fact that he claims to still be doing molds is confusing - then after that he'd sent me costs of some of the higlander sets and vehicles. On the website you can still download the catologues - however, this is sending me (and no doubt others mixed messages. if you try emailing him, you're even lucky if you get a reply, so what the heck is this guys problem - if he's trying to run a business he's doing a really crappy job, what do you think

 

[Mike Niederman]

Going by the pictures of their casting attempts, I had the idea that the moulds they've got are for use on a centrifugal casting machine, and they are trying to hand cast from them.

 

[theBaron]

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Brad, here is the email I got from the above firm, so it is very confusing:

Nov 23, 2014

Hi Geordie
First of all not all we make is on the Fleurbaix site. We have between 2,000 - 3,000 moulds, where we cast the figures from.

In answer to your questions, no we don't have any ordering button or prices on site. People usually email, us with what they want and we give them prices. Before you pay, we will give you a price for shipping, this price will be the actual Australia post price to ship to you and this will determine on destination, size and weight of package.

Please don't think this price will enormous, as it won't be. The payment methods we accept are PayPal, credit card, bank transfer, money order etc.

The currency to us does not matter, I have given you prices in USD, as I thought you lived in the US, but we want you to be happy, so if you want British pounds, Australian dollars, euros or any currency we are happy to give you prices in it and use it for the order.

I hope this information helps a little with your questions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fact that he sent a recent mail, in November is confusing, the fact that he claims to still be doing molds is confusing - then after that he'd sent me costs of some of the higlander sets and vehicles. On the website you can still download the catologues - however, this is sending me (and no doubt others mixed messages. if you try emailing him, you're even lucky if you get a reply, so what the heck is this guys problem - if he's trying to run a business he's doing a really crappy job, what do you think

Hi, Geordie,

Thanks, but your original post tended in the direction of a complaint or even eventually a rant, and I thought that as a person new to our forum, I'd give you a tip to search and read the existing info here in the forum. Others have replied, especially Trooper, with more details to explain the status. You can judge for yourself, of course, whether to do business with Fleurbaix.

Prost!
Brad

 

[4th Hussar]

Geordie,
I would rely on the opinions of Obee and Trooper and avoid dealing with these folks, whoever they are.