ABOUT  ENCHANTICA

Part Three
The Present and Future - Xystos

In 2005 it emerged that the Enchantica name and all stock had been purchased from Royal Doulton by a company called Xystos.

Collectors eagerly awaited information about new pieces and hoped for a big fanfare type re-launch with loads of new pieces to get the name noticed again but what we actually got was an A4 bit of paper with badly printed pictures of old stock and a few new pieces that were actually old pieces from 2003 that had never been released but at least we were getting new pieces that had been sculpted by Rob Simpson and John J. Woodward, collectors were happy but also worried about the way the relaunch had been handled.

We also saw the start of a very worrying trend, the pieces "Designed by" Rob & John but not "Sculpted by" them, we now have pieces sculpted in China by un-named sculptors, something collectors never like, we like to have a sculptors name and not be misled into thinking that a piece is sculpted by a certain person because it has their signature sculpted into the piece (something Rob & John don't like on the pieces), even reps have been telling dealers that the pieces are sculpted by Rob & John when it's not the case! most of the time now, a drawing is done by one of them and that is their input finished, Xystos need to omit the signature on the base of pieces not actually sculpted by them and just have a note on the certificate stating that the piece is based on original 2D artwork by them

We were promised a new collectors club launched Mid 2006 with a new website, these came but with many glitches which should have been sorted out before release because they had plenty of time, at this moment, the club is only open to the U.K. this needs to be sorted out so that it's worldwide and some thing needs to be sorted out regards people outside of the UK getting special event pieces without traveling overseas to get one but at the same time keeping it special. We were hoping that Xystos had a better grip on what a "Prestige" dragon range really should be about (better than RD had!) what the collector wants is high quality pieces designed and sculpted by UK sculptors and no toy like gimmicks like flashing lights and roaring sounds but unfortunately that's what we got! it's the last thing the market needs, the market is flooded with cheap tacky dragons with far too much glitter and flashing lights, there is a gap for high quality sculptures which is what Enchantica was originally known for, lets hope that Xystos rectify this and let us put the sounds and lights behind us as early learning mistakes, otherwise we are going to see another RD like travasty with a company that doesn't know how to handle the range!

In 2007 Xystos showed promise by releasing an 'Event Piece' and promised us shows where this piece would only be available from, this gave collectors hope that things were going to change for the better at last, unfortunately 2 days after the first event they sent them out to dealers who sold them in the shops and on eBay, this annoyed collectors who had travelled long distances to get to the show (in some cases 6 hours) only to find that they may as well have sat at home, saved their fuel bill and ordered it online! This was a repeat of what they had done with the Collectors club membership piece and the Collectors club redemption piece and i was promised wouldn't happen again... it makes you wonder if the collectors club is just a name to Xystos and not an exclusive club where members are the only ones able to buy club pieces and people who attend events are the only ones able to buy event pieces

I hope my initial fears are unwarranted and that Xystos prove that they can revive the name without tacky gimmicks and I hope that they supply us, the collectors with what we really want and not with what they think we want.

Here's looking to a brighter Enchantica Future...

To be continued...

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