Master Replicas

Master Replicas was founded in 2002 by Michael Cookson and Jordan Schwartz,and was best known for its production of high-quality limited edition 1:1 diecast replicas of Star Wars lightsabers and scaled spaceships. The company also released a number of licensed products from the Walt Disney, Marvel, The Muppets, Shrek, Alien/Predator, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek franchises.

Shortly after losing its Star Wars licensing in 2006, the company was acquired by Corgi and demoted to a brand name only, before Corgi chose to let Master Replicas go entirely bankrupt in 2020.

Master Replicas usually employed direct sales for their products, but did additionally partner up with a single (online) retailer, the in 1996 founded Simi Valley, California-based Entertainment Earth, which still exists as of 2024 – unlike the original Master Replicas.

Long before the 2020 bankruptcy, several Master Replicas employees, among others current Creative Director Barry Eldridge and now owner/founder Jordan Schwartz, had already decided to strike out on their own by starting in 2010 the new Factory Entertainment high quality prop replica and collectibles company, having by 2023 in the process surpassed what their former company had achieved.

In March 2023, Master Replicas was relaunched as a British company under new UK ownership. As of November 2023 Master Replicas is now a subsidiary of Heathside Trading Ltd.

Relaunch

The Master Replicas brand-name itself was acquired from the administrators by Darren Epstein, the owner/founder of UK-based Heathside Trading, and who announced in December 2022 on his LinkedIn account his intent to revive the brand as the home for the Eaglemoss Collections display model partwork lines, most specifically those of Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse and the Alien franchise, whose licenses and leftover collectible stocks he too had acquired upon its demise in August 2022.

The relaunched site went life on Sunday 19 March 2023, 7:00 pm CET. In an email sent to prospect customers who had opted to receive them, Epstein announced the sale of leftover display model stock, consisting of 400+ items from all Eaglemoss collections (which, as it turned out, included several reference book titles), starting with those of Star Trek. Later, it was also announced that these model issues were to be sold in waves of 25+ items each to avoid logistical problems and to avoid overwhelming the customer base. Rather than releasing all the ships in one go, Heathside Trading Ltd through Master Replicas made a curated selection of vehicles, prop replicas and figures available over the course of the license(s). This allowed fans to add to the continuance of their collections. with selected resellers who made stock available on a limited basis online.

Part of the deal struck with the Eaglemoss administrators entailed that Master Replicas would charge their customers the same retail prices Eaglemoss had charged at the end of their existence, in order to avoid third-party retailers who also got their hands on remaining stock to charge hugely inflated prices, a frowned upon practice employed by these retailers who are colloquially known as "scalpers". The condition was faithfully adhered to, when Master Replicas went online.

Former Eaglemoss Project Manager Ben Robinson was extensively consulted on by Master Replicas, on how to best release the leftover stock to the customer base. initially, Ben took it upon himself to keep customers appraised and in the loop on an ongoing basis of stock levels of each wave through his personal Twitter account, in the process also becoming the de facto Master Replicas spokesperson on several Star Trek news sites such as Trekcore and TrekMovie.com. A little while later Master Replicas itself also opened up its very own Twitter account on April 2023, thereby taking over from Ben in this responsibiliy, who subsequently stood down from the Eaglemoss remainder stock reissue.

Because customer fans had by now become fully aware that Eaglemoss products had become once more, however shortly, available for normal retail prices, sales started to pick up in speed with many items already selling out within hours of their offering which caused Master Replicas to shorten the wave release frequency to a weekly one, starting in May 2023. Master Replicas was motivated to do so as the stock that they had aquired started to arrive faster and in larger quantities.

After having received multiple customer complaints about "scalpers" buying items in bulk in order to resell them at extreme prices on eBay and other third-party vendors, Master Replicas implemented a one-copy per shipping-address policy under certain conditions for specific items, such as unreleased models by Eaglemoss.

Rather than releasing all the ships in one go, Heathside Trading Ltd through Master Replicas will be making a curated selection of vehicles, prop replicas and figures available over the course of the license. This will allow fans to add to the continuance of their collections. with selected resellers who will be making stock available on a limited basis online.

Acquisition of New Licences

On August 11, 2023, Master Replicas announced via their website - MasterReplicas.com that news about the die cast ship models and other products is the result of an agreement between Master Replicas/Heathside Trading Ltd. and Alcon Television Group. As the authorized licensee for The Expanse die cast vehicles, prop replicas and figures, Heathside Trading will launch the products in Spring 2024 through selected retail partners as well as direct to consumer through MasterReplicas.com.

The license was facilitated by Mandy Bardisbanian from Striker Entertainment, the licensing agency for The Expanse, and Kirsty Guthrie, KJG Ltd, the licensing consultant for Master Replicas/Heathside. Darren Epstein from Heathside commented, “We are so thrilled to be adding The Expanse to our increasing portfolio of properties. The huge global fanbase for this license will mean we will be able to bring some really nice content to fans worldwide.” Mandy Bardisbanian from Striker Entertainment added, “We are delighted to see Heathside come aboard to bring an elevated, yet accessible line of products to market for The Expanse fans.”

Rather than releasing all the ship models in one go, Heathside Trading Ltd.—through Master Replicas—made it clear that a curated selection of vehicles, prop replicas and figures available over the course of the license. This will allow fans to add to the continuance of their collections with selected resellers who will be making stock available on a limited basis online.

Following this announcement, on the same day, August 11, 2023, Master Replicas also annoucned via thier website that they was also aquiring the licencing rights to continue working on the Stargate Franchise from where Eaglemoss stopped production.

Adding on to this, Master Replicas launched a never before seen licence which was to launch Collector Die Cast Dune and Dune Part Two Vehicles, Prop Replicas and Figures through license agreement with Legendary Licensing through Rocket Licensing. This would mark the first licence that Master Replicas would produce independantly from their formerly announced licences that had ties with Eaglemoss.

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