Written by , Assistant Director, Loaded Dice Last reviewed

How reservations work

Most of what Halidom sells is reserved ahead of production, and some of it is already made and held by our distributor. A reservation is how you claim one piece from a numbered edition before it reaches us. This page explains what you are committing to, what we are committing to, and what happens if you cancel.

Why statues work this way

A licensed statue is tooled, cast and painted in a run of a few hundred to a few thousand pieces, and studios commit to that run on the strength of orders placed twelve to twenty-four months ahead. Nobody holds warehouses of them speculatively. If you want a specific piece, you reserve it before it is made or you buy it later on the secondary market at a markup.

That is the trade. You wait a long time, and in exchange you pay retail rather than resale, and you are certain of getting one.

Two questions every product page answers

Every product page and the release tracker carry two separate facts about a piece, and it is worth keeping them apart: whether you can still reserve it, and where the piece itself has got to.

Can I still reserve it? The edition status

  • Open. Taking reservations. A deposit secures your allocation.
  • Closing. The allocation is nearly gone or the studio's order window is about to shut. This is the last point at which a reservation can be added.
  • Sealed. The edition is closed and the run is fixed at that number. We cannot order another.
  • Waitlist. Our allocation is spoken for. Join the list and, if a reservation is released or the studio opens a further run, we offer it in order. There is no charge to be on it.

Where is it? The release stage

These are the four stages our distributor confirms to us, and nothing more — we do not publish a milestone nobody has told us about, and where a stage has not been confirmed we say so rather than guess.

  • Pre-order. Our distributor is taking pre-orders and the studio has not finished the piece. This is the longest stage, often a year or more.
  • Incoming. Reported by our distributor as made and on its way to them.
  • Available. Held by our distributor. Reserve it and it is called off, inspected and dispatched to you within 28 days.
  • Arriving. On its way from our distributor to us. When it lands and passes inspection we ask for the balance and ship it to you.

Alongside both, every product page shows the quarter the piece is currently expected to dispatch in, and the date we last checked that estimate.

What you pay, and when

Reserve with a 10% deposit. The balance is due when the piece has arrived with us and passed inspection — not when it leaves the studio, and not on a fixed date months in advance. You will have fourteen days from the point we tell you it has landed to settle the balance. Or pay in full now and save 5%, with nothing left to settle on release.

What inspection means. We open the outer carton and the studio shipper, lift the piece and its parts out of the foam and test any lighting, check the paint and the parts against the studio's photography, and repack it in the same foam and shipper before it ships. We do not break factory seals on inner bags unless a part has to be checked.

Pieces marked as available from UK stock skip the wait: they are already made and held by our distributor, so reserve and your piece is ordered in, inspected and dispatched within 28 days. We say available rather than in stock because they are not on our own shelf until then.

Your deposit is moved into a separate Loaded Dice Ltd bank account used for nothing else, and drawn only when the piece ships or the reservation is cancelled; it is not spent on stock or on running the business. That is a ring-fence rather than a trust, and why you can trust us with a deposit says plainly what it does and does not protect you from.

If you pay the deposit by credit card, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act covers the whole purchase, deposit and balance alike; debit cards carry chargeback instead. How your deposit is protected explains both in plain English.

The price is fixed at the moment you reserve. If the studio raises the trade price, or the exchange rate moves against us, or duty changes, that is our problem and not yours. The figure you agreed is the figure you pay.

The price shown is the full UK landed price. Duty and import VAT are paid by us before the piece is allocated to you, so there is nothing to settle with the courier on delivery.

Delivery

Delivery to mainland UK is included on every reservation, whatever the price of the piece. There is no delivery charge at checkout and nothing added when the balance is settled.

Most pieces ship with UPS on a tracked, signed-for service. They travel double-boxed — the studio's own shipper inside an outer carton — because the shipper is part of the product and a quarter-scale statue does not forgive a loose box. The largest pieces travel palletised or by two-person courier, and for those we arrange a delivery day with you. Once the balance is settled, dispatch follows within a few working days, and you will have the tracking number as soon as the label is printed.

Or collect it in Barry. Any reserved piece can be collected free from the Loaded Dice shop at 28 Holton Road, Barry CF63 4HD instead of being delivered. Tell us by email or phone when you reserve, or at any point before your balance is requested. Once the balance is paid we bring the piece to the shop and email you when it is ready; collect it within fourteen days, Tuesday to Saturday 10:30–16:30 or Sunday 11:00–15:00, and bring the order email with you.

We do not currently deliver to Northern Ireland or outside the United Kingdom.

Cancelling

The deposit is non-refundable. If you cancel a reservation we retain 10% of the price — for a deposit reservation that is your deposit; if you paid in full, 10% is retained and the balance returned.

Here is why it is 10% and not a round number we chose. When you reserve, we place the order for your piece with the manufacturer through our distributor, and once that order is placed we remain liable to them for 10% of it whether or not you go ahead. The 10% we retain is that cost, passed through unchanged — not a cancellation fee on top of it, and not a figure we keep if we can get out of it ourselves.

Where a statutory right to cancel applies, it is unaffected by the above.

After delivery

You have fourteen days from receiving the piece to change your mind under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Tell us within that period and you have a further fourteen days to return it. It needs to come back in the condition it arrived in, with its packaging — these are large, fragile objects and the shipper is part of the product. You cover the return carriage unless the piece is faulty; contact us before sending anything and we will advise on safe packing, because a quarter-scale statue loose in a van does not travel well. We refund within fourteen days of getting it back, or of your proof of postage, whichever is sooner.

Damage, faults and anything that arrives not as described are handled separately and are not limited to fourteen days. If a piece arrives damaged, tell us within 48 hours with photographs of the piece and all of its packaging, and we will put it right at our cost — replacement parts from the studio where possible, collection and a full refund where not. Those are your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and nothing on this page reduces them.

If a date moves

Dates move. Studios miss them, licensors hold approvals, factories run late, and shipping is unpredictable. Any statue retailer telling you otherwise is either new or not being straight with you.

What we commit to is telling you before you have to ask. When a dispatch window changes, we update the product page and email everyone holding a reservation, with the reason if we have been given one. Every live estimate is also published on the release tracker, alongside the date we last checked it with our distributor — so a quiet month is visibly a checked month, not a forgotten one. When a window moves, we show the old date struck through beside the new one rather than quietly rewriting it. We would rather send you a disappointing email than have you find out by checking a page you have already checked eleven times.

A moved date does not change the terms of your reservation. If you would rather not wait, that is a cancellation like any other: we retain 10% of the price.

If we cannot supply

Occasionally an edition is cancelled by the studio, or an allocation we expected does not materialise. If we cannot supply a piece you have reserved, we refund everything you have paid in full within fourteen days and tell you why. We do not substitute a different piece, and we do not hold your money against a future release unless you ask us to.

Questions

Can I cancel a statue pre-order?

Yes, but the deposit is non-refundable. If you cancel we retain 10% of the price — for a deposit reservation that is your deposit; if you paid in full, 10% is retained and the balance returned. Where a statutory right to cancel applies, it is unaffected.

Do you charge a cancellation or restocking fee?

If you cancel a reservation we retain 10% of the price. For a deposit reservation that is the deposit you have already paid; if you paid in full, 10% is retained as a cancellation fee and the balance returned.

When do I pay the balance?

When the piece has arrived with us and passed inspection. You have fourteen days from that point to settle it.

What does inspection involve?

We open the outer carton and the studio shipper, lift the piece and its parts out of the foam and test any lighting, check the paint and the parts against the studio's photography, and repack it in the same foam and shipper before it ships. We do not break factory seals on inner bags unless a part has to be checked.

What if my card expires during the wait?

Nothing to worry about. The balance is settled when your piece lands, with whatever payment method you choose at that point. Nothing is ever charged without telling you first.

What happens if the release date is delayed?

We update the product page and email everyone holding a reservation with the new window and the reason. A moved date does not change the terms: if you would rather not wait, cancelling means we retain 10% of the price.

Will I be charged import duty or VAT on delivery?

No. The price shown is the UK landed price with duty and import VAT already paid. There is nothing to pay the courier.

How much is delivery?

Nothing. Delivery to mainland UK is included on every reservation. Most pieces ship tracked and signed-for with UPS, double-boxed; the largest go by pallet or two-person courier.

Can I collect my statue instead?

Yes, free, from the Loaded Dice shop at 28 Holton Road, Barry CF63 4HD. Tell us when you reserve or any time before the balance is requested; once it is paid we bring the piece to the shop and email you when it is ready to collect, within fourteen days, Tuesday to Saturday 10:30–16:30 or Sunday 11:00–15:00.

Do you deliver to Northern Ireland or overseas?

Not at present. Delivery is to mainland UK only. Join the Register and we will say if that changes.

This page describes how Halidom reservations work. It is a plain-English summary and not a substitute for the full terms of sale.

Sources

The rights described on this page come from the legislation below. If it changes, this page is updated and the review date in the byline moves.