#playbills situation

[lil-cute-shinigami-comic]

Yall

how much bet the playbills will arrive on Vivziepoop's birthday... 10/28(iirc)

[strangegardendelusion]

10 months? Yet no playbills in sight

Yeah, to everyone who bought playbills, I don't think you will ever get it.

I mean, you might get it? But like in a year type situation. Where are you going through your mail and boom! Your playbill is here! And you completely forgot you got that.

That is what happened to me, but instead of playbill, it was a pin from Etsy.

(Honestly, you all are saints for this type of patience)

[genericpuff]

every now and then i get folks asking me "puff do you have any opinions on hazbin hotel"

and i know why they're asking because if there's any fandom that puts LO to shame, it's hazbin hotel / helluva boss and surely i must have some Very Strong Opinions(tm) about the show

but i seriously have never watched a single episode of that show and despite all the controversy and drama i've seen come from the discussion of both the show and its creator, the only thing that really bugs me out of the blue when i'm reminded HH exists are those exclusive playbills that people pre-ordered months ago and still haven't arrived

that is it, that is literally the extent of my engagement with the HH fandom, there will be no further questions about what i think regarding HH because i literally have no idea, they are best asked to whoever comes close to being the generic-puff equivalent of the HH fandom

[bloopiebloop]

It's officially the end of August.

Maybe the people who bought the playbills should just riot/j

[antivivziepopparade]

Turns out, they cant get a refund.

Which makes this even WORSE.

-and yes, refunds arent only returns. But the fact that people cant get returns is so sus smh.

To be honest, while I never really talked about the Hazbin playbill situation, there’s two things that make me feel bad for the people who bought the package

Those packages weren’t cheap. In typical Spindlehorse merch fashion, the package was definitely overpriced to me because I’ve been hearing that this package costed around $70-$90 dollars and it was supposed to include keychains, pins of the main characters, the playbill, and trading cards. Why in the ever loving fuck should a package cost that much, and something that makes this worse is that the playbill wasn’t included when people got the package

For context, a user on the Hazbin Hotel subreddit spent $90 dollars on this package and didn’t get the playbill (I cropped the image because they included a receipt that showed their name, even though they blurred it out)

Like, this is just a scam in plain sight

The other part about this was kinda expected, but it’s Vivziepop’s (either her, or Spindlehorse’s) immature email responses to people asking about the playbills.

Like, why in the holy hell would you roleplay as a character from your own show and insult your customers by saying they’re being greedy only to tell them that they should rewatch the show and fuck off. That’s a whole another level of childish and unprofessional.

The worst part is that people haven’t been waiting since January, they’ve been waiting ever since OCTOBER 2023 because that’s when the merch was announced

Anyways this is just my two cents on the situation, fuck Viv and I hope people who bought the package can get a refund

[thishazbinamistake]

(Link to thread)

This whole playbill situation keeps getting sketchier and sketchier by the day. A simple response from Viv to this individual saying something like "Don't worry, we're working on it!" would have gone such a long way, but instead she decides to do the one thing she does best and just block absolutely anyone who questions her, no matter how polite and non-confrontational they're being. Does she really not realize how incredibly suspcious blocking someone over this makes her look?

I'm no law expert but I really hope someone takes legal action against Viv and Spindlehorse over this, because at this point this whole thing is starting to smell like fraud...

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

No update on the Playbill situation and no acknowledgment of that racist Alastor cosplayer who showed up to a con in full blackface.

I know Viv’s fans don’t want to admit this, but refusing to acknowledge legitimate controversies is a bad look.

This isn’t a case of fandom drama, this shit has serious long term consequences.

The folks who paid money for those Playbills deserve an update, even if it’s a bullshit “We’re working on it” post. Completely ignoring them isn’t going to automatically fix the issue, Viv.

Same thing goes for the Alastor cosplayer, refusing to condemn their actions not only makes the fandom look bad, but it makes the people who haven’t seen the show want to avoid it at all costs.

Blows my mind how nobody from Amazon told Viv to put out a public statement regarding the matter.

[antivivziepopparade]

The fact that people who, most likely didnt even buy said playbill, are saying shit like this (whats shown in the screenshot) shows just how little empathy these people have.

is it wrong for the people to complain about the playbills?

because they rightfully felt scammed it took a long time?

because this is the first time i've seen a fan accept this pr thingy

[strangegardendelusion]

For everyone who bought this! You better get comfortable. This gonna take a long time.

But seriously, how is anyone not getting angry? I can not stress this enough to everyone who bought this. You all have the patience of a saint.

Like, what do they mean? "The design is still being worked." Like brother, the design should've been finished 11 months ago!

I swear they pull excuses out of the trash because what?

[genericpuff]

I've watched both (this is a hazbin hotel ask btw) but tend to keep my eyes closed to merch sales (and such forth) unless it can pierce my five degrees of separation

also gotta admit that I've been not keeping up with HB since... honestly the since the season end. yeah I'm behind.

What do you mean they're waiting for what's functionally pamphlets? It's taking MONTHS for a pamphlet?

That's funny in the bad way 😭

yeah so from MY UNDERSTANDING (i.e. correct me if I'm wrong) the playbill was part of some exclusive package deal where buyers would receive some keychains, trading cards, and a playbill which was supposedly going to be filled with exclusive interviews/quotes/background information/etc. about the show's production. That playbill was exclusive to the pre-orders, meaning if you didn't pre-order this merch package, presumably you could still purchase the merch package on its own (or possibly its parts separately on the merch site like the keychains n junk) but the playbill would ONLY be sent to those who pre-ordered.

The pre-orders started around a year or so ago, but then roughly 9 months ago when the bundles started to show up, people reported that the playbill - literally the centerpiece of the marketing - was missing.

Since then, the playbills still haven't arrived, but customers have gotten TWO separate emails written from the "characters" of Hazbin Hotel updating them on the situation. Yes, you read that right, the emails meant to update people on the part of their pre-order package that was still missing - a package that cost them $76 and again, the playbill was exclusive to - were written in-character like a roleplay post in a message board forum.

And for some reason, the A24 staff decided that Husk would be the best character to deliver the bad news, a character who is, like many characters in Hazbin, just an asshole.

It's wild that this even got approved as an official email from the A24 team because let's face it - if you had spent $76 with the good faith expectation that you were gonna get everything you were promised in return for that $76 is this really the response you'd want to get? I'm not exactly sure when this email was sent out but according to some of the people reporting on it via Twitter, it was around the end of January (so the end of the month that folks were expecting it to roll in). Not a great way to tell people that the product they're waiting on - and didn't expect to be missing in the first place - was delayed.

Months later, a second email rolled out, and A24 sort of learned their lesson, not by actually addressing their customers as human beings, but this time as Charlie, who is at least not a complete dickhead.

It still doesn't really answer any questions though because it's putting the responsibility on fictional characters to explain what's going on. So of course everything is masked behind the "teehee, Alastor did a naughty and Niffty got stuck in the printing press machine!" roleplaying talk which literally does not actually tell anyone what's really going on, just gives them a vague impression based on what they chose to make a fictional character say.

Sure, it's nicer than Husk, but it's still disingenuous and frankly just cringe esp when this is concerning the interests of paying customers.

I don't know if this is Vivzie's doing or someone else on the A24 team, but it really feels like they're trying to operate the same way HH would have operated back when it was just a Youtube series... but it's not a small-time Youtube production anymore, it's a full on Amazon show with hired employees and a customer base that expects the thing they paid for to actually show up. So at best this is just really immature mishandling of a situation that should be taken at least relatively seriously.

And really, out of all the things to delay... the playbills? Really? For anyone who's not familiar with what a playbill is, it's literally just a booklet. Professional, "Playbill" branded playbills that you see in legitimate theatre productions are (if I recall correctly) anywhere from 30-60 pages, but a lot of those pages are often dedicated to ad space of other productions and companies, with maybe only 10-15 pages dedicated to the actual production. People love collecting them though because you typically only receive them when you go to see a play itself, so it can be a great souvenir from limited run productions.

It's kinda like comic collecting for theatre-goers, they can serve as memorabilia or as "proof" that you were there to attend a specific show. Though playbills don't tend to accrue as much value as much as comics can, they can still have a lot of sentimental value.

Hazbin Hotel isn't a play though. It's a streaming show available on Amazon Prime that anyone can watch anywhere in the world. It doesn't exactly have the need for something like a playbill, because the exclusivity is simply tied to how much extra money you're willing to give them for the pre-order, not to any sort of unique in-person experience of going to the theatre and watching the show live with your own eyes.

Granted, Hazbin Hotel does obviously take heavy inspiration from theatre culture as it is itself a musical, so I can understand the novelty and appeal of creating a unique playbill for it. I just don't really understand why that's the item that got delayed when a booklet containing exclusive info should be one of the easiest things to make, especially when it comes to production costs (printing a bunch of playbills shouldn't be anywhere near as expensive as producing keychains and trading cards).

But there was an update on reddit about this a couple weeks ago and it seemingly contradicts what A24 - sorry, 'Charlie', sigh - said months ago that they were working hard on specifically printing and packaging the playbill orders-

FINALLY the HH fandom gets a real human being from A24 responding, but they're saying that the designs are still being worked on??? So this means they haven't even started printing the things yet?? So that's an entirely DIFFERENT issue that hasn't been addressed up until this point.

So yeah, again, I don't have any stakes in this and it's definitely not something that I'm like, putting a lot of emotional investment into, but it has still been fascinating to check in on every now and then. Big condolences to the HH fans who paid $76+ for this package and are still waiting for the MAIN CENTERPIECE to show up - if you're one of those fans and are now reading this, you're probably gonna be waiting a little while longer because apparently they haven't even designed them yet 💀😆

[antivivziepopparade]

Its borderline scamming (allegedly) fr!

As of the time I am posting this, it is October 16 2024.

The Hazbin playbills were announced on October 16 2023

It has been exactly one year since these things were available for ordering. And we have yet to hear of a single person who purchased this merch package receiving their playbill

To make matters worse, these things do exist, as shown by this Instagram reel posted shortly after HH’s first episodes premiered to the public

I genuinely cannot comprehend how it could be so difficult to mass produce what are basically mini booklets, especially when we are constantly being bombarded with new merch every month.

[stars-fall]

I just got back from new York so here are some Gotham hcs

- the city of perpetual construction

-the most sleek& modern buildings situated right next to old classic gothic buildings

-lots of historical sites; like 3 museums

-so much graffiti

-the general trend/ style is street wear meets apocalypse-core type beat

-gargoyles

-gas masks are considered part of basic survival

- homeless shelters are very big because people flock to them whenever crisis hits

- there is a hit list for all the rouges (the rewards are crowd funded)

- joker is at the top with a 8 billion dollar reward for the clowns death

-batman knows but can't do anything about it

-Its traditional to leave gifts for the vigilantes

-robin: anything animal related will suffice| signal: gets left many things bc he's new| red Robin: anything with caffeine or merch of the family | red Hood: books/note books. Playbills are accepted as well | spoiler: anything purple or pictures of the bats falling | black bat: dance stuff | night wing: blue glittery things | Batman; cute pictures of his kids| I know I'm forgetting something but but what ever

- bat burger= MacDonalds

Some pics that emulate Gotham on a good day

Not all of these are original ideas but I don't remember where I saw them

[r1ch1e-l1psh1tz]

As the days go on, I start to realize how bad my starkid/hatchetfield hyperfixation is getting.

I literally had a dream where I was in a Bury The Bully situation with some of my friends. I also had a dream about the apotheosis taking over my body, so that was nice I guess?

Anyways, HCS!!!!!

While Ruth and Richie were dead, they saw the summoning and went “…Dude, they’re actually super hot, what the fuck.” And for the rest of their ghost lives, would come up with fanfic ideas with the LIB in it

Grace would’ve loved Star Vs The Forces of Evil if her parents let her watch it (she saw the art style and fell in love)

Paul has a shit ton of cook books

Richie had thought about joining the smoke club (idk, he seems like a stoner, just like me fr)

Ruth’s room is either one of those aesthetically pleasing rooms with a bunch of playbills on her wall or with mushrooms/plants everywhere…or both

Charlotte really likes reading, she volunteers at the library to read to the children every week and they love her

Linda uses candy to bribe her children into doing stuff

Emma really likes turtles, so when she moved in with Paul, they got four turtles and named them Leo, Donnie, Mikey, and Raph

-did i forget to mention Paul and Emma like TMNT?

Steph sleeps with the TV on due to her small fear of the dark

That’s all!

[autumnteawithfriends]

What it feels like seeing the playbill situation

[lil-cute-shinigami-comic]

Reblog and spread the words

I am hella tired that vivziepoop ignored her responsibility, doesnt act like a grown-ass adult(she's in her 30s) and pretending sh*t didnt happened...

Here are the sources:

Vivziepop situation

Playbill(ultimate package)status

Playbill status pt2

Money that viv spent on pt 1

I'll add more info on what stuff vivziepop buy rather than pay hard workin animators in her studio

[chaifootsteps]

It is honestly incredibly sad that Medrano refuses to even acknowledge the Pilot’s original team or voice actors. Like. At all. It shouldn’t be shocking to me, but it is, because I just can’t fathom being close, or acting close, to a group of people who worked to make my dream a reality—many of them for free or as volunteers, and to not say one public word of thanks to them. I think about that, and all the fundraising the VAs did, and I just. I can’t imagine stabbing so many people who helped me in the back like that. Especially the people who brought my characters and stories to life. It makes me genuinely so sad, and reading the playbill I couldn’t help but notice all the times Viv said “I or me”. The very first WORD in the playbill is “my” from Viv. I obviously can’t know this, but based on her interviews and how she presents herself online and in the playbill it really does seem like the only thing that matters to her is herself.

I can’t help but look at the playbill and compare it to Rebecca Sugar’s forward to the first Steven universe art book—it starts with “the crew makes the show” and repeats it like three times with the last one in caps. It’s so clear throughout her interviews and behind the scenes content that Rebecca Sugar cared deeply for her team and that their efforts meant a lot to her. She’s gone on record talking about how the writing of the show was a group effort and that many of the members added something special to her characters. I’ve noticed in interviews Rebecca often says “we” when talking about the story and planning. She makes it clear all the time that while she is the shows creator, that it was very much a group effort, and that her crew is what made the show what it was

No one is perfect, but I don’t understand why it is so hard for Viv to acknowledge the people who lifted her up, and I doubt I ever will.

Anyway, shout out to the Hazbin pilot cast and crew, and all the artists who were mistreated by Spindlehorse. Yall are more talented than the SH higher ups wanted you to know, and you deserve awesome careers in whatever field you want.

In the midst of a situation that comes dangerously close to constiuting an outright scam? That really is the ugliest, most shameful part of it all.