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FURSUIT REVIEW FORM

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Your Username
Chimeracon http://www.furaffinity.net/user/chimeracon/


Name of Maker and Links
Ugolek Fursuit Studio https://www.instagram.com/ugolek_fursuitstudio/


Your Relationship With The Maker
The maker is NOT a friend


Item Being Reviewed
Character name, type of commission, etc. This will be used to help title the submission on FursuitReview
Tarn the Lion Head in a toony style as a commission.


Species of Character
Lion






Character Concept Art
https://imgur.com/LkxxzJw
https://imgur.com/hskBJDu




Photos of Completed Product
https://imgur.com/yazOvlR
https://imgur.com/lFQXxTF
https://imgur.com/kRvRUiT


Price Paid
670$ USD paid in installments


Do you have any prior experience with fursuits?
No, this is my first fursuit


How many hours have you worn/used the item(s) you're reviewing?
Give your best estimate.
75+ hours


Date Commissioned or Bought
October 2018


Date Completed or Shipped
September 2019

Shipping Origin
Russia

Did the maker finish the item by the expected date (ETA)?
NO - MULTIPLE ETAs were passed


Did you tell the maker about any issues you had?
The only issue I had is the bottom teeth began to come unglued after one day of suiting but it was an easy fix I didn't have to contact the maker over.

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HEAD
The following questions ask you to explain how satisfied you are with each feature of the head of the costume. If you are reviewing only a set of ears, your answers would also go in this section.

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Wear Satisfaction
Please describe how it is to wear this piece of your costume.
Very good vision! Very breathable and the movable jaw allows me to put a prop in it for better airflow (seen in a couple of the pictures I posted).The one issue is the elastic inside is a little bit loose, it slides down my face instead of opening the jaws sometimes. But it could be due to me not wearing a balaclava. There is a blind spot in the middle, as with most fursuits, but I can easy bypass it by tilting my head. Overall, very good wear.

Ventilation is only through the mouth and eyes, but again the mouth is movable and provides good airflow when opened, and the eyes are big enough that I can breathe pretty well with it closed too.

Appearance Satisfaction
Please describe how satisfied you are with how your costume piece looks from the outside.
I do adore how he turned out! He's very cute and even though an artistic liberty was taken in giving him a yellow sclera, I actually do like it more than my original concept art! I think it makes the eyes pop out more against the dark purple fur. The scars are made of fleece and blend very well in with the shaved fur. He has follow me eyes and I can pull a few different expressions with head tilting and jaw moving.

The only complaint I have is, as seen in one of my concept art, this character is a lion with a rather big mane. The mane feels like it was chopped down when I was originally promised a "big, fluffy mane". Though I will say they misunderstood my concepts in that I didn't want the mane to be detachable, so that could be on my end. Either way I do wish the mane was bigger, and people have mistaken my character for a cat rather than a lion because of it, but it's not the end of the world and I still like it.

Shaving is very well done, and like I said it makes the fleece scars barely noticeable as a different material with the good shaving.

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OVERALL SATISFACTION
The following questions ask how satisfied you are with the overall buying experience, including your interactions with the maker and the resulting final product.

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How was your concept art realized?
As I said, the suit does match my concept art very well, and they did take a slight artistic liberty with his eye colors but I like it! I'm a bit disappointed about the mane, but it's not the end of the world. Also my character has multiple tears in his ears, one being a rather large hole near the base. This hole is missing and I'm a bit sad about that as I was planning to loop an accessory through that hole but it's not the end of the world, again.

And this is where I start having complaints, though. As seen in my concept art, this character has a mask. I was told at initial contact the mask could be made no issue, and it was one of the primary reasons I decided to go with this maker...I never received my mask. I paid extra to have the mask made and have never received it or even given updates on it. I think the maker just dropped it.


How well does everything fit together and match up?
Not applicable, head only


How easy was it to initially contact the maker for a quote?
I found the maker through a positive review on Fursuit Review, contacted them via FurAffinity and paid the down payment a few weeks later.


How satisfied are you with the response time from the maker?
How long did it take the maker to get back to you?
Response time was very slow on FurAffinity notes, but near immediate on Instagram DMs. I believe she said she has issues loading FA notes so I won't hold it against her.


How satisfied are you with the professionalism and customer service and of the maker?
This...is why I have rewritten this review. Previously I adored Ugolek's professionalism but she has changed and I never received parts I paid extra for.

Updates on my suit were only given when I asked for them, and I was repeatedly pushed back for premade costumes and other people's commissions even though my character had a much simpler design than some of the other costumes she was working on instead of me. I was in her queue for an entire year and had to tell her that I was attending a con at the first week of October and needed the suit by then. She did compensate by paying express shipping so the suit would be here on time but...this could've all been avoided if she had just stopped pushing my project back for others, she had an entire year to work on it and had to rush it at the last minute because she kept making premades instead of me. She did remake the suit on an updated lion base for no extra charge, and didn't charge me extra for the express shipping, I will say that.

Multiple times I was given an ETA and they were all passed, I was told July once, then August, and then finally had to ask for it to be done by October. For the mask that I mentioned earlier, I was told October or November. As of January 2020, I have not received any updates on the mask or the free handpaws she promised me as compensation for taking so long. I was told the mask would be shipped at a later date than the head because she was having, quote "issues with her 3d printer (another person, from my understanding)" and "having troubles with the shape of the mask". Which initially I believed but...I now see on her Instagram she has been dabbling in making 3d printed head bases which, I don't know a lot about how 3d prints work but if you're making entire headbases I can't quite imagine that a mask fitted to the shape of a fursuit head would be much diferent of a shape..? I'm starting to suspect I was lied to, and the fact she has never contacted me with updates about the mask makes me think she just hopes I never ask about it which...unfortunately I don't think I ever will. I hate to raise a fuss after seeing what she did to another person (which I go into below), and the fact I do like my head a lot even though he's missing a part I paid 150$ extra for.

I also want to point out unprofessionalism on someone else's behalf that contacted me. I was contacted by another customer of Ugolek's that mentioned their commission also being repeatedly pushed back for more than a year, and had the same issue as me as they said they're going to be attending a con soon. And I recommended to them to mention to do the same thing I did and mention the con and that they'd like it done by then. I was shocked at the response from Ugolek, nothing like what I recieved. Ugolek PUBLICALLY called out this person on their Instagram story yelling at them for "violating TOS" for asking if the suit they'd been waiting for a year with no update would possibly be finished before the end of February. And right after the public callout to their customer, mentioned that they're making more premades. They should not be making all these premades if customers in their queue that have paid for custom work are upset that they've had to wait an extended time because of how many times they had been pushed back for premades. Your commission work should ALWAYS come before personal work, especially if the wait time has been more than a year.

So no, this maker used to be very professional. But she has changed, and has become very immature and irresponsible with delivering parts.


How satisfied are you with how long your project took to complete?
I am extremely dissatisfied with how long this project took to complete, especially considering it never even got technically completed because I never received the mask.

I was repeatedly pushed back for commissioners that paid months after I did, and so many premades. So many premades were finished and sold before I was even started on. My character is not that complex of a design, the only real markings he has were his scars. Compared to a lot of the very intricate premade designs she was making. There is no reason my head took this long to make when other people received their heads with again, much more intricate designs than mine, in 2-3 months. Before I didn't complain about this, but now that I know I'm not the only person who has been experiencing wait time and pushback issues, I want to complain about it. I saw some commissions in their trello that I've never seen completed or even started on since 2018, when I was in their trello and trying to keep up with it. I don't even know what happened with those commissioners.


Are you happy with the product you received?
The product itself is very high quality, and very cute. I love him a lot.


Describe your overall experience with this maker.
Their products are very high quality....if you ever get them.

While I do love my head, and love how he is made. There's no reason I should've had to ask for express shipping to make it to a con when I bought it a year in advance and they finished many other people's commissions and premades before me. I have never even been given an update on what happened to my extra mask, and I doubt I ever will. The maker had a public tantrum over another customer gently asking if the suit they had been waiting over a year on with no updates would be done by the end of February, and CLEARLY heavily prioritizes making premade suits as opposed to commission suits, as like I said, the post directly after this tantrum was talking about more premade designs being made soon. And the fact I've seen some fullsuit commissions in their queue for more than 2 years and never seen them posted about on their Instagram.

In short; you really don't know what you're going to get when commissioning this maker, and I absolutely wouldn't commission this maker for any character with extra parts such as piercings and other accessories, there's a high change you'll never receive it the extra part or have to wait an absurd amount of time because of it even though you never even received this part.

You could wait a month to get your suit, you could wait over a year. Who knows! They won't tell you, or even tell you if/why you got pushed back.

Ugolek, please stop focusing on your premades over your commission work. If you have decided you want to do premades instead of commissions, please be up front with your customers about this and take less commissions. There are many ways to work around wanting to make mostly premades, and ignoring your commission customers is not the way to do it. Also, please don't just pretend pieces never got asked for. Update people on what is happening with their commission, don't promise people something you are not able to follow through on just to make a commission sale. You will only end up with unhappy customers.

I'm extremely disappointed because I wanted to commission this maker again in the future because I love her style but...now I'm not so sure unless her business practices change back to what they were before.

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FINAL SCORE
FursuitReview scores by having you answer the following question: Would you recommend this maker to another?
Pick one of the scores below that you feel honestly reflects your commissioning experience as a whole, including the quality of your item(s), the appearance, and how you were treated by the maker.

OK


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[YES] Positive = The reviewer would recommend this maker to another
[OK] Neutral = The reviewer may or may not recommend this maker, depending on certain circumstances (reviewer clarifies what these are)
[NO] Negative = The reviewer would not recommend this maker to another, unless the maker significantly changes their practices

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