I wanted to give everyone an update. We are moving on to the manufacturing stage. I’m going to repeat that WE ARE MOVING ON TO THE PRODUCTION STAGE! I’m excited to finally be at this point. It’s been a really long stressful process, but honestly, that’s how it goes sometimes when trying to manufacture in China. A lot of what I’m about to tell you has been experienced and talked about by many companies over the last year or so. Although I’ve made several projects in China, I’ve never experienced all of these issues. To be honest I haven’t experienced too many issues at all. When we started the project it was done with the information we had at that time. Had I known all these difficulties would arise, I would have never started the kickstarter. Now that I see these awesome figures in front of me, maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t know, because these figures need to be in collectors’ hands.

Some of the issues were the following:

Multiple people not paying for their pledges.

Issues with the parts scans from the first factory.

Conflict of interest with the first factory.

Redoing all the sculpts in digital format in record breaking time and reengineering the body since the physical scans weren’t usable and the first factory had the samples.

Moving the project to the new factory after paying for services at the first factory that weren’t usable.

Shut downs multiple times for Covid and blackouts in China

Production costs and labor costs in China increasing.

Mold factory behind schedule and not equipped to make this many molds at one time. Machinery constraints.

More covid.

Issues with engineering on some of the parts.

Running out of money (due to backer non-payment, losing funds with the first factory, re making molded parts we weren’t happy with and rising costs)

Well, you get the idea. Lots of things in the world fell apart and the timing for this project fell right in the middle of it. That being said I’m running the project and I have to take responsibility for it. Have I made mistakes along the way? Yes, I have. I’ve learned a lot through this process and there are many things I’m doing differently now on other projects. I apologize for the things I could have done better and the fact you’ve had to wait so long. I take the fact you pledged your hard-earned money to this project very seriously.

We recently got all the engineering fixes made to the mold. Some were minor, but we wanted these figures to the best we could make them. Some I think most companies wouldn’t worry about. Who cares if the figures won’t hold the weapons well and the joints break when you move them? Well, we care. These figures are Matt and I’s resume for future projects. We can’t make up lost time but we can give you the most innovative quality product we can produce.

I also sold some property I owned to ensure there was enough funds in the bank to pay for everything. In summary molds are done, funds are secured, and I’m working with the factory to get the order on the productions schedule. This should get underway in the next couple weeks. We should be able to get a tentative date when the order will be done at that time. I’m going to ask for lots of photos throughout the production process which will be a lot more exciting to look at than pictures of steel molds.

I will be at Toylanta with protypes next week (Matt is stopping by as well) I will be at the Cotswold Collectibles booth, come by and see us. – Jason