Saturday, November 30, 2013

Late Kickstarter: December Edition

I'm a little over a day early but tomorrow is Sunday so chances of anything arriving on that day are pretty narrow eh?

Tectonic Craft Studios. Terrible communication. Terrible overall service. To make a product like this with no instructions, few painted samples, and well, to be this late isn't doing the company any favors. We've been assured that things have been mailed but I haven't seen any tracking numbers and the people on the comments section aren't pipping up with their orders being delivered. This is a bitter pill in other ways because of the non-unique nature of the work, many other companies have stepped into the same space and a lot of them are doing business and using the Kickstarter method to fund which means more direct competition. They also appear to be doing a better job of communicating.

Dwimmermount. When James pulled Cartman from South Park and said screw you guys I'm going home, Tavis stepped up. It was a noble effort but really, looking back on it, seeing his own products late, perhaps, just perhaps mind you, he should have said "Guys I'm a small company and its too much to handle. I'm doing a full refund."

Steampunk Musha: Chances of me ever backing anything by this company or any of the individuals in it? Slim to none. It's not just the lateness factor. It's the lack of communication. It's seeing new products and bundles going up for the company and not getting any updates on it. And I wonder about the numerous stretch goals and what will happen with them. And I wonder about the people who really believed in the project and backed at the very high levels...

28mm Demons and Devils: Wow. I like Matt but his communication skills have been terrible. Let's take a personal example. "Matt, where's the Frog Demon that I preordered at Gen Con. Are you shipping it with the other figures?" "No, it's already been shipped by Valiant. That one is coming straight from the manufacturer so I can't combine it or anything of that nature." Weeks pass and I inquire again with no answer from the company so contact the casters directly and that gets a response with some more information and some assurances that for reals dog, I got you and it's on the way.  Again, Matt is a decent enough guy, nice to talk to, works a lot of hours at his 'real' job and all that. But people putting hundreds of dollars down on multiple occasions don't want to be lied to, because if you say X, and well, you know, it's Y, which is sorta like X but isn't? The currency of trust you have to fight tool and nail for is instantly devalued from gold to not even copper, but the lowly bronze piece. (4 bronze = 1 copper!)

Imbrian Arts Miniatures; Jody is active on Facebook. He's active in the comments section. He's got his miniature art and stuff around. These things make the lateness of the project far more acceptable than some of the others. I'm down for the 'year of' supplies but so far that's meant nothing and nothing. It's okay though as I know the stuff exists out there and that it's on the way.

Assimilation Alien Host: Communication hasn't been bad. Ed's been hit with some personal misfortune. My initial desire to use these as some weird type of Cthulhu monsters has fallen to the wayside because I've essentially stopped playing D&D and been doing more table top painting and that's been aimed at Warmachine so this basically becomes a 'useless' purchase that I wouldn't have made today.

Relic Knights. Yeah... I think I'm done with CMON except for possibly Confrontation. The communication here has been again, terrible. The promises of quality control remain to be seen. The whole effort seems to be that they're late to make it better, but you know, since you were late initially to make it better, where was the quality assurance group during that initial late time?

Cthulhu Mythos Foundry: Looking forward to the big C. Hell, by the time it's ready I may actually have a good handle on my air brush for it. It's not the latest, the communication has been m'eh and really, I'm just waiting to see what happens. At least the guy sent off the material that was ready so I'll give him points for that.

Drake the Dragon Wargame. Throw this up there with Alien Hosts. Thought a lot of the miniatures might be useful for RPG purposes. Maybe I'll be blown away by the game itself but I haven't seen a lot of people touting any miniature Kickstarter games as being the next Warmachine or Warhammer or what have you. This isn't to say people aren't playing say Freeblades, Carnivale, 1650, or the Delve System but they aren't movers and shakers.

Fractured Dimensions: Updates fairly regularly. My order in particular is being held up by the exclusive figures. So you offer up exclusive figures and don't have those done first? Yeah, that's not saying "Hey, if I run another KS, buy the exclusive figures!" Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's the opposite. "Hey, if you don't buy the exclusive figures, we'll ship you game out up to four, maybe six months early!"

I'm not going to say that I'm 'done' with Kickstarters but... Games Workshop game out with some new 'technical' paints. I went to the store and bought them. The War Store and Miniature Market have their Black Friday sale. I placed some orders and it's being shipped out already.

There are some companies, like Stonehaven, that I'm going to support. Others, well, if you or anyone associated with your project is already on this list and its crops up on something I'm interested in, chances are I'm NOT going to support it. It's not that you're a bad person or a terrible company but well, nothing says success like success and these companies below have not succeeded.

Who knows. Maybe it's the rush of being able to see something and buy it. Maybe it's the fact that so many companies are single man studios and well, it's too easy to get sick, to have a car accident, to have a loved one get sick, to have 'con crud', to have mechanical setbacks with your machines, to have a false understanding of how casting in America works, or what have you but the record speaks for itself and it says "Joe, show some damn restraint!"


Project Name Due Date Date Late Days Late Months
Tectonic Craft Studios 6/1/2012 12/1/2013 -548 -18
Dwimmermount 8/1/2012 12/1/2013 -487 -16
Steampunk Musha 10/1/2012 12/1/2013 -426 -14
28mm Demons & Devils 3/1/2013 12/1/2013 -275 -9
Imbrian Arts Miniatures 3/1/2013 12/1/2013 -275 -9
Assimilation Alien Host 5/1/2013 12/1/2013 -214 -7
Relic Knights 5/1/2013 12/1/2013 -214 -7
Cthulhu Mythos Foundy Style 7/1/2013 12/1/2013 -153 -5
Drake The Dragon Wargame 7/1/2013 12/1/2013 -153 -5
Fractured Dimensions 8/1/2013 12/1/2013 -122 -4

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