February Update: Project Management & Eagle Island Play Sets
about 5 years ago – Sun, Feb 24, 2019 at 05:28:34 PM

Hey Everyone!

The factory is just getting back from Chinese New Year, so not much new to report on that front but I wanted to give you a quick update.

Project Management 

As you know I’ve been pretty transparent with our challenges in China via frequent Kickstarter updates, Facebook posts and online forums.  Over the last month Craig and I have had folks from other toys companies reach out to try ask if they could help us get back on track. These folks are affiliated with other indie toy lines like H.A.C.K.S., Animal Warriors of the Kingdom, Dime Novel Legends, Glyos and Mythic Legions as well as some very experienced industry veterans. I mention them to not only shout them out and say how awesome they all are, BUT to let the fans know even though we are competitors we are ALL invested in each others success. “A rising tide lifts all boats” none of us wants each other to fail, the more success each of us has, the better the industry will be overall and the happier ALL of our customers will be. I can’t thank each to them enough for taking time to reach out to us and offer up their experience and guidance to help us navigate our challenges. 

With that said we’ve been able to lock down some Project Management help and we’ll be announcing more soon. This will include "boots on the ground" factory management that will hold our factory accountable for their missed timelines and work toward realistic delivery dates with the quality we expect. We’ll be able to report more details in a few weeks once they are able to do a factory visit and proper assessment. 

Eagle Island Play Sets

Work continues on the Eagle Island play sets. As you know these are custom pieces built by hand, each one crafted by Joe Harris from D&J Toys. Joe had to put these on pause for a bit because of illness,  but we're happy to report he is healthy now and back on track. He shared some "work in progress" images with me yesterday I wanted to pass on.  

We are trying to complete these as fast as possible so they can be shipped out with the figures when they arrive.

Other ”inside baseball” News

I have mentioned this on Facebook a few times, but we have been debating licensing out some of our digital library of action figure assets. We have amassed a large amount of digital assets across both our Eagle Force and Amazing Heroes lines. We’ve gotten a few requests over the last year to license out some of these assets for other lines. Since these assets are digital they can be used for lines at different scales. We have decided to do this to make up some of our "out of pocket" costs for overages on the Eagle Force campaign, like the a complete redo of our tooling and additional sculpting. We have worked out the legal paperwork, so you might start seeing some familiar but more generic assets like body parts and accessories from our library show up in other lines at a variety of scales.  As an theoretical example you might see some of the accessories we did for our 4" Amazing Heroes Madman figure show up in the upcoming 12” Captain Action costume set for Madman. I mention this as I don’t want internet rumors to start and it turn into something that gets blown out of proportion.  Happy to dig into that more in the comments below if anyone has any questions. 

Eagle Force Facebook Page Update

For those that follow us on Facebook we are no longer updating our Eagle Force Returns Facebook page. If you want to follow our progress please follow us on the Fresh Monkey Fiction Facebook Page here.  

That’s all for February’s update, but we'll be able to update more in a few weeks once our new Project Manager assess the factory.

Thanks

FMF

Factory challenges update...
about 5 years ago – Sat, Jan 26, 2019 at 02:30:16 PM

Hey Everyone,

Sadly I don’t have much to report as it’s Chinese New Year and the factories in China go dark for most of late Jan - late Feb.

I breaks me to write these monthly updates, will little news of progress. The factory in China we chose to do business with has not held up their end nor been able to commit to a realistic schedule. They continue to make empty promises to us on delivery timelines for all of our current projects including Eagle Force, Larry Hama and Amazing Heroes. This is not only effecting our business but Spero toys as well, who produce the "Animal Warriors of the Kingdom" line. Although this factory was able to produce their initial wave, they has fallen behind with subsequent waves. 

There is some light at the end of this tunnel, a few industry veterans who are currently working in China have generously offered to help us get our projects back on track after Chinese New Year.  They and their team will be visiting the factory and help project manage our projects to completion.  I am very confident with their help, we can turn a corner and get these figures in your hands with the quality you expect. We’ll of course keep you updated as the factory returns from Chinese New Year next month, as well be communicating with them daily. 

Many of you have asked about future waves and other projects, please understand that those need to be on “pause" for now until we get these figures in your hands. 

Thanks again sticking with us as we continue to work though these challenges. As always please feel free to reach out to us directly with any questions, as you know we are here and not going anywhere. 

FMF

Quick Update
over 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 11:46:38 PM

 Hey Everyone,Hope the new year is treating you well. Just wanted to share a quick update on the packaging.  The factory is working on sizing up the backer cards for the figures, here are a couple of images.

I don't think we're going to hear much from them until later February as Chinese New Year starts soon. 

Images of factory paint samples....
over 5 years ago – Fri, Dec 07, 2018 at 10:07:35 PM

Hey everyone

The factory has finally sent me images of the initial paint samples of some of the figures...needless to say they need A LOT of work. Below are a few images. Please be aware these are not production samples, these are 1st pass paint samples. These figures are painted by the factory to get final approval before we go into mass production. These are nowhere near final and have many issues that we'll need to resolve, such as the use of glossy paint, mis-matched paint, incomplete or incorrect colors, etc...

I was very hesitant to show any of these images, but this is part of the process and I wanted to Illustrate why these things take so long. Our current factory, although capable of producing figures, like Spero's Animal Warrior of the Kingdom line, seem to be more challenged on every level with Eagle Force. 

I'll be spending the next month or so course correcting the factory to revise these samples. I'm still confident we can get these done to the quality our fans expect, but it will take time to get it right.  I've heard feedback from a few of you who purchased the R.I.O.T. Commando test shot and are very happy with the quality of the construction of the figure. So once we nail down the paint I believe we'll have some great figures.

Thanks again 

FMF

Images from Designer Con and last chance(for Backers) to order a R.I.O.T. Commando test shot
over 5 years ago – Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 09:17:06 PM

Hey Everyone

Still no update from the factory on the paint samples. They have told me they'd have samples to me by Thanksgiving but still not luck. I keep pressuring them on a daily bases. They have apologized for the delay and we'll be offering us something extra to pass on to our backers. I don't want to say what it is yet, and I don't think anything we offer can make up for the delays but I hope it'll make you happy.  

Designer Con

BIG THANKS! for those of you who popped by to visit us at Designer Con last weekend. It was great to meet you in person. We showed our prototypes for what is now officially Wave 2.

We'll have painted versions to show early next year. Our main focus is getting wave 1 out the door, so these will not be offered until wave 1 orders are filled. We wanted to show them to get feedback now so we could make any changes before we move into production. So let us know what you think. 

Wave 2 and the other figures we've shown from Heroes vs Villains, Monster Force etc.., are on hold until we know we can get a factory that can deliver on time. The delays of this and the Larry Hama project have devastated our business model. Until we can figure out the factory situation we don't feel comfortable offering new figures to the public. We are working to fix it once wave 1 is out the door, the hope is once wave 1 is out the door we can align with a new factory that can produce on time. We know of one that can deliver and we are speaking to them now.   

R.I.O.T. Commando Test Shot Figure

We have a few R.I.O.T. Commando test shot figures left. We will be opening up orders to non-Kickstarter backers after Dec 1. So check the last update (which was for backers only) for the secret link to order. 

Thanks for hanging on with us on this project, we know it's been a long ride. We'll keep you up to date as soon as we have more info.

Thanks, 

FMF