Hey everyone!
It’s February already and I’m sure you’re all expecting notifications for shipments to be going out. I’d like to provide an update before you start wondering what’s going on, so I’ll cut straight to the point for this update, and give you the good and the bad news.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way
We’ve been trying to push for our production run to get completed, however a few things have resulted in a few delays on the factory side. There were a few parts that required sourcing from different suppliers due to our main factory not having the parts in stock/production. This means that we’re beholden to other factories’ timeframes to supply the necessary parts. This has meant a slight delay in the usual process for factory.
The bigger issue for us was that the Lunar New Year is coming up (Feb-17) and this is effectively the big holiday period in China. What ends up happening is that a lot of factories and businesses shut down for a few weeks whilst everyone goes back to their hometowns to spend time and celebrate with their families. Our factory told us that they will effectively close down on the 9th of Feb until the end of the month. Unfortunately for us, the sets aren’t fully produced and won’t be ready in time for the 9th due to other major orders from other companies, so we’ve been bumped to finish completion only after the break. Realistically, we’re looking at shipments beginning at the end of the month or early March.
This is obviously not the news we wanted and certainly not what we wanted to share with you. We rushed the packaging to try and make it in time too...
We’ve been working as hard as we can to help get this done, but it’s not been enough. We know how excited everyone is to receive their sets, as you’ve been writing in to us, so it just makes it so much harder to give this news of the delay. We’re very sorry about this and it feels terrible to know that our efforts to push things through have been in vain.
Whilst it would be easy for us to just attribute the delay to the factory and saying that it’s out of our hands, we were aware of the window we had with the Lunar New Year fast approaching. Had we not taken the additional 2 weeks in December for our fixes, we probably could’ve made our window. Therefore we will be taking full accountability for this delay and want to make it up to everyone with a special something...
The good news
As a way to make up for the additional delay, we’d like to offer everyone who has ordered a Creator Set an upcoming beast building instructions for free. Which beast - you may be wondering…
It’s not completed yet (since I’m pretty busy with other things) but as soon as it’s ready, it’ll be accessible from your dashboard. Since it’s heavily based off the Sawtooth build, I’m trying to ensure that it can be made with parts from the Creator Set. There might be a few coloured parts that might be off here and there, but we’re also looking into offering parts for this and the Specter, as well as any upcoming builds as individual sets in the future. Keep an eye out for them.
Whilst we know it doesn’t quite make up for the delay, we hope it shows our sincerity in doing things the right way and making sure everyone is glad that they put their faith in us. We hope the Ravager is an additional beast you’ll appreciate adding to your collection.
The famed Thunderjaw fixes are ready
So poor Sean has spent a good part of a week building up the original Thunderjaw and then swapping out the original with fixes so that we could share those with you.
These fixes were a bit more extensive due to a few issues. Let me go through them one-by-one.
1. The panels were being held by single-stud connections
When moving the Thunderjaw, we would find that it was customary for a panel (or many) to fall off making it a bit troublesome to place. Of course since these will most likely be display pieces, it’s not such a huge problem, but anything we can do to make the experience better, we will try to make it happen. So we redesigned how they’re attached so that they will stay on if bumped.
2. A very minor fix for the jaw
We added a 1x2 plate here to make this single-stud connection more solid.
3. A minor visual update for the rapidfire cannons
4. A more stable stand
The stand also got a redesign as we found that the original one wobbled too much and would make the build feel a little unstable - not to the point it was falling, mind you, but enough for us to warrant a redesign. We also slimmed it out a little.
Unfortunately we realised a little too late that we don’t have footage with the new stand (but for good reason), so you’ll just need to trust us that it’s better 😅
Which leads me to a final surprise reveal…
5. Behold! A self-standing Thunderjaw!
Now, before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, I must give a strong caution - this build configuration is super tenuous and requires a bit of skill (and a lot of patience) to get the balance just right. What we’ve done is that we’ve built-in a worm gear mechanism to lock the legs into position, which allows you to finely tune the angle of each leg separately. Because of the design of the Thunderjaw, the centre of gravity is not ideal for getting it to stand on its legs (unless those legs are purpose-built like tanks). We had to make it work with the design we have, but the image should be proof that it is possible, if you so wish, to remove the stand.
Our recommendation, however, still remains to keep the new stand intact as we’ve not been able to test the longevity of the free-standing function (so far it’s been standing like this for just over a week). It’s more of a party trick than a long-term display but we’re happy for you to help us test that when you get yours. We’ve made it so that it’s not too difficult to remove the stand if you like a bit of pain and want to attempt this for yourselves. As always, the additional parts required for all the fixes are already included in the sets.
Overall, we’ve learned a tonne from the fixes we’ve made across all the sets and hopefully will be able to bring this know-how to all future builds.
Happy Lunar New Year
Finally we’d like to wish everyone who will be celebrating a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year. Hopefully hopefully hopefully, our next update will be providing you all information about the shipments. Just a quick reminder to ensure your shipping address is correct! We’re almost at the finish line!
Take all the time in the world, genuinely looking forward to these sets and all these updates are greatly appreciated! Keep up the unbelievable work 🙌🙌
I very much appreciate your attention to detail and handling of all the supply chain logistics! The updates are super informative and appreciated, and I completely agree with Calvin - take all the time you need!