Tuesday, May 19, 2009

LOG032: APOLOGIES FOR DELAY

Man I've been busy busy busy and falling sick. My sincerest apologies to those people who have supported this project and been patient with the repeated delays. Updates as of now, I'm trying to clear the orders by Fri 22th May if possible.

And to those of you guys who have been patient with this project you'd be entitled to a 20% discount for any future kits or stuff that I'm gonna sell here or on ebay, just a token of appreciation and a form of apology for the wait.

Cybertronian Arcee and Bumblebee will be next on the list once I've got time to catch up on my personal projects.

Thanks and sorry again.
Eric

Thursday, April 2, 2009

LOG031: HOS01 ORDERS TO CEASE

It has come to my attention that there are rumors concerning other parties announcing their own mass production and pre-ordering of the HOS Prime figure. While I'm not against anyone who'd share a similar idea, design, prototype, tool, manufacture and sell his own toy, I got a shock when directed to this site. Basically someone with a high feedback rating is taking pre-orders for a similar product using pictures taken from my blog as well as from Sabrina. (she's hopping mad when I showed her that, check out the thread she started over tfw2005)

Coincidentally, Sabrina called me a couple of days ago mentioning that a potential client from Shanghai wished to purchase a number of kits as well as an assembled piece. I didn't give it much thought until I was informed by one my partners in this project of the news mentioned above and that this particular client was reluctant to deal with me directly. I could be wrong, but its a very scary thought that I might end up sabotaging the people who's putting money and effort to realize this project with me by making the design in resin available to just anyone who's willing to pay for it.

My partners in this project have been gracious enough to allow continue sales of the resin kit, but I'm sad to announce that I've decided that all orders for HOS01 will be ceased effective from April 01 to protect their interests. For you guys who have paid a deposit or in full, you will get yours but with this potential threat going on as well as some other problems I'm facing, there's a high possibility of further delaying though I'd wish to settle all orders on hand asap. And to be fair to the people who have contributed to this project directly, I will not be making resin versions of future HOS models if the mass manufacturing project is successful. This is a very hard decision for me as I have personally spent a lot of time and money on development on this project and regretfully, the costs cannot be covered at all at this point of time. I'll be working on other stuff at the moment.

Thanks to all of you who have supported this project and those who will continue to support it in its ABS plastic form. Please bear with me a little for those who have ordered and paid either partially or in full. I'll do my best to ship out soon but if you'd rather not wait and wish to retract your order I will do a full refund at the end of a month or in May.

Thanks again to all
Eric

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

LOG030: COMPLETION OF ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

Finally completed the instructions for the assembly for the HOS01 kit. I tried to keep it simple and not have too many pages. The instructions are included in the kit but its available for download as well.

Monday, March 23, 2009

LOG029: MINOR CHANGES IN ADMIN ISSUES

Emails have been flooding and I was using my gmail account for everything so things are getting a little messy. So I'm directing all issues related to this blog and production to my new email address monolithdesigns@gmail.com

There have been changes to my Paypal account as well as my current ebay and paypal accounts are all registered under my ex-partner's name when we're still in the same company and failing to verify myself as the owner of those accounts, they'd be freezed until my ex-partner finds time to verify them for me. No worries for those who have made payments of any form. If there is a need for refunds I will do it through my new account under monolithdesigns@gmail.com as well.

For those who are waiting for their kits and figures, I'll have a proper update in 2-3 days' time. Thanks for being patient.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

LOG028: FORMATION OF MASTERMIND CREATION

Announcement: HOS01 is to be mass manufactured

I have recently been corresponding to a couple of like-minded investors and guys experienced in the processes of toy manufacturing and we've decided to form a team to put HOS01 into production and possibly other projects.

Master Mind Creation (MMC)'s goal is to create custom toys based on familiar TF characters that are never made into actual toys as well as original robot designs. And of course the first project announced is HOS01.

There will be a number of improvements and changes to be made to the original design especially in the joints. The actual price is unconfirmed at the moment. More details will be announced here as well as in the MMC blog.

A note to folks who ordered the resin version:
I have been advising potential buyers of the HOS01 kit since the group has been discussing on the project. The kits will continue to be available to those who are willing to support this version and I will still be continuing the series in resin as it there it cannot be confirmed that all my designs can be mass produced.

If you have any specific queries do email me at griffith76@gmail.com I will try to ship out all confirmed orders by the end of March. A big Thank You to those who have supported this project and those who will continue supporting.

*I will be away from 16-22th Mar and will not be able to reply to emails.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

LOG027: HOS01 PAINTED

Finally painted up a set on my own. This is be the paint-job I'm offering to folks who opted for the additional assembly plus painting. So far it doesn't seem that the paint will come off easily but I have to be honest, I use paint from aerosol spray cans.

Initially I painted the rivets silver but he looked kinda like a Christmas tree so I repainted them to match the color of the parts. Was going to only do a flat color on the figure but then it looked really cheap so I added tones to it.

Will do up a sample of the black when I have time. And btw I solved the loose joint issue for this more flexible new resin I'm using. :D


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

LOG026: HOS01 ASSEMBLED KIT

Really very sorry to those who are still waiting for their kits. A lot of unforeseen issues came up and I had to delay on the work and the tests and instructions are taking a lot longer than expected. This is roughly how the assembled kit would look like without paint. Some issues I'm still trying to fix is that the joints are a lot looser than than the pure white ones that I've tested. I'll be reducing the paint and will be changing the joint materials and modify a little on the assembly instructions that I'm still writing.

Hoping to get everything done up and fulfill all the pending orders by the end of March. I'll be away for a week from 16-22th Mar for army reservist training so I won't be able to attend to any emails.

There will also be some announcements soon for future plans and concerning this project as well so stay tuned. Meanwhile here are some pics for those waiting for their kits...