RRT news

[Kryptt]

Here's an article with more RRT news.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/28554.html

[bielmic]

My post was officially deleted so I'll repost a much milder version of it. It is quite disappointing that backers are apparently not important enough to get news of official revisions of the release date in a timely manner and must find out from a third party. I would hope that the folks whose million and half dollars made this project happen would be the first to find out that the already delayed project is delayed yet again. Even if this change only affects retail estimates (highly unlikely given the looming June delivery date and production not being completed for wave 1), the retail delivery date affects backers as much as non-backers given that they would likely buy more items as well and are affected by the size (or lack of) a local play scene.

[NMI]

Since the article does not state where/when Palladium pushed the release date again, I went and checked the past few Updates and see nothing in them that indicates a July/August release.

I have sent Palladium and crew who have the knowledge of the actual FACTS a link to this topic/thread and the article itself.

[bielmic]

Since the article does not state where/when Palladium pushed the release date again, I went and checked the past few Updates and see nothing in them that indicates a July/August release.

I have sent Palladium and crew who have the knowledge of the actual FACTS a link to this topic/thread and the article itself.

Thanks for forwarding the link. I do hope they respond unlike with the previously forwarded topics like a concrete return/replacement/refund policy. ICV2 has previously broken news/info regarding robotech like the June date prior to the update IIRC.

[jreece06]

In the last murmur (or maybe it was the "sale" announcement) they said they are clearing out space to get the minitures in "in about a month"... which would (now) be middle of June, giving them 2 weeks to package and ship (an ambitious timeline given the size of Palladium and that they are using volunteers)

That puts it at July ish... meaning many people wont see a package until between mid july and august....

Maybe that's how they got the date they used?

[palladiumjunkie]

Palladium releases information directly to ICV2 all the time, and even Alex has referred us to that site many times. I would be extremely surprised if it wasn't information that they had obtained directly from Palladium.

-Chris

[Kryptt]

To be honest I was more surprised by this little line than the delays.

"with Palladium pointing an exasperated finger at partner Ninja Division."

[rosco60559]

I guess backers are supposed to dig through the internet for our updates now. Oh and of course hope for news in between pics of geese on the fb page.

[Alpha 11]

Though, why would they point to ND, when they said themselves that it's the China manufactural who is having all the problems. Would that not take it out of ND hands also?

[Jorel]

where did they say it was china?

[Kryptt]

The last update where Kevin says there waiting on the manufacture.

[Solarius]

I think i'd like to see a refund policy. I'm a patient guy but this just makes my first kickstarter event more frustrating as time goes by.

[Forar]

As I've pointed out in a bunch of places now, it seems likely that they're speaking specifically to distributors/retailers here. A June/July backer delivery followed by a July/August retail delivery would be fairly reasonable, and the latter being a month after the former has been noted previously.

Though honestly, it would surprise me if they got this close to Gencon and then sent it out to retailers anyway. Surely they want that first sweet hit of full MSRP goodness? Seems like it'd make more sense to ship to backers ASAP (get word of mouth going) so June/July, but hold off on retail distribution until August and give the non-backer public a first shot at the convention (and at probably the highest profit margin they'll ever see on the core figures).

[bielmic]

As I've pointed out in a bunch of places now, it seems likely that they're speaking specifically to distributors/retailers here. A June/July backer delivery followed by a July/August retail delivery would be fairly reasonable, and the latter being a month after the former has been noted previously.

Though honestly, it would surprise me if they got this close to Gencon and then sent it out to retailers anyway. Surely they want that first sweet hit of full MSRP goodness? Seems like it'd make more sense to ship to backers ASAP (get word of mouth going) so June/July, but hold off on retail distribution until August and give the non-backer public a first shot at the convention (and at probably the highest profit margin they'll ever see on the core figures).

My guess is that selling at gencon is their overwhelming priority at the moment. They may be deliquent and inept at project management but they're not stupid nor illiterate. They know that folks got in at the numbers they did partly to sell stuff themselves since we were supposed to get the whole lot so much before retail. Shipping out the packages to even a large token of just US buyers (easier and cheaper shipping) requires alot of effort and money both in terms of actual costs and labor assuming they bother to hire temp workers and not just depend on the largess of a few volunteers for a weekend or two. Selling to distributors and retailers at least gets them some extra cash to cover the costs but they specifically said that we'd get our minis "first" and "before retailers and distributors". Selling the minis at gencon gets them quick 100% MSRP cash and only breaks one of their pledges. Shipping to pledgers cuts down on demand of the 100% MSRP sales unfortunately as some Robotech fans will get their fix from other pledgers with Palladium making no more profit on that secondary sale. Who knows... maybe palladium will do the right thing and put in a serious effort at shipping stuff (assuming they get anything) before gencon via a fair and equitable way like alphabetically or by region even if it negatively affects their short term bottom line!

I suspect that they'll barely have enough time at the current development rate to get a few hundred boxes air shipped over by August. A few select loyal fan friends will get their packages as a token shipping wave just to say truthfully that they started before they enter the 3 week gencon black hole while the rest of the pledgers wait even longer. In that hypothetical scenario, they'll sell the remaining boxes at gencon at full 100% MSRP for both the short term cash infusion as well as some publicity. This of course is dependent on them getting stuff done and packaged for sale even at the limited SKUs of just the core box for gencon which frankly seems iffy as well but at least reasonably possible given no additional delays.

[Forar]

I mostly agree with you, but I don't think backer sales will be significant enough to noticeably impact Gencon sales. Even with a BC or two worth of models, there's only so much 'extra' to go around unless one is completely abandoning ones pledge entirely, and even those that do can only stretch that so far.

It really depends on supply and demand.

Also, as someone with a name that begins with W, I sincerely hope they don't go alphabetically.

[bielmic]

Also, as someone with a name that begins with W, I sincerely hope they don't go alphabetically.

If they go by region, I doubt they'll start with Ontario either. I just hope they ship out systematically and openly and not potentially play favorites but I have about say so in that matter as I did in getting my stuff on time.

[Forar]

Yeah, probably not.

*sigh*

Might go with smaller orders first, to fulfill as many as possible!

... which would also count me out.

Oh well.

[Jorel]

Pretty sure each backer has a number attached to which they joined to KS. I know that Mighty 9 gave out IDs with those #s. They could be shipping according to that.

[glitterboy2098]

information about this in the latest kickstarter update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rr ... sts/843097

And just to quickly address some concerns over a story some of you have seen on an industry news site, please keep in mind that the info they quote came from a press release we sent to our distributors. The dates they mention are what we told our distributors, because that’s when we expect to ship retail product to them. That’s not when you guys get yours, because we ship yours first.

(emphasis theirs)

[Alpha 11]

As I've pointed out in a bunch of places now, it seems likely that they're speaking specifically to distributors/retailers here. A June/July backer delivery followed by a July/August retail delivery would be fairly reasonable, and the latter being a month after the former has been noted previously.

Though honestly, it would surprise me if they got this close to Gencon and then sent it out to retailers anyway. Surely they want that first sweet hit of full MSRP goodness? Seems like it'd make more sense to ship to backers ASAP (get word of mouth going) so June/July, but hold off on retail distribution until August and give the non-backer public a first shot at the convention (and at probably the highest profit margin they'll ever see on the core figures).

My guess is that selling at gencon is their overwhelming priority at the moment. They may be deliquent and inept at project management but they're not stupid nor illiterate. They know that folks got in at the numbers they did partly to sell stuff themselves since we were supposed to get the whole lot so much before retail. Shipping out the packages to even a large token of just US buyers (easier and cheaper shipping) requires alot of effort and money both in terms of actual costs and labor assuming they bother to hire temp workers and not just depend on the largess of a few volunteers for a weekend or two. Selling to distributors and retailers at least gets them some extra cash to cover the costs but they specifically said that we'd get our minis "first" and "before retailers and distributors". Selling the minis at gencon gets them quick 100% MSRP cash and only breaks one of their pledges. Shipping to pledgers cuts down on demand of the 100% MSRP sales unfortunately as some Robotech fans will get their fix from other pledgers with Palladium making no more profit on that secondary sale. Who knows... maybe palladium will do the right thing and put in a serious effort at shipping stuff (assuming they get anything) before gencon via a fair and equitable way like alphabetically or by region even if it negatively affects their short term bottom line!

I suspect that they'll barely have enough time at the current development rate to get a few hundred boxes air shipped over by August. A few select loyal fan friends will get their packages as a token shipping wave just to say truthfully that they started before they enter the 3 week gencon black hole while the rest of the pledgers wait even longer. In that hypothetical scenario, they'll sell the remaining boxes at gencon at full 100% MSRP for both the short term cash infusion as well as some publicity. This of course is dependent on them getting stuff done and packaged for sale even at the limited SKUs of just the core box for gencon which frankly seems iffy as well but at least reasonably possible given no additional delays.

Wouldn't it be wise of them to do both at once. While some are at Gencon, some be at the office with the volenties/temps to ship out the boxes.

[Steve Dubya]

information about this in the latest kickstarter update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rr ... sts/843097

And just to quickly address some concerns over a story some of you have seen on an industry news site, please keep in mind that the info they quote came from a press release we sent to our distributors. The dates they mention are what we told our distributors, because that’s when we expect to ship retail product to them. That’s not when you guys get yours, because we ship yours first.

(emphasis theirs)

It also says: "We’re hopefully just a couple of weeks away from production beginning in earnest." Even if we then assume* that "a couple" translates to "only two," that still puts production into June, so I'm not sure how it would be feasible to have these to anybody any sooner than July.

*And disregard the "hopefully" bit, which implies that this could be longer still.

[bielmic]

Wouldn't it be wise of them to do both at once. While some are at Gencon, some be at the office with the volenties/temps to ship out the boxes.

Absolutely... but the seemingly wise choices for this kickstarter don't get picked frequently. I'd go through the laundry list of things that have gone wrong and how they could have gone if the wise choice had been taken but frankly I'm tired. I'll just refer you to the dozens of complaint threads about Robotech here.