Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablescapes line in jeopardy due to dispute with Wargames Factory

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**DarkTraveler777**

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

9-26-17

SACREMENTO, CA - Secret Weapon Miniatures (Secret Weapon) regrets to announce that the Tablescapes Tiles product line is currently limited to stock-on-hand.
Secret Weapon owns the tools (i.e., molds) to manufacture Tablescapes Tiles. The tools, however, are currently held by Wargames Factory (WGF), the former manufacturer of Tablescapes Tiles. WGF refuses to release the tools back to Secret Weapon despite numerous attempts to resolve an overbilling issue with WGF. Notwithstanding a written agreement between Secret Weapon and WGF that specified the manufacturing costs, WGF overcharged Secret Weapon for the manufacturing of the tiles that resulted in a 50% increase in cost-per-shot, going back back to the original Kickstarter release.

Despite the written agreement, WGF has demanded additional payments to release Secret Weapon’s tools, despite the fact the tools are fully paid for and wholly owned by Secret Weapon.

Further, Secret Weapon agreed to pay the disputed overbilling, under protest, if these funds were put into an escrow account, and were only released when it was confirmed that the tools were in usable condition.
WGF has refused to comply with this offer, and multiple settlement offers, for the return of Secret Weapon’s tools.

As a result, Secret Weapon is actively working to recover the tools from WGF and renew production elsewhere.

Secret Weapon has engaged attorneys (solicitors) in the United States, Hong Kong, and mainland China to pursue legal action against WGF to recover the tools and costs related thereto.

If there is no resolution with WGF, Secret Weapon will use a global crowdfunding platform to relaunch the Tablescapes Tiles product line.

Secret Weapon Miniatures thanks all of its fans and customers for their support at this time.

Please Note: Tablescapes Tiles should not be confused with the 2016 Tablescapes Dungeons campaign now featured on Kickstarter. WGF has no involvement in the Dungeons product line, and will not be involved in this, or future, projects.

This frankly, sucks. The Tablescapes tiles are fantastic, and though I was extremely vocal and unhappy with how the Kickstarter for those tiles was handled, the product is amazing and I'd hate to see the line jeopardized by this situation.

I am sure there are two sides to this story, but this situation rubs me the wrong way since WGF is involved. The company has had a pretty dramatic history, which makes me want to know more, but based on what SWM is presenting in their press release, it seems like they made good-faith attempts to try and resolve this financial issue.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Since WGF handles the plastic for a lot of other companies and continues to do so i'd be very surprised if this issue is as one sided as the press release suggests

it's a shame as I'd have put both Secret Weapon and WGF towards the more reliable end of the industry,

hopefully they can work things out

**DarkTraveler777**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Since WGF handles the plastic for a lot of other companies and continues to do so i'd be very surprised if this issue is as one sided as the press release suggests

I definitely think there is more to this story. Still, with WGF producing for so many other companies, I'd think they'd want to avoid any public grievances over a matter like this. If WGF are doing something shady, it may make other companies reconsider signing on to have them tool molds and produce figures if those expensive assets are jeopardized down the road by bad business practices on WGF's part.

**RiTides**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Since WGF handles the plastic for a lot of other companies and continues to do so i'd be very surprised if this issue is as one sided as the press release suggests

it's a shame as I'd have put both Secret Weapon and WGF towards the more reliable end of the industry,

hopefully they can work things out

Agreed... that press release is pretty intense!

I'm not a huge fan of the tiles myself, I got quite a few but find I really prefer 2'x2' boards instead of these 1'x1's... just too many cracks in the table and results in terrain features built into the tiles needing to be spaced too uniformly (one every foot, basically...).

Hopefully they can work it out, but a public statement like this makes it look like things have deteriorated beyond resolving...

**Necros**

I have a lot of the damaged road tiles, they're great but I never actually played on them. Mostly just used them for model photo backgrounds... but maybe one day. I think I would have preferred a different style where there was half a road along the edges of the tile, so you place 2 next to each other for a full road. I think that would have been more flexible.

But sucks about the molds.. I hope they can get things sorted out. Justin is good people.

**Lance845**

I always wanted to get tablescape tiles....

I tend to prefer a flat mat with terrain on it just to keep the models flat, but if I ever wanted a 3d board tablescapes was my go to.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Let's assume the worst, purely for the sake of argument.

Let's assume Secret Weapon aren't paying WGF, because ultimately that's the polar opposite of the over-charging thing they've mentioned.

Even if that's true (and remember, this is purely for arguments sake, not an accusation, not an insinuation), do WGF have a leg to stand on when it comes to not releasing the molds to their rightful owners?

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Only a Chinese legal expert (who's seen all the paperwork) could tell

one companies fully paid off moulds and a disputed bill about plastic produced from those moulds could equally be another companies fully paid off plastic production and a disputed bill about tile production

it's all going to depend on what was paid when, were there separate payments for everything, fully itemised etc (fairly simple to prove what was paid for what), or was there one big payment for everything at once (not so much) or something in between

i'd also suspect that a court might object to the only assets a party in a dispute has in their jurisdiction being removed to another county before said dispute was settled so even if SW has the right to take the moulds out of WGFs hands they may not be able to take them out of China/Hong Kong

**ced1106**

It might not worth the legal hassle, with both sides walking away. After following the Batlefront (?) KS, the two sides could have thought they agreed upon something, then found out they interpreted their agreement differently. Or, somehow related to WGF taken over by Wargame, someone decided to renegotiate the terms. Who knows. Tablescapes was SWM's first KS, so might have been their first dealings with an overseas manufacturer. In their second KS, they had some help by Reaper, maybe.

Designs get improved fast nowadays, and SWM can run another KS. Through their game tile KS, they have another manufacturer, which means SWM doesn't need WGF.

**insaniak**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Even if that's true (and remember, this is purely for arguments sake, not an accusation, not an insinuation), do WGF have a leg to stand on when it comes to not releasing the molds to their rightful owners?

That would depend on Chinese law regarding debts and asset seizure, and also on the specifics of the business contract between the two parties. But I would suspect that said contract would include a clause whereby the factory could hold the moulds and/or any other assets in hand until the account is settled in full, yes.