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Anyone as cute and well-stacked as JohnHwangDD is clearly qualified to insult people's looks.

I mean look at him/her!

It looks like they sold a few copies in that last photo that was posted, hard to tell how many due to the way theyre stacked, but it doesnt look like a whole pallet to me (either that or they put some extra boxes on it).

Also, I think (from another thread?) the cost of a booth like the one PB had would be $8500, thats not even including the cost of food, travel, and lodging that they likely paid on top of that in order to attend. No way in hell do they even come close to breaking even if thats all they brought with them, so either the company is doing very well financially and they are able to swallow the costs without care... or they are terribly financially mismanaged.

From what a little birdie told me it's about 20k for the four days at GC. On the plus side at least it was the bestest GC ever!

chaos0xomega wrote:
It looks like they sold a few copies in that last photo that was posted, hard to tell how many due to the way theyre stacked, but it doesnt look like a whole pallet to me (either that or they put some extra boxes on it).

Also, I think (from another thread?) the cost of a booth like the one PB had would be $8500, thats not even including the cost of food, travel, and lodging that they likely paid on top of that in order to attend. No way in hell do they even come close to breaking even if thats all they brought with them, so either the company is doing very well financially and they are able to swallow the costs without care... or they are terribly financially mismanaged.

You can't put a cost on the warm feeling of being told by a fan friend that you're doing everything right despite massive delays and being a running joke for decades. Besides, the KS funded gencon escapades for decades to come as long as they don't deliver wave 2!

 warboss wrote:
The talk about NMI's appearance is unwarranted; I'm sure plenty of folks (including myself) posting in this thread never had a hope to be runway models either. Can we limit the criticism of NMI to his rather North Korean style of forum management/hero worship and his documented inability to get through a demo without screwing up a rule in each and every interaction between two models?

Yes, please!

And even then, RULE #1 applies even to those who aren't forum members.

We are THAT crazy here at Dakka Dakka!

If it wasn't for the snyde comment at the end of each update showing how they really feel about their customers, you could almost feel sorry for Palladium.

So, while we're busy being adults who don't feel the need to body shame people (and believe me, NMI is no friend of mine), let's look at the latest newsletter!

Pertinent bits:

The last several Weekly Updates have been rather brief as we were preparing for Gen Con and trying to hammer out a couple of books. That means this Update will be fairly long, but full of news and fun stuff, including our first Robotech® Flash Sale and our Gen Con Report.

Oooh, long AND full of news and fun stuff!

Zentraedi Invasion sale, bunch of stuff for 1/3 off (basically the same price as Gencon)

We want everyone to discover the fun and excitement of Robotech® RPG Tactics™. Especially with Wave 2 RRT products coming in the months ahead.

Good luck with that one. "In the months ahead": lawl.

Blah blah blah REF Marines Sourcebook finally coming to stores, etc.

UPDATE: Gen Con Indy Report, Robotech®, Rifts® and more

Gen Con was fun, exciting and completely worthwhile. Sales, though our best ever, were a bit disappointing. We met with old friends and made new ones. Signed a lot of books and enjoyed talking with hundreds of fans. A lot of RRT Kickstarter backers (I must have spoken to close to a hundred myself) stopped by to offer words of encouragement and support, and we are glad to hear from so many people who are enjoying the game. Of course, like all of us, they are anxious to see Wave Two items in their mailboxes and on store shelves. With any luck, that will be toward the end of this year. We continue explore ways to reduce the piece count of individual RRT pieces and work on other aspects of the game.

Robotech® Expeditionary Force Marines™ Sourcebook was the hot selling book. Gamers took advantage of the two Gen Con coupons – one celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Robotech® and the other the 25th Anniversary of Rifts® – so we sold a lot of all things Robotech® and Rifts®. (Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing a few very similar sales in the weeks ahead.) With the exception of a few lulls on Friday and a couple on Saturday, we were busy almost all the time, even on Sunday.

Sales of the three Robotech® exclusive figures were light. A surprise, because they look pretty awesome. And painted up, they are fantastic. I think we were particularly struck by Grell and Breetai who look amazing painted. They are also the most figurative and different from the pieces released in Wave One, so I imagine that element of newness helps them stand out to us. I’m personally a fan of the Breetai character, so he sticks out for me and is just a cool figure.

One high point at Gen Con (and there were a number of them) was meeting and chatting with legendary modeler and Creative Director at Spartan Games, Neil Fawcett. Neil was very gracious with his time and input. He looked over Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and he liked what he saw. He loved the detail and expressed his opinion that the sculpts and sprues were of top notch quality. He was sorry to hear that the factory had to, in effect, create new digital files from the STL files provided them, because it makes the tooling process so long and costly, but thought they did an excellent job. He mentioned several times while looking over the various sprues (and finished built pieces) that “the factory did a really nice job for you.” It was cool hearing that from a man with such experience and background. Neil also offered us some advice for moving forward with Wave Two items, and liked the three new metal exclusives at the show; commenting that the quality, all round, was high. He’s a robot/spaceship nut (no surprise there, right) and loves looking at stuff like this. I gave him a copy of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and he said he’d return the favor by sending Palladium a few things. Awesome. Thanks, Neil, it was great meeting you and we look forward to seeing more amazing releases for Halo and other projects from Spartan Games.

Btw, if you guys and gals haven’t taken a look at the Halo miniature game from Spartan Games, you need to check them out. Wow.

Now, I'm gonna pull a few snippets out here;

Sales, though our best ever, were a bit disappointing.

Now keep in mind this is a company that embraces spin like a top. Admitting lackluster sales is a wee bit out of character. Not unprecedented, but at odds with the SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE approach to, well, everything.

they are anxious to see Wave Two items in their mailboxes and on store shelves. With any luck, that will be toward the end of this year.

Ummm, guys, you really need to stop doubling down on this. We'll go over why in a moment.

Sales of the three Robotech® exclusive figures were light. A surprise, because they look pretty awesome. And painted up, they are fantastic.

Again with the admission of light sales. It has been noted in the comments that sales of these are non-existent on eBay as well, and honestly I think knowing that over 5,000 people can order as many as they like, the interest in fighting with that market is minimal. The people most likely to want them are the ones with the most access, barring some exceptions of course, but finding a backer willing to snag one or two hasn't seemed very difficult from watching Mike's page and other chatter about the game.

I also find a bit of humour in Neil sending them some stuff. "Here guys, let me show you how its done, taking a popular franchise and turning it into a pile of money", but of course, I haven't looked into Halo's new board game, so that's mostly snark without actual experience.

Bunch of pics, some fan shout outs, etc.

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™

Excitement about Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave Two items is starting to build here at Palladium as we feel like things are coming together in figuring out ways to reduce the piece count for RRT game pieces.

We understand the frustration, and we feel it every day and 10 times more deeply.

Rules, cards, force organization tables and more should start getting posted in the weeks ahead. We are shooting to release the 20+ Kickstarter Wave Two items at the end of 2015, but don’t know yet. The delay has been in the tooling and engineering end of things, as we continue to explore ways to reduce the piece count of the game pieces. Something we know everyone would like to see. That means there is nothing new to show you because each of the possible solutions will have a different end result and different number of pieces and final construction. Until we nail that all down, I’m afraid there is nothing new to physically show. After all, you have seen all the 3D sculpts from which we and the manufacturer are working.

That does NOT mean, however, that there isn’t progress being made. Quite the contrary, we feel there is progress being made on several fronts. We spoke with our manufacturing rep a week before Gen Con, met with them at Gen Con, and will continue to focus on favorable solutions to the piece count issues in the weeks ahead. On other fronts we have been talking with distributors and others about various aspects of the game and organized play. We’ll also be posting rules, cards and other things very soon.

Please understand that there is a lot going on for Palladium’s small staff, and we have obligations and commitments to more than RRT. But RRT is our top priority and ALWAYS on our minds.

Our goal has never stopped being making an ever expanding, quality game that will please as large an audience as possible. We listen and we care. The entire idea of doing conventional armies came from fans, and after talking with Mike Arnold, we thought we’d pursue the idea, and spoke with GHQ under his recommendation. Items like the Breetai, Grell and Miriya Super Valkyrie in unique poses are intended to help build and keep excitement about this game line.

More in the weeks ahead.

Soooo, nothing. You have nothing to show for all the efforts leading up to the emphasis on Wave One, and after Wave One went into production (granted, delivery ate up time/effort as well, but still, it has literally been over a year since production efforts went out of their hands).

Touching back on my comment earlier, delivering in ~5 months when there aren't even molds being tooled yet is insane. It's nonsensical, and even IF (I don't, but IF) one gives the benefit of the doubt for all the surprises with Wave One, nobody sensible can look at that statement and say "Yup, totally reasonable".

LE figures that only backers and Gen Con folks can get are their olive branch to keep people excited? Falling behind repeatedly on giving people info about conventional forces while Mike appears to do most of the heavy lifting for them?

I'd say that he should be paid for brute forcing this project inches along, but apparently he's turned down compensation, so... good on the volunteers?

I'll concede it was kind of long, but there wasn't really any 'news' regarding a project that hasn't seen substantial information in nearly 5.5 months.

*jazzhands*

I don't even believe we've seen all the 3D renders. Certainly not the SDF-1, at least. And I don't remember seeing the Armored Valk (I do remember the Jotun) or the Zent infantry.

Forar did a good job dissecting the Update as a whole, but I found the below paragraph highly interesting.

Rules, cards, force organization tables and more should start getting posted in the weeks ahead. We are shooting to release the 20+ Kickstarter Wave Two items at the end of 2015, but don’t know yet. The delay has been in the tooling and engineering end of things, as we continue to explore ways to reduce the piece count of the game pieces. Something we know everyone would like to see. That means there is nothing new to show you because each of the possible solutions will have a different end result and different number of pieces and final construction. Until we nail that all down, I’m afraid there is nothing new to physically show. After all, you have seen all the 3D sculpts from which we and the manufacturer are working.

First line, is that an admission they're blowing off the second "deadline" they set for Conventional Forces? They've got a week before the current one expires (August 15th), and they're talking weeks? For a company that usually undercuts their estimates, it looks likely. For something that was supposed to take two weeks to do (announced June 7, "These stats and info will be posted next week for your reference" posted June 14), it's taken nine, with no end in sight.

Shooting for 20+ SKU's by EoY. Even if they started pressing molds today, it's at least a month turnaround on getting the PPP's and test sprues approved. At least a month to do the production run. And a month to pack and ship to Detroit. And that's assuming "released" means to backers, and not to retail as "released" could imply (unless backers are gonna get hosed again). All "wishful thinking" best case scenarios. That puts them mid-November. With not a single thing at this point considered finished enough to show us. Just admit it's not possible, Kevin. Cause this is fairytale thinking.

There's EASILY six months of realistic, non-extraordinary delays (particularly on the production run side) that could crop up. As was said when Wave 1 was still in waiting, manufacturers aren't sitting on their thumbs waiting for the "go" order from their customers. They're usually scheduled to have as little downtime as possible, so finding an appropriate open slot isn't likely, at least not without being an indispensable party (ie, a company that does enough business they get priority), or paying a hefty "queue-jumper" priority fee.

Note, there's also no mention of the resin components that need to be done before Wave 2 is complete. As they haven't shown them, it means they haven't been done. As "there's nothing new to show". And completed models, or even just the greens masters would be "something new to show".

As Stormonu pointed out, there's still several figures that haven't been shown, but even if those had, if PB think there's no difference between those digital sculpts we saw during the campaign, and the sculpt breakdowns we saw in late Feb, they're in a lot deeper hole competency-wise than we thought, since Ninja Pop left the scene. Irregardless, there's STILL plenty to show. They could do more of what they did on that Feb update, for each model we have NOT seen in that format, and talk about what the plans to shorten the parts counts are. They could show the progress showing for example, a model that was at an excessive count, side by side with the newer, less intensive parts count version. And are they trying to tell us of the 20+ Kickstarter Wave Two items they're working on, not a SINGLE ONE is considered complete at this point? That every single model requires enough work, that they're not willing to show us? Yeah... December's a realistic goal.

Simply put, there's PLENTY they could show backers (assuming they're as far as they claim). And they "choose" not to. While that's not definitive proof that there isn't actually anything to show, it's not an unfair assumption given their previous conduct. They've lost any benefit of the doubt when it comes to trustworthiness over the last two years of this campaign. Kevin could say the sun would rise in the east, and I'd still want to go outside at dawn and check. It's a farce at this point, and I sincerely feel for those both financially and/or emotionally committed to this project.

Bah.
Still lurking.
NMI, all I can say is: sitting through a demo video with him in it for RRT was painful in the extreme.
It is not his "thing" and it shows.
He does look a little at a loss of what to do without a "ban" button.
Release a Robotech video game and maybe the young folk may stumble across the RRT game.

Agreed with Forar, once splits are settled, layout still needs to be done, cutting the die and finding some production time: good bloody luck before end of year for all the models.

Wow, big write-up there too Morgan.
At this stage with the 3d models of things to show: PB will not do it.
They would have to pay someone with the skills for the model layout.
They have nothing to show since it is in the hands of skilled people they have to pay for every action and they may all be Chinese.
Yeah the ND fallout is probably biting them pretty hard.

More commitment to wave2 is apparent, maybe GenCon shook them up a bit and they saw what success looks like.

There was a Robotech video game, it was great.

And yeah, theres no way in hell they deliver wave 2 this year

 Forar wrote:
[..] let's look at the latest newsletter!

UPDATE: Gen Con Indy Report, Robotech®, Rifts® and more

[..] One high point at Gen Con (and there were a number of them) was meeting and chatting with legendary modeler and Creative Director at Spartan Games, Neil Fawcett. Neil was very gracious with his time and input.

He looked over Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and he liked what he saw.

He loved the detail and expressed his opinion that the sculpts and sprues were of top notch quality.

He was sorry to hear that the factory had to, in effect, create new digital files from the STL files provided them, because it makes the tooling process so long and costly, but thought they did an excellent job.

He mentioned several times while looking over the various sprues (and finished built pieces) that “the factory did a really nice job for you.”

It was cool hearing that from a man with such experience and background.

Neil also offered us some advice for moving forward with Wave Two items, and liked the three new metal exclusives at the show; commenting that the quality, all round, was high. [..]

Wait, ....did the Siembiedassiah the vocal loyals are always appealing to as a source of authority likewise himself make an appeal to authority in an attempt to legitimize everything he has decided or let be done?

Just, like, wow.

_
_

Was it just me or did Neals (from Spartan) comments read like he was trying his best not to diss RRT or Palladium? I imagine it stretched his diplomacy as much as it could.

Also, yeah. A lot of talk and nothing to show for wave 2. They're still talking with their manufacturing rep about what they want on their sprues -_- Which means it hasn't even been finalised.

I attended Gencon and only walked by the booth, I saw the con exclusives and didn't even bother looking at the blisters. At this point I have such a sense of apathy regarding the whole thing. Sure I'd like to see the rest of my stuff, but it's just getting harder and harder to actually care.

I had to chuckle about the light sales on con-exclusives... really, $22 a pop, one variant of a three-variant model... AND you're surprised? Ugh...

I'm on my phone so it's difficult to link but my YouTube recommended feed just popped up with an interview with Siembieda at Gencon on the gamergoggles channel. It unfortunately has the same horrible audio and interview style as his open house videos but it's something. Nothing new though... working on reducing the parts count and shooting for late 2015 or failing that early 2016.

I am a bit impressed by the candor about sales expectations in the weekly update though. The rest is the usual BS but that part surprised me (not the poorer than expected sales but rather the admission). Their booth last year and this year was double the size of previous years and even if they had record sales they likely expected much more from the much delayed "premiere" of robotech. I suspect they would have had what they wanted last year if karma hadn't kicked them in the crotch with a couple of weeks of unexpected delays on top of 40+ weeks of their own delays.

Candor, or are they laying the groundwork for failure. Which will of course be the fault of the haters and people who didn't quite clap hard enough

Merijeek wrote:
Candor, or are they laying the groundwork for failure. Which will of course be the fault of the haters and people who didnY't quite clap hard enough

YEAH! Feth those guys! Raining on Kevin's parade, wanting to see progress on product they paid for over two years ago, trying to hold PB accountable to deadlines PB set for themselves, or questioning a miniature parts count that even the creators admit is excessive. And those ungrateful donkey caves expecting a response to queries about the status of the project over a year and a half passed due? You've got Kevin's word things are progressing, and a passive snarky response in the last update (the 12th Update in over 5 months since we saw any progress at all). Isn't that enough for you ingrates?

I bet Kevin misses the days when people would just passively await a Palladium release. Or the glory days of 2007/8 when he could ask fans for money in return for nothing. Actually being held to task for something doesn't seem to fit into his preferred business model.

The goal posts will move soon enough. Something else will cause the possibility of failure to be more likely.

Robotech Marines not selling as well as they'd hoped? Lack of interest in stuff they could already buy from the company producing conventional units? Rifts(tm)(r)(c)(blowme) movie options not renewed?

It would have to be something that's not their fault. So it needs to be ungrateful ingrates, haters, or maybe the vagaries of the market. Or, you know, unappreciated genius.

Maybe it'll be COT2: Kevin's Mom's Fridge Is Bare. Something.

if I were a betting man, I think it will the end of the month when KS wil finally come out and admit that wave 2 will not be ready until Q1 2016 but delivery will be in Q2 at earliest.

This will come with another epic 24 page ramble about how everyone ruins KS's big vision and how it really hurts him to not be able to give us this product. he cares you know, he really does.....

He is already in a big holle, but seems to think just standing there digging to make it deeper will somehow sort it out in the end

But to make it up to you, the loyal fans, whom he respects so much, we'll give you, the BACKERS, the exclusive first opportunity to order the RobotechTMTacticsTMProtocultureTMNailClippersTM that we've been working hard to bring you. Our small but talented staff has been putting in long hours seven days a week for months growing their nails to test these out to make sure that the valued FANS who made this project happen get the best. A few legendary game designers like Gary Gygax and HG Wells were shown this revolutionary product at gencon this past week and they couldn't stop commenting about just how high quality it is and that we shouldn't go so above and beyond for the fans. They're limited edition and only available to backers for a few weeks before the general public so get them fast for only $18 plus S&H.

I hope I got the cadence, verbage, and windows notepad emphasis that he places on things he actually doesn't care about but wants to pretend that he does.

well at the current rate i'll Have my stuff long before PB ever finishes up their stuff:

 warboss wrote:

I hope I got the cadence, verbage, and windows notepad emphasis that he places on things he actually doesn't care about but wants to pretend that he does.

Have you ever considered snarking professionally?

wilycoyote wrote:
He is already in a big holle, but seems to think just standing there digging to make it deeper will somehow sort it out in the end

It's not any big old' hole, they're digging a hole straight to China. That way they can fast track the delivery of their RRT products, China can simply throw their stuff into the giant hole and it leads straight to Detroit in order to bypass customs. It's like two hells united.

*Sigh* I'm going to regret this, but I ordered the Marines book off Amazon. Despite the two 1 star reviews. I guess I just have to see how bad this book is for myself.

Well, another minor contribution to the Wave 2 fund. Slowly getting us closer to delivery in 2116.

 stanman wrote:


It's not any big old' hole, they're digging a hole straight to China. That way they can fast track the delivery of their RRT products, China can simply throw their stuff into the giant hole and it leads straight to Detroit in order to bypass customs. It's like two hells united.

You know, according to QI a hole straight through the Earth would take like 90 or so minutes to fall from one end to the other. And if you timed it right, the shipment would be at a complete standstill the moment it popped through the other side.

Kevin Simbieda is a VISIONARY, you SCUM!

Merijeek wrote:

 warboss wrote:

I hope I got the cadence, verbage, and windows notepad emphasis that he places on things he actually doesn't care about but wants to pretend that he does.

Have you ever considered snarking professionally?

I know it may be hard to believe but I am not reimbursed in any way by Dakka for being grumpy. My snark is purely gratis. Outside of some television shows and novelty restaurants, it's hard make a living off of telling those damn kids to get of your lawn.

 warboss wrote:

I know it may be hard to believe but I am not reimbursed in any way by Dakka for being grumpy. My snark is purely gratis. Outside of some television shows and novelty restaurants, it's hard make a living off of telling those damn kids to get of your lawn.

And politics!

Asterios wrote:
well at the current rate i'll Have my stuff long before PB ever finishes up their stuff:

Spoiler:

Gah! Unseen part 2!!
Put that away before a lawyer sees it!
(Awesome looking by the way).
Obviously inferior products: they probably had less than 10 pieces each, for shame!
Let me know the name of your "tailor"...

 Talizvar wrote:

Asterios wrote:
well at the current rate i'll Have my stuff long before PB ever finishes up their stuff:

Spoiler:

Gah! Unseen part 2!!
Put that away before a lawyer sees it!
(Awesome looking by the way).
Obviously inferior products: they probably had less than 10 pieces each, for shame!
Let me know the name of your "tailor"...

actually 1 piece models, except for the Bioroid is one piece and the sled is one piece, gonna be working on some invid soon, but still understanding this 3D design process and curves not my strong suit

my tailor is a Form 1

Asterios wrote:
actually 1 piece models, except for the Bioroid is one piece and the sled is one piece, gonna be working on some invid soon, but still understanding this 3D design process and curves not my strong suit
my tailor is a Form 1

I kinda figured it would be a 3d print but had to allow for a "reasonable" number of parts.
Nice machine that Form 1, bit pricy but for what it does it is a good price.
Makes me want to practice SolidWorks more.

Anyway, Wave2!
Gencon hangover should be over!

Asterios, you just keep doing what you are doing... fun stuff.