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This one hurts. Secret Weapon made a wide variety of products, and the quality was uniformly high. I am sorry to hear they couldn't make a go of it. I will carefully husband my remaining supplies.

The hobby is lesser for this... always a shame when we lose one of the good companies. It's been a nasty couple of years, I hope things turn around for him.

This is really not cool :( such a shame for the hobby.

Has t he site come back up for anyone? I've tried a few times to no avail.

EDIT: NM I read the week of August 23rd as Simply August 23rd and thought it was supposed to be back already.

It's back up now without resins. Paints/washes and pigments are on sale.

Along with this message on Facebook

This is your chance to show some love for Secret Weapon, and stock up on our incredible paints, pigments, and washes! We're working on a path forward that will see a bright new future, and your purchase will help bridge the gap between today and that tomorrow. Thank you all for your support!

 Monkeysloth wrote:
It's back up now without resins. Paints/washes and pigments are on sale.

Along with this message on Facebook

This is your chance to show some love for Secret Weapon, and stock up on our incredible paints, pigments, and washes! We're working on a path forward that will see a bright new future, and your purchase will help bridge the gap between today and that tomorrow. Thank you all for your support!

Oh, I thought the bases were going to be up for sale. I guess they have to do a final inventory of those first or something.

Ya. There's going to be a second sale wave which will be any remaining resin (they're finishing up existing orders, including casting more if needed, before that starts) and plastics like the tiles.

This is absolutely awful news. I love the tablescapes tiles. they are one of the highest quality products I have ever owned. I was really hoping Justin would be able to re-tool them in the future. Sad to see Secret Weapon go.

I loved the many types of bases they had. I used them a lot back in the day for my Warmachine and Hordes armies and for a bunch of skirmish games. I'm going to miss them a lot.

I loved their acrylic-based effects (rust, heat). Shame to see them go. :(

How did Brexit screw them, in California?

Might be shorthand for the changes to how HMRC collects VAT from overseas. Or just how Brexit screwed over UK logistics.

Its a bit of an odd reference though.

 Orlanth wrote:
How did Brexit screw them, in California?

Probably had a significant number of shops and customers buying from there that did not want to pay the extra fees from Brexit. Suppliers from there could also affect his overall pricing too.

Apparently, their European distribution hub was based in the U.K.

So yeah, that’s gonna stuff them.

Stupid, stupid Brexit.

Could someone educate me on how Brexit caused or was a major contributing factor to this?

Not being facetious, truly want to know.

 oni wrote:
Could someone educate me on how Brexit caused or was a major contributing factor to this?

Not being facetious, truly want to know.

Short version - the EU is a massive, rich, protectionist market. To trade with it cheaply you need to be in it. Lots of companies therefore set up in the UK to do so (we are easy to start a business in, have far fewer regs than comparable countries and an OK workforce). Lots of British businesses set up to have smaller companies be able to do the same through them (warehouse and/or import/export services for a bunch of small businesses). Big companies are relocating or learning to live with the changes, small companies lack that ability and in many cases have found its easier just to stop.

If they had invested in a hub (even through some kind of outsourcing) here to sell to Europe (clearly an important market), the barriers between the UK and EU and the (hopefully temporary) problems with moving goods between the two (lots of new paperwork, VAT rules, shortage of drivers on the UK side) will have driven up costs. If they had a thin margin that would then become operating at a loss. With no clarity on how it will resolve in the future (the UK gov is proving very bad at sorting this out, while the EU has just reverted to how it deals with the rest of the world) you can't get loans to tide you over when the problems might be permanent.

Did Secret Weapon reopen or are they just selling off any remaining stock on their website? I noticed today that I could go onto it and purchase some of the bases I needed for my army.

https://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79_30_100

just selling off stock sadly

Troll Trader in the UK has had a big delivery of the Secret Weapon bases in (unclear if this is a last delivery that's been in transit since SW folded or they've picked up the moulds)

https://thetrolltrader.com/collections/secret-weapon-1

not discounted, but if your army depended on them and you didn't manage to stock up it may be of interest

The reason for the Trolltrader delivery becomes clear. Looks like an unpleasant situation.

Taken from a Kickstarter update relating to their preprinted bases campaign.

“31-May-2022

Sacramento, CA

Secret Weapon Miniatures, Inc. (SWM) has spent the past seven months attempting to resolve a dispute with Trolltrader/Tabletop Combat (TTC), over their false claim to hold a license to Secret Weapon intellectual property, and sales of counterfeit product within and outside of the United States. That claim has made it impossible for us to find a legitimate partner or buyer for the Secret Weapon IP. SWM has made a good faith effort to resolve this by offering to enter into a license agreement with TTC upon payment due for products delivered. That offer, and others, have been refused.

This situation has forced Secret Weapon to default on its debts to US Bank, who now hold the Secret Weapon IP, and all outstanding accounts payable. We will continue to do our due diligence in an attempt to resolve the IP issue, and work with US Bank to find new owners. Until that happens, Secret Weapon can take no action to resolve outstanding projects.

While attempting to resolve this dispute we made no public posts or comments on any official Secret Weapon channel. We regret the anxiety that this silence has caused for many in our community. Going forward, there will not be regular updates here until such time as US Bank has resolved questions regarding Secret Weapon business assets including, but not limited to, the HD Bases designs. While Tabletop Combat continues to falsely claim to hold rights to any of our IP no other company has been willing to involve themselves in the dispute, and so we, and US Bank, remain without legitimate buyers or licensees.

Secret Weapon will continue to sell the Secret Weapon paint, and dungeon tiles, while inventories last so that it can continue to cover rent on the warehouse where the physical assets are being stored on behalf of US Bank. I have contracted someone to ship those orders once per week as I cannot do any work on behalf of Secret Weapon.

When and if the dispute with TTC is resolved, and if and when I can help US Bank find a buyer for the HD Bases property, I will post appropriate updates. Until then, it is with great sadness that I can say little, and do less.

Justin McCoy“

Big yikes

Hmm,

there's clearly more to it that that post says as i just can't imagine TTC delibrately ripping stuff off (especially as they've got a bunch of their own games that could similarly be copied)

so the big question becomes where did they come from

Probably bought them from the factory directly. My guess is there was some negotiation between secret weapon and TTC when Secret Weapon was struggling last year on TTC buying the company/IP as Justin did mention there was a company interested in doing so.

No clue on what the contracts or discussions were but it probably involved TTC floating money to pay off debt and/or paying the factory and they're taking the stance of "we paid so we own". Or secret weapon announcement that they were closing down and TTC reached out to the factory and just bought stuff from under Justin. I'm not sure what's really going on. I like Justin but this isn't the first time he's had contract issues like this.

I have used many SWM bases for 30k, 40k, and d&d. I also have their plastic table battle tiles (name?).

This sucks as much as [fill in blank’s] mom.

Sad.

 kronk wrote:
I have used many SWM bases for 30k, 40k, and d&d. I also have their plastic table battle tiles (name?).

This sucks as much as [fill in blank’s] mom.

Sad.

(Tablescapes)

[Becky’s]

True.

 Theophony wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I have used many SWM bases for 30k, 40k, and d&d. I also have their plastic table battle tiles (name?).

This sucks as much as [fill in blank’s] mom.

Sad.

(Tablescapes)

[Becky’s]

True.

I don’t know who the feth you are, but Exalted!

Holy crud cakes! There’s more intrigue in tiny little wargaming companies than the Cold War and the entire television run of Dallas. If Netflix doesn’t cash in and create an entire series that they will almost certainly cancel as soon as it gets any traction, we’ll all be worse off.

Honestly that update confused the hell out of me and a good half of me thinks its entirely fabricated. I'm not well-versed on company law in the US so maybe someone who is could enlighten me!

"This situation has forced Secret Weapon to default on its debts to US Bank, who now hold the Secret Weapon IP, and all outstanding accounts payable."
So first, how did that happen? Did SW take out a loan from US Bank with the company as collateral? And US Bank now own the company because of the default? Is that something that can happen?

That's plausible but then:
"Secret Weapon will continue to sell the Secret Weapon paint, and dungeon tiles, while inventories last so that it can continue to cover rent on the warehouse where the physical assets are being stored on behalf of US Bank."

So SW is paying the rent on the warehouse that is holding assets that are now owned by US Bank? How the hell did that happen? And surely if the assets are owned by US bank, they would get the money from the sale, so how does that help them pay the warehouse fee and why is someone being contracted by Justin to do it?

Writing all this out, it seems to me that SW took out a loan from US Bank with the company as collateral, they defaulted on the loan and now US Bank own SW outright. And are selling off stock in the warehouse while attempting to find a buyer or make the call to wind up the company.

But the update seems determined to hide this to present a somewhat rosier picture

deano2099 wrote:
Honestly that update confused the hell out of me and a good half of me thinks its entirely fabricated. I'm not well-versed on company law in the US so maybe someone who is could enlighten me!

"This situation has forced Secret Weapon to default on its debts to US Bank, who now hold the Secret Weapon IP, and all outstanding accounts payable."
So first, how did that happen? Did SW take out a loan from US Bank with the company as collateral? And US Bank now own the company because of the default? Is that something that can happen?

Not the company per se, but the underlying assets. IP is an asset, a value can be assigned to it and it can be used as collateral.

Many companies use bank loans to cover operating expenses. Assuming the other company refused to pay invoices, Secret Weapon would be unable to pay it's own.

deano2099 wrote:
That's plausible but then:
"Secret Weapon will continue to sell the Secret Weapon paint, and dungeon tiles, while inventories last so that it can continue to cover rent on the warehouse where the physical assets are being stored on behalf of US Bank."

So SW is paying the rent on the warehouse that is holding assets that are now owned by US Bank? How the hell did that happen? And surely if the assets are owned by US bank, they would get the money from the sale, so how does that help them pay the warehouse fee and why is someone being contracted by Justin to do it?

In a bankruptcy, inventories and assets are often treated differently. A company can continue to sell inventories as a way to pay back debts, but they are restricted in how the cash can be used. Like, owners can't take bonuses for liquidating the inventory.

The thing to remember is SW signed a lease for their warehouse. That lease continues to be active so long as they occupy the space.

deano2099 wrote:
Writing all this out, it seems to me that SW took out a loan from US Bank with the company as collateral, they defaulted on the loan and now US Bank own SW outright. And are selling off stock in the warehouse while attempting to find a buyer or make the call to wind up the company.

But the update seems determined to hide this to present a somewhat rosier picture

To me, it just sounds like an accurate assessment of the steps a company goes through as it's winding down. There's not much intrigue here.

But at no point does the update use the words "winding up", "bankruptcy" or "liquidation" is my point.

And they're not in that situation it would appear - like you say, they could continue to sell inventory to pay debts, but that would have to be done through a proper procedure to prioritise who gets the debts. You couldn't just earmark that for the warehouse costs. At least not in the UK/Europe.