Die Cast Lighted 1/350th TOS Enterprise (TOMY crowd funded)

Ya know TOMY throughout the whole process has not been very communicative. They had some promos on facebook and Youtube but once the project was launched there wasn't much following. The PR stunk and most of the updates were overall not very informative. For a corporation of their size and reputation that's disappointing.

If you compare to what Joost at Jazzinc is doing, it's night and day. Once a project is launched he gives updates continuously and constantly keeps in touch with their customer base. Plus he's constantly giving interviews to collector channels and others in the collecting community. AND THEY ARE A LOT SMALLER THAN A BIG CORP LIKE TOMY!

Go figure.
 
1138sw said:
Ya know TOMY throughout the whole process has not been very communicative. They had some promos on facebook and Youtube but once the project was launched there wasn't much following. The PR stunk and most of the updates were overall not very informative. For a corporation of their size and reputation that's disappointing.

If you compare to what Joost at Jazzinc is doing, it's night and day. Once a project is launched he gives updates continuously and constantly keeps in touch with their customer base. Plus he's constantly giving interviews to collector channels and others in the collecting community. AND THEY ARE A LOT SMALLER THAN A BIG CORP LIKE TOMY!

Go figure.
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Yeah they gave a bunch of updates but nothing stellar and that last one from August was just plain weird. They also shut comments off on their videos
 
Ant1988 said:
Yeah they gave a bunch of updates but nothing stellar and that last one from August was just plain weird. They also shut comments off on their videos
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And now we sit back quietly awaiting a shipment notice which no one seems to have gotten yet!
 
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Fizzbin said:
I now we sit back quietly awaiting a shipment notice which no one seems to have gotten yet!
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1697143247280.png
 
goldcylon said:
Your car warranty is due, do you need solar, interested in a reverse mortgage ?
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The solar ones are getting absurd. Saw one today where some "free to you" 2'x2' panel is "providing all of his electric needs" - SO you never use more than 100 watts a day for less than 5 hours a day?
 
1138sw said:
In the meantime here is another video from down under!!!! LOL Trevor just loves showing off his ship!!!

If they delivered to Aussie land then we have nothing to worry about people we will get out ships!!! : )

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Damn.

Every time I see a video I cringe again.

Why the @#$% did they put the damn plugs on the "good" side of the ship and on the outside of the struts???

Still boggles my mind that no one said, "Hey guys if we can't smooth out these plugs, maybe we should..."

Aargh!

(at least they put the plugs on the underside of the saucer...)
 
1138sw said:
Ya know TOMY throughout the whole process has not been very communicative. They had some promos on facebook and Youtube but once the project was launched there wasn't much following. The PR stunk and most of the updates were overall not very informative. For a corporation of their size and reputation that's disappointing.

If you compare to what Joost at Jazzinc is doing, it's night and day. Once a project is launched he gives updates continuously and constantly keeps in touch with their customer base. Plus he's constantly giving interviews to collector channels and others in the collecting community. AND THEY ARE A LOT SMALLER THAN A BIG CORP LIKE TOMY!

Go figure.
Click to expand...
It was clear from the beginning that this was a side passion project that a couple guys somehow got their bosses to approve, and that they didn't have experience with trying to market something like this on their own. Since before the kickstarter even ended, I was already saying that they really needed help with marketing/communication. And as time went on, it seems they needed help with project management as well to create achievable targets and avoid overpromising and underdelivering.
It's painfully clear that an engineer/designer is largely going it alone on this thing when the only final product photos of this release were dirty cellphone snaps that look like they were taken on a 9 year old phone. We've had to rely on customers receiving it early in order to even see it clearly. I know no ill will was intended, a designer is typically a very different personality than a sales or marketing person, and they could have used some help in those areas.

Imagine if from the start they managed their budget realistically, communicating with us that the model might have plugs, but logically placed them on the "unfinished" side, and set filling them as a stretch goal if they got X number of orders. And then kept people updated with professional looking photos as they approached the finish line. Expectations would have been managed and people would probably have been cool with it.
A lot of lessons to be learned.

With the backlash that their handling of the situation caused, their bosses may not be willing to approve another endeavor like this one. However, I'm still looking forward to receiving mine, and I've still got my fingers and toes crossed that they might still consider doing an Enterprise D. Seems like they're my only hope to get one for less than the price of a new car, and I want one badly. RIP chronicle collectibles.
 
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VitalNonsense said:
It was clear from the beginning that this was a side passion project that a couple guys somehow got their bosses to approve, and that they didn't have experience with trying to market something like this on their own. Since before the kickstarter even ended, I was already saying that they really needed help with marketing/communication. And as time went on, it seems they needed help with project management as well to create achievable targets and avoid overpromising and underdelivering.
It's painfully clear that an engineer/designer is largely going it alone on this thing when the only final product photos of this release were dirty cellphone snaps that look like they were taken on a 9 year old phone. We've had to rely on customers receiving it early in order to even see it clearly.

Imagine if from the start they managed their budget realistically, communicating with us that the model might have plugs, but logically placed them on the "unfinished" side, and set filling them as a stretch goal if they got X number of orders. And then kept people updated with professional looking photos as they approached the finish line. Expectations would have been managed and people would probably have been cool with it.
A lot of lessons to be learned.

With the backlash that their handling of the situation caused, their bosses may not be willing to approve another endeavor like this one. However, I'm still looking forward to receiving mine, and I've still got my fingers and toes crossed that they might still consider doing an Enterprise D. Seems like they're my only hope to get one for less than the price of a new car, and I want one badly. RIP chronicle collectibles.
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That Chronicle Collectables D model on the LCARS base looked pretty sweet IMHO.
 
goldcylon said:
That Chronicle Collectables D model on the LCARS base looked pretty sweet IMHO.
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Oh yeah it was sweet alright but at 2 grand at 1/1000 scale was a little to pricey for me at that scale. If it was like 1/650 it might be worth it. But two grand was a lot to ask.
 
Considering how large and heavy these are and shipping was included in the low $600 price, I'm assuming these will be shipped freight and take a while to arrive, which is completely fair.

I'm not necessarily even expecting a shipping notice. Not everything I order gets a shipping notice. I'm just hoping in the next few weeks 2 giant boxes show up on my porch.

I am guessing a lot of people who ordered this are around the same age I am. Remember when we used to order something from a magazine or ad when we were kids. Two weeks for the order to get to the place, a week for the check to clear, then 4-6 weeks to process and ship. The Enterprise is from that time, no 2 day Amazon from the future.
 
1138sw said:
Oh yeah it was sweet alright but at 2 grand at 1/1000 scale was a little to pricey for me at that scale. If it was like 1/650 it might be worth it. But two grand was a lot to ask.
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$2000 for 24 inches of Enterprise sure sounds really nice now compared to $17,000 for 29 inches.... which is what Factory Entertainment is now charging for what seems to be a very similar offering.
Meanwhile Tomy's 32 incher was 600 bucks including shipping, they could charge fully double that for the E-D at the same length and it'd still be a hell of a deal. I'll take some plugs for a 15K discount, sure.
 
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