Deprecated FOTK First Order Stormtrooper armor for sale (BANNED)

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Just got the label from my Gizmo box. Apparently, the sender was Paul Taylor, with this return address:

07472678584 (is that a phone number? I have no clue.)
Paul Taylor
C/O David Pluck's12 Northende
Sale M333BR
United Kingdom

Don't know if this helps... Again, the address is near Manchester. Also Sara's address is near Manchester, and the other address of Paul that was posted in this thread was near Manchester...
 
The address leads to a high street but further looking on G Maps there are houses behind plus no shops with Prop maker type names attached to them.
 
Not if he spent all the money he made and can't afford the material to finish the second halves.

Often people go into a run with the best intentions, and then spend the money they get on some supplies and then on their own personal living expenses and bills. Then the project drags and they need to rely on more people placing orders so they can get money to finish up the earlier orders.... it is usually at this point that a downward spiral happens. Soon there are no more new orders coming in and no more money flow, and then the delays and excuses happen trying to buy themselves some time. Then they ultimately just bail and disappear because they know they cannot face everyone and they know they have exhausted the same old excuses.

Like some kind of prop-maker's ponzi scheme? Its so disheartening to see this happen time and time again on this forum. Why aren't there measures in place to make sure this does not happen? I can't think of anything foolproof at the moment but there are plenty of people more brilliant than me..
 
Like some kind of prop-maker's ponzi scheme? Its so disheartening to see this happen time and time again on this forum. Why aren't there measures in place to make sure this does not happen? I can't think of anything foolproof at the moment but there are plenty of people more brilliant than me..

Well, there are some who purposely aim to steal money, but many do not intend to do that up front. They are good people who intend to actually complete the run, but end up failing. They just need money, be it for lack of employment or for debt, so they decide to do a run to get an income. They then immediately use the funds for bills and find they don’t have the money to supply the run and finish it. They then feel bad, and then make a bunch of excuses all in an attempt to buy time to figure out how to get back on track and finish the run. At this point they are officially in over their head and drowning. Once they realize they can’t finish, and they no longer have funds to refund money, they read the angry posts and see the pitch forks and they get scared and run away. We see this all the time. This is why you will hear of good reputation members falling from grace. They spend years building their rep and due to getting in over their head, they destroy it all and burn their bridges. A good prop builder will only ask for 50% upfront and the rest when ready to ship. They will also hold all funds, basically in an escrow account, until the run is complete. This will allow them to have funds for people who need to back out due to delays or the unforeseen buyer emergency where they need their money back. NEVER consider the money as yours until you deliver the final product. Then and only then should you feel it is safe to move the funds o we to your personal account.
 
Why aren't there measures in place to make sure this does not happen? I can't think of anything foolproof at the moment but there are plenty of people more brilliant than me..
How do you mean? There ARE measures in place to prevent this kind of things, but people just don't use them! PayPal has a period of 6 months to make a claim if a seller does not deliver. I really don't understand why people do not make use of that protection?

Does it take longer for a propmaker to produce something? OK, no problem, let the propmaker refund you in full, and make the payment again the next minute, and a new period of half a year will start. I've done this a couple of times where I was in a run where the period of 6 months was passing.

So there is a very, very simple rule: don't let the 6 month period of buyer protection pass! EVER!!! Whatever the excuse of the seller is, if the the 6 month period is coming to an end and you don't have your stuff: demand a refund and make the payment again! If the seller refuses this, then something fishy is going on and you should file a claim.
 
How do you mean? There ARE measures in place to prevent this kind of things, but people just don't use them! PayPal has a period of 6 months to make a claim if a seller does not deliver. I really don't understand why people do not make use of that protection?

Does it take longer for a propmaker to produce something? OK, no problem, let the propmaker refund you in full, and make the payment again the next minute, and a new period of half a year will start. I've done this a couple of times where I was in a run where the period of 6 months was passing.

So there is a very, very simple rule: don't let the 6 month period of buyer protection pass! EVER!!! Whatever the excuse of the seller is, if the the 6 month period is coming to an end and you don't have your stuff: demand a refund and make the payment again! If the seller refuses this, then something fishy is going on and you should file a claim.

Yes, this is now a lesson that I will learn definately for future, it still doesnt excuse what has happened from mimic on this run.
 
Yes, this is now a lesson that I will learn definately for future, it still doesnt excuse what has happened from mimic on this run.
Indeed it's not an excuse for an RPF member (or seller in general) not to deliver what was paid for, but people here can not say that they did not have a possibility to protect themselves from loosing money. It's a bit like an alarm system on your house: not having an alarm system is no excuse for someone to break into your house. Big difference is that an alarm system costs money, and PayPal buyer protection is free.
 
As an additional remark: I was scammed years ago by SD Studios / Steve Dymszo here on the RPF (along with dozens of other RPF members). A run of Neuralyzers where I paid a fair amount for one up front, but delivery was always delayed and ultimately Steve did not respond anymore. A bit the same case as here: SD Studios also produces very great replica's, and I bought a few before (Batman Spear Gun, HAL panel, ...) without any problem. So had no problem back then to let the period of Buyer protection from PayPal pass (it was much shorter back then. 2 or 3 months), since I had such good experiences with SD Studios.

But then Steve stopped communicating and people here lost thousands and thousands of dollars / euro's. In the meanwhile, Steve started a new company "Artifcactory Replicas".

What I did then was tracking down people and companies that were working with Artifcatory / Steve, and just telling them what was going on on the RPF and how Steve owed people thousands of dollars. I also started posting reviews on sites where Artifactory sold it's stuff, just telling about how Steve scammed people on the RPF. Only after a week or two, Steve contacted me, begging me to stop, because people started asking questions. I said I would stop when I was refunded in full. He insisted he would do so If I stopped. So I did for a short period of time and got a partial refund. When communication stopped again, I restarted my "campaign" of exposing Steve. Again he asked me to stop, but this time I told him I would even increase my efforts, untill I had a full refund. Two days later, I got all of my money back. It took me some effort, but this technique seemed to work.

So if you guys can figure out who Paul Taylor is working with, you can start contacting these people, telling them about the situation here, inform them that Paul stopped communication here, and aks them if they could ask Paul to post an update here. If people that Paul know in real life start asking him these kind if things, I guess he will become very, VERY uncomfortable...
 
Just got the label from my Gizmo box. Apparently, the sender was Paul Taylor, with this return address:

07472678584 (is that a phone number? I have no clue.)
Paul Taylor
C/O David Pluck's12 Northende
Sale M333BR
United Kingdom

Don't know if this helps... Again, the address is near Manchester. Also Sara's address is near Manchester, and the other address of Paul that was posted in this thread was near Manchester...
The number is for a mobile phone, the C/O (care of) address is for the bookmakers(sports betting) shop that can be seen on Google maps. This could be Pauls place of work?
 
The number is for a mobile phone, the C/O (care of) address is for the bookmakers(sports betting) shop that can be seen on Google maps. This could be Pauls place of work?

If it's a sports betting shop, i wonder if there is another underlying problem with money disappearing possibly?
 
Since it is obvious the thief Paul Taylor (aka MIMIC) is never coming back to this Sales Thread, I am posting the armor I just received through JSIN at KB Props.

I only needed the second half since I had the first half from MIMIC.

The quality is great. I will be building Captain Cardinal and posting progress on FISD.

They have a couple of full sets ready to go at a good price.

If you want them, let me know or contact them directly.

I know of 2 others that will be ordering.

It was very nice to get the armor as promised and quickly.

IMG_1968.jpg
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Hello Everyone...


I am so so so very very sorry to you all.

As I’m sure at least a few of you will have assumed I have been out of the country... for over a month now... and it has been the the worst time of my life...

Again I’m TRULY saddened, disappointed and sorry that the effects have reverberated to everyone here. I tried a couple of weeks back to come here and explain but emotionally just didn’t have it in me.. and knew no one would want or care to hear about my personal problems as they are not yours.

I know many of you, and fairly enough ( I would be the same) have left the run and a couple of refunds have gone out and many of you are waiting for your money back - I will refund everyone in turn who wants to leave but cannot do this overnight.

I don’t even know if anyone cares about the armor anymore or if after almost exactly 2 years that I’ve worked on this it is over and I should just give up ... whilst I’ve been away I was lucky enough to have a great friend who has tried his best to continue my work in his spare time around work, evenings and weekends to at least keep something happening, he has tried to encourage me to continue...

I have just got home and have to wait for him to finish work and go to see him to collect my keys to see myself where everything is at...

I will update this very soon...

Again I can’t explain how sorry I am.
 
Hello Everyone...


I am so so so very very sorry to you all.

As I’m sure at least a few of you will have assumed I have been out of the country... for over a month now... and it has been the the worst time of my life...

Again I’m TRULY saddened, disappointed and sorry that the effects have reverberated to everyone here. I tried a couple of weeks back to come here and explain but emotionally just didn’t have it in me.. and knew no one would want or care to hear about my personal problems as they are not yours.

I know many of you, and fairly enough ( I would be the same) have left the run and a couple of refunds have gone out and many of you are waiting for your money back - I will refund everyone in turn who wants to leave but cannot do this overnight.

I don’t even know if anyone cares about the armor anymore or if after almost exactly 2 years that I’ve worked on this it is over and I should just give up ... whilst I’ve been away I was lucky enough to have a great friend who has tried his best to continue my work in his spare time around work, evenings and weekends to at least keep something happening, he has tried to encourage me to continue...

I have just got home and have to wait for him to finish work and go to see him to collect my keys to see myself where everything is at...

I will update this very soon...

Again I can’t explain how sorry I am.

It would have been nice if you had communicated something. But this update as usual is extremely vague and commits to absolutely nothing. I really have no idea what you are trying to tell us with your update.
 
MIMIC sent a money request via PP a month ago. Will wait for that.

And he has said that refunds have gone out. Can anyone on this run confirm this statement or is it just words?
 
Glad to see a reaction from MIMIC. I have no part in this stormtrooper thread, but I truly hope this all got sorted out soon and MIMIC can do other runs.

MIMIC: I don't think people expect elaborate reporting, but just some short regular updates with what's going on, even a message with just a couple of lines, would keep people confident that this run is not abandoned.

Anyway, as said: I hope all turns out OK, here...
 
Hey MIMIC, its great that you have responded, i had thought the worst and that this was going to be another scam of sorts, i hope you can pull it together and try to stay positive.
It would be great to have an update and see where we are at.
 
Im confused, I know life can be so hard, but Mimic said he had .. something .. and had 3 people working on this..... now one!! Ive always not trusted anyone.. I still believe in this!!
 
MIMIC, you still never answer or respond to anything any of your customers post. I can only assume we will not see another useless update for another month.

I do not know why I even comment, you do not read it anyway.

If I was you I would have run to this mystery persons house (made up I am sure) and taken a bunch pictures of this so called progress.

I am sorry if I come across incompassionate but you have only ever lied to us. So it is hard to believe anything you post.

VISUAL PROOF IS THE ONLY THING I WILL ACCEPT.
 
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