Just chiming in as I used to be very close to some of the people involved,
This isnt John Bush's personal doing with the project. He like others is an employee. The issue is no comprehension of what it takes to produce the items em mass as a license holder. I know having worked on a few projects its complicated. From reading the sale pitch the original fabricators were to produce the items. Thats the first real red flag as these are some of the most talented fabricators on the planet yet also only enough people to count on a single hand. Considering these guys work long hours and extra long weeks on the norm, the thought a project such as this could ever be completed within any set reasonable time frame isnt feasible. Then take into consideration these are not a film prop but a collectors level item and the quality expectation is raised. I had seen a doomed project from before they were even announced publicly.
This type of project needs a separate entity to succeed. Years prior the talk was picking up the Firefly/Serenity license and doing items the current license holder has failed to produce. This was of course before the Serenity movie was even done filming. The end result was not enough hours in a day to produce licensed items while still doing work projects. Why they chose a complicated series of items to start with is a mystery but whats done is done.
They havent set out to scam anyone, just failed to produce anything. I suspect they still want to, it just comes back to the time and man power not being there. At this point damage done, issue refunds, move on. Problem is, no updates, no refunds, nothing. Not a good start.