Strike Force Alpha action Figures

Strike Force Alpha final update for wave one
4 months ago – Sun, Dec 24, 2023 at 09:41:58 PM

The figures turned out awesome and we spent the last few weeks mailing them out. Judging from the posts online many of you have received them. All backers that have fully paid for their pledges and their shippjng either should have received their figures by now or they should arrive soon. there have been a few people we’ve tried multiple times to reach out to collect unpaid monies. if you arent paid in full we wont ship  your figures until payment is made. Orders outside of the U.S. shipping times will take longer. We already have 2 new figures jn hand that we are calling wave 1.5. We have very limited quantities of figures left for sale at our website. 

https://www.whiteelephanttoyz.com

The order is on the way from China!
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 08:20:40 AM

The order is finished and on the boat. 

I’ve been waiting to post something until the project was finished. A couple weeks before we originally planned to finish the order there was major flooding in parts of China. You guessed it right where the factory is. Some people I know lost their orders in the flood. The workers were sent home. After they returned back to work we were fortunate to not lose any of the production run to the flood. All the workers were safe and production resumed. While they were assembling the figures we remade the molds for the clamshells. This was done to move the figures over and show off the strike force logo on the side of the card. Then they had holidays in China and we lost another 10 days. The delays throughout have been frustrating to say the least, but what we have lacked in timing I feel we have made up for in quality. We have spared no expense and no amount of frustration to get the figures right. The project has been delay after delay. I’ve done many projects with this factory and I feel like the complexity and amount of figures made at one time made it difficult for our smaller factory to maintain a schedule. Going forward we will be making smaller assortments and smaller production runs to speed  things up. I tried to negotiate a price to have the figure FedEx to the states but the cost was over 20k and I wasn’t able to pay the additional costs. Onward and upward.

Unpaid fees
8 months ago – Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 01:24:02 PM

I’ll go through the Backerkit report and post a list of unpaid fees. That way everyone doesn’t have to worry. Backerkit sends automatic emails about these charges, and the emails may have gone to your spam folder over the last year. I’m not trying to shame anyone, just trying to get the info out there so we can get it taken care of and prevent delays. I've already had 50 people message me to ask if they paid. It will be hard to look up every backer that messages and message you back. 

The long wait is almost over!
8 months ago – Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 12:20:58 PM

I wanted to send this update out first since I sent the email earlier to lock the shipping addresses. Backerkit sets a 48 window to update the addresses. The Production order isn’t finished but is getting very close. I will also post a production update to explain where things are. I want to do everything I can now to be ready when the order arrives, to get your items shipped. The below information is very important. Please read and respond if need be.

Update Addresses

I sent out an email to lock addresses. This doesn’t mean your order is shipping. It just means you have 48 hours to update your address if need be. Even if you have contacted me with an address change, please update your address with the notice that went out. This will ensure we haven’t missed anything. Here’s the info for the notice that went out.

Your backers will be given enough time to make any last-minute changes to their shipping address. Having updated and accurate addresses will save you time and reduce shipping costs by preventing returned packages. After 48 hours, all addresses will automatically be locked.

I want to minimize the issues and get you everything you ordered in a timely matter. Please update your address if need be.

Shipping Costs

There are over $1000 of unpaid shipping costs from backers. Multiple attempts have been made to collect these funds. Orders won’t be shipped until shipping charges have been collected. I don’t know how else to reach folks about these charges, other than to post a list of backers who haven’t paid for shipping. If your shipping charges aren’t paid, your order will sit and not get shipped out until this is taken care of. If you are in doubt, you can always contact me.

I want to minimize your wait and get you everything you ordered in a timely matter. Please take care of your shipping charges if need be.

Add-Ons

There are over $1000’s of dollars of add-on figures that haven’t been paid by backers. Multiple attempts have been made to collect these funds. In some cases, pledges have been paid for, but add-ons and shipping haven’t been paid for. Orders won’t be shipped until funds have been collected. If you paid for your pledge and not your add-on figures, I paid for your figures and added them to the figure count. I had these figures made for you even though they aren’t paid.

Unpaid pledges

I don’t know the exact figure off hand, but there is over $10,000 in pledges that have not been paid for despite multiple attempts to contact you. I’m not mad at you, but I had to cover these costs myself to meet the minimum order quantities. I’m not holding figures for your pledge if you didn’t pay. You will have to wait and try to purchase some figures later if you still want them. If you contact me wanting me to honor your pledge that went unpaid, the answer will be no.

Surveys

There are numerous people that haven’t responded to the surveys that went out. The survey is to make sure you don’t want to add to your order or change your original pledge. If you haven’t responded, we assume you want your original pledge with no add-ons. This is what will be shipped if all charges have been paid.

Let’s get this finished. Strike Force Alpha!
9 months ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 12:10:02 PM

Finally, we have some things to report. The factory has been slammed and we are doing things a little bit differently to get this order wrapped up. The order is simultaneously being worked on at three places to finish things off. Capes are being made at a clothing factory and should wrap up soon. Cards are being made at another factory. Plastic is being injected for figures and weapons; the outer package is being made while the inner trays are being figured out for each figure layout. The good news is once an order is at this stage, things move fast.

I had to create mock-ups for each figure and the parts layout. In order to layout the extra parts where they could be seen on each package we quickly ran into a problem. With the extra hands and weapons, we would either have to put them in a bag behind the figure or increase the bubble size and make an inner try for each design. That way the backpacks, guns, extra heads, and weapons would all be on display. Since we have this swappable system on the heads and hands, it was important that you can see what parts you have to play with. Also, most figures now come with a second head and those need to be on display.

The issue this caused was none of the artwork or card layouts we had would work anymore, because they’d be covered up with the bubble. So new art and layouts had to be created. Instead of artwork on the side it’s now on the top. I’m so much happier with how this card design looks. We appreciate George Vega jumping in at the last minute and getting the card art finished for us. The factory said I should have more photos tomorrow of additional packaged figures. I think from here out the updates will be more plentiful and have lots of progress photos. I will keep posting pictures every time they are available.