PAX Unplugged (and a small teaser for the next campaign)
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 04:54:19 AM

It's November already? Dang.

We'll be at Pax Unplugged in Philadelphia December 2-4

It's our first board game convention, y'all! 

If you're attending Pax Unplugged, come say hi to us at Booth 3914. 

We don't expect you to buy anything (duh, you already backed our Kickstarter) but we have low self-esteem and crave external validation wherever we can get it!

A small teaser for the next Kickstarter

We're still hard at work on the next Kickstarter. Some new models have already been sampled and approved. Others are proceeding through the design phase. We'll have more to show you (and a sign up page) once all models have been approved and art is complete. We've listened to your feedback and think that there will be something for everyone in this new release.

We've tried to up our game with these next sets in both detail, complexity, and (with some models) ridonkulous gimmicktry.

So without further ado, here's a quick peak at one of the new moo-dels.

Moo-re news to come.

The Little Plastic Train Company

Short survey for new Kickstarter project
about 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 06:02:01 AM

Help us out by answering a two-question survey

tl;dr - We'd love your input on the new Kickstarter via a short two-question survey HERE.

For the tragic backstory on this survey, continue reading:

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We're working hard on next year's Kickstarter. 

Though we're in the very early stages, we can share that we're working on five new rolling freight designs. These new designs will come in tins with original artwork just like our first set.

But as we've gotten further into the Kickstarter, a debate has been sparked within our team.

This debate has threatened a civil war where train fanatics--once friends and allies--may eventually be forced to fight each other.

• One faction believes new rolling freight colors should match with the existing set so that we can lay down routes with color-coordinated engines and rolling freight--like actual trains do. (This faction also wants superheroes to be subject to government oversight.)
• The other faction believes that the new rolling freight cars should be in new colors for maximum variety. (And that superheroes should regulate themselves.)

There's also a minor debate over potential add-ons.

Instead of causing massive collateral damage in major cities, we've decided to throw these questions to you, dear backers.

Click HERE to answer the survey.

The future of tiny plastic trains is in your hands.

With great power comes great responsibility,

The Little Plastic Train Company

Two announcements! One exciting! The other not!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 02:35:46 AM

Sup, train fam?

We've missed you.

Bobby, is that you back there? You've grown so much since we last saw you! You're almost as tall as your mom.

Anyway, we've got two announcements for y'all. One exciting, the other not so much.

----

Announcement #1: We're working on a new Kickstarter for Spring 2023!

We're in the midst of designing and prototyping a set of rolling freight cars. Because what good are engines without stuff to pull?

We'll have photos to show you when we're ready. 

OK. You really want to see one don't you?

Ugh....fiiiiiine. We'll give you a small peek.

Right now, we're just trying to make sure the new train cars look as cool as possible. And we're running the numbers on the viability of potential stretch goals and Kickstarter exclusives. (The economics of making and shipping anything during the Inflationpocalypse are challenging, so we need to be careful.)

We'll have a link for you to sign up to be notified of the new Kickstarter when it launches. 

But that's a ways off.

Anyway, we thought you'd like to know.

So now you know, you know?

 Announcement #2: If you're looking to purchase our train sets for friends and family, be careful buying on Amazon 

It's unavoidable. If you want to sell anything, you have to sell your stuff on Amazon.

Because if you don't, someone else will. And they'll mess things up and hurt your brand's reputation.

Helping Jeff Bezos buy his next yacht is not something we wanted to do, but we grit our teeth and did it. We paid for photos, videos, graphic design work, and made a pretty listing to sell our sets on Amazon. 

After all, as the legendary Warren Buffett once said: "That is how a smart bidness do."

Unfortunately, we've recently run into issues with some Amazon third-party sellers.

We don't want to bore everyone with how Amazon operates, but suffice it to say that these third party companies have attempted to kick us off the very listings we invested in and worked hard to create.  (In Amazon-speak, this is called "stealing the buy box.") Sadly, they've almost completely succeeded.

For example, if you buy a Midnight Express set right now on Amazon, it won't come from us. It will come from some company called "Bottom Dollar."

If you buy a Hornet set, it will come from "Token Trade Games."

And if you buy a General set, it will come from "Quid Ink."

We have no idea who these companies are. We have not sold to them. Our distributors have not sold to them. For all we know, they could be selling counterfeit copies. 

We've tried to find out what exactly is going on but none of these companies have responded to our attempts to contact them. 

As it stands, we're not making any money from these sales and we can't vouch for the authenticity or quality of sets sold by these companies. And we're really not interested in rewarding these companies by purchasing their sets to find out if they're counterfeit or not.

So our PSA is this:

1) If you want to ensure we keep making cool stuff, please buy directly from our website or from a brick and mortar retailer you trust.

Take it from us, the Almighty Bald One does not need more money.

2) If you must buy from Amazon because your nephew's birthday is in two days and man I should have really thought of a gift sooner, then please make sure that we are the listed seller. It'll look something like this.

You may have to scroll down to the "Other Sellers on Amazon" section to find and buy from us.

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If you've made it this far, thanks for reading all of that.

Now if you'll excuse us, we've got to go pee in a bottle.

The Little Plastic Train Company

The Final Update (with one last survey)
over 2 years ago – Fri, May 27, 2022 at 12:53:59 AM

The Final Update

We're leavin' together
But still it's farewell
And maybe we'll come back
To Kickstarter, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame (except COVID)
For orders being late (being late)
Will things ever be the same again?

Bah-dum-dum-dum-dah-dum.

It's the final update.

Bah-dah-dah-dah. 

Bah-dah-dah-dah-dah.

Bah-dah-dah-dah.

Etc.

Canadian Fulfillment Is Complete

All Canadian orders have shipped out. Virtually all of you should have received your packages by now; if not, you should get them before the end of the month.

Again, if there are any issues with your order, please email us at [email protected]

Our Webstore Is Up

If you want to buy some sets for your friends, family, or enemies (who live in the U.S. or Canada) you can now do so on our website here.

One Final Survey

We're going to take a breather for a while. Then we'll start getting to work on our next Kickstarter.

We know we sent out a poll early in the campaign about our next Kickstarter. 

But that was a year ago.

So we wanted to give y'all one last opportunity to give us input on what you'd like to see us do next.

You can take the survey here.

Or don't. Whatever. Pffft. Your loss.

------

Thanks to all of you for making our first Kickstarter a success!

We hope to see y'all again soon.

Toot-toot,

The Little Plastic Train Company

Canadian fulfillment + store and extra orders + last call for pledge manager surveys
over 2 years ago – Sat, May 14, 2022 at 04:51:41 AM

It's Friday. Which means it's time to avoid addressing the underlying issues causing our mid-life unhappiness so we can, yet again, temporarily drink them away this weekend. W00t!

<gif off woman drinking comically large glass of wine>

[We would have inserted several gifs throughout this update, but Kickstarter kept giving us errors when we tried to upload them. So we've done the next best thing.]

Canada shipments are scheduled to start going out late next week

<gif of....um... a moose, dressed as a hockey player kissing PM William King>

Some of y'all have started to receive emails from Pick and Pack Logistics asking you to update and confirm your addresses. Please do that. 

Don't worry if you haven't gotten an email from them yet; they haven't sent them all out.

As with U.S. fulfillment, it's not an overnight process. It could take up to two weeks for everyone to get their packages.

You have until May 31st to fill out your pledge manager survey or you will forfeit your pledge

<gif flashing "404: Backer Not Found">

Despite a year's worth of updates and close to a dozen reminder emails, some of you (24 to be exact) have not filled out your pledge manager surveys. We have no idea where you live, so we can't mail your packages.

Enough is enough.

If you're dead, you have a great excuse. We're sorry for your loss.

We're more concerned about the neglectful, alive people. So...

If you do not fill out your pledge manager by May 31st, we will consider your order abandoned. Your pledge will be canceled and your order will return to our general stock. 

We're not going to be one of those companies that holds a tiny amount of orders and pays warehousing fees in-between print runs because you can't be bothered to fill out a form.

Last chance, folks. You snooze, you will quite literally lose.

Our webstore should go live late next week

If you want to pick up some extra sets for friends and family, our webstore should go live at the end of next week. You can sign up to be notified by signing up for the mailing list at www.littleplastictrain.com.

•  Our store will only ship orders to the U.S. and Canada at launch. We may open it up to foreign countries in the coming weeks but we want to work out any kinks with local customer sales first.

<gif of...eh....a beaver and eagle high-fiving each other>

•  We are out of stock in the UK. Sorry, Brits. You'll need to order extra sets from local retailers or wait until the next Kickstarter.

<gif of,...um...Harold Wilson crying>

•  We have some sets remaining in Europe and Australia. If you would like to order extra sets in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand, please send a direct email to [email protected]. We will send you a price list for orders to your country. EU customers will be charged VAT.

<gif of...er...a great white shark draped in the EU flag>

That's all people. Have a good weekend.

The Little Plastic Train Company