It's really a shame. Not just the Tetra Jets, but MAAS in general. I was mildly interested in Stack, Rapido, and some of their other releases. It was like the second coming of FansProject, whose aesthetic I love. A bit disappointed we probably won't be seeing anything more coming from these guys.

 

I tried warning people in this thread early on and in the UR thread. I tried warning Sid and Cassy about Spencer as well. He had a long history of this sort of stuff and has been blacklisted by many third party companies because of it. I got called all sorts of foul things, was told I was on a crusade, and I was, I didn’t want people to get screwed over and lose their money. Hell I was threatened with a ban by one of the Admins even because I guess they didn’t know about it. I’m feeling a whole lot of vindication right now.

 

@Calabask, you are right with your comments, I had read them at the time of the fund. Ultimately, this fiasco has imo destroyed a lot of trust people may have with future crowdfund attempts. I think the Fort Maxx crowdfund was hurt or at least this attempt may of lead people to be hesitant in joining. I think Maketoys did there crowdfund the best, by making a small batch needing X amount of backers (500), but essentially do a preorder fund (564 backers/564 pieces). I think Maketoys next fund will probably do even better, but Maketoys had already invested and released that mold before, and there crowdfund are for reprints, compared to building from ground up.

 

I don’t need apologies. I didn’t go into this looking for praise. I went into this stuff trying to help people, and I’m glad I was able to help as many as I could.

 

Realizing Spence once had dealings with Maketoys, if I'm not mistaken, there is some degree of irony.

That said, I also can't help but think Spence's former influence helped to get the kickstarter idea in their heads in the first place.

 

I only met Spence a couple of times, and in person he seemed like a great guy. I don't think he would purposely steal money from the fandom. I hope i'm not wrong about him. I didn't back the crowdfunding project as I have been burned by crowdfunding a couple times (thanks Kickstarter) so I understand how you must feel. I hope whatever happens Spence would try to make it up to the fans who funded the project and at least give a partial refund back. If he doesn't do this I fear any company he touches or has dealings with maybe tainted.

I am very sorry to everyone who back this project.

 

Has anyone had any luck getting their money back?

 

How would anybody know if Spence has any involvement. Nobody really knows anything about these companies and there is usually almost no communication besides what do you want us to make then then we answer and then its silence till the next time.

 

Right, I've been out of the country for nearly a month, in deepest, darkest NZ, with sketchy Wi-Fi at best, and when I was able to get online I was mainly trying to find out what was happening with GCI, so have completely missed all this. Is it 100% confirmed dead, or is there a lot of conjecture? I've seen a lot of people say it is, but no links to anything concrete... then the thread started banging on about A3U, which is largely irrelevant to this topic.

I've found the interview video with spence, but it's two hours long and I simply do not have the time to watch the whole thing. Does anyone have the times for some of the pertinent points regarding the future of Renegade? I only ordered the one figure, but fully paid for it and would like to know if my money's gone straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.

If it is dead, then between this and GCI in the last month, I'm out about $160... not a great month, but better than some peoples. Combine that with the MMC Supermax failure (which I at least got my money back for), and I'm done with crowdfunding. It just doesn't work in this industry.

 

The Supermax, I am very confident that it got affected by this fiasco. So far MMC/Planet Steel Express has never failed me with crowdfund (OX Artifex) or part replacements for products that they didn’t sold me nor were in circulation (Feral Rex - parts on 2018). I was affected by the MAAS fiasco and the only thing that saved me was I used PayPal Credit and for that they opened up an investigation. If I was you I would open one and then if it is canceled go to your Financial Institution and file a claim. Good luck

 

I watched the whole thing when it came about (which was a few weeks ago). In short, Spence insists that the project is still going forward but anticipates at least another 1 - 3 years due to setbacks and having to start from scratch because of the factory mishap. However, he also talked about how the money is gone and MAAS would have to use funds from their Crushed Stack figure, Throne, etc.. to pump funds back into the project. At one point during the interview he made mention that people supporting this crowdfund were not pre-ordering a figure but rather investing in the project. Also, towards the end of the interview he was asked if they would increase communications regarding updates and he said that they would (which has yet to happen as far as I'm aware).

Edit: Addtionally as pointed out earlier, BBTS recently closed pre-orders for the Air Soliders line. It also looks as though they've listed everything from MAAS as out of stock.

 

Roughly a month ago in the Unrustables thread, the dude was making excuses for why he couldn’t afford the $60 to ship a prize to one of the raffle winners. Only after he was publicly called out by multiple people did he FINALLy ship out those prizes and he tried to make out as though it was the hardest possible thing he’s ever had to do. And yet people are supposed to believe this fraudster can somehow produce a 3rd party toy? I never gave money to this crowdfunding and never even saw @Calabask previous posts on the topic but even I feel like I owe him thanks.
So... thanks. Keep fighting the good fight.

 

Wow I got lucky. I initially backed the project but ended up emailing asking to cancel my pledge before it went down as I had a hunch it might not be for the best. Best wishes to everyone involved, I hope you can somehow get something back.

 

The cliff notes version is that MAAS is essentially starting over with Renegade due to the split with Fansproject. They originally estimated that the figure would be out this summer but that estimate is now sometime next year. They have to completely redo the CAD file, the samples, everything. The new factory has different requirements and process than the last factory, so there's alot of work trying to get the projects back off the ground.

I believe that the money is still there for Renegade, but was short of the goal, so they're producing the flat stack figure in order to get a product out there and to infuse cash back into the company. That figure should be out soon according to Spencer. The company is going through a lot of challenges right now and we don't know what the final result is going to be. It sounds like at this point that they're trying to do their best to meet those challenges and haven't thrown in the towel at this this point but it's a long road to the finish line.

 

I feel all of 3P was hurt by this, MAAS Toys pretty much poisoned the crowdfunding well. Despite not being the only reason Supermax failed, This whole fiasco clearing did damage to 3P crowdfunding, although apparently according to their social media, Supermax is still happening? not the April fools Helex remold but Supermax, a unique mold is happening.

 

Its dead, get your money back. BBTS canceled all orders for this and listed all of MAAS's stuff as out of stock. I wouldn't be surprised if the preorders for those items also got canceled. You can go through you back and Paypal and explain you were defrauded by GCI and MAAS and get your money back I think.

 

It's probably too late to get my money back from Paypal Credit but I'll have to try. I'll never support another crowdfund again, thats for sure (including Supermax).

 

Hopefully, everyone has there money returned, and let this thread die. People should boycott and product by MAAS and this Spencer guy, and any other company associated with these characters, willing to bet they will try to reinvent themselves under a new name with a new product line. Cooks/scammers will always try new avenues to steal people's money.

 

That's an impressive whitewash of the situation.

 

That money is gone. It doesn't just sit around waiting to be spent, they tried to use it to do too many things and there isn't any left.

Even if that "figure" comes out, it isn't going to sell, and isn't going to sell enough to suddenly make the kind of money they need to do the Renegades. The crowdfund money is gone and this isn't going to raise that kind of money

It's downright fantasy.