Spence's mistakes affected people badly, yes, but those people maybe shouldn't be so eager to shove their hate for Spence down new people's throats -- THAT reflects on all of us, and that makes US poisonous. Spence is toxic, that shouldn't mean the community has to outcompete him on toxicity.

I don't have them backed up, but give me a little time and I can probably dig the info up.

 

I would like to make my set complete as well, but I lack the funds   All in due time.

 

@Thinktank It took me a few minutes to access the Mayhem website through the Wayback Machine, but I managed to rip (and backup for posterity) the character lore for you.  

The Unrustable Bastards: Tombstone Chapter

Iride – The Protagonist
Iride was previously a Prospect but left to do his own thing for a few years. Typically rebellious attitude, just a few years past his teenage years (which means a few hundred years old in Bastard-land). Iride hasn’t been patched yet, he’s in the next line of recruits ready to be considered. He has a beef with Axel who denied him his patch before in a previous Prospect trial.

Burley – Road Captain
The leader of the biker gang, and Iride’s sponsor. The decision for him to be leader was not a popular one, and it almost ended the Bastards, causing a rift in the group and a split in membership. As such he is overly-protective of the remaining Bastards, and quick to rise to a challenge to prove himself as a worthy leader still.

Hollister – Sergeant at Arms
Came up through the ranks with Burley and is the most honest member of the team; true to his word, forthright, and loyal to a fault. If he says he will do something, consider it done.

Hazer – Road Lieutenant
Rumored to have flunked out of the Imperial Army academy, although if it was ever proven he would be booted from the Bastards, as all military and police personnel are exempt from membership. Loves a military structure, and is always keen to understand the hierarchy and see where people fit in. Doesn’t mind taking orders from his superiors, as long as he can issue orders to those beneath him.

Cholla – Treasurer
From a different chapter of the Bastards closer to the core systems. He’s used to a faster pace of life and the ways of a backwater planet like Tombstone frustrate him. Luckily he can amuse himself by wasting Yamazukis and Enforcers alike.

Hopper – Secretary of Offense
Hopper is the go-to mechanic and weapons expert. Piece of tech glitched-out? Weapon needs an upgrade? Find Hopper. Looking for a conversation? Find someone else.

Axel – Soldier
Axel has never been promoted within the group. He feels he is persecuted for almost betraying the group to join the Spector Rogues, but the truth is he is just a pain in the ass who thinks the group owes him something for staying. Great to have on your side in a fight, but all too quick to find a fight to pick.

Road Rash – Prospect
Like a brother to Iride, as they’ve known each other for years, and used to ride together in the Yamakuzis. He’s looking for respect and power, and he thinks he can find that as a member of the Bastards.

Brasso – Former Chapter Captain
As the oldest member of the group, he was one of the first settlers on the planet when he was young and idealistic, and the first Bastard; the man who brought the colors to Tombstone and the Universe. A grumpy, old ‘bot with an almost Soviet sense of pragmatism and a very dry sense of humor. Abdicated leadership when it was due in favour of the younger Burley, choosing him over Spector. He’s never discussed why, and is touchy about the subject. No longer rides, and as such no longer has a Bastard Cycle.

 

Nah, you've always been an apologist with this property and it's amusing watching you quickly maneuver to try to wash the history.

But, as you know, it's not just that. People were screwed out of money, including legends of the 3P TF community like Peaugh. To attempt to sweep all that under the rug when summarizing the history makes your behavior all the more curious. One begins to wonder what your vested interest is in this and trying to get the record to be a certain way. It's not like telling the truth about how people got screwed changes the quality of the product itself. MM can have both a great product and have a glaring dark spot in the end result that indellibly marks the history of its release.
You might have a convenient excuse for that as well or you'll ask the other apologist from years ago whose name I forget, or even CZ, here to defend you. It's all good, man. Go ahead, if you find it necessary. I don't care and it won't change my opinion of your behavior. I'm just amused by it.  

 

I'm still hoping we get the comics at some point.

 

I was an apologist; I made mistakes too. I gave someone I've never met the benefit of the doubt, and in hindsight that was a mistake because he's an asshole. But like any fallible human being, I can admit those mistakes, learn from them and change my behaviour accordingly. I'm not washing anything - you'd just like to tar me along with him because I defended someone with a poor reputation that I knew nothing about. The fact that he's cut and run, whereas I'm still here, does not mean you get to make me a soft target. I learned the truth about this guy the hard way, just like you all did at some point. Yes, I put my trust in a bad person, but I didn't take everyone's money and run with it, so you don't get to make out that I'm just as big of an asshole as he is.

I'm not apologising for anyone any more, and I haven't for at least the last few months, so you can cram it. Consider this my publicly turning on Spence - but not Sid, or Nick; they did their jobs and haven't stolen anyone's money or let anyone down. They still have my trust and good faith. Just wanted to make that clear.

 

Okay, I think you're reading into his intentions a little bit. His summary is exactly right if you leave the Spence...he still owes me money...out. I don't think he's trying to influence history, and you shouldn't be accusing him of doing so.

 

Thank you.

 

It's fine. Throwing accusations around about others is not cool in the slightest.

 

The evidence suggests that Sid and Nate are doing everything they can to make it happen. The comic does in-fact exist; Nate has proved as much. It just needs publishing, and I imagine COVID-19 has slowed that effort down, just like it has everything else.

 

Hey Glazios, thanks for flying our flag as usual. Don't worry about trying to defend us too much, it's not worth it if you're getting personal attacks. Thank you every one else for understanding what the situation and being civil with everyone else.

I think most people know roughly what happened with this project, even I'm the first to admit I don't know everything.

If people want to blame someone blame me, I am responsible for shutting down the second Unrustables kickstarter before it started (The Yamazuki) as I got cold feet and heard some unsettling rumours and I didn't want the whole project to go under with 150k or more outstanding. I drew a line and said we weren't going to move forward until Maas Toys (nothing to do with me or the Mayhem Mekanics team, that was all Spencer) fulfilled their Tetra Jets.

Who knows, if I hadn't done that maybe things would have kept ticking along a few more months or years, but I was not comfortable with having another (large) outstanding project on the go without the previous one being completed.

So sorry. But I don't regret that.

As for the comic. Its ticking along. It's being funded by my real world job wages and the artists / colorists generosity. We don't have a team backing us. There is no Maas. There is no Mayhem Mekanics. There is just Nate and I at this point.

 

You are personally financing the comics?! What happened to the KS Money for the comics?!

Was that lost too?

One thing that is really disappointing is that every time this thread is Bumped, there seems To be another person missing money.

Is there no way to make these folks “whole”?

 

*sigh

Yes, the Kickstarter was fully-funded, and being the guy who went all-in on that, I thought it was pretty obvious from the moment that they decided to expand the KS from funding just ONE issue to all six, just to get it off the ground, that that very-likely left them with something of a hill to climb, even after it reached 110% Funded. There's very likely a good reason they were only hoping to fund the first issue in the first place, and that reason is very likely that, like making toys, the costs of producing and physically printing a relatively-small number of copies for a six-issue comic is LARGE. The more copies you produce and print, the less each copy costs overall; the fewer you produce, the more each copy costs. I'm not privy to either the costs or the number of copies they have to print (including alt.covers, remember), so I don't know how large or small that sum may be, but when you factor in that you actually have to pay the artists for their contributions as well, those costs are going to climb...

 

I had the money for the KS but it ran out real quick, after non payers and fees, by the time I sent out the toy based comic campaign rewards (including buying stock back from an online retailer who backed our first KS) there wasn't enough to fully fund issue one which had jumped to 30 pages for one of the stretch goals.

Originally this was part of the plan, with the idea being we use the comic to sell more Bastards and then fund the 2nd to 6th issues with the funds from selling more Bastards. But when Maas went it took out Mayhem Mekanics and our stock was seized by the warehouse (fairly, pending back payments), any opportunity to sell stock to fund the comic went with it.

As best I can ascertain the entire first KS fund paid for Skiff, I've no idea where the profits for that went because the TFCon and TFNation exclusives sold out (again, Skiff and Maas I was not involved with at all), or what the plan was to pay for the Bastards.

Even now I feel the warehouse (some of you know who I mean when I say this) have been very fair in not selling the molds or dumping stock to undermine the Bastards and what we did achieve.

The whole situation is a mess.

It sucks. I hated it. I took it personally. I was angry for a long time. That anger honestly probably hampered the development of the comic. I think I'm in a better place to continue the comic and I'm more pragmatic about he whole situation now. It is what it is. We're trying to move forward as best we can. I don't know what the future holds for this project other than the comic, but we will see.

 

I don’t really consider myself a community “legend,” and I’m always a little uncomfortable having my name used to call out anyone out or put anyone down. I really enjoy the Unrustables line. I’ve had one sitting on my review table since release, it’s one of the few figures that hasn’t gotten packed away or sold or moved into storage when space gets tight. They’re fabulously fun little figures. I was really hoping to get the purple one, it looked really nice.

I am disappointed in how it all shook out. Spencer was always cool and friendly to me when I met him at conventions, but I can’t speak to anything that went on during the manufacturing process or after, so I am just left feeling a little down about everything. The toys are still cool and I hope some of the planned expansions of the line find a way to happen somewhere. It’s clear a lot of love went into the lore and the designs.

 

I’m so disappointed to read this. The Purple Bike mess obviously sucked for everyone involved.

I didnt realize that the comics had also been so heavily impacted by not having access to the warehouse stock. I was surprised that my Comic KS Bastard was an original Crowdfunded version rather than the standard release. Maybe that explains it.

I just want to say CZ, that I really appreciate your efforts on all of this. I’m very sorry this has had such an impact to your personal finances (let alone your time and energies).

The Bastards were obviously intended to be a passion project and a cool thing to do (with a potential upside if really successful). For such a disappointing fallout really sucks.

I can only appreciate what you have been able to create and support you from afar. I love the 2 Bastards I have and still need to pick up a third eventually. Thank you for honoring your commitments. Much respect to you sir.

 

@CZ Hazard, how about releasing the comic to the backers in electronic format?

 

We've thought of that and discussed it. Problem is as soon as it's a digital file that one person has, everyone has it. We want the physical copies to be in the backer's hands before that happens.

Worst case scenario, it's better to have a digital comic than no comic. Hopefully it won't come to that.

 

Maybe printing all 6 issues as a TPB would be cheaper? I am just throwing that out there.

 

With the technology that we have nowadays, even physical copies can easily be scanned, and lots of people have been waiting for long time. Maybe take a poll and see if people would agree to a digital release. Do a gentleman's handshake to not share the electronic format. Just get it delivered to the backers. Maybe do something later for physical copies. Just putting out options for the community.