Not everything, if memory serves, the comics or a comic were/was part of the initial kickstarter too. But then had to have a second kickstarter to complete. Or, at least I think they are completed. It's convoluted.

Somehow I recall thinking, odd... two successful campaigns in one failure to fully complete a task.

 

Unlike Tetrajets or other crowd fundraisers, where a company goes "We want to make this item, please help us fund it". In the case of Supermax, the design was shown and MMC already passed on it(Which is why those of you on the fence, Should pledge! Link's right here.) Then people started calling MMC out for passing on it, as clearly they felt it was too much of a risk due to Warden. So after all the noise people generated, they offered a deposit style fund raiser, where you are only paying a portion up front, not the full amount. Which is a cool thing to do.

 

How much does it actually cost to acquire a license like that, Calabask? As in, up-front payment?

 

I was one of the 2 people that won a purple bike in the December T1 auction. It took a few weeks afterwards to confirm my address with Spence. I haven’t heard from him since January 4th.

2 1/2 months, no purple bike, no folllow up, and I can’t get a reply.

 

I can only take your word that you are telling the truth and I appreciate you volunteering the information.

I apologize if that sounds like skepticism for that is not my intent.

I just am cautious of rabble rousing on board an anti-Spence bandwagon.

I hope that you get your item. Same with everyone else.

 

And it's chuck full of grammatical errors too.

 

It honestly depends on the company, and a number of other factors. If there's royalties or not, how much the company get's per unit sold, how much they value their IP, I'd say ball park range? At the least? Thousands. Probably at least five thousand. Actually, I know the perfect people to ask. Going to do that tonight/tomorrow.

 

I backed the Unrustables based on believing on the premise and how they exposed the figure with community communication at the beginning. Then with the Purple Bikes every kink in their shiny armor came up. Promise of nothing, but at some point in the future you might get something from us. After seeing Spencer response and blaming other like PE and Calabask MASS has zero confidence and reliability on fulfilling their promises. As for MMC Crowdfund I backed their previous Ocular Max and was delivered on time. As their customer service is awesome I needed spare parts for my Feral Rex, which I bought from BBTS and they sent me the parts. Also it was several years after the initial release. So my trust on delivering this new project is with them.

 

...WTF

Thats some serious bullshxt.

As I recall, Spence had the Prototype in hand, ready to ship when he did the video stream auction. The auction that you had to pay for entry tickets, and it never was sent?

That would be theft/fraud.

 

Yeah and we don’t know if he ever made the donation to the Ronald McDonald house either. Remember both Spencer and Cassy have been active on Facebook, so either one of them who are in charge of the toys should have responded to everyone by now, but they are opting not to.

 

In situations like this, skepticism without evidence is understandable and recommended.

If you go through the Mayhem Mekanics thread, you’ll find my posts going back to the contest drawing. If it made a difference, I can post the emails and PMs.

I was initially concerned because the Otomos I ordered with the raffle ticket were delivered to the wrong address (my fault, one digit in the address was changed). Luckily, I had the tracking number and was able to talk to neighbors.

I didn’t know I had won until a few days afterward, no one contacted me, I happened to see the video in the thread. I reached out to Spence here and later through the Mayhem Mekanics. About 3 weeks later, I got a reply saying they’ve corrected the address and will send out the purple bike with a tracking number the next week. Nothing since.

When I saw people posting about people waiting for parts on the Mayhem Mekanics thread, I posted there again. CZ Hazard touched base and said he’d try to get a hold of Spence. At the time, I sent another email.

I rarely log in and comment, preferring to read updates and avoid unnessary drama. In this case, I felt it was appropriate.

The bikes / accessory packages were in hand for the contest. Spence has our contact info. As far as I know, it’s a matter of dropping it in the mail. I can understand being busy, I feel forgotten.

I’ve met Spence at TFCons, and
I like to support 3rd party and crowd funded figures. I contributed to MMCs Artfire, Maketoys Sunstorm, and Cold Construct’s endeavor. The situation with the auction and lack of communication gives me pause about contributing to this campaign.

 

I went and did some digging to find out from old posts if there are any indications exactly how Spencer has acted or things he has done to others, which are documented from his past business issues. mainly to draw a line if this is a habit of his, or bad luck he keeps getting into. I found some damning evidence on TFW’s sister site, Cybertron.ca. there is a major thread on there, dating back to 2009, where locals of his old toy store, along with an employee and business partner, air their accusations about Spencer ripping them off. Before jumping over there, caution is needed, as this is a 10 year old post. Spencer has had the time to change and the current issues surrounding him, MAAS, and Unrustables may be a different circumstance, especially if he has truly gotten screwed by others right now. Or, this is what Spencer always does, and this thread on Cybertron.ca maybe proof he hasn’t changed. Its up to you to see and decide for yourself. My main concern is seeing fellow collectors and fans not loose money, if they have invested in it, or planning to, in Spencer’s associated businesses.





Also to caution, Ages Three and Up is heavily involved in this old thread. As you know, Spencer originally created the store, which was online and had a physical location in Vancouver Canada. Once he closed it down at the end of 2008, it was bought by the current owner, Boris. I’ve personally met Boris at TFCon, and buy from A3U. They are one of the best vendors, and have my support. I have also seen how they contributed to the current community with all they do. They do not have any horse in this race, nor should be subjugated to what Spencer/MAAS/Unrustables are doing, so its best to skirt around them in that thread, as they have proven over the years they are legit under the current ownership.



As this thread is quite long, here are is a quick summary, and user names, for who’s post you should take notice of if you want to skim through it. The most damning/interesting posts are near the end of the thread, once “Spencer_Wilson” starts posting.





the thread starts off for announcement of A3U’s relaunch under new ownership. Locals in Vancouver quickly start to post their experiences when they dealt with the store under Spencer’s ownership. Majority is negative experience, with people claiming being owed money still, after Spencer shut his store down. Users who have posts you should look at are by “MasterOfPuppets”, who claims he was a former employee under Spencer (who later confirms this), and “Protoform X” who was a manager or partner with Spencer (also confirmed by him).



Thread:

Ages Three and Up Announcement: New Owner and Relaunch - Cybertron.CA - Canadian Transformers News and Discussion





Maybe off topic, but it might be importance. There is a person referred to as “Alex” in that thread. A board member named “darthrage” comments a few times in that thread. Alex and “darthrage” are one in the same. Also known as “The Ragin Nation” on youtube. According to old posts, they originally owned Urban Samurai, which later Spencer bought, then sold to the current A3U. Reading their posts while aware of these details adds a different light to the comments.



Last note, which might be relevant. Spencer closed shop on his A3U on December 31st, 2008. Within 2009, he bought up Urban Samurai, and was running another business, while people were still owed money from his previous business. There is another thread or two over there, showing more shadiness from Spencer. One instance, he used a different username, “UpYourAstrotrain” to make posts, first as a customer of his store, than claiming he was a partner while insulting customers who complained about him and blamed them for their problems "They don't have the nutz." to quote him directly. Locals then pointed out, that user was Spencer along, based on Spencer outright telling them.

 

Well, if is true or not that the Prototypes were delivered as well the money was donated there’s no way to confirm except taking their word. As for the current situation, there’s a track record showing how initial engagement was there. Then after the money was provided, everything goes to hell with promises of other products or passing out the blame to others. I have sent emails and no response and as for now I suggest that all of those that placed money through ebay check out before as my Purple Bike money is gone. Invoices were sent on August 21 2018. So after you paid, you only have 180 days before you become an official founding father of their future venture.

 

That is one hell of a thread. And you’re right. Taken in context of Spencer’s recent behaviour it does show a pretty damning pattern over a period of many years.

I’m genuinely surprised someone hasn’t brought this up previously. Unless I missed it.

 

But BSF claims to know a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in the 3P world and BSF says Spence is a good dude... and BSF promoted GCI Toys as a good dude...

 

BSF takes a few facts and stretches them, often with some astronomical assumptions, to fit his narrative. All with the end of getting views on his YT channel. That’s all I’ll say because I very rarely watch his videos.

 

Just been made aware of all this and.. yikes, looks like Spence has a lot of explaining to do.  

 

Heh, I've been staying out of MAAS Toys threads ever since Spence decided to be a dick to me but I just had to see how this shitshow was unfolding. It's funny - people insulted me for questioning him at the time, since he always seems to dodge questions and answer others in a way that makes people believe he knows a lot about this business (and yet most of what he says is about as insightful as a fortune teller - which is to say, vague enough to sound completely accurate but not necessarily mean anything).
But now he's screwing people over left, right and centre with at least two bad business decisions recently (I'd say it's more like three or four, but anyway) and tried to lay the blame on everyone but himself. I hate to say "I told you so" but I saw his arrogant behaviour and poor-quality business from a mile away, so look who's laughing now. I really can't say I'm surprised, even though it's a sad state of affairs.

It's a shame, it really is - I never want a company to fail (unless it's EA or Konami or... well, you get the point) and I always think that more third-party Transformers are a good thing. I thought MAAS Toys showed a lot of promise too, though I started getting concerned once I heard Spence was involved, and yet I still remained optimistic for a while.
I remember when the Unrustable Bastards were first announced many years ago, and I was really into them. I was ready to back them then and there but then it went silent for a while and I lost interest over the years. Now I'm glad that interest is gone, frankly.
It's sad but when modern FansProject has the high ground... welp.

Ultimately though, I just hope the people who backed this get them some day. I personally think it's a rather ugly design but that's subjective - objectively, people getting scammed is not okay, and the explanations that have been given are, in my opinion, completely inadequate.

To be fair, he's been getting better recently but... you're definitely not wrong about that overall.
I love how the video he initially did on the drama has a comment from Spence, where he basically wanted to spin a narrative for Bobby and was annoyed he didn't get the chance to do that (until the next video, when he did).

 

I had a giggle at this