"Anyone hear from Tony of Wargames Factory recently?" Topic

I sent Tony an order before Christmas, and a couple of follow up emails, but have not heard anything? Is he on the milk carton? I thought he might be busy brewing up new releases. Or perhaps my mail has ended up in his spam folder.

Dear Chortle,

The WF mail server is broken. My recent emails have bounced.

Howard posted this on 6th January.
"Hey fellas;
The WF email system inexplicably crashed as of Monday night. This means that A) we can only talk to one another using that 'telephone' thing, B) Tony can't update the website, and C) anyone who has been having an email conversation with any of us may have found themselves 'snubbed' for no apparent reason.
I, of course, didn't know this except that nobody at WF had answered my emails. But, I assumed they didn't have anything to tell me --
or didn't like me anymore --
But, no, apparently Howard@wargamesfactory.com isn't working right now. In particular, I'd traded emails with several people about their delayed packages.
What I had said was this; everything is packed and will be out by the end of the week. Tony's extracting addresses manually (since that's all part of the email system)."

link

Regards

Mick

Got my order yesterday – sent before Christmas. And yep emails are not working.

I sent email on 3rd & 6th December 2010. So perhaps this problem has been gobbling up mail for months.

It could be that Tony has already sent what I ordered. But I haven't paid for anything, which is quite important!

I don't pay until it arrives, which I think is proper for both sides.

Chortle: Consider yourself lucky. I had to pay for everything I "pre-ordered" in October, looks as if it has still not been sent. My emails have been (and continue being) "lost" since November so this is nothing more than a convenient "excuse" WF are pushing out to cover a lousy business practice.

Time they showed a bit of honesty and maybe shred of remorse in their dealings with the customers whose money they banked in October..

I received this on Monday from Lonnie:

We are pleased to announce that Wargames Factory is now under new management. A more comprehensive "official" announcement is in the works but we felt it necessary to give you a precursor of coming events. Tony Reidy is no longer with the company in an official capacity; we wish him well in his future endeavors; a press release is being prepared. In the mean time, please direct all questions to Lonnie Mullins.

So, what does that mean to you?

An accelerated release schedule.
Better fill rates
Faster turnaround times on orders

Our goal on out of stocks is that they will be back in stock within 4 to 6-weeks
Payments for orders by check need to be remitted to:
Wargames Factory, LLC
P.O. Box 3111
Newtown, Connecticut 06470
Payments for orders by credit card will be addressed soon
Payments for orders by PayPal will cease until we set up a new PayPal account
Orders will be sent out with invoices

All of our products will be in boxes
Boxes will have a new "Green" packaging; we will lose a bit on graphics but we will be using materials that are better for the environment

We're sure you have many other questions for us; feel free to contact Lonnie at the number listed below or by email during normal business hours and he'll tell you what he can.

If you currently have an order in house with us we will fill it as soon as possible but please contact Lonnie for details.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a rocking 2011 and beyond!

--
Lonnie Mullins
Sales Director, Wargames Factory
wargamesfactory.com
410-638-8346 Office
410-688-1445 Cell
Lonnie@wargamesfactory.com
M-F 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

>>Chortle: Consider yourself lucky. I had to pay for everything I "pre-ordered" in October, looks as if it has still not been sent.<<

Same here in California, my Cc charged in October and early November, still nothing.

And now the posting above, why have I had an increasing expectation of such a development the last several weeks? I hope Howard has some sway in the situation, or at least where sound thinking (and action) is concerned.

>>Thank you for your continued support<<

I suspect so ("continued support"), pending whether (and how soon) you can make good on the apparently large backlog of unfulfilled promises. I do wish you luck, keep us posted here on TMP.

The Nottingham grapevine is awash with rumours on this sudden move. The founder of the company is supposedly on the outs after signing a devil's deal with the Chinese.

This Mullins person is a former Workshop employee who was dealing with the Chinese and basically stabbed the whole original team in the back.

They were e before but now there's absolutely no reason to buy Wargames Factory unless you want to get your hands on poor models while supporting some dodgy salesman and his Chinese factory.

Good riddance to Wargames Factory says I. Buy Warlord. Buy Perry. Buy Victrix. Buy all those lovely metal models. Leave the Chinese army men in their bags in the discount bin.

>>Got my order yesterday – sent before Christmas.<<

Where are you located?

>>Buy Warlord. Buy Perry. Buy Victrix. Buy all those lovely metal models.<<

I have done, did and would (for decades in the case of metals, anyway). I had been circumspect about this "Freedom League" approach but, inevitably, fell for the Marlburians.

Someone with some means needs to get a hold of that company and start producing. Delays, many times, are caused by not enough investment capital.

Hmmm…Ah'm in for the Marlburians and the orcs <sigh> Hope this gets straightened out ?

The company is now owned by the Chinese? Does this mean that the company who operate the injection molders have taken over?

It is a shame to see Tony depart. I thought he added a sprinkling of pixie dust to the enterprise.

>>Got my order yesterday – sent before Christmas.<<

In the UK.

Would that be the same Tony Reidy who in : TMP link wrote to express his confidence in the future of plastics soldiers businesses:

Yes, it's definitely doom and gloom here! Don't start a plastic figure company!

My advice – open a really good German restaurant in Boston instead!

Why you ask?

#1 I don't want any more competition.

#2 There aren't any great German restaurants in Boston – and I could finally get some good, local German food with all the filthy lucre from WF

(If German isn't your thing – there are also no good Scottish or British pubs – and I wouldn't mind a French restaurant specializing in Normandy cuisine!)

I think we should be told. :-)

Hmm. Being in Germany I rather have good plastic minis then another German restaurant, especially if the latter is located in Boston. Minis send from there tend to arrive in shape, but I shudder at the thought of a good portion of Grünkohl shipped in…

Anyway, all the best to Tony.

"Good riddance to Wargames Factory says I. Buy Warlord. Buy Perry. Buy Victrix. Buy all those lovely metal models. Leave the Chinese army men in their bags in the discount bin."

Remind me, aren't those plastics all manufactured in "The Land of Green Tea" also?

Leland R. Erickson

"I thought they were manufactured in "The Land of Earl Grey" by Renedra Ltd?"

..a company run by former GW staffers and now another former GW shirt may be engineering an apparent coup d'etat with an upstart American company that was using a Chinese moulding outfit… fascinating, captain, simply fascinating… seems that some may have learned their lessons well…

Leland R. Erickson

No, Metal, I am not! LOL!!! Re-read my comment again, *carefully.*

Besides, you have to take me with a grain of salt, as I teach Sun Tzu's Art of War, Machiavelli, and Mao (among others) at the university level, so my reasoning is *always* more than a little suspect…

Leland R. Erickson

Last month i was torn between buying wargames factory's vikings or gripping beasts glad now I went with GB. By the way their vikings are awesome!

"Good riddance to Wargames Factory says I. Buy Warlord. Buy Perry. Buy Victrix. Buy all those lovely metal models. Leave the Chinese army men in their bags in the discount bin."

Great. Tell them to start making sci fi figures.

I have preferred W. Factory plastics to Warlord plastics because the former seem suitable for more variable poses.

Tony if you are out there come say hi here at fieldsofbattle.net This is what I said to the rest of the guys there..
Did any of you see this ?, I so wanted to do 1690 -1700+ in plastic but looks gloomy. I told some of you about the darn Chinese when it comes to war-gaming product. I said it was from China and then read it was manufactured in USA with green packaging and "special" people doing the actual packaging which made me want to buy again, well seems it's all lies, the lesson here is if you want something done do it you self..
Angry Angry Angry Sad Sad Sad see here TMP link

Anyway Gentlemen isn't it time we keep it in the gaming family, How many Chinese wargame anyway? Here's To Tony and co, who 1st got me into modern hard plastics anyway and although those first ones were not so great they were getting better, hopefully Tony and trusty Cohorts will come up with a good solution and hopefully it wont be tainted by "overseas businessmen" "read anyone not from USA,England or Europe" TJ.
BTW isn't wargaming about passion anyway? so good for Tony.

There is a response on the Wargamesfactory homepage:

wargamesfactory.com

SUPER LONG POST WARNING

"How many Chinese wargame anyway?"

I do… I guess that makes one.

Before anyone feels like they've offended anyone (such as Chinese wargamers) I agree with the general consensus that quality wargaming products generally come from USA/England/Europe. Further, it also isn't a matter of debate that the majority of items produced in China are of lower quality (not here to discuss that). What I DO want to point out is the differences in gaming styles between the "East" and the "West".

In Asian countries (we are looking primarily at China/Korea/Japan) TCG/CCG & Video games do significantly better then in the West (TCG+Video Games are actually very popular over there!) Not including Magic: the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! would be the top card-based battle game worldwide followed (debatable) by Pokemon. Yu-Gi-Oh! & Pokemon both originate from JP.

Now, TCG+Video games: we look at some of the known ones in the "West" like Chaotic & Eye of Judgement, and consider them flops due to poor sales and overall lack of interest but, in Asia, there are dozens of these types of games – it involves setting up an account (each gamer gets an ID card that stores their data/stats), buying "booster packs" of real, physical cards (just like M:tG), then sitting at a machine that you need to pay-to-play with said cards. The machine comprises of a digital surface (think Microsoft surface) that can read the purchased cards; placing cards on the surface causes some effect in the game (summons units or casts spells) as does moving them in certain ways. Usually these games are no different then the wargames that we are familiar with; with the "classical" style of wargaming, we purchase our units (miniatures) which we then dress up, create a battlefield (3D-terrain or printed surface), find opponents and duke it out in person using the rules + performing all calculations in real-time. For the Japanese, the summoned units (you still need to physically have the cards), battlefield, calculations and, in some cases, the opponents, are all digital (the machine).

For anyone who wants to argue that this is because Asians have minimal interest in miniatures, we should look at the miniature modeling industry in Asia, I will select Bandai's Gundam model kits as proof. I would also point out the various "Gashopon" figures that Japan has (Gashopon are coin operated vending machines that drop capsules containing toys – in contrast to the "Western" counterparts, 99% are of relatively high detail/quality). A personal note, one of the best craftsman for highly detailed miniature dioramas that I know is Asian (my friend's grandfather who is Japanese). There is interest in miniature modeling, just that Asians generally don't wargame with them.

I also mentioned Video Games; yes, video games are HUGE worldwide, but where, outside of Korea, do they hold World Cup/NFL Superbowl styled tournaments for a video game? They have the equivalent of ESPN (US exclusive sports broadcast channel) over in Korea that covers video game tournaments… yes, the US has G4 – but, it's nowhere hear "HARDCORE" like the Koreans.

Also, all the "Tactics" styled games produced in the video game industry are known as JRPGs due to the popularity in Japan (there are boatloads of these released in Japan year after year).

Lastly, the Chinese – they have "Weiqi" more commonly known by it's Japanese name "Go". Weiqi is Chinese chess and is probably the simplest form of wargaming known to man. I know this is a pretty big deviation, but it's definitely worth mentioning (actually I could only think of this as a positive note compared to all the "bad" when associating "wargaming" and "the Chinese".) Perfect example of this: Konami won't release a Chinese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! due to the Chinese government's unwillingness to crack down on card counterfeiting. Things have gotten so bad that there are tons of Chinese Edition cards out there even though there have been no official release (the counterfeiters just cook it up themselves).

I guess, the idea of the post is to point out that, while the general public doesn't usually associate Asians as wargamers, we are out there… both in the "classical style", as well as in unique ways many of us are unaware of. Hell… Sun Tze was a wargamer, and a damn good one at that; how about Kongming? (Three Kingdoms Era) He was undoubtedly excellent as well.