Game Toppers 2.0 - The Ultimate Gaming Accessory

Good news on accessories and shipping update. 3-3-20
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 03:05:45 AM

Greetings Game Topper Nation!

Again, I can’t thank you all for all your support, kind words and understanding as we work to delivery all these amazing gaming upgrades.

I have some very positive good news to report! When we found out about the  Daedalus closure and inability to provide us with molded products, we moved into high gear vetting two new mold injection companies. This has proved very enlightening and when all is said and done, I think will work out very positive. In working with the new mold provider, we have made some improvements on accessories and should have samples within less than 2 weeks. I have already seen a some sample prototypes. I have the new mold being made on the new Game Topper expandable cupholder design.  If all goes well, we could see product as early as 6 - 8 weeks I’m being told. I am very encouraged and think this will be a big win for all of us. I’ll show you these new innovations as I have more information.

Likewise, I toured the powder coat factory for the mat racks. Again, very encouraging seeing the process and quality upgrade this will provide. I think you will love these parts.

Topper delivery schedule update:

I like to be detailed to give everybody clarification, but there are so many moving parts and details that I can’t always give reliable intel.

For instance...Last week, we found out that our foam packaging parts were delayed and did not arrive at our manufacture, (we had 150 Watson’s ready to package at our manufacturer) in addition, the corrugate packaging parts arrived almost a week later than we were told due to shipping issues they had. This caused a cascading delay. I continued to press everybody for information without timely success, thus apologies for a delayed response from me. 

I know that slight delay causes disappointment for some. I’m so sorry for this, it’s the last thing I want, but truth is I simply cannot control some of these things. I’ll own my mistakes and take responsibility for them, but I just want you to know how much we care about this project and push everyday to do the best we possibly can.

We currently have delivered over 1100 packages, that gives me a lot of really great feelings to outperform what we said. We are still very close on the rest.

Basically we are about 1-to 2 weeks behind on Topper segments than what I said in the last update.

Good news we have received the Standard Watson’s and they are starting to ship. You should see address update notifications prior to each segment going out and then an email verification.

Please note: Once we start receiving each different type of Topper product, we need 3-4 days to prepare for shipping and alert backers with a Backerkit email to verify your shipping address. When you receive that, generally it means we will start kitting orders. We project each segment will takes us a week or so to pick. (Some segments are bigger than others) then it will take 7- 14 days from when we start pick before it actually will arrive to you.

If you ordered a new topper ...and a rail bundle or leaf bundle these other items will ship generally up to 2 weeks later. The reason for this is our software and partial fulfillment situation with cup holders and accessories being delayed. This was a huge issue that is costing us a lot of money and trouble. Long and short of it, we ship all the stuff that was designed to go in the box that we have in stock. Then once we finish the segment. Example: standard Watson’s, then we pull the leaf and rail bundles for these associated pledges (that are in stock for Gen 2 orders) and ship them. Then we move on to the next segment and do it again.

Jan 28th. Adler Topper orders shipped out. Fulfilled!

Miscellaneous Partial fulfillment of in-warehouse items being shipped. (Mostly extra mat orders without accessories, storage bags Fulfilled!

Note: Gen 1 backers that ordered leaf bundles for Gen 1 Topper. We sent out a separate email to each of these affected to explain the process of this fulfillment as it applies to a much smaller group. This is a correction to our latest update that we expected to ship Gen 2 partial fulfillment. If you did not get the email from [email protected] or have not responded please do so as soon as possible.

Feb 11th   Standard Lestrade segment to ship Fulfilled!Note: Other Lux Oak and Walnut Lestrade’s will ship simultaneously with the Lux Oak and Walnut Holmes topper segments.

Feb 28th Standard Watson’s arrived at our warehouse. Yay!!!

1. Watson Standard Toppers  (Start shipping week of March 2nd) Standard Scotland yard packages included

2. About March 6th Standard Holmes Toppers expected to start arriving at our fulfillment center. (Start shipping about about March 11th) Standard Bakerstreet packages included

3. About March 16th Mycroft and Moriarty Toppers arrive at fulfillment center.(Start shipping about March 20th) Reichenbach Falls Packages included

4. About March 25th Lux Natural Oak and Premium Walnut Watson models arrive at fulfilment center. (Start shipping about March 30th) Lux Oak & Walnut Scotland Yard Packages included

5. About April 1st  Lux Natural Oak & Premium Walnut Holmes models arrive at fulfillment center. (Start shipping about April 3rd) Lux Oak & Walnut Bakerstreet Packages included

6. About March 20th Sculpted Viking and Dragon wood Rails arrive from Dogmight (Start shipping about April 10th) Small segment done in one day.

Note: Each segment should take about a week to process. Shipping varies depending on the distance and can take up to 7 business days. Generally less than 5 days.

International Pledges: International Pledges: We feel we may improve on these dates, but are building in some time for missing parts to arrive because we must send complete pledges on the containers.

About.......April 15th Start packaging and pulling Canadian shipment.

April 20th Canadian shipment sent to Snakes and Lattes for intra-Canada shipping.

April 22nd Start packaging European orders.

April 30th Ship container to Germany for intra-Europe shipping. At this time this includes UK deliveries. This will take approx. 5 weeks water transport.

April 30th Australia, New Zealand, and remote shipment orders pulled.

1st week of May. Australian Container Shipped. Shipping to backers at the end of May

Cupholders Accessories, mold injected accessory trays and mold injected Dice Tower Solutions look to be 6-10 weeks out.

Mat storage Racks  6 - 8 weeks out

Acrylic covers pledged for without a Gen 2 Topper pledge

6 - 8 weeks out due to new safely packaging arriving.

Gen 1 leaf backers please refer to separate email sent for more detailed update not affecting any new Gen 2 backers.

These are our current projections, they are not guarantees as things can happen that could delay this, but best guess is we can meet or exceed these deadlines.

As always I will keep you in the loop best I can.

Thank you all for continued patience and understanding as we push to get everything out accurately and with quality. Again if you can please refrain from sending us emails about where is my pledge, unless it is critical or get a private email from us, this will allow us to keep working. We are a small staff of 4 people.

After your segment estimated date has passed more than 10 days and you have not gotten any notifications, then please make sure to let us know so we can find out.

Everybody should be receiving tracking information, and or a call if you have a white glove delivery situation, and notification for verifying your mailing address.

Thank you again for all of your amazing support!

All our best Burky and team.

Shipping has begun ahead of Schedule!!!! Segment updates and important details. 2-10-20
about 4 years ago – Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 10:54:22 PM

Greetings Game Topper Nation!! Update 2-10-20

We are so excited about getting these great gaming upgrades into your hands!!!! We have been working non-stop! Our lives are like 12 hour a day heavy Euro! Our team takes this very seriously and the reward of seeing all the backers experience Game Toppers drives us. We have recently unloaded all 3 of our 45ftH containers from China that contained our Mats and storage bags of all kinds. We have received 2 full Semi’s of Topper related inventory, and tested our packaging and secured delivery.

We have spent a crazy amount of time and money making sure we have a great packaging solution. You can’t fix stupid, but we have tried!

Packaging:

I wanted to show you a bit of our due diligence in making sure your package will arrive in great shape. We have so many boxes! This is a very thoughtful engineering process vetting with two box manufactures that includes upgrades for each model and product specs. It’s a very complicated set of variables for each shipping solution so I won’t bore you with these details, but we are sparing no expense to create a highly durable package that can handle some of the most rigorous delivery methods to insure a good experience for you.

Holmes Topper Drop test.

Leaf drop test.

Fulfillment Summary:

So far, most aspects of the KS are on track to be early or on time. The easy summary is… Most Topper pledges will be delivered in the next 3-6 weeks. However, we have hit a speedbump with some of our accessories. I am currently working many avenues to address this concern. (Please read under accessories to see specifics for each item and my plan for addressing each item moving forward).

The good news is we have made some considerations at our expense to deliver in-warehouse items even if there are some parts that have not arrived at the time of a particular shipping segment.Overall, I’m very pleased with the progress. Below is our best current anticipated schedule however, life happens I continually find that there things I just can’t control.

Partial Shipments:

We have worked with Backerkit and we are pleased to say that we have found a solution to send out some partial shipments ahead of the time. In fact, they went to bat for us to provide us with partial fulfillment pack list to make sure we have every tool to do this correctly.

Many of you received tracking emails stating that your order is on its way. This may mean that it is just a partial fulfillment of your pledge and the other missing items will be shipped at a later date when they arrive at our facility. Please do not be alarmed or disappointed, we are doing something in your favor by providing early delivery of some items. We made the decision to take this step because it didn’t feel right for me to hold peoples pledges just because a few items are missing. I have two major philosophies in business, 1. Treat people as I want to be treated and 2. Learn from others mistakes or successes. I rather get most of my order than wait, so it was easy for my heart to motivate me even though this is extra work and expense to us.

NOTE: If you have a package like the Scotland Yard, the Bakerstreet, or Reichenbach Falls Packages that included 2 mats, they will be shipped in the topper segment scheduled below that your pledge is in. This is part of our packaging solution. It is also likely that other items on your pledge like Leaf Bundles & Rail Bundles and any extra mats will ship about the same time as your topper ships.

Affiliate Pledges:

Sales literature is in progress to be released by the Gama trade show March 9th along with the reveal of Retail Mat Sales Program. I have been in contact with a large number of affiliates, but if you have not heard from me via telephone or email please email me at [email protected] so I can help you with your individually place your  Demo Topper orders for your stores.

MAT ONLY PLEDGES:

We have successfully delivered almost 1000 mats domestically! This went very well with only 1 issue. I like it!

INTERNATIONAL “MAT ONLY” PLEDGESwill be delivered with our containers to Germany (including UK) and Australia to save on the shipping cost we quoted during the campaign. (See timelines below)

Topper Delivery:

Current Schedule: (Most items are ahead of schedule, some are on time, and a few slightly behind) Please note: Domestic orders will go out first, so we can move them through our fulfilment center quickly, making room for the next segment. All Toppers models need to be manufactured before we can custom pull all international orders and fill the containers for EU, UK and Australian fulfillment. (Estimated end or March/early April)

Shipping notifications will be sent out prior to delivery via Email. We have also secured transactional insurance on our orders as part of our delivery process. This was an extra cost to us, but we felt it would provide additional peace of mind to our backers if there are any issues during shipment.

Jan 28th

Adler Topper orders shipped out. Note: Adler pledges with PETG Acrylic covers shipping in about 1 week when we are schedule to receive them. (see accessory notes below)

Feb 3rd-7th

Miscellaneous Partial fulfillment of in-warehouse items being shipped. (Mostly extra mat orders, storage bags and some gen 1 items)

Feb 11th

Standard Lestrade segment to ship Note: Other Lux Oak and Walnut Lestrade’s will ship simultaneously with the Lux Oak and Walnut Holmes topper segments.

Leaf and Rail Packaging arrives at our warehouse. Foam pads and storage bags are inventoried.

Feb 12th

Packaging of Rail Bundles and Leaf Bundles begins. All Leaf Bundles, Rail Bundles and Storage bags are now in stock(excluding Sculpted rails for Viking and dragon pledge)

Feb 13th -18th

Leaf and Rail bundles without a Topper pledge will ship. (If you have a topper pledge, and pledged for a Leaf and/or Rail Bundle they will ship about that same time as your Topper.)

Feb 19th– 24th

Packaging arrives at our manufacturer for packaging of all Toppers.

During this week we will be packaging and preparing for larger wave Topper Segments

Note: Once we receive a segment of Toppers it takes us a couple days to start the fulfilment process so we can send out address verification notices to your email listed on Kickstarter or backerkit and start picking the orders. This is a head of our KS estimates of March, but it has taken some time for our packaging to arrive thus the new updated time schedule.

1. Feb 19thStandard Watson Toppers start arriving at our fulfillment center.

(Start shipping Feb 21th) Standard Scotland yard packages included

2. Feb 24th Standard Holmes Toppers start arriving at our fulfillment center.

(Start shipping Feb 26th) Standard Bakerstreet packages included

3. March 3rd Mycroft and Moriarty Toppers arrive at fulfillment center.

(Start shipping March 5thth)Riechenbach Falls Packages included

4. March 10th Lux Natural Oak and Premium Walnut Watson models arrive at fulfilment center.

(Start shipping March 12th) Lux Oak & Walnut Scotland Yard Packages included

5. March 17th Lux Natural Oak & Premium Walnut Holmes models arrive at fulfilment center.

(Start shipping March 19th) Lux Oak & Walnut Bakerstreet Packages included

6. March 20th Sculpted Viking and Dragon wood Rails arrive from Dogmight

(Start shipping March 27th) Small segment done in one day.

Note: Each segment should take about a week to process. Shipping varies depending on the distance and can take up to 7 business days. Generally less than 5 days.

International Pledges: We feel we may improve on these dates, but are building in some time for missing parts to arrive because we must send complete pledges on the containers.

March 28th Start packaging and pulling Canadian shipment.

April 10th Canadian shipment sent to Snakes and Lattes for intra-Canada shipping.

April 10th Start packaging European orders.

April 17th Ship container to Germany for intra-Europe shipping. At this time this includes UK deliveries. This will take approx. 5 weeks water transport.

April 23rd Australia, New Zealand, and remote shipment orders pulled.

April 30th Australian Container Shipped. Shipping to backers at the end of May

May 1st:

Clean up any unresolved shipments.

Overstock Toppers of all varieties will be delivered to our fulfillment center.

Accessories:

Daedalus Productions has closed its doors.

This is a very sad, unfortunate situation beyond my control. Due to this closure and other factors the total fulfillment of the Purchase Order we gave Daedalus will not be fulfilled. After the closure of Daedalus, I was assured that Daedalus would fulfill its obligations to us. Some Items where mostly completed. At this point, my agent in Utah has taken possession of the wooden parts that were completed on our Purchase Order prior to its closure. This includes the Rules Masters that are included in every package, some Gen 1 wooden Castle Dice Towers & Player Shields and some Gen 1 acrylic coasters.

Items that are in jeopardy for our scheduled fulfillment time lines that may require more time:

1. I have not received the new collapsible cup holder samples yet. I have been told that the date for samples to be approved is next wed Feb 12th.

If this occurs and the samples are approved to our standards and agreed quality specifications, the injection molding process is very quick and shouldn’t provide a problem for our fulfillment timelines. I must point out, This is by no means a certainty due to many missed deadlines. Prior to the Facebook closure announcement, communications from Daedalus started deteriorating. This caused me concern, but I had several written communications assuring me all was well and he would fulfill our P.O.

Once we found out about the closure of Daedalus, I became more concerned and I started contacting other injection houses that my manufacture here in MN recommended to see what our options were incase this would be a problem with mold injected parts. We are neck deep in that process now. I do not want to alarm anyone, but I want to be transparent with what is happening. We wish Daedalus no ill will, but knew it was time to start taking other precautions.

We will produce these parts and they will be amazing one way or another, just not sure about the time frame. For this I am so sorry! It has caused me many a restless nights and an incredible amount of extra work at a very hectic time! Rest assured, however I am a problem solver with a tenacious, never give up attitude with a commitment to deliver what I have promised. I will keep you updated on my progress as I learn more about these items.

2. Injection Molded Dice Towers, Accessory Trays, Poker Chip Holders are as stated above. The trays should prove to be the very doable domestically, the dice towers are proving more challenging. I am working hard on it with several sources including Chinese sources, but we all know that is fluid situation too. I do not have timelines yet on either of these. I do not want to over promise something until the companies I’m working with provide me better timelines and costs.

3. Lord Burkton and JJ Burkton Mat Storage Racks. We have an opportunity to increase the aesthetics and feel of these racks. I am meeting with a power coat MDF manufacture that will give us an upgrade in what we initially prototyped with the EPVC material. They will match our rails on our toppers perfectly! The EPVC prototypes worked just fine I have 3 of them in my basement, but in working through packaging solutions, we started discussing this new option with my manufacture and it appears from initial quotes and prototype this will be a better solution. I’m really excited about this, but it has taken me more time than I would have liked to get this finished due to other more pressing issues. I’m not expecting any major delay, but I will keep you updated of this. The mini Connelson’s we will still make out of EPVC and should be done in a couple of weeks.

4. PETG Acrylic Covers.

These will arrive in our fulfillment center this week, so anyone that has a Game Topper pledge including the Adler’s and Lestrade’s will get their cover/s shipped inside their topper play vault, in its storage bag, in our heavy duty packaging for extra protection.

We have a couple dozen or so backers that purchased these outside of a topper pledges for their gen 1 toppers. We are testing a new package to make sure we ship these well. It’s not easy and is proving to be very expensive for small run situations like this. I will do it for each backer, but in the future do to packaging costs and shipping safety concerns; we are going to reserve this product for topper only sales. I expect we can get these stand alone PETG Covers out in the next 4-6 weeks.

Conclusion:

As you can see, this is a massive undertaking requiring a lot of diligence and hard work to accomplish. Josiah and I have put in hundreds of hours to get to this point and our hard work is paying off. My manufacture has been stellar in helping this dream of upgrading everyone’s gaming experience come to fruition.

I wish I could control everything in life, but we all know that is an illusion. What we can control is how we treat each other and what we do to honor our word. I always want to treat each one of you with the greatest respect and be as open and transparent with you as possible. Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of everything so far, with the exception of the accessory delays.

Sometimes the greatest of all virtues must be employed…patience, but also perseverance! I’m pretty good at the later and not so much on the former. What I can assure you all, is that I do not take lightly our commitment to delivering you the best product I can make and will continue to do my best to keep you up to date as I am able. I realize everyone is so excited and we are too. It won't be long!

Unless it is hyper critical, we would ask for a favor please to help us by not emailing us with “when will my order ship questions”. It only slows us down researching your pledge and responding. Also, if you could refrain from asking these questions on the Kickstarter page comments segment would be much appreciated as it only causes people concern and increases the work load at a very heavy work time for us. I hope you can understand my request.

Of course, if there is something urgent we will always respond and take your concerns seriously, this is just a bit of encouragement to let us keep at it and not have additional pressure. Reach us at [email protected] or [email protected]

I am so grateful for your support! All our best!

Burky and Josiah

Happy Holidays & Mat Shipping Update from Game Toppers 12-24-19
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 11:56:26 PM

Merry Christmas and best wishes for this Holiday Season to you and your families.

I cannot express how grateful I am for each of you and the overwhelming support! Together we really are doing something special. Thank you!

We have been working non stop at Game Toppers Headquarters. I can count the days off I have had on one hand in the last 5 months. It's all good, but just not enough of me to go around sometimes. We are so excited to get these great gaming upgrades into your hands!

Personal update:

If you haven't heard, my two oldest Daughters Hannah (who does my graphics) and Matti had babies within 10 days of each other right before BGG Con. They are  healthy babies and both moms are doing well! We are very thankful.

What have we have been up to?:

Since Gen con we have been working none stop on our fulfillment center and with production orders of Game Topper Product. We have a complete  manufacturing schedule of Topper product that we updated everyone on Nov 11th. It is a long detailed update of our estimates, but long and short of it we basically on track. See prior update. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burky/game-toppers-20-the-ultimate-gaming-accessory/posts/2680876

We will keep you updated as I have additional information or any changes.

1. We added a 52 ft x 20 ft concrete apron to our 5000 Sq ft building and added a loading dock. We also have been securing all the Pallet Racks and preparing the pick room for fulfillment. We purchased a lift. Oh MY!!!! These are not cheap, but pretty cool! Plus we insulated the walls and installed overhead fans and Led lighting.

2. We have been working quite a lot of hours on our packaging solutions. They are very high end solutions that are quite complex when you factor the amount of products we have offered. This has been taking a lot of time.

3. We traveled to Dallas Texas and did BGG Con, drove home two days and spent three days for Thanksgiving with family and the drove 2.5 days to Philly for Pax Unplugged, (It was so great seeing so many of you!) Drove home 2 days and immediately started to dig out of a 9 day pile of emails. 

4. Then our first of 3, 45 ft High containers of Mats and Storage bags arrived. This was no small task unloading as they do not palatalize them for space efficiency. This is a $5500.00 shipping expense so they maximize space. 

It took the three of us 3.5 hours to unload 20,000 lbs of Game mats. Guess what job I did?  Wow!!! Listen I'm too old for that. lol.

"Mat Only Pledge" Shipment Update:

The last week we have done receiving verification and inventoried all product and set up the pick room. Josiah has spent a good part of last week managing the "MAT ONLY PLEDGE" segments as well as "Mat Storage Bag" only pledges. He spent All Day Sunday printing the shipping labels and tracking for almost 500 orders. It went very well. We started pulling orders Monday and by the end of work day Christmas eve (we are shutting down early at 2pm) we will have 3/4 ready for shipment.

As hard as we tried, we just could not get that large of an order done before Christmas. It looks good that we should have everything ready for the scheduled pick up and shipment Thursday and then it will take 3-5 days to shipping depending on where you live. So most should get to you close to the end of the year.

Note: International "MAT ONLY PLEDGES" will ship by container to our fulfillment centers in Late March/April to combine mat and topper shipments to offer the lower shipping rates achieved.

If you do not receive a tracking notification (Please note it will be the email used on the Kickstarter) or if you do not receive your order by the first week of 2020, Please email us at [email protected] Please give that much time so we do not get flooded with emails. That just bogged us down unnecessarily. We do want to make sure that your product does arrive and everything is correct. So after that time please do contact us.

Affiliate Pledges:

I must apologize as this update for affiliates is overdue. The tyranny of the urgent has happened to me. Everything on the production side of things is very well and basically on track. We have a pre-production amount of product earmarked for you and will be ready to ship soon. The biggest problem with me getting this update done, other than the work load you see I have been under is, that i just received my sample swatches of 16 styles of game mats that need some art work done to present the Kiosk's we are working on. This shipment arrived a bit later than we hoped and it has taken us some time to sort.

 In addition, with the birth of my grandson Charles, We have not been able to finish the brochures, booklets that I want to present our program with quality. Hannah is doing well, but it has been a challenge with 2 toddlers and a new born that hasn't been sleeping at night. she will resume helping me after the 1st of the year. We are a small family business and just don't have the staffing resources of a larger company yet.  It's all excuses, they are honest, but an I must say I am very sorry. I had every intention of it being done with this affiliate update by now. I will continue to put it as an priority in the next two weeks.

With the 2 holidays upon us I expect to be able to create a reasonable update to inform all affiliates of how to take advantage of all savings and resell opportunities by the Jan 10th.

Many of you have reached out me at [email protected] and I would encourage you to do so. I can easily take phone calls to inform you of the process and start working on your store set.

Lastly, The Secret Cabal Kickstarter Mats have arrived and look amazing! They will be shipping out right after New Years!

Again, thank you all so kindly for your amazing support and encouragement!!! 

All our best! Burky and Team!

Game Toppers 2.0 Delivery Update
over 4 years ago – Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 01:55:09 AM

Greetings Game Topper Nation!!

Wow!!! What a whirlwind of activity. We are so excited about what is going on with Game Toppers and so thankful for all your support! We can’t wait to get this great gaming upgrade into your hands!!!!

We just got back from Essen Germany and the Spiel Fair. I’ll just say it was great! Europeans love our Game Toppers quality, functionality, and components! Our premium game mats were a big hit too. This will be a great emerging market for us…and the food was great!

My sincere apologies for this update being tardy; we have been working almost non-stop and I have been focusing on priorities of production and upcoming conventions. Part of what keeps Game Toppers viable is long term planning and exposure. Social media, marketing, and conventions are a big part of that and cannot be neglected. Everything is hitting us pretty hard right now with Essen, BGG Con, and PAX Unplugged all happening so close together.  It simply is a massive task that we are managing.

The hardest part of managing something of this scale is that there are so many moving parts. Communication from my 3rd party sources is never as timely as I would like to relay good info. It’s one of my biggest stressors. That said, most areas are going very well and are ahead of schedule, though there are a few items that are still fluid as we are waiting on suppliers for delivery timelines and a couple of items that we are slightly delayed on. (Timelines below) Overall, I’m very pleased with the progress.

Time line Update:

Affiliate pledges:

An update will be sent via a separate email in the next couple of days so we can clearly communicate the program and get affiliates retail stores set up to receive your orders. I had been waiting on aluminum timelines before I could make any real projections needed for this to take place. We are good on that front now.

MAT ONLY PLEDGES:

We are a bit behind on our projection of our first wave container of mats. This is why and includes our new anticipated schedule.

Our first containers of mats are expected to arrive on our dock Dec 17th. It is scheduled to hit the port  Dec 12th. It was scheduled for Dec 3rd, then we found out our Vancouver connection would be problematic as the Canadian Rail Union is about to go on strike and we made a decision to change the shipment to Washington State railyard at a higher cost. This delayed us about 10 days, but having our container possibly held up for months in Canada was not a risk I was willing to take.

Also, due to the amount of sizes and styles we unlocked, and the amount of mat storage bags we had to have made, this took our manufacture much longer to produce and manage the delivery than anticipated. We have a bunch of quality control check lists, like letting the mats sit for 7 days before we cut them so we can ensure good tolerances to avoid shrinkage. We submitted 162 line item sku’s not including bags!!!! WOW! None the less, it just took more time. I was insistent that quality was of the utmost importance. I must say this manufacture is one of my most trusted vendors and generally exceeds my expectations, but just due to the scale of the order and the storage bags accompanying it took a bit longer to insure quality. There is no cause for alarm, all is well. I have received samples and they are simply gorgeous!!! We will have all shipping labels ready to go for DOMESTIC MAT ONLY pledges and as soon as the container arrives we will ship. We think we can do all of them in 3 days.

It’s very tight for Christmas delivery. We are cautiously optimistic that many of you will receive them by Christmas, if not very shortly thereafter.

INTERNATIONAL MAT ONLY PLEDGES will be delivered with our containers to Germany and Australia to save on the shipping cost we quoted during the campaign. (See timelines below)

Toppers Delivery:

I’m pleased to say at this point most everything is ahead of Schedule! I’ll explain what I mean by “most”. I could have just said, we are close to our expected shipping times, but I wanted to give you a more detailed thoughtful answer. This is very complicated due to many factors like production schedule of aluminum and powder coating, ordering of other parts and custom cutting, and our packaging solutions which is just now forthcoming. We have been working diligently on all these items since the KS ended.  This is not an exact science and delays can happen, but as of today this is our updated schedule.

1. Standard Aluminum has arrived at my manufacturing facility in Fergus Falls. Parts have arrived for assembly of all models, and my purchase orders are scheduled in a detailed manufacturing schedule.

2. LUX aluminum will be arriving in 20 days or so. Wood components are already here. Sculpted Dragon and Viking Parts are on their way to Dogmight Games shortly for custom sculpting and finishing.

3. SAMPLE Game Topper and Leaf storage bags have arrived (just after Essen) and have been approved. They are awesome!!! New improved shoulder strap design.

Please Note: Game Toppers Storage Bags are scheduled to Arrive Feb 1st. Our packaging and shipping solution includes shipping the toppers in the storage bag for extra protection and cost savings.

Packaging:

This is a very thoughtful engineering process for each model and product specs. We are working with two major packaging companies to help improve upon what we had already produced on KS 1.0. It’s a very complicated set of variables for each shipping solution so I won’t bore you with these details, but we are sparing no expense to create a highly durable package that can handle some of the most rigorous delivery methods to insure a good experience for you.

Current Schedule:(Most items are ahead of schedule, some are on time, and a few slightly behind) Please note: Domestic orders will go out first, so we can move them through our fulfilment center quickly, making room for the next segment. All Toppers models need to be manufactured before we can custom pull all international orders and fill the containers for EU and Australian fulfillment.

Dec 31st 2019

1. Delivery of Accessory Rails, Leaf Kits, Acrylic Covers, Mat Racks, and HDPE components expected to arrive in our fulfillment center in Fergus Falls by the end of Dec. (Most of this product will be packaged during this time and awaiting storage bags for shipment with orders scheduled below.)

2. All domestic mat only pledges shipped mid Dec.

3. We receive first partial segment of Standard Adler and Holmes Toppers for Affiliates and Jan delivery for orders without storage bags.

Jan 1st – Jan 31st 2020 (about 2 months early)

1. Standard Adler Toppers without storage bags shipped.

2. Standard Holmes Toppers without storage bags shipped.

3. Standard Watson Toppers arrive at our fulfillment center in Fergus Falls mid Jan and Standard Watson Toppers without storage bags ship.

Feb 1st – Feb 28th 2020 (About 1 month early)

1. Game Topper Storage bags and Leaf storage Bags arrive for needed for all packages IE: Scotland Yard, Bakerstreet, and Riechenbach Falls Pledges.

2. Feb 3rd Mycroft and Moriarty Toppers arrive at fulfillment center.

3. Feb 10th Second container of gaming mats arrive for additional fulfillment needs.

4. Feb 10th – Feb 15th Mycroft and Moriarty Toppers ship.

5. Feb 10th Lux Natural Oak and Premium Walnut Holmes and Watson models arrive at fulfilment center.

6. Feb 17th – March 9th Scotland Yard Packages in all three styles standard, Lux Oak and Premium Walnut start shipping.

Note:We expect these segments to take 3-4 weeks to process. Shipping individual pledges varies depending on the distance and can take up to 10 days. Generally less than 5 days.

March 15th

1. March 2nd Start packaging and pulling Canadian shipment.

2. March 9th Canadian shipment sent to Snakes and Lattes for intra-Canada shipping.

3. March 9th Start packaging European orders.

4. March 16th Ship container to Germany for intra-Europe shipping. At this time this includes UK deliveries. This will take approx. 5 weeks water transport. So European shipments will go out around end of April.

5. March 16th Australia, New Zealand, and remote shipment orders pulled.

6. March 23rd Australian Container Shipped. Shipping to backers at the end of April

April 1st:

1. Clean up any unresolved shipments.

2. Overstock Toppers of all varieties will be delivered to our fulfillment center.

Accessories:

1. I have not received the new collapsible cup holder samples yet. The mold making process was very complex and has taken Ben from Daedalus more time than expected to get these to me. He has worked very hard on this project for us all.  I have been told that the injection date has been set for the next couple of weeks and should have samples to approve soon. Once these samples are approved the injection molding process is very quick and shouldn’t provide a problem for our fulfillment timelines. I will keep you updates as I learn more on this.

2. Injection molded Dice Towers and accessory trays are in line for molds to be completed. More to come as I have more timelines on those. Our energies have been focused on the cup holders.

Our Fulfilment Center:

I haven’t talked a lot about this, but last year I bought a building in our home town so that we could manage our own fulfillment rather than relying on a third party. We have been doing our own fulfillment since last Feb out of this location. It has gone wonderfully! We have also done a ton of work on the building in preparation for all of the upcoming fulfillment! We just put in a loading dock and a cement apron on the front of the building and now we are prepping all of the pallet racking and organizing the pick area. Yeah crazy busy!!! I'll send more pics later in an update. Here are a couple of fun ones.

Conclusion:

As you can see, this is a massive undertaking requiring a lot of diligence and hard work to accomplish. Josiah and I have put in hundreds of hours to get to this point and our hard work is paying off.  I have good partners in this venture. I wish I could control everything in life, but we all know that is an illusion. What we can control is how we treat each other and what we do to honor our word. I always want to treat each one of you with the greatest respect and be as open and transparent with you as possible. Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of everything so far, with the exception of the mats taking a little longer than I hoped to get here and the delays on getting our sample accessories in time to show off at shows. Sometimes the greatest of all virtues must be employed…patience. I'm not great at that one. What I can assure you all is that I do not take lightly our commitment to delivering you the best product I can make and will continue to do my best to keep you up to date as I am able. I am so grateful for your support! If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to reach me or Josiah directly by phone or email and we will do our normal quick response we are known for.

Thank you for being the best backers ever!!

All our best!

Burky and Josiah

[email protected]

Fantasy Mat Verdict, Late pledges, and production update 9-16-18.
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 11:38:01 PM

Greetings Game Topper Nation,

We had a fun celebration time with Kay King, Andy Nelson and Josiah. If you want to view it  https://youtu.be/uK4CT7UpT88 

Late Pledges: Josiah and I have been working  very hard on all fulfillment production orders. Wow! You'll never know how much work it is to offer this many awesome choices! Everything is look very good! Accessories are ordered, mats are being prepared for printing and aluminum QC'ed. Checked for approval of production run. Due to the work, we have not had a chance to change any of the prices or remove some stretch goals as previously communicated. 

LAST CALL on current LATE PLEDGE pricing: We plan on implementing that change Next Monday if all goes well. So if you have any friends that still want to get in on all the 40 unlocked stretch goals and great prices tell them now. 

Fantasy Mat Verdict:

We had some exciting feedback and it was so great to hear from so many of you!

Due to overwhelming response to our poll, and emails we received, the Fantasy Mat will be produced without grids unless a backer specifically makes a request of us via email at [email protected].

There were so few that wanted it.
We did however produce a very small quantity of gridded versions in the Watson in the Holmes to make sure we did not disappoint anyone that backed specifically because of the grid version.

Looking backwards, I perhaps should have made sure we had completed art before we made the offering. I thought it was a good idea to bring everyone along the process, but given the difficulty of making a grid look natural it seems pretty obvious that the non-grid version is much preferred, and honestly, I think it looks fantastic.

Note: We had Yaroslav make a slight adjustment by blending the white snow field at the bottom of the mountains upward a bit so it was so drastic. I think it made that a more pleasing aesthetic too.

This thing is going to be very popular. Thank you for your understanding!

As always please do let us know if there is anything you need help with at [email protected]!

Burky

P.S. If you have an outgoing personality and have some desire to help demo Game Toppers at trade shows this year, we could use some help in our booth. We can trade product and badges for service given, Shows this year we need help at are; Essen, Germany OCT 24-27th, BGGCON Dallas, Texas November 21st -24th, Pax Unplugged Philadelphia, PA Dec 5th-8th. Please email be at [email protected] for an appointment.