Hello,
2/3 of the TMD War Department met yesterday. The agenda was to plan a new offensive, in attempt to break the stalemate on the master front and get TMD moving again. Hit the ‘read more’ button and I’ll give you the non-classified details of the meeting.
OPEN ORDERS
First, as of the time I write this, I have 3 open orders. All 3 came in by non-standard means, so they get filled a little more slowly. All three should ship Monday. So, if you have an order in, and you have not received a shipping notice from Stamps.com, your order is one of these three.
CUSTOMER CARE ISSUES
To the best of my knowledge, I have resolved all customer care issues. If you are still waiting for something from me, you might want to email, as you dropped off radar.
MEETING OF THE TMD WAR DEPARTMENT
I met with Gen Hobbs yesterday (together, he and I make up 2/3 of the TMD general staff, the other 1/3 being Karl van Sweden). In discussing the stalemate currently gripping the new master front, we identified a lack of motivation, self-discipline and a general feeling of malaise as the primary problem with TMD forces. Together, we decided the best way to break this stalemate would be to launch a new offensive. The only problem we encountered was a general of ideas for how, what and when to launch this new offensive. Consequently, we decided to order more patrols and tabled the discussion until we receive better intelligence on the enemy (namely, the source of this lack of interest, self-discipline and a general malaise).
NEW PRODUCTS
One good thing that did come of the TMD War Department’s meeting: we identified about a dozen items that have been laying around the shop for months, just waiting to be posted to the web store. We also found several items that either fell off the store somehow, or otherwise need to be re-listed. So, come Feb 27, these items will be released and/or posted back to the web sotre.
KARL VAN SWEDEN
Karl is doing better than I’ve heard him in years. He says he is building, and it will (eventually) lead to new masters. At the moment, he is working in the Vietnam era. We’ll just have to wait to see what he sends me and when. I refuse to rush him.
THE SHOP
The shop is nearing the end of a major re-working. I still have some work to do. I need to make mold boxes to store a lot of the newer items, as well as their sub-masters for making new molds. I also need to set up my files so I can start including more printed instruction sheets in my product line. But the biggest thing I have to do in the shop right now is to store or toss out a lot of stuff I’ve collected over the years. This includes some 700 aviation books and a small lot of 1/48 aircraft related plastic/detail sets. Since I am no longer selling on EBay, I will have to use the DG’s, FB and this blog page to sell this off, but I will start with that today. This stuff MUST GO!
I posted a link to the first batch of book sales. You can find it here. Think of these book sales as a TMD yard sale. Proceeds will be used to finish refitting the shop and to fund the re-working of the product line. Since we are going to be replacing nearly every mold this year, we will need a lot of rubber. So, if you need wingy-thingy books, I have some cool items at decent prices. The bonus is, anything you buy will help un-stick the stalemate on the TMD master front. So, buy as many books as your mailman/woman can carry.
I also posted pictures of the front end (i.e. business end) of the shop on our Facebook page. You can find them here.
THE OFFICE
The office is in great physical shape. Now, the primary obstacle on my list are the taxes — which must be finished by this time next week — if not sooner. Also, I need to get back to work on the web store.
THAT IS ALL
Well, that’s all I have for you this week. So, until next time, please stay safe and try to build something (preferably something using TMD resin).
Joe