Folks,
My ‘break’ did not go the way I had planned. I suffered a personal loss, and it has left me with a deep feeling of melancholy. As a result, I do not feel like talking very much, but I still have a job to do, and I have a lot to share with you. So, if you’ll bear with me, I’ll do my best to get this done. Hit the ‘READ MORE’ button and I’ll give you all the details.
THE HOLIDAY BREAK
As I said, I suffered a personal loss over the holiday break. Actually, our whole household did. I’m not going to go into the details here. Those of you who get the TMD Blog updates know what happened. If anyone else is interested, you can go the the TMD Blog to find out more. That said, I want to stress that I am not trying to make excuses, nor am I looking for sympathy. I’m just trying to split the difference by being as open and honest with you as I have always been without going in to too many details concerning my personal life. By the end of this update, I just hope most of you will think I managed to do just that. Otherwise, the only thing that will really matter to most of you is that I am feeling very sad right now, and that is slowing me way down.
SHIPPING RATES
I was forced to raise my shipping fees. Domestic orders are now a flat-rate of $10.00, and everything outside of the U.S. is now a flat-fee of $17.50. If shipping prices go down, I will lower my rates to reflect the change, but I would not count on that happening. In fact, shipping will probably continue to rise world-wide. I promise, I will do my very best to keep my shipping rates down, but this is a cost that is mostly out of my control.
SHIPPING TO EUROPE AND AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
I can ship to these locations again. I am packing everything in plain plastic bags with the product number written on them, but nothing else will be in the box. I am doing my best to make your items look like used model parts. You will need to get your instructions off the Web Store or email me directly. I will just have to trust that you can connect the rest of the dots for yourself.
PRICE INCREASES
My rubber and resin rates have gone up by as much as 36%. I know I am going to have to face some tough decisions about my pricing, but I have decided that, until I have absolutely no choice, I am going to put off raising my product prices — for now. I do not know how long this will last, as it is a double-edged sword. If you do not charge enough for your products, then people do not buy them because they assume the product is of poor quality. I just want you to be aware of the economic realities here at TMD so you will not get caught by surprise if and when I have to raise my prices.
OPEN ORDERS
You have been placing quite a few orders the past week. THANK YOU! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this right now. I need the distraction, so the work will do a lot to help me with my sad mood. However, many of you have placed orders for products that need new molds. I am not going to try to email every one of you individually. I am just going to work as quickly but carefully as I can to replace those molds and get your order shipped as soon as possible. My main concern right now is that I do everything I can to avoid making mistakes. o, I am going to triple and quadruple check everything before I ship it. Please be patient with me, I promise, I will do my best not to make you wait a day longer than absolutely necessary.
NEW PRODUCTS
I have a few small items I can release, and I will get to them as soon as I feel like doing the computer work necessary to get them listed. However, most of what I had hoped to do over my break never happened. In fact, I have been doing some serious thinking about TMD and the direction I want to take the company in 2022. As soon as I make a final decision, I will let you know. For now, just understand that anything new is going to depend on what I decide what I want to do this year, and until I decide what I want to do this year, there will not be anything new from TMD.
LOOKING FOR A 3D DESIGN PARTNER
I have noticed the rise in 3D printing companies out there (I’m equally aware of the problems many of you are having with those same 3D products). I am not going to argue for or against 3D printing. What I am going to do is state that — at this time — resin molding is still the most viable option for the vast majority of items modelers use most. That said, I will confess that I would like to have someone who does 3D design work as part of the TMD team. If you would like to try your hand at making masters, and you are good with CAD, but you do not want the trouble of casting or running the business side of things, then email me and let’s talk. We might be able to help each other. This is how Karl and I started working together, and Karl van Sweden has been with TMD for a long time now. The thing is, Karl and I are old-school pattern makers, and we both know TMD could use soemone who can bring new technology to our team. Maybe you could join the team by providing TMD with your 3D masters?
REGULAR UPDATES
One of the things I have already decided I am going to do in 2022 is stop filling the TMD social media pages with posts about my daily struggles. To this end, I plan to stop posting UPDATES on the TMD Facebook and MeWe pages. I will continue to share them on the TMD Blog page, I am just not going to clog-up our social media image with this information. Customers who are still interested will have to sign up for the Blog page. Otherwise, I am going to try to create a more professional presence on TMD’s social media sites.
ADVERTISING TMD
2022 will see another change from TMD. I have let my presence in the market slide for far too long, and I fully intend to do everything I can to change that in 2022. One of the biggest changes you will see will be in the way I use TMD’s Facebook and MeWe pages. I am going to start using both of these pages to post pictures of our new and existing products. I might even start a TMD Twitter page for the same purpose. When I have a new product, or a re-worked product, or an updated product listing, I will publish it on all of TMD’s social media pages. I will no longer hold things so I can release a group of new items at the same time. Unless there is a good reason to do so (like several closely related items for the same kit), I am going to start putting things out as they become available. The idea here is to start generating ‘buzz’ for TMD and our extensive line of 1/35 scale resin products.
I also hope to work closer with my favorite modeling DG’s, as well. I’ll be in touch with there administrators. I plan to ask them how I can support them, as well as how they think they might be able to help TMD. I am not going to be looking for special treatment or anything like that, so please, do not get the wrong idea. All I am saying is that I plan to go back to running TMD a lot more like I did when it was a new company. That includes making and strengthening industry ties, especially with the people whose function in our hobby is to keep you up to date on all the new stuff that is available to you.
UPDATING THE PRODUCT LINE
I will finally start updating the product line in 2022. In most cases, all that is needed is some new pictures and a better product description. However, I am also going to get all of our larger, OOP items back on the market. This will include the FLAK Famo, the 9/1 Famo, the M8 HMC, the T-6 and even ‘Micheal.’ In addition to this, I am well aware that many of my products need instruction sheets made, as well as improvements to those instruction sheets we currently have. I also have to get some help figuring out how to link those instructions to the product listing page so you can download them as necessary. Finally, I am going to see if my web store supports cross-listings. If it will, then I will start adding suggestions for additional items that may be needed or which will add to the effectiveness of the item you are purchasing.
A perfect example would be, if you are going to buy a set of TMD Sherman suspension arms, then it might be helpful if I also let you know that we make road wheels, return rollers, return roller arms, and different patterns of rubbing arms that all work with our suspension arms.
I even plan to update our packaging — for those few cases where we still sell items that have to be commercially packaged.
EXPANDING TMD’S AVAILABILITY
This brings us to the last thing I plan to address in this UPDATE. As soon as I can get new packaging made and the instruction sheet issue resolved, I will start looking for business partners overseas. Once-upon-a-time, I had 86 different dealers and distributors. Now I have 2. I need to change this in 2022, but I need to do so in a way that makes sense for all Parties involved. So, when the time comes, I will start looking for reliable business partners to help me get TMD products back into some of the countries where we no longer have a presence. I might even look at setting up an EBay store, but, if I do, it will not carry the full line of TMD products. I would only list our most popular items.
THAT IS ALL
OK, that is all I have. This will be the last UPDATE I post of Facebook or MeWe, so, if you want to keep seeing the updates, go to the blog page and sign up to follow the blog. Otherwise, watch for the first listing showing you new and/or re-worked TMD products. Stay safe out there and, if you have time, try to build something (preferably something using TMD resin).
–Joe