Plastic Army Women Project: SPRING CLEANING!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 02:04:17 PM

I'm pleased to report that 98% of all the Plastic Army Women pre-orders have shipped, and the final batch of product we need to ship the last 2% is scheduled to arrive this week. If your pre-order was placed before April 20th, 2021 and has not shipped, it's due to one of the following:

• Your pre-order included the 'Bucket of Plastic Army People'. The People Bucket orders will all be shipping within the next few days.
• Your payment failed. This can happen for a bunch of different reasons.  Just send a message to [email protected] and I'll send you a link and instructions to update your credit card info.
• Your order was placed on December 26th and is missing product selection due to a technical mistake I made that day. Send a message to [email protected] and let me know which Plastic Army Women items you wanted. 
• There's still a few supporters from our 2019 Kickstarter Campaign that I need to hear from in order to ship your packages. Send your current shipping address and color choices (if applicable) to [email protected].

Now that we're finally finishing up the remaining pre-orders from the past year, I'm giving everyone a chance to order from the current supply we have on-hand, including 3 new color variants, Red, Blue and Medium Green:

These colors were planned for production at the end of the initial manufacturing run last year. They were put on the back-burner when pre-orders went crazy after CBS ran the story on Black Friday. You might notice the new colors are little more expensive than the original colors. The original colors will also be getting the bump in price at some point. Costs for everything have been going up like crazy this year, including factory labor, raw materials, and freight. 

Everything currently available in the pre-order shop should ship within 2 weeks. I expect the current supply of Pink to run out very quickly. 

I'm still not certain when I'll be able to release the troops for general sale. Pre-orders have already eaten up most of the second production run. The factory is working on a third big production run so I'm estimating it will sometime between Mid-May and Late-August. We're also planning on some mold improvements to increase production capacity, but it will be a few months before that project is completed. 

Tanks' again for all your support,

Jeff at BMC Toys

Plastic Army Women Project: Marching Forward!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 11:44:57 PM

The BMC Toys Plastic Army Women project has made great progress over the past month. The factory completed the second production run of the OD Green packs, and Pre-orders that include just the OD Green packs placed before March 4th, 2021 have all shipped. New Pre-Orders for the OD Green packs are shipping every week.  Pre-orders that include only Pink (or Pink & OD Green) placed before Christmas 2020 are estimated to ship within a week.  The factory is currently molding more Tan and Pink figures so it will be a couple more weeks before the remaining pre-orders of Tan & Pink start to ship. It will be about a month before the remaining Bucket set pre-orders ship. 

Demand for pre-orders has remained high so we're already scheduling a 3rd production run. I'm tentatively planning a general release for mid-April, but may need go back to the Pre-Order system if we run out of inventory. I'm working with the tool maker and factory on ways to increase the speed of production, but it will take some time before those improvements are able to be implemented.  It's going to take a good effort to catch up with 60 years worth of demand, but we'll get there!

There's still a few folks that supported the Kickstarter Campaign in 2019 that we need to hear from in order to ship your Plastic Army Women. We need to know your current shipping address and color choices. You can send that info to [email protected].

We did a lot of research about women in the US Military during the development phase of the Plastic Army Women project. Lorretto (AKA Loretta) Walsh was mentioned by a couple of early supporters and caught our attention. Not only was she was the first woman to enlist in the Navy,  she's also from the town of Olyphant, PA, which is about 5 miles from our hometown of Scranton. In honor of International Women's Day we've published an article about Loretto Perfectus Walsh on the BMC Toys Blog:

https://bmctoys.com/blogs/news/women-in-the-us-military-loretto-perfectus-walsh

BMC Toys has a long tradition of 'History in a Box' playsets that help teach history through play. We hope to publish a series of well researched feature articles that expand upon the Highlights of Women in the United States Military article that is included in every pack of the Plastic Army Women as a continuation of that tradition. Here's the slightly revised version that will be included in the 3rd production run:

Tanks' for all your support,

Jeff at BMC Toys

P.S. The Pre-Order shop is still open at https://PlasticArmyWomen.com

Plastic Army Women Project: GROUNDHOG DAY UPDATE!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 02:45:39 PM

Here's a quick update on the BMC Toys Plastic Army Women:

I asked a neighborhood groundhog for advice on setting a release date for general purchase. The only prediction I got was 6 more weeks of winter and that I can expect a significant portion our 2021 garden will be requisitioned.

We've shipped out over 390,000 Army Women figures including 99% of Kickstarter Rewards and  78% of pre-orders.  Manufacturing is ongoing, but was much slower in January than expected. Production timelines over the past year have been increasingly difficult to estimate due to COVID-19 issues. 

The factory is currently working on the OD Green Plastic Army Women packs and I'm planning for the next batch of the OD Green pre-ordered packs to ship in about 2 weeks. I don't have current estimates for when the next batches of Pink, Tan or Bucket sets will be ready, but it could be a couple of months before all the remaining pre-orders ship. If your pre-order hasn't shipped yet, you can cancel if the delay is too long, just send a message to [email protected]. 

If you are a Kickstarter campaign backer from 2019 and haven't received your reward yet please get in touch. You most likely haven't completed the survey to let us know your color choice and current address. You can get a new survey link here at https://bmctoys.backerkit.com/, or send a message with your info to [email protected]. 

That's all for now, 

Jeff at BMC Toys

Plastic Army Women Project: Pre-Order Shipping and Manufacturing Update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 01:24:16 AM

Season's Greeting Everyone,

As of today we've shipped out 99.8% of Plastic Army Women pre-orders that were placed before November 28th. Many of you have already received your packages and let me know how pleased you are with your new recruits. If you haven't received your package yet, there's a good chance your troops won't arrive before Christmas. I thought most of these orders would arrive in time for the big day, but both manufacturing and fulfillment over the past 3 weeks took much longer than expected. To make matters worse, the post office is experiencing long and widespread delays due to an unprecedented amount of holiday mail, COVID-19, and winter weather. Delivery delays of 3 weeks or more are very common right now. My best guess is that delays will last well into January (nobody knows for sure).  

I apologize that the project was not completed on schedule, and am truly sorry if I wasn't able to get your Plastic Army Women delivered if they were intended as a holiday gift. The vast majority of you have been extremely patient and understanding, but I also understand those of you that are frustrated and anxious about the delay. Everyone involved in the project has worked incredibly hard over the past year, and the postal workers are doing their best under very difficult circumstances.

Most of the pre-order placed after November 28th haven't shipped yet (you would have received a shipment notification). I estimate this wave will all be shipped by late January, but if the delay is too long, please send a message to [email protected] and I'll cancel your pre-order. 

Some customers have told me they are upset that others received the Army Women before them, even though their pre-order was placed back in March. Many of the Plastic Army Women you see folks sharing on Social media were supporters of the Plastic Army Women Kickstarter Campaign in 2019. Those folks made pledges that were paid for around this time last year, so they were ahead of even the first pre-orders. The order in which the pre-orders shipped was largely determined by which products were completed at the time. The packs of Army Women in the packages I just dropped off at the Postal Sorting center this evening were finished by the factory just yesterday!

Here's a couple of photos from my Sunday afternoon at just one of the businesses that helped ship out a huge number of packages this week:

Thanks for all your support, and patience, and well wishes.

Have a safe and Happy Christmas,

Jeff at BMC Toys

Plastic Army Women Project: Kickstarter Rewards SHIPPED OUT!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 03:36:50 AM

I'm pleased to report that as of Friday, December 18th, 99.5% of Kickstarter Backer Rewards have been shipped. This is the major milestone the Plastic Army Women project has been working towards all year. 

This great news is tempered by the fact that although the packages shipped by the 'official' holiday shipping deadlines, the reality is all the shipping carriers are experiencing unprecedented volumes of holiday packages, and delays are widespread. USPS seems to be the most badly affected with delays of 2 to 3 weeks being common, even for very short distances. I'm confidant a lot of backers will receive their packages of plastic goodness this week, but I'm also certain some won't (and not just international and military mail). I've been shipping toys during the holiday season for the past 2 decades or so. The difference between being Santa's best helper or the Grinch's dog is just one day. This year is unlike any other for holiday shipping, and for the first time I have no idea which, are how many packages will arrive before or after Christmas.

I know many backers have already received their packages as we've been shipping rewards since the first packs of Army Women were completed by the factory. The order the rewards shipped was largely determined by which products were completed at the time. The bucket sets were the last Kickstarter items ready at the factory, so orders with buckets were shipped later than orders with only Copper or Pink bagged sets since those were completed first. 

If your reward included a Resin Prototype figure, please note that your rewards may be arriving in multiple packages. I packed and shipped the Resin figures from my office, and had some inventory on hand, but didn't have everything available here, so the rest was shipped from the fulfillment warehouse in Ohio.

There are still a few backers that didn't complete their survey, so I don't know their color choices or current address info. I didn't include these folks in the 99.5% calculation, but I still want to get everyone who supported the Kickstarter Campaign their rewards. If you didn't complete your survey you can get the link here: https://bmctoys.backerkit.com/

Alternately, you can send a message to [email protected] and I'll help you. I'll need your current address, and color choices for any packs of Army Women included in your reward package.

You might be thinking that now I can sit back and relax, but you'd be wrong as the next task on my list is to get all the Pre-orders from March through November shipped. So far only about 55% of these pre-orders have shipped, but that % is going way up tomorrow:

I stopped by the Printer today to sort through nearly 1000 bubble mailers filled with one or two packs of OD Green Plastic Army Women packs for pre-orders. I pulled out the more local addresses to give them a better chance of not going on a round trip to a distant sorting facility. While I was there I pitched in and packed some 3 pack boxes. I don't know if any of these will be delivered this week, but figured we should at least try. Some of these sets were finished by the factory as recently as Friday!

That's it for now, I still need to post a wrap-up update including thank you'd to the many people that helped with the project, but for now I've got to keep getting these troops deployed.

Thanks for all your support, and patience, and well wishes.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff at BMC Toys