Pre-Orders for Tim Mee Toy Hercules AC-130
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Season Greetings! It's been about a week since the Plastic Army Women Campaign finished, so I thought today would be a great time for a quick update. Right now we're working hard to finalize all the sculpts so they can be made into resin prototypes for the plastic injection tool maker. Fairly early in January I'll open up the voting for the Kickstarter Exclusive colors. Some time in mid to late January I'll be launching a Backerkit site where backers will be able to confirm the details for their rewards and add an extras they might want. If you missed the campaign there will also be a pre-order shop opening up next month where you'll be able to pre-order the Plastic Army Women Bagged and Bucket sets and also Rosie plastic figures. Here's photos of some more of the sculpts:
James Van Schaik is the sculptor and has been working very hard to complete all the figures. I really didn't expect the set to expand past 12 figures, but he's been very gracious in rearranging his schedule to accommodate the extra work we've sent his way. About half the figures are ready to have the rubber molds made for resin casting, another few need some minor refinements, and he'll be creating the Military Working Dog and MWD Handler this week.
This will likely be the final update in 2019 so I'd like to thanks to everyone who has supported the project over the past year and a half, and a special thanks to Retired Master Chief JoAnn Ortloff for her compelling message that convinced me to take action on a project I'd been thinking about for such a long time. An old friend saw the story and said I mentioned the idea in 2005, which is way further back than I recalled. Also thanks to Vivian Lord and the entire Lord family for their help with all the crazy media requests over the past few months. Vivian's letter and media appearances really had a huge impact on getting the project moving and our ability to expand the set.
You can read more about the recent news stories and even watch the final countdown Q&A video (if you're really bored) on my recent blog update: BMC Toys: Plastic Army Women Project: Update #7.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Have a Great New Year,
See you next year!
Jeff at BMC Toys
Wow, that was exciting, seconds to go and we reached the final Stretch Goal! This means there will be a 4th color option for packs of Plastic Army Women in an exclusive color that will only be available for backers. Every backer that pledged $25 or more will also get a random Plastic Army Woman figure in the exclusive color. To decide on the mystery color I'll put together a list of 5 or so options and backers will vote to choose the winning color:
The next step is Kickstarter will collect your pledges over the next couple of weeks. Following that we'll open up the Backerkit Add-On shop at some point in January where you'll be able to verify your reward selections, choose color options, and add-on anything extra you might like.
Thank you all so much for all your help and support.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Jeff at BMC Toys
There's just a few hours left for the BMC Toys Plastic Army Women crowdfunding campaign. Just before lunch today you unlocked yet another stretch goal. Now every set of Plastic Army Women will have Military Working Dog and Handler figures in the sets:
I have a few more announcements to make :
The Plastic Army Women will be Made in the USA
This might seem like a no-brainer, but the folks I work with in Hong Kong and China have been making the BMC American Heroes product line for over 20 years. Despite our government's differences they are good hard working people that have done a great job for a very long time. I would not have been able to bring the Plastic Army Women project this far if it wasn't for them.
The Plastic Army Women will be Made in Scranton, PA
I've chosen Northeastern Plastics in my hometown of Scranton, PA to manufacture the Plastic Army Women. This was a tough decision as all the factories I work with are great, and I've been working with the folks at Alpha International and their factory in Kalkaska, Michigan since 2011. They are the largest manufacturer of toys in the United States right now. Everyone there has been very good to me and I would not have been able to grow from a retailer offering other companies' products to a distributor with unique products of my own without their help. I've only been working with the folks at Northeastern Plastics for a little over a year but they have gone above and beyond to help me expand the BMC Classic Army Men Collection over the past year. They've also been nice enough to host the countless reporters that wanted to stop by to see how plastic soldiers are made and talk about the Plastic Army Women. Just yesterday both local news stations stopped by to do follow up stories, and a PBS station is scheduled for later this week. I owe the owner of Alpha International a great debt of gratitude, and he made a very generous offer to manufacture the Plastic Army Women, but I feel the Plastic Army Women story has become forever linked with Scranton and the little factory downtown that nobody knows is there but has been seen around the world thanks to a little girl's letter asking for some lady army men. Here's a story that aired last night:
Military Women Feature Stories
I've been wanted to incorporate an education element as part of the Plastic Army Women Project, so I'm tasking my sister Julie Imel to write 2 stories. One will be about the history of the Women's Army Corps, and the other will be about women in the US military that highlights several Military Women of distinction from a variety of branches and eras. Julie is currently a freelance writer and has been a newspaper feature writer for about 20 years. She wrote the D-Day and Iwo Jima stories featured on the BMC Toys boxed playsets. I'm not exactly certain yet how these stories will be published, but the WAC story would be great on the back of the WAC playset I'm working on. I'd like them to be distributed as widely as possible so I'll likely make free pdf versions available as well.
Final? Stretch Goal
I've added one more stretch goal. If the campaign reaches $52,400 by tonight every backer who pledged $25 or more will get a Rosie the Riveter plastic figure in a special one-time color. I don't know what the color will be (I kind of didn't plan quite this far ahead), but I'll come up with some options then let backers vote for their favorite. I probably made this stretch goal a little too low, but I really want it to happen as it's a very Kickstartery way to finish up the campaign:
Multiple Kickstarter Rewards
If you would like more than one Reward just add the amounts of the additional reward (or rewards) you want to your pledge. For some reason Kickstarter doesn't have a multiple reward option, so I'll be working with Backerkit after the Campaign to make sure everyone gets exactly the rewards they want. You can also make changes to your pledge or reward selection right up until the campaign ends tonight.
Add-Ons
After the campaign backers will be able to add on a few special items with the Plastic Army Women Figures or Logo like the Buttons I gave out at the Chicago Toy Soldier Show.
I haven't figured all this out yet, but some items I'm thinking about include:
Everyone who pledges more than $1 to the Kickstarter will have access to the Backerkit Add-On shop. I'm going to try to source as much locally and US made as possible.
Final Countdown
I'd like to do some sort of live stream tonight for the final countdown where supporters can ask questions in real. I don't know if I can pull that off in the time I have today, but if it's a go I'll posts an update with the details.
Tanks' again for all your help.
Jeff at BMC Toys
ps Here's concept art for Rosie's base and armature for Corpsman (who will also be wearing glasses):
