TNT#16, Color Progression
almost 3 years ago – Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:54:18 AM

Terragons News Thursday-ish

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay. We met with our injection molder on Friday this week and have some news to share. We will be going into what is likely the last round of changes on the prototype mold and should see results in about 2 weeks.

We will post another update as soon as we have all the final colors selected. Once we have all the color chips and samples we will show them off. Due to lead times on some of the colorants we can't wait to make each color as a tile before finalizing the Backerkit. After you get your eyes on the colors (in either a chip or on tiles) we will give 10 day notice to lock orders on Backerkit with payment being processed shortly after.

With that said, check out these final custom color selections for Water, Earth and Grass.

Also, check out this prototype tile (not the final version) in our final color for MAGMA:

We are super excited to share this progress with you all and look forward to continuing our mission to bring the best possible Terragons to your table as soon as we can!

See you in the next TNT!

TNT #15, all quiet on the Terragons Front
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 08:52:09 PM

Terragons News Thursday

Hello everyone. This is going to most likely be the shortest TNT yet. But we wanted to check in and give anyone a quick update anyways.

Things are progressing apace, we have scheduled a meeting with our injection molder for final review of the part and to finalize color options as well. We will share more with you as soon as we can on that front!

That's about it for this week, we will see you in the next one!

TNT #14, It's the final packaging?!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 11:47:42 PM

Terragons News Thursday

Hello everyone on the fourteenth installment of TNT we wanted to share with you some juicy sneak peaks into the final packaging of the larger Terragon sets of at least 250.

For these boxes we wanted something that we feel could last. Providing not only a means to deliver the product to you, but to store and transport your Terragons in a reliable way. 

Our original plan was to send individual packages of 25. But we quickly realized that for the larger packs this would cause more frustration than anything. The individual sleeves are nice. But loading tiles in and out of ten or more of them gets time consuming.

We have shared pictures of this box in a previous TNT. You can see in that update how it not only holds the weight of the Terragons quite nicely, but we are even including an EVA foam cushion inside the box to help nestle our sweet sweet Terragons as they slumber.

Without further text, here is the Final design of the box.

Now yes, this is the exterior of the box. We are very excited about the interior but want to keep some things a secret!

Only the best for Terragons!

Other News

We are in near constant contact with our Injection Molder. Pushing every day to try to tighten the timeline as much as possible while ensuring quality. Color finalization is coming along nicely and we are being told that we should have all tile colors soon and can't wait to share them with you!

Both Corey and Bryson have received vaccinations. It is our hope that this might reduce some restrictions and prevent further quarantines!

The 3d printing is still on schedule and we are very pleased with the results. We will have some updated photos for your viewing pleasure very very soon!

Thats all for this weeks TNT. See you space cowboy.

TNT #13 - Lucky Number 13?
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 11:50:37 AM

Terragons News Thursday

Hello everyone. We had debated jumping over 13 and going to 14 but it is just a number. So what if theaters generally leave out the 13th row and some buildings don't have a 13th floor. It's just superstition...  Right?

This Weeks Update is going to be a quick one. We waited to post this update until after we met with our Injection Molder (you remember Tom right?). He had good news for us.

The News

We are confident that one final revision of the prototype tool is all that is required before the mold design is complete and up to our standards! The tolerances of our pieces are as good as we had hoped and we are very pleased with the fitment. Now final finish on the prototype mold will ensure nice clean tiles.

Colors?

So we have quite a few colors selected and approved. We are awaiting the delivery of the final custom colors. Once that is done we will be sure to upload the new final colors to Backerkit and share them in an update for everyone. 

Thank You

We want to take a moment to thank everyone for their words of support and understanding after last weeks update. It has been truly amazing to see everyone come out and show us that we are doing the right thing by pushing for the best quality product we can and not settling. 

As always we promise to keep you informed on everything going on in the shop. And we have some exciting scatter related news to share with you very soon!

That is it for this weeks TNT, thank you all again for being the amazing Backers that you are, and we will see you in the next one!

TNT #12 - An open letter to our backers
about 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 08, 2021 at 04:20:19 PM

To our backers,

Before we get too far just know that Terragons are still delivering, and everyone is safe. However, we have met with our injection molder and have been faced with some difficult news. Our final mold has an increased lead time FAR beyond what we all expected. In order to deliver the best possible quality product, we need a great tool. Due to circumstances out of our control we will be unable to make our initial delivery timeframe. COVID has impacted every part of the process from day 1. Even the plant manufacturing our tiles was recently shut down for 2 months due to COVID quarantines.

Here is what happened:

From the beginning we knew that the injection molding process would be our biggest challenge, since it is the only part fully out of our control for manufacturing. We had to rely on others to provide timelines and quotes based on our expectations and initial design. Before launching the Kickstarter campaign, we met with several different companies and eventually found one we felt understood our goals. They provided insight and knowledge into the process and set expectations. We were provided with an initial quote for our production tooling at $5,000. When lockdown happened, this company went complete dark despite numerous attempts to reach them. We understood the difficulties faced by local businesses during the pandemic as we were facing them ourselves. We reached a financial tipping point and decided we needed to launch the campaign with the knowledge and quotes we had received.

After launch and hitting our goal almost immediately we knew that we had to pursue new options for injection molding as our first manufacturer had remained radio silent. We found another company who seemed to be the solution to all our problems. They offered new technologies and seemed to grasp our vision. We even met with the top injection molding tool designer in our area to discuss and finalize the tool design for our tiles. We received a new quote of $20,000-$35,000 for our production tooling. We left the meeting feeling confident despite the increased cost.

Boy were we in for a surprise.

The injection molding company did not want to run the mold we had designed and instead wanted to run a cheaper and much simpler mold which would have resulted in something that we could not and would not offer to our backers as a product. We immediately cut ties with this manufacturer and we were back on the hunt again.

With the Kickstarter nearing completion we had to get this problem nailed down. Then our true savior arrived, his name is Tom. We met with Tom and instantly knew this was the right place for Terragons. While most companies seemed completely detached from the mold making and design portion of the process, Tom was deeply involved in all aspects. He introduced us to a Plastics Manufacturing Engineer who was able to take our tile design and make it even better, and ready for injection molding. Tom has always been honest and upfront about the challenges we will face with these tiles. What seems to be a simple product is actually quite complex due to the high level of detail and quality we NEED. This not only presents challenges with design and manufacturing but cost as well.

We would need to spend $55,000 on our final production tool made of hardened tool steel.

This is more than 10 times our initial quote. On top of this Tom stressed the need for a sample mold made from aluminum for testing and proofing. The sample tool is made of aluminum because it is easier to machine and adjust before the final mold is produced. Unfortunately, the aluminum mold will quickly deform and not last. This would cost us an additional $5,500, the same price as our initial full production tool steel quote.

Our total cost of tooling alone has risen from $5,000 to $60,000.

We were a bit taken aback. However, we absolutely refused to accept anything less than perfection for this product and our backers. From the beginning the goal of this Kickstarter was to launch a company, not just this product, and definitely not just to make a quick buck. From the beginning we knew we would need to invest our own money to get Terragons across the finish line and keep it made in the USA.

Let’s talk timeline.

Our sample mold was meant to take 6-8 weeks to arrive, it took 14 because of quarantines and shipping delays. We are now working on finalizing the mold and color selections, this was meant to take 2 weeks, it is currently at 4 and counting due to the same issues. After we finish this phase, we must order the final production mold which will take yet another estimated 12-14 weeks. After we get our production tool the manufacturer needs to actually mold the parts and we have to assemble the final tiles, package and ship them out.

We are not happy about this; we were very committed to our timeline to begin shipping in May. However, at this juncture that is not possible. Everything that is within our control here is either complete or on schedule. We have spoken with many others involved with past Kickstarters and they have offered some encouragement such as: “it’s your first Kickstarter”, “people will understand” and “this happens all the time” but we still do not accept it. We set even higher standards for ourselves than we do for our products and find being late on delivery unacceptable. Please know that even now we are doing everything we can to reduce the time to get Terragons on your table.

We are now looking at potentially shipping out product at the end of August or beginning of September. It is hard to estimate how long it will take since things are so uncertain right now due to the pandemic. Hopefully with vaccines rolling out a record pace we will not see many more delays.

Thank you again for supporting us on this crazy journey, we hope you know that delivering you the best damn product possible is our #1 focus. We feel that it is better to deliver an amazing product a bit late, than a piece of crap now. We just ask you for your understanding and patience as we work hard behind the scenes to make this happen. We will keep you updated on our social media and in the weekly Kickstarter updates as things progress.

Sincerely,

Bryson and Corey