A much overdue update...
about 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 05:25:54 PM

Hi everyone, we hope you are all well.

First of all, we’re very sorry about the protracted silence.

The reason for the silence is that we kept thinking: “Let’s just wait for next week. Next week we will have a solid, agreed upon, release plan for our products going forward, including Wave 2. So we can make a nice, positive update with tons of cool photos and with a release date!”

And that has gone on for too long… which is very frustrating for everybody.

Frankly, we are still in that confusing, uncertain period.  In late spring, after the first lockdown finished, activity restarted, slowly… and intermittently. We had most of our staff on furlough for months, and that was supposed to finish at the end of October. We planned for that…

And now a new lockdown has been announced, starting Thursday, and the furlough scheme extended… The pandemic’s second wave is here… and the situation keeps changing… basically, the level of uncertainty in the near future is making it very hard to plan ahead for a business.

The main challenge for us is logistics. Planning manufacturing in China, shipping to our warehouses in the UK and the USA and making sure that the warehouses will be open to receive the shipments, and ready to operate and fulfil the Kickstarter and trade orders is the biggest headache in the current world climate. What if the warehouses shut down again while Wave 2 is on the ships? That is a nightmare scenario, a disaster that we only narrowly missed with another product when they warehouses were forced to shut down in spring.

We think we should be able to announce the release date of wave 2 very soon, but we hesitate to commit to a date, as we did in the previous update, for fear of the situation changing again next week.

Please once again accept our apologies for this delay. We wish the world would go back to the stability we enjoyed only just a year ago. With more staff now coming back from furlough, we promise that we'll be better at keeping you up to date.

The River Horse team

Updates soon!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 12:36:49 AM

Hello all,

Hope you are all holding together. This is a quick update just to tell you that we are still working on firming up dates for wave 2, and are looking forward to posting a more substantial update in the next couple of weeks. We are currently looking over samples from the manufacturers, so will have some pretty pictures to share as well!

River Horse team

Still in Limbo (mostly)
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 09, 2020 at 06:23:42 AM

Hi sorry about the delay in updating. The company is still in limbo. We were completely closed from March to June. Now, since the beginning of July, we are beginning to make first baby steps towards reopening. Still, the majority of staff are still on furlough, and a few have started working now one day a week. Tough times. 

This means of course that we have very little manpower for updates and for answering customer services email - we have started going through the backlog of emails and will start to answer comments on the page, but at one day a week it's not gonna be quick, I'm afraid. 

So, apologies again, but all I can say for now is please bear with us. 

Communication from our manufacturer on the effects of Coronavirus
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 12:03:43 PM

Hello everyone, we decided to share with you this email that we received from Liya, our manufacturing partners in China. As you can guess it's not good news, as "Tooling, Injection, Production, Painting and assembly teams" are not allowed to go back to work yet due to the quarantine measures in China. As soon as we know more, we'll update you, and hopefully, share some more cool pictures of painted models. Our thoughts are with everybody affected by this epidemic.  Here's the full text of the message and a link to the manufacturer's website:    

Status of Chinese Manufacturing - Impact

Greetings to our customers and friends,

Update from manufacturing regarding the effects of the nCOV outbreak in China. The nCOV (2019 CoronaVirus) has affected family and friends throughout China, as such, the Factory will continue to be shut down until it is safe for team members to return to work. Extra precautions have been imposed by the local government on returning to work, and extra safety measures are being employed immediately.

Liya International OEM Factory Update

• Quoting, STL and Prototype Teams have all returned to work this week. Technical labor has begun working remotely and will continue to do so until travel restrictions have been lifted.
• Tooling, Injection, Production, Painting and assembly teams are still on vacation. As each team returns and begins working, a notification will be provided to your Project Manager. Do to reduced team size, STL Modifications may take longer then usual.
• TangXia Town where our factory is located is slowly coming back online and has less restrictions than other areas. Transportation restrictions and resource allocations are still in effect.

Non OEM Projects

Several Cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing are still locked down and have restricted travel. Orders containing Dice are on hold until further notice. We will update each client when factories come online. Projects that we are working on in conjunction with other factories will see additional delays until the current issues in China are resolved.

Timing

We will continue to monitor the situation, and as information is made available, we will continue to update you on changes. We cannot predict any precise end to constraints placed on us, as we have no control over directions dictated by the local and national government. We look forward to returning to full production as soon as the situation warrants.

http://liyaintl.com/…/2…/02/11/ncov-impact-on-manufacturing/

Wave 2 - Production Update!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 09:29:49 PM

Hi everybody, now that all of the models for Wave 1 have been released and launched into the world, it is time for an update about the current progress of Wave 2. In terms of overall project progress, we are on track to deliver Wave 2 in Spring 2020. We will be able to be more precise as we'll be nearing the end of production. 

What's in Wave 2?

Wave 2 consists of eight new models. Here are some photos of the actual physical masters (NOT renders). I'll hope you agree with us that they look awesome! 

Jaegers – Guardian Bravo, Bracer Phoenix, Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon. 

Kaiju - Otachi, Raijin, Leatherback and Slattern.  

Progress - Printed Material

By which we mean the packaging, and all of the cards and other gaming material you find in the box of every model. These are all finished in terms of design, and are being printed. They will then be stored flat, ready to be built and assembled when the painted models are finished.  Here's an example for you:  

Progress - Moulds

The complex engineering process of splitting the models and cutting the steel moulds is ongoing and nearing the end, so soon we'll be starting the plastic injection step. 

Here are the very interesting pictures showing the models' parts as they are planned for moulding. 

Progress - Painting

All the painting schemes have been approved by the licensor, and now we are creating the actual masters for the factory workers to copy. In the next update we will share the painted models with you in all of their glory, so keep your eyes peeled - and here's a sneak peek!