My Mini Factory TRIBES launch & important merchant update

Hey guys!  so I've been waiting for a while now and as you can probably guess MMF missed their original target date so there was no 1st August launch.  they've been working hard to get this right for a long time now and they obviously didn't want to launch an incomplete platform and cause disappointment.  That said, I've been told i should get the keys on the 25th so I can move in, make myself at home and be ready to launch for the 1st September!  woohoo!

So this first month will be a multiple set month with the previous 2 icewind dale sets on offer with Drizzle and all his companions and then the allies and enemies collection.  There will also be the Lion Tribe available too!  now for those of you that were hoping for them this month apologies, but with the new MMF platform launch (which is called TRIBES), I wanted to invite you to join the Lion Tower Tribe and actually offer you a Lion Tribe as a reward!  I hope my decision to defer them makes more sense now!

its also really important to note that when I go "live" on 1st September, Tribes is not ACTUALLY live yet - I'm an early adopter and will be actively beta testing the system in a live environment.  A month or 2 later it will be opened up to other artists.   If you find something wrong or something looks weird, I'll ask you all to report any observations or report back on your transactions (good and bad!) so those last few bits can be tweaked and refined to make it as good as possible for all of us to use!  

I'm working on the lionesses at the moment so there should be 8-10 minis in the set for the 1st August.

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR MERCHANTS!

I've been having a few discussions about business with some trusted advisors and off the back of that I've decided to make a change to the merchant tier.

As of 1st September, I will not be offering any new Merchant licences.

Everyone who has a current merchant licence will be permitted to continue selling the existing models through whatever platform they currently use.  This includes all those that purchased the Kingdoms of Talarius models on a commercial licence

From the 1st September onward, I will only grant permission for my new releases to be sold on direct websites and brick and mortar stores - marketplace sales such as Etsy are no longer allowed.  Its been a tough decision, but I've seen a lot of posts online about people buying models from Etsy stores and receiving poor quality prints, uncured models, hollowed models with no drain holes which have subsequently split open and leaked resin everywhere and other such horror stories. 

The unfortunate fact is that Etsy is an unregulated market place and anyone can set up a store there irrespective of their knowledge and experience.  I've not seen this in relation to any of my miniatures I'll hasten to add, but with a background in Health, Safety and Environmental Management, it's something consider as a risk to members of the public, and consequently something I don't want to be associated with.

Now as I've already said, all of the current merchants will be granted a lifetime licence to sell my back catalogue (even on Etsy), but no new licences will be granted.  

Those of you that are selling via a brick and mortar store or via your own personal website can continue to gain the new files under commercial licence, but the monthly cost will increase to £35 from the 1st September to reflect the lifetime licence.  I (or my wife who will be working with me shortly) will send you an invoice each month and on receipt of payment you will be added to the MMF file distribution for the months files. 

All merchants wishing to work in this manner will be requested to send me a selection of prints for a quality review before the listing is made.  the package should be completed as you would do any customer order and Included in the package I would like a business card or compliments slip etc with the company details listed including the website and/or location of the store, and where you yourself are geographically located so that I can set you up with a listing on my website as a verified printing partner (assuming the quality check is OK of course). 

We will work closely with our remaining merchant partners including helping to promote them in any way that we can.

Any merchant that has paid an annual licence and doesn't want to continue, please contact me directly and I'll work out the pro-rata value of your remaining licence and issue a partial refund.  

I hope this all makes sense and that my reason for this decision is clear.

Thank you all for your support 

All the best

Dan