All new engines and rail cars for your favorite train board games!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Fulfillment update #1
7 months ago
– Tue, May 28, 2024 at 10:04:19 AM
Fulfillment - we're working on it!
While y'all have been busy (or not busy) doing whatever it is y'all do (or don't do), we've been working behind the scenes on getting everything ready for fulfillment.
We're sure this Midnight Cowboy joke will be universally understood and appreciated
Unfortunately, it took much longer to book freight than expected, so the tl;dr is that fulfillment for most backers will probably start late in July / early August.
As for giving our backers spiritual fulfillment, we're still working on that. All we can say at this time is that it will involve worshipping a giant caboose.
The last shall be first!
U.S./Canada/Rest of World
U.S., Canada, and rest of world orders will be fulfilled by Quartermaster Logistics in the United States.
These orders are on the MAERSK TANJONG which departed China yesterday and is scheduled to arrive in Miami, Florida on July 12.
From there, the orders will be trucked to Quartermaster's warehouse in Orlando where they will be put in the fulfillment queue and shipped out to backers.
Europe/UK
Europe and UK orders will be fulfilled by Publishing Technology Solutions in France.
These orders will be loaded onto the OOCL INDONESIA 029W which is scheduled to depart China on May 29 and arrive in in France on July 11.
From port, these orders will be trucked to Publishing Technology Solutions' warehouse in Lavelanet, France where Europe orders will be directly mailed out. UK orders will be shipped in bulk to Spiral Galaxy in the UK where they will then be mailed to UK customers.
Australia/New Zealand
Australia/New Zealand orders have been received by Aetherworks in Australia and are in the queue for fulfillment. We will send out an update once these orders start shipping.
Asia
Asia orders have been received by VFI in China and are in the queue for fulfillment. We will send out an update once these orders start shipping
That's all for now.
In the meantime, may the blessings of Kabüs, Last of His Name, Destroyer of Hotboxes, and Bringer of the End, be upon you. He is a Merciful, but Jealous, train car, for there are no train cars behind Him.
May His Extended-Vision Cupola keep us from the sin of personal transportation,
The Little Plastic Train Company
Manufacturing complete - shipping addresses locking in 48 hours
9 months ago
– Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 02:46:06 PM
Manufacturing complete - shipping addresses will be locked in 48 hours
The trains have been made and have passed safety testing!
That means we can start making arrangements to get these sets on container ships to their destination hubs.
Before we can do that, however, we need to lock everyone's addresses to get final counts for each of the regions.
That means we're locking down shipping addresses on Wednesday.
You'll receive an email soon giving you one last opportunity to change your shipping address before it's locked.
If you don't receive that email or can't change your address, please email us at [email protected]
We anticipate that the sets will be mailed out to y'all sometime in June.
If you plan on moving between now and June, please put in your new address or the address of someone who will be able to keep the package for you while you're moving.
Pics!
Below are pictures of the final sets and the boxes they'll come in.
One important note: The factory shipped these sets to us in an unpadded Fedex envelope(!)--not a box. As a result, the Extraordinary Engines box arrived damaged. None of the tins inside were damaged, however. Your sets will be shipped in boxes with bubble wrap, so you won't need to worry about any cardboard box damage.
We'll post another update once the sets are on boats!
The Little Plastic Train Company
Cards to be charged for shipping on Monday, April 15th
9 months ago
– Wed, Apr 10, 2024 at 06:59:26 PM
We will charge everyone's cards for shipping on April 15th
Good news! Manufacturing will be finished by the end of the month.
That means we're on track to ship the trains to our fulfillment hubs in May and to start mailing out the trains to all of y'all in June.
Mediocre news! That means it's time to start charging everyone's cards for shipping.
We will charge everyone's credit cards for shipping on Monday, April 15th.
If you haven't moved and your credit card information is still the same, you don't need to do anything. Your card will be charged automatically on Monday.
What if I need to update my address or credit card?
All backers will receive an email tomorrow containing a link to their pledge manager.
If you click on the link, you'll see the amount you'll be charged for shipping. You'll also be able to update your credit card information or address.
Please make sure your address and credit card information are up to date. If we can't charge your card for shipping, we won't your trains.
As before, if your credit card is declined, we'll email you.
For the vast majority of backers, shipping charges will be the same as those we listed during the campaign.
EU and UK backers, however, will notice a minor increase in shipping fees. EU and UK customers will also notice a VAT tax on shipping. Tax authorities in the EU and UK have been clear that VAT must also be charged on shipping. Unfortunately, as much as we don't want to, we have to comply with those tax laws.
Final product pictures coming soon
We know we said in the last update we were supposed to get tin samples by now.
Well, that didn't happen. You see, in order to import these trains around the world, we need to prove to customs officials that they don't contain any harmful chemicals. To do that, we have to send samples to a lab. Those samples include the trains, the tins, the boxes, and dabs of all the paints used to make the trains.
This is what everything looked like before it was mailed off to the lab.
We could have paid for the tin samples to be sent to us and the lab or to just the lab. We opted for the latter since we were satisfied with how the tins looked from videos and photos sent to us.
So now, we'll just post pictures of final copies of everything once they're mailed to us in the next week or two.
One more thing...
Legal has asked us to remind you that we are not responsible if you are Jumanjied while using our trains. To reduce this risk, please make sure not to use our trains with any games gifted to you by mysterious old people.
Until next time,
The Little Plastic Train Company
We've got train samples!
10 months ago
– Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 09:47:06 AM
Train samples have arrived!
After much behind the scenes work, our pre-production train samples arrived from the factory this morning. We're very happy with them and see no needed changes. We're going to approve these so we can start manufacturing ASAP.
Below are photos of the samples. We also took some pictures with the engines from our previous sets so you can see how they pair next to each other.
Tin and box samples coming soon
We should receive samples of the tins and boxes next week. We'll share photos of those once we receive them.
The factory plans to produce all the trains before making the boxes and tins. So approving the tin and box samples a couple of weeks in the future is not going to delay things.
We're still on schedule
We anticipate manufacturing will be complete by the end of April, which will allow for freight to happen in May and fulfillment to happen in June (barring any shipping / customs delays).
As always, thank you all for your support.
Our company, and these trains, would not exist without you.
Your (tired) peons at
The Little Plastic Train Company
Production update--everything's on schedule
11 months ago
– Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 01:30:22 PM
Hello again backers,
Here's what's been going on since our last update:
The molds were completed at the end of January.
We sent over the final tin graphics, coin art, box art, and graffiti graphics.
The factory closed for several weeks for Chinese New Year but has now reopened.
The factory made some non-colored samples of the trains for us to review and they look great. Based on the samples, there are no defects in the molds as far as we can tell.
We approved the test samples and wired over the funds to start manufacturing!
Now the longest part of the process begins.
The factory will send us sample prints of the box art, tins, and colored trains.
If there are any issues (e.g. the printed colors don't look good as we thought they would) we'll work with the factory to fix them. This is where delays, if any, are most likely to occur.
We'll share photos of the final samples once we receive them.
If everything looks good, we approve the print run!
Once we approve the print run, we'll send out final surveys so you can confirm your address and be charged for shipping.
Assuming there are no or minor issues, we're on track to have all of the sets made by the end of April.
We'll then arrange freight shipping. It'll take about a month for the trains to arrive at their destination hubs by boat.
Once the boats arrive in port, the trains will be trucked to our fulfillment partners' warehouses for last mile shipping to you!
All said, we're still on track to have the trains delivered to you by June.
That's it folks. Our next update probably won't be until April when we have final samples to share with you. If there's any news to share with you before then, we will.
