Lizet cats pre-order delay
The factory that was making our Lizet cats (pre-orders from October/November 2023) has closed down. We are investigating the exact situation but we are assuming that the production that had been started in December, then stopped in January (and was due to be completed in April) has been lost.
As we wrote in our previous blog post we were in the process of transferring our production away from this factory to a new one. It seems we left it a little long. Nevertheless, we will resume the production of the Lizet cats at the new factory. At this point it is difficult to anticipate the time frame for this but we hope to complete the new production and shipping for the pre-orders within 2024. We will keep you updated here, on social media, and by email. We are aware that we're not the only ones queuing up at that new manufacturer's doorstep with a sudden need for a production.
We are also confident that the new factory can provide a better quality than what you've been used to from our previous custom-grade toys. This includes soft-plug valves (which I know some of you have been yearning for) and as far as we are aware, a better quality control for the printing finish. We are also considering air cargo for the new production to our distribution centres in Florida and Germany to make up some of the time we will lose through this process.
We will honor every order that was placed, for whichever of the Lizet-cats. You'll get them.
Update 10 June 2024
The initial proof a capabilities by the new factory has been delivered and reviewed by us.
It is an impressive piece of reverse-engineering with the assistance of Myth Animal Creations even though the new prototype still needs a few tweaks and colour adjustments (as you can see on the photo). I am especially impressed with the material, which would be nice to actually get for production after the slightly underwhelming experiences of the recent pre-orders.
We are running slightly behind schedule and we now expect all prototypes to be finished by the end of June/early July with a view to completing the production of this pre-order run by late summer.
Update 15 July 2024
Things are moving - a little slower than anticipated, but it turns out that reverse-engineering is not as straightforward as we thought it was going to be. There has been some mutual learning experience in starting up this completely new production at a new factory, but we're still confident, and MythAnimalCreations has been wearing himself out trying to reconcile the factory's and our expectations to make everything work out. We're getting there.
Sundara is looking good and showing that some of the earlier alignment issues we had with the first snep prototype have been fixed (and hopefully can be controlled in production). This sounds like a no-brainer, but it is actually not that easy, as we have learned. There is a bit of a conflict between the extra-squishy material (which we intend to use for the cats) and the accuracy with which panels made of such material can be aligned.
We are still aiming for a production in August/September and a delivery no later than November 2024. Stay tuned!
Update 25 October 2024
The first Lizet cat batches have been made by our new factory in October. However, progress has been slower than anticipated and due to this (in the interest of maintaining quality) there will be one more delay - hopefully the last one for this production. It is unlikely that we can get the cats into distribution before Christmas. hence, we expect a delivery time frame around January/February 2025.
We are aware that drip-feeding this sort of information is unsatisfactory, however, this is a new situation and we are only becoming aware of such issues as we go along.
