I'd love to know, with 30,000 ordered, how many have you sold? I'd imagine there aren't 30,000 turbografx games left in existence! (kidding, but 30,000 is a huuuuuge number!)
I've sold several thousand HuCard Sleeves, so far.
I had to make so many all at once in order to get decent pricing, and to help offset the costs of tooling.
FYI, the top left character gives a 404 error when you click it - http://www.seymoronion.com/index.html
That's actually on purpose.
It makes it easier for me to test out some stuff that's being designed for the 404 Page.
Any vague ETA on the HU cases?
Prototyping can take up to a month, to make sure I get all the case designs perfected.
The Kickstarter Fundraiser/Pre-Order Campaign will take 30 Days.
Manufacture will take between 1 to 3 Months.
That sets a tentative ETA to December, at the earliest.
I don't have enough $ to start the Prototyping Phase, yet, but I'm getting closer.I would also like to say instead of the all in one case project I would rather get like the post above me cases that are closer to the originals namely tb16 pce and sega saturn. If someone would start making replica saturn cases they would be a rich man as i know people would pay good money for them and extra for good packing materials since usps sucks at careful handling.
Bold mine, and AMEN.
The same goes for every package carrier, really.
Rest assured that this issue is in the front of my mind, and I take it very seriously when designing custom shipping boxes, and packing methods.
I would certainly like to repro the big Saturn/Sega CD Jewel Case Boxes, Inner Trays, and spacer foam.
Same goes for the original style TG16 Tray w/Plastic Arm.
The thing is, they are rather fragile, and I'm going to need to have a lot of extra $ saved up,
so I'll be able to deal with the ones that arrive, broken, at my Warehouse.
This mostly applies to the Sega CD/Saturn Cases.
The potential for damage while en route from the manufacturer to my Warehouse, for the OEM TG16 Trays & Arms,
can be mitigated by having them just send them separately, and I'll just glue the arms in myself,
or let you guys do it when your orders arrive,
or alter the design somewhat so they can snap in, and no glue would be required.
I could have them make some extra arms too, so they could also be sold separately, to people that just need the arms.
Would you guys mind if I made the following alterations to the OEM Style Cases, for SegaCD/Saturn?
1. Make the Manual Holder a hard transparent pocket, with a semi-circle cutout near the middle, on the inside of the case, so you can grip the manual for easy removal.
This will prevent sagging manuals, and indentation of the four OEM Manual holding Tabs.
It will also allow support for the shorter SegaCD/Saturn Manuals.
You can print out a single-sided insert/page that'll be visible from the outside, while the case is closed, so it would like like it came with a Tall Manual.
They'll probably make some for that very purpose, over at
TheCoverProject.net once I start making the cases.
2. A Push-Button style CD Center-Hole Gripper.
It will remove the need for a Foam Rectangle Spacer, to keep the disk secured inside the case.
3. Mold some small "Pinchers" into the inner tray, to support the addition of an extra smaller tray or two, to handle the few multi-disk Saturn Games.
The extra smaller trays would be sold separately, because there aren't that many multi-disk Sega CD/Saturn Games.
Note: The Game Case would look exactly like the OEM Case from the outside, when the case is Closed, and the rear tray would fully support OEM Rear Tray Inserts.Unfortunately, I don't think that I can make either of the above, on my first run, as they might require making a Second Mold for the Clear Plastic parts; ie: another 10 to 30 thousand dollars.
My First Run Plans involve a Single Modular Mold that will be used to make a bunch of similar-but-different Cases, all with the same base materials.
I might be able to designate part of the Master Mold to those clear plastic parts, and have the cavities for the other case designs filled with a temp brick or something, but the bigger the mold gets, the more it costs, and there is a point of diminishing returns, where it'd wind up cheaper to just make a dedicated mold for certain things, instead of a single massive mold.
Thanks for the suggestions, though.
I'm going to look into reproducing the OEM SegaCD/Saturn and TG16/PCE case designs, after the first run of my current designs gets made.