Hmmm, A friend of mine gave me a link to some various Youtube vids for this and I have to say, over all I am impressed by the product. Take no offense but this is a great "lazy man's" terrain.
Seen a vid that a guy took at Gen-con and all in all looks great! I would still be afraid of someone fallinf into it though and bending and braking the clips and the cards. Or even the infamous table lean and 'crunch' that happens.
Now that being said, let me express a few issues I have with it:
First off I will join the rest and say the clips shound have been included. You could have made the box a bit bigger to accomodate a separate small box on the inside that the clips could have been in, thus protecting the sheets, and had everything all in one.
Other companies have done this vary thing, the box with the clips wouldn't have to been a glossed box, just a simple unfinished cardstock box. Heck, it would have probably saved you some cash just in packaging and shipping alone.
To echo what someone said before and to give an example, I just bought a very nice grill for fathers day for myself. I would have been very upset if I unpacked the box and there were no screws to hold it together. Also even if they put on the box that I would have to buy a screw set, I would have promptly looked at another grill.
For $50-ish dollars (plus tax) this would have been a great deal, add in the additional $18 for the clips not so much. What could have been done instead is include the basic clips for one particular build, then have sets of 20 (or 40, or whatever) of the individual style clips that people could buy so they can tailor their purchase more. so in other words, they could buy a pack of L clips, or the T clips at a cheaper price ($6-7 a piece). That would be more enticing to me as a consumer versus having to buy a full box of clips when I might only want the I clips. Why spend two times over the amount for something I don't really want to use. Still have the combo set but make the $18 a discounted price and maybe sell the singles at a slightly elevated price.
I would gladly pay a little more for something I was going to use then pay a lot for something I wasn't even going to use half of. On the other hand some people would pay a 'discounted' price if they thought they were getting the better deal on the combo pack if they might use it down the line. It is a win-win there as you get a bit more for the 'hassle' of selling the single style packs and making what you expect on the 'value' multi-pack.
Now I also love the versitility of this product but worry about the wear and tear of building up and tearing down for different builds. I have seen other products like this (though put in a new way, you are not the originator or this. just originator in this 'field') where the cardstock starts to flay, rub, etc... Once again as a consumer, If I have to lay this amount of money down (yes it is not too expensive all in all, but in todays economy it is not cheap either), I would want assurances on it lasting. Hence I will opt for more expensive, albeit static, terrain for both durability and appearence. You product does look great, but not to the level as something that was supposed to stay that way, plus you don't have a ton of little clips around.
That being said, until these issues are addressed with at least a statement about durability, the issue about the clips, and the future of the product, I will most in likely not put my hard earned money into this product when I can buy the materials for the same amount of one box plus clips and produce enough for the three boxes you have here.
I know time is money, but what I make for my personal table at home looks just as good image wise, has texture to it and not just a smooth surface, and will be more durable. Which all in all was really sad, because once again, when I first seen this I was super excite about this good looking, very portable product that I could have taken with me to blay on a friends dining room table if for some reason he couldn't come over and play on my game table.
I truely and honestly hope you address these issues as I would like to become a customer, but when it comes to these extra costs I perfer to keep it down and put that money into other parts of the hobby, my bank account, or my kids' college fund.
Edit: Their is one flaw in the system I'd like to point out too while I am at it. If you have a multi-teired building made and have things going on in various levels, this setup is not very user friendly unless you have an addition table to set the upper tiers on, thus one would probably want to limit themselves to building no more then a two story building and not that many at that.
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), hoping I can score a box before it runs out of stock!
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