Good news!

https://youtu.be/_689GqA2n6s

We're now working with Aptus to investigate hundreds of factories.

This means we will spend less time looking for a factory, and more time working with a factory.  Which means that we will deliver all the sooner!

We will, of course, let everyone know via Kickstarter update (and on here) the moment we have made a selection on which factory.  And we still intend to show production with lots of video updates as we move forward.

But right now, we are glad to be working with engineers who have connections of this caliber, and we are excited about how quickly things should be moving in the near future.

Stay tuned; we will give regular updates!

Update: Everything is going about as well as can be expected!

For the interested, here's the video:
https://youtu.be/6WdiY9Ubllk

For those who just want the quickest summary possible:

1. Jerry is doing fine even after selling his house. He's not going to starve; don't worry about him.
2. We are searching for a new manufacturer. That takes time, but we are confident that one of the people we've been talking to can pull this off.
3. We are still waiting for the escrow company and the third party inspection folks. That takes time too, but it seems to be progressing.
4. We are now protected in over 100 countries! That's pretty cool. This helps protect you guys against lousy knock-offs that are cheaply made, too, incidentally.

And that's it for now!  Remember to email us if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks for supporting us!

Everything's coming along nicely!

So, we haven't posted in a month.

Not a long time by regular kickstarter standards, but a bit of a long time for us.

Every couple of days we get ready to post something, but then the patent lawyers say "Wait no don't post that," and we wait for more paperwork to be done.

This makes for very boring blog entries, like this one.

Production continues without any hitches.  It's pretty cool to see the machines in action, and *hopefully* we will have the "How it's made"-esque video ready to show before shipping.  (Which, as a reminder, is likely to be in February.)

Otherwise, there's a lot of weird boring clerical stuff, like import taxes.  (We're still trying to figure it all out ourselves.)

But we are still here, still working hard, and still eager to ship as soon as they get in our hands!

If you have questions, feel free to ask!  We just haven't had a lot to report the last couple of weeks besides "Everything's fine," and it seemed odd to us to just repeat that with such frequency.  But we figure a small reminder couldn't hurt, especially since it's on this blog.  (Which is for people who are more closely following our production progress.)

So, as always, thanks for reading, and thanks for backing us!

Production has resumed!

We solved the supply chain problem!

We got the right magnets!

We're back on track for production!

We even have an estimated shipping date (at last!).  We think it will be in February.  We know it's a lot later than we originally expected, but we thought it was more important to get it *right* than to get it *fast*.

This video shows just how good those magnets are, especially with that powerful double-metal upgrade you guys unlocked in the Kickstarter:

https://youtu.be/Y1KN2V4lC9s

Remember to send us your questions!

We will have other things to talk about in the weekly updates, but it'll be more interesting if you guys ask us your questions.

And thanks for all your patience in this.  It is definitely coming together, and we are excited for the future.

And thanks for supporting us!

Weekly Update: 15-10-06

Although we are still waiting on the magnets to arrive at the factory, we did get a still image camera, and you can see some pictures of the gray, green, and blue below.

These aren't the finished product, but they are pretty close.  In person, the blue tiles' lines are as visible as they are on the green tiles.  We really aren't sure why the camera doesn't pick them up.  We may wind up lightening them anyway.

Here's a video for those of you who hate reading!

Weekly Update: 15-09-30

We are experiencing a similar delay to last time.  This time, the magnet provider provided our factory with magnets that were indeed the correct strength...but the wrong size.

We have spent many hours making sure that everyone involved understands the correct magnet strength, and have been assured that yes, indeed, the magnets will be correct this next time around. 

That's the short version. Here's a video saying practically the same thing!

Weekly Update: 15-09-22

In addition to showing the colors of the mats this week, we have a small bit of good news! Right now, in the mail, the factory is shipping to us an updated version of the magnets in the mats so we can test them ourselves.  Also, we should get to see the stickers in the next update.

Remember, colors look different on a screen than they do in person. Here's the video so you can see the mat colors!