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Damien said:
It's good to know the Denmark thing was at least partly true and I didn't just make that up out of thin air. My mental health can't take any more hits than 2025 is already delivering.
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www.linkedin.com

I recently wrote in a private mail: “I am Fwoosh Toys.” It was my Tony Stark moment, and it felt like the weight of the world was lifted from shoulders. It was very difficult for me to make that… | Paul G. Wolf

I recently wrote in a private mail: “I am Fwoosh Toys.” It was my Tony Stark moment, and it felt like the weight of the world was lifted from shoulders. It was very difficult for me to make that kind of declaration, I prefer to lead from behind, to put my team, my company ahead of me. And...
www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com

Still says Denmark on the main profile and this post talks about working in DanishIT.

Can I get a Jessica Jones tag?
 
altcunningham said:
www.linkedin.com

I recently wrote in a private mail: “I am Fwoosh Toys.” It was my Tony Stark moment, and it felt like the weight of the world was lifted from shoulders. It was very difficult for me to make that… | Paul G. Wolf

I recently wrote in a private mail: “I am Fwoosh Toys.” It was my Tony Stark moment, and it felt like the weight of the world was lifted from shoulders. It was very difficult for me to make that kind of declaration, I prefer to lead from behind, to put my team, my company ahead of me. And...
www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com

Still says Denmark on the main profile and this post talks about working in DanishIT.

Can I get a Jessica Jones tag?
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60k units feels surprising
 
akajomiha said:
That's what I'm wondering as well. I haven't seen any communication about it for...a long time. I'm thinking I probably just made a donation to Pabs after all is said and done.
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Regarding the Ninja Scroll figures I'm very frustrated here. When I placed my backing orders they took the full balance plus shipping for BOTH figures from my account. I repeat, I was charged IN FULL.

I noticed the listing on Big Bad Toy Store still has the figures as delivery for 'third quarter in 2025' but the absolute lack of any public facing updates and only scant replies to me on Instagram when I queried why my orders were showing up as cancelled on my SHOP account (a 'mistake', supposedly...) I'm finding it less that I made a donation and more that I was deceived and robbed.

When I have more time I'll tackle FwooshToys directly about it but if I get no satisfactory response I'm going to have to see about clawing back my funds if at all possible but I don't know how feasible that might be.

It makes me really sad that this is where things might have come to for this particular license and for a company that I had a lot of goodwill towards and was glad to put down some money in advance for, but I choose to be charitable and recognise silence is not the singing of a fat lady so I could always be unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised.....
 
Given the horrible handling of the forums and a lot of the talking I saw around the skeletons and later ninjas, I'm not surprised. I really hope these Ninja Scroll figures come to fruition, but once they're released I think I'm done with The Fwoosh for good.
 
I definitely would not go so far, myself, as to call future AI offerings vaporware. But I'd also be very cautious about any kind of optimism. It's fair to point out that some creators, for whatever reason, really do prescribe to the idea of 'no news is no news.' John from CFT can be like that, and had to learn from interacting with customers on FB that you can stop in just to report on 'no news' so everyone knows things are still happening, even if nothing interesting enough to tell them is happening.
Fwoosh Toys -MAY- have fallen into that trap of feeling like it's not worth sharing an update until there's something 'worth' telling. But certainly Pabs isn't doing himself any favors at all by basically just pretending the entire toy collecting community doesn't exist for massive stretches of time, both on his own website and in regards to customers that gave him money for as-yet-undelivered toys.

It's a bad situation and I do hope he finds a better way to handle it. If, indeed, the plan is still to actually release those toys at some point.
 
I'm trying to avoid being overly optimistic with these low communication product announcements, especially after that Elric game said nothing for a year just go to "Yeah we're having licensing issues right now." Definitely don't wanna live that disappointment too often when I can avoid it.

A mix of that, a lot of messy stuff I saw on Instagram regarding the skeletons' release, and my final experiences with The Fwoosh forums have me really wary of these. I want them and have them on preorder ofc, but when it gets pushed back... ~half a year? with no communication in that time, that's when I'm gonna start questioning if they're even coming out.
 
It's tough to read the situation. Pabs obviously doesn't communicate well in regards to the forum. That's, after all, why this place exists. TSI only started this because he was afraid we'd all lose each other at some point if Fwoosh finally went down for good, and Pabs basically refused to comment on the future of Fwoosh and what the plan was to keep it alive.
Is Fwoosh Toys' communication problem just an extension of Pabs' general (apparent) disinterest in communicating with anyone. Is Fwoosh Toys in trouble? Who knows. But no matter what the root cause, it's really not a good look to have basically no communication with your customers at all when you're a small company with basically no current output to prove you're 'around,' as it were.
 
Damien said:
I definitely would not go so far, myself, as to call future AI offerings vaporware. But I'd also be very cautious about any kind of optimism. It's fair to point out that some creators, for whatever reason, really do prescribe to the idea of 'no news is no news.' John from CFT can be like that, and had to learn from interacting with customers on FB that you can stop in just to report on 'no news' so everyone knows things are still happening, even if nothing interesting enough to tell them is happening.
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One of the things that has been very reassuring about the Roboskull has been the consistent communication. Production has been slow, but they update once a month pretty much without fail. That's enough for me to be like 'oh, still coming? alright then". And so far, everything has come out and gotten to me, if slowly. With AI, I'm not hopeful. The revised ninja didn't happen. I'm not even sure if the budget ninja did. The consumed didn't happen, and now radio silence.

I've seen toy collectors call for people's heads (or at least start talking class action lawsuits) for less. I don't typically find that warranted, but it's hard to tell what Fwoosh does if the whole of the brand is a forum that was down so often a significant portion of it left, and a toyline that is still as a graveyard.
 
JakeEkiss said:
One of the things that has been very reassuring about the Roboskull has been the consistent communication. Production has been slow, but they update once a month pretty much without fail. That's enough for me to be like 'oh, still coming? alright then". And so far, everything has come out and gotten to me, if slowly. With AI, I'm not hopeful. The revised ninja didn't happen. I'm not even sure if the budget ninja did. The consumed didn't happen, and now radio silence.

I've seen toy collectors call for people's heads (or at least start talking class action lawsuits) for less. I don't typically find that warranted, but it's hard to tell what Fwoosh does if the whole of the brand is a forum that was down so often a significant portion of it left, and a toyline that is still as a graveyard.
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People doxxed Boxghost and were ready to hang him when he vanished after his KS fizzled out, and that NEVER went away on Fwoosh. I don't know what happened on the forums after I left, because once I started posting here, I never went back there.

I think Veebs and Robo may have some clue what was going on, but I'm sure they'll never give any dirt on such a long standing relationship, even if it did sour in the end.
 
Damien said:
It's tough to read the situation. Pabs obviously doesn't communicate well in regards to the forum. That's, after all, why this place exists. TSI only started this because he was afraid we'd all lose each other at some point if Fwoosh finally went down for good, and Pabs basically refused to comment on the future of Fwoosh and what the plan was to keep it alive.
Is Fwoosh Toys' communication problem just an extension of Pabs' general (apparent) disinterest in communicating with anyone. Is Fwoosh Toys in trouble? Who knows. But no matter what the root cause, it's really not a good look to have basically no communication with your customers at all when you're a small company with basically no current output to prove you're 'around,' as it were.
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It does feel wrong that what was once an iconic pre social media internet fixture of the hobby and community is headed by someone who can't or won't communicate. And then to spin that rep and goodwill into physical goods and still act like it's some Etsy side hustle on their own time and dime.

Then contrasted to the many other indie companies that pop up and handle business in the wake of the indie toy boom.

Robo and Veebs were the face of the brand, and again a pioneer on the YouTube front for the hobby. When that all transfered out with no comment on any side... It's like the dad stepping out for cigarettes. Just weird not to ever really touch on it with the audience that made them. I know there were some vague comments and theories, But I'm just running this in contrast to The wider social media and publication internet where everybody likes to air everything out and is totally transparent about why they are leaving a blog and podcast to make a new podcast and start a patreon to pay rent etc. Probably very much a generation gap thing.

Really all I ever knew of Pabs even as a longtime lurker and poster is that he showed up during quarantine to make a few videos reminding you to wear a suit and shave and keep it professional even though you're quarantined. Which I found odd, but alright.

My tldr point is there are way too many other companies out there doing things correctly or at least successfully and it's disappointing that Fwoosh and AI seems to purposely be doing everything the total opposite when once it was a standard bearer.

Maybe he was only ever the money and infrastructure guy?
 
JakeEkiss said:
With AI, I'm not hopeful. The revised ninja didn't happen. I'm not even sure if the budget ninja did. The consumed didn't happen, and now radio silence.
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What makes me nervous is that, at the time they were being solicited, it was speculated by a few people that stuff like the consumed, the budget ninja, and the revised ninja, were all attempts to do some minimal/no tooling releases so Pabs could put the profits from those into the production of the new stuff because there really wasn't enough bankroll to get those bigger projects of the ground at the factory. And, as you said, all of those easy-bake projects failed to go forward. Which means Fwoosh Toys has no easy source of revenue.

IF it was the case that those were intended to finance upcoming projects, that essentially leaves those projects dead in the water unless Pabs finds a different source of financing. And all this ties back in to the community wondering why Robo/Veebs chose this particular time in Fwoosh history to separate from Pabs, and why the only people seemingly still associated with Pabs are the people that, by his own admission, don't know anything about anything unless he chooses to tell them. It's all very weird and doesn't cast Pabs in the best light.

And, to be very clear, it's all speculative right now. But it shouldn't go unnoticed that the Ninja Scroll stuff was solicited a VERY long time ago and Fwoosh Toys/Pabs has had absolutely nothing to say about production on that figure.



altcunningham said:
It does feel wrong that what was once an iconic pre social media internet fixture of the hobby and community is headed by someone who can't or won't communicate. And then to spin that rep and goodwill into physical goods and still act like it's some Etsy side hustle on their own time and dime.
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It's all very weird. I get the same sense from Pabs that I used to get from that dickhead that ran He-Man.org - Val Staples. Like he's 'above' the community. Or maybe Pabs is just super disinterested in any of it and Fwoosh was just some extra cash for him. I'm 100% positive that the ad revenue alone is worth keeping Fwoosh alive even if Pabs fucking hated toys (and he's basically said as much - about the former, not the latter).


altcunningham said:
Robo and Veebs were the face of the brand, and again a pioneer on the YouTube front for the hobby. When that all transfered out with no comment on any side... It's like the dad stepping out for cigarettes. Just weird not to ever really touch on it with the audience that made them. I know there were some vague comments and theories, But I'm just running this in contrast to The wider social media and publication internet where everybody likes to air everything out and is totally transparent about why they are leaving a blog and podcast to make a new podcast and start a patreon to pay rent etc. Probably very much a generation gap thing.
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Yeah, that's also very weird. I think Veebs and Robo are just fairly private guys and most of their audience did follow them - so they have no real reason to get into anything. It only risks ostracizing people that don't want the drama. Or, potentially, there could be legal rammifications depending on how much and what they know. As I said, it is potentially relevant that as Fwoosh Toys was floundering, they left.
It's weirder from Pabs' side. The two faces of your entire brand fuck off to do their own thing and you basically just say 'I wish them well and it makes me sad' and that's it. OF COURSE people are going to be wondering what the hell happened. It makes more sense to get out in front of it and talk about it and try to make yourself the face of the brand rather than leave the entire idea of Fwoosh twisting in the wind. Unless Fwoosh doesn't really matter anymore except as an ad revenue generator.


altcunningham said:
Really all I ever knew of Pabs even as a longtime lurker and poster is that he showed up during quarantine to make a few videos reminding you to wear a suit and shave and keep it professional even though you're quarantined. Which I found odd, but alright.
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That was the first hint I got that maybe the whole 'toy' thin wasn't really his bag anymore.


altcunningham said:
Maybe he was only ever the money and infrastructure guy?
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I don't think he was even really the money or infrastructure guy by the time even I got there. Seems like Fwoosh has been self-sustaining for a long time, and it also sounds like Robo and maybe Benty were doing all of the back-end work.
 
SalemCrow said:
People doxxed Boxghost and were ready to hang him when he vanished after his KS fizzled out, and that NEVER went away on Fwoosh. I don't know what happened on the forums after I left, because once I started posting here, I never went back there.
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Yeah I wasn't going to name names but this is one who specifically came to mind. Heck, I lost some money on those kickstarters. I only spent what I could afford to lose because I know Kicks fail (though, notably, after backing dozens his are the only ones I've ever gone in on that DID fail) but people were PISSED about that one.
Damien said:
What makes me nervous is that, at the time they were being solicited, it was speculated by a few people that stuff like the consumed, the budget ninja, and the revised ninja, were all attempts to do some minimal/no tooling releases so Pabs could put the profits from those into the production of the new stuff because there really wasn't enough bankroll to get those bigger projects of the ground at the factory. And, as you said, all of those easy-bake projects failed to go forward. Which means Fwoosh Toys has no easy source of revenue.
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This is my thinking as well. Those all seemed like war chest building projects and none of them happened. And I think on some level that's no surprise. The ninjas didn't seem like they kept much heat after they released, and the years in-between haven't helped.
 
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