.....but I continue to be amazed. Last week there was a bit of a brouhaha over Noble Knight Games carrying some KoDT 20 Years of covers books and some resin from the Spinward Traveller Kickstarter.
The TL;DR version is Ken Whitman sold Noble Knight Games books and resin ships that (arguably) had already been bought and paid for by Kickstarter backers, stiffing not only the backers, but Noble Knight Games because he shorted them $700+ in product. Instead of recouping some of their losses Noble Knight Games decided to take the high road and eat a $2500 investment by giving these tainted products to some of the Kickstarter Backers.
Now I've always assumed that Ken Whitman wasn't on the up & up when it came to these items. Complaints about Kickstarter Backers getting stiffed abound and I suspect that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg here because Ken Whitman sold a lot of product via his website and there is no oversight there. We know the KoDT books were pretty cheap to produce and there is no telling how many of the "limited edition" and softcover books he sold. Nobody has seen the $250 leather-bound or $50 softcover books in the wild.
Basically I have low expectations of Ken Whitman's business sense and a high expectation of his ability to scam and steal. Even then Ken Whitman's ability beat the spread on these expectations pops up now and then.
There, on the bottom of the display case at the physical store for Troll and Toad is a bunch of Ken Whitman's Traveller resin. I can make out painted & unpainted Beowolfs, unpainted Scout Ships, unpainted Gazelles, and a bunch of some ships I'm not familiar with.
Here is a link to the picture on Facebook (until it gets pulled).
Now these were all "limited editions" and I find it hard to believe that Troll and Toad would naturally corner the market with at least 12% of all these "limited edition" Beowulfs. A quick search of the online store doesn't show these models available.......but this is a recent picture.
There is a helluva lot more resin here than what Noble Knight Games had.......
2015.11.23 Edit
In response from a comment, here is the webpage for Troll and Toad, and the link to the "official" Facebook page:
One comment - pretty sure the picture in the store is not Troll and Toad. I think it's a game shop in London, Kentucky. Maybe are owners/mangement - really not sure. But two different businesses as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteTroll & Toad is based in London, Kentucky according to Google.
DeleteThat's Marcus Kings' place. It's a Troll and Toad store.
DeletePerhaps this seller/ store owner does business with Troll and Toad as well as some other vendors?
ReplyDeletePerhaps , all the unpainted resin models have shipped, and all the painted ones are defects or damaged?
ReplyDeleteI guess stuff does still get lost in the mail. Must be that wormhole over Kentucky that sucked up all of the resin, books and never produced pencils...
DeleteIf these items (Type S Scout/Courier, Beowulf, Gazelle and etc.) were kickstarter rewards and "limited editions," they should not be showing up anywhere (no stores, no NK not T&Tnot even a website) until backers have their products in hand.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSays the piece of shit who never paid me for the CGI work I did. You know I have complete proof. Whats your excuse for that one? You are laughably pathetic Ken. You've failed at pretty much everything youve tried to do, graphic design, video production etc.etc. because you suck at all of it. So since your little dreams didnt work out you've been taking a crack at being a petty criminal, ripping the very people off who befriend you and invest their trust and money in you. Youre classless failure man through and through lol. Its only a matter of time until you realize how bad youve fucked up.
DeletePerhaps Ken you can turn over the film to someone who can finish it properly.
DeleteOne look at the Kickstarter comments for this project shows multiple people complaining, within the last 2 weeks, about not getting their ships. Your comment here is just a lie.
DeleteOddly enough, Chuck that is a question Ken refuses to answer.
ReplyDeleteWow, Marcus King is a big a piece of shit as is Ken? Who could have guessed based on his comments in the James Mathe FB thread?
ReplyDeleteMarcus today has been replying to the thread for the image.
ReplyDelete1) That is NOT Troll & Toad .. that is an image from his own game store.
2) He has not sold any of those ships.
3) He JUST LIKE AARON from NKG did not realize that these were related to undelivered KS items
4) He just found out about the issue and is emailing parties to find out more info.
So I realize it is easy to get upset with the items going on with Ken. Marcus explains in detail why he has defended Ken in the past and based on my life history I can understand fully his position. When it comes to these ships ... Marcus is a victim in this just like NKG was. I'm hoping the blog writer could correct the statement about Troll & Toad above as they really had nothing to do with this.
Hi. My name is Marcus King. Evidently, someone who has never met me has determined I am a bag of shit. Nice.
ReplyDeleteAnyway:
A friend I don't know if I have ever met (but we have been online chatroom friends since before MySpace was a thing) by the name of Spike Jones asked me if it were true I had Traveller Kickstarter products from a friend of mine (Ken Whitman) that I was trying to sell. He said he had read disparaging remarks about me for this.
Let me clear things up a bit:
1. Ken Whitman is my friend.
2. Ken Whitman has earned this status by many things – but most notably by checking in on me one day when I was contemplating suicide. I consider Ken Whitman to have literally saved my life.
3. YOUR opinion of MY friend does not dissuade me a bit. Neither does your experience with my friend. If you think that is wrong, tell me – does MY experience with my friend change YOUR opinion? No? Well, same thing here, chuckles. You got issues with Ken, okay. I don't. Okay?
A few months ago Ken sold me some stuff. That isn't unusual, as this has happened multiple times a year for many, many years. 12-15 years. Not really sure how long we've been friends. To name drop a bit: I have purchased collections or part of collections from Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Will Niebling, Jolly Blackburn, Marc Miller and many others. In this recent purchase I bought a few rare items. A card game called GROO still in shrinkwrap. Some D&D and other RPG books he owned. A huge box of dice, and some other trinkets. One of the trinkets for example was an Elvis painting on Black Velvet. It was a very mised bag. There was also a box of traveller ships. I think I paid $5 per ship. I have sold -0-, but – that is what I fully intended to do. I am a retailer. I buy things, and resell them at a profit. What I do recall is I paid $540 to Ken for the entire shebang of stuff he brought me. And, I was told the ships were prototypes, not finished product. And, many were broken, and not one had any landing gear to hold them up on the table. This was before GenCon earlier this year.
Alarmed that I may have stepped into a shit puddle, I have spoken to my friend, Spike Jones, and then to Jolly Blackburn, and now trying to reach Marc Miller on this to see if anyone knows what to do with these figures. It is not really Jolly or Marc's place to have to deal with any of this. Nor is it mine. But, I try to be a fair guy.
If your rage toward Ken Whitman spills over onto me: I can live with that. And, I can live with that thanks to my friend Ken checking on me during a very bleak time in my life while I sat with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and my grandfathers .38 in the other. The phone call I got from him that night from Ken is the reason I am here.
So, if you think I will say a disparaging thing about Ken Whitman – you really don't know me at all.
To be clear: Troll and Toad did not buy the ships, I did. Troll and Toad does not own the ships, I do.
And, I am working with Marc Miller to find their rightful homes if possible.
Marcus King
Big piece of shit.
Steven Trustrum, are you in the habit, sir, of calling someone a piece of shit based on no personal experience previously? And, did you ever have any working association with Ken? Or, are you just a sycophant trying to impress someone with your talk?
ReplyDeleteAn online friend of mine since before MySpace was a thing by the name of Spike Jones asked me if it were true I had Traveller Kickstarter products from a friend of mine (Ken Whitman) that I was trying to sell. He said he had read disparaging remarks about me for this.
Let me clear things up a bit:
1. Ken Whitman is my friend.
2. Ken Whitman has earned this status by many things – but most notably by checking in on me one day when I was contemplating suicide. I consider Ken Whitman to have literally saved my life.
3. YOUR opinion of MY friend does not dissuade me a bit. Neither does your experience with my friend. If you think that is wrong, tell me – does MY experience with my friend change YOUR opinion? No? Well, same thing here, chuckles. You got issues with Ken, okay. I don't. Okay?
A few months ago Ken sold me some stuff. That isn't unusual, as this has happened multiple times a year for many, many years. 12-15 years. Not really sure how long we've been friends. To name drop a bit: I have purchased collections or part of collections from Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Will Niebling, Jolly Blackburn, Marc Miller and many others. In this recent purchase I bought a few rare items. A card game called GROO still in shrinkwrap. Some D&D and other RPG books he owned. A huge box of dice, and some other trinkets. One of the trinkets for example was an Elvis painting on Black Velvet. It was a very mised bag. There was also a box of traveller ships. I think I paid $5 per ship. I have sold -0-, but – that is what I fully intended to do. I am a retailer. I buy things, and resell them at a profit. What I do recall is I paid $540 to Ken for the entire shebang of stuff he brought me. And, I was told the ships were prototypes, not finished product. And, many were broken, and not one had any landing gear to hold them up on the table. This was before GenCon earlier this year.
Alarmed that I may have stepped into a shit puddle, I have spoken to my friend, Spike Jones, and then to Jolly Blackburn, and now trying to reach Marc Miller on this to see if anyone knows what to do with these figures. It is not really Jolly or Marc's place to have to deal with any of this. Nor is it mine. But, I try to be a fair guy.
If your rage toward Ken Whitman spills over onto me: I can live with that. And, I can live with that thanks to my friend Ken checking on me during a very bleak time in my life while I sat with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and my grandfathers .38 in the other. The phone call I got from him that night from Ken is the reason I am here.
So, if you think I will say a disparaging thing about Ken Whitman – you really don't know me at all.
I am currently conversing with Marc Miller in an attempt to get these miniatures into his hands to fulfill Kickstarter stuff as he see's fit. My cost on the miniatures about $200. I have already informed Marc I don't need money for them, since they are - in my opinion - his merchandise to start with, to do with as he chooses, if he wants them.
Yeah. Marcus King is a big ol turd, right?