IMPORTANT STATEMENT REGARDING KATYesterday started so well with the TC episode and the great feedback from the community, but ended in the worst possible way. I wanted to react immediately in my GH thread, but decided to at least sleep on it and think about how to approach this before writing anything in anger. There is a right way, and a wrong way. The wrong way would be to not react at all and pretend everything is fine and cash in on your purchases and move on to the next project. I feel I can't do that, and at this point I am questioning the whole project.
Photos started surfacing from a recently delivered KAT set yesterday evening and what I saw was less than pleasing to put it mildly. Horrifying is maybe a better word. Legends are poorly aligned, and the caps are of the wrong size, or the stems might be positioned wrong. This causes some caps to be very close, and I am hearing they are even touching sometimes and in other cases just create a lot of weird gaps and uneven row endings.
I want to make it very clear:
This is not that specific set designers fault. So please do not attack him. This is a QC issue and a mold issue.
Fact is that I had noticed the issue with the caps before, and contacted the manufactorer about it. They said it was the first time they heard of such a thing but agreed that I was correct and something was indeed wrong. They are looking at the issue, at least that was what was promised to me. But wether any changes will be made is yet to be seen and as long as I am the only one complaining then it's a hard battle since it is so expensive to replace the molds. They have been nothing but great to me in our correspondence so far and listen to my feedback. I am not attacking them either but we have issues and I think they need to be dealt with for KAT to be great.
Misalignment issues can be solved. It's a human error but it also means each set will be delivered with a drum roll that either falls flat on its face or come out as intended. I don't like that variable and I think we need to aim for consistency and better QC. For KAT Refined specifically I have zero margins for errors.
Next stepsI can not push for this alone, and I hope by now other designers of current sets in IC's or sets that are about to be produced will heave heard about this and will push for a change. If not, you are a part of the problem and you can't point fingers once your sets have been delivered and your buyers are angry/unhappy.
For KAT Refined my immediate reaction was to abort the whole project but after sleeping on it I want to help (with your help) fix the issues, but I might put it on hold while it happens. I simply can't let this happen to my set and I hope other designers feel the same way. If there is no change, there will be no Refined.
To be continued....
Edit: as more and more people get their sets we'll see if this is a widespread issue or not. Also I don't have it in my hands so just judging from what owners are saying and their photos.
