The day after shipping: Cases (2010-09-30)

[Perry Cox]

I haven't seen this mentioned but one of the photo's on facebook shows a case with screen printing:


printed case on facebook


Does this mean the new cases will be printed?

Judging by the unfinished look of the plastic, i'd say those are old photos. Nothing to see here, move along.


Edit: Added context

 

[WolfSpider]

Judging by the unfinished look of the plastic, i'd say those are old photos. Nothing to see here, move along.


Edit: Added context

I think those photos are at least over 6 months old.

 

[Ian J]

I was assuming that as all the other photo's had gone up recently they were all taken at the same time.

 

[Coldbird]

Looks sweet.


Sadly I guess the pink case isn't up for grabbing... I've asked EvilDragon before...

 

[hosant]

So, if im readying correctly, shipping will resume by the end of October?

 

[Caine]

So, if im readying correctly, shipping will resume by the end of October?

I wouldn't count on it. The nubs still have to be fixed, tested, mass produced, transferred, soldered and shipped to the team before assembly can restart and units can ship.


End of October is the optimistic estimate right now and so far that has never been right. I'll still be pleasantly surprised if they ship before December.

 

[may88]

What ever happened to the Pink Case?

 

[EvilDragon]

What ever happened to the Pink Case?

We don't know. I guess it's still lying around in the Chinese factory.

 

[DaMummy]

based on the work ive done at a plastic mold injection company, its as simple as pie to change the color of the plastic, why is it so difficult for them to sell us more then one color case?

 

[sverm]

Quantities. They have to have a minimum number of orders of the same before they even think of firing up the machines.

We don't know. I guess it's still lying around in the Chinese factory.

Watch ebay in about 6 months.

 

[Wintersdark]

based on the work ive done at a plastic mold injection company, its as simple as pie to change the color of the plastic, why is it so difficult for them to sell us more then one color case?

It's simple, but still a time investment in the colour change process. They'd easily be able to make short run quantities of other colours, but with make-ready costs added in they'd have to charge significantly more on a per-unit basis to recoup the additional costs.


To be fair, I do plastics extrusion work. I'm aware of how injection molding works, but I haven't done it personally.


For us, changing the colour of our product incurs approximately a 1.5hr delay as the old coloured plastic is fully purged from the die and the new colour takes it's place. It's trivially easy to do - flick a switch, swap the coloured plastic in the hoppers, switch the flip back, but it's still 1.5 hours.


So, that's 1.5 hours of production time my company needs to pay for - that price is added in to the product cost.


When you order a product, you're already paying for a chunk of set up time which is factored into the cost. The actual production cost of the product outside of the set up time is ridiculously small, and the set up time is a fixed cost irregardless of quantity. Thus why you get bulk discounts - the costs which scale upwards with production are comparatively small.

 

[emcee]

What difference does it make what color plastic they use if they all have to be painted anyway?

 

[Wintersdark]

What difference does it make what color plastic they use if they all have to be painted anyway?

You want the plastic colour to generally match the paint colour, or else wear spots will look really, really bad.


I'd forgotten that the Pandy was painted, though - the iCP, for example, is not.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

And now we can finally offer Pandora cases + parts for sale.

Does "parts" mean that we could purchase a few spare key mats and the rubbery-springy pad things for under the face buttons, d-pad, & L&R buttons, etc. (perhaps an additional a/v cable as well)?

 

[emcee]

You want the plastic colour to generally match the paint colour, or else wear spots will look really, really bad.

This is a good point, but I really just meant that's there's more to it than just changing the plastic.


I actually painted mine, but I have plenty of paint left over for future touch ups.

 

[Tickles]

This is a good point, but I really just meant that's there's more to it than just changing the plastic.


I actually painted mine, but I have plenty of paint left over for future touch ups.

Pictures please

 

[emcee]

Pictures please

It's in Germany right now (ED's replacing the LCD cable), but I'll be sure post a couple pictures when I get it back.

 

[sverm]

It's in Germany right now (ED's replacing the LCD cable), but I'll be sure post a couple pictures when I get it back.

I look forward to seeing those too!

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Will there be any completely transparent cases?

 

[DaMummy]

from the plastic injection mold ive done, a color change doesnt take more then 15min especially on small products like pandora case. basicially let the hoppers run low/out, add different color, have a few bad cases spit out due to no material or 2 colors mixed, and after like 10 molds AT MOST it would start spitting out same product but different color