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DeepCard wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 10:29 pm Is there any the lazy guide with this deck?
What's happen ? can anyone ELI5

Alex Chin, the main guy behind P52 Nazo Nazo project, gone MIA, and hasn’t been heard off ever since. With him disappearing, backers who haven’t got their rewards up till now are furious, and Jack Penny ended up getting the negative impact. Now, Jack offered solution for those who haven't got their rewards to simply resolve the matters themselves by asking to contact Eddie in GW personally.

Not sure what is happening with Alex Chin. I, and we all, hope nothing ill happened to him, but as Adam said and I second to it, started to lose sympathy, considering… probably most of us here has PO’d the NPCCD 2022 had yet to get and it is 2 years late.

laitostarr777 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2024 8:49 am

DeepCard wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 10:29 pm Is there any the lazy guide with this deck?
What's happen ? can anyone ELI5

Alex Chin, the main guy behind P52 Nazo Nazo project, gone MIA, and hasn’t been heard off ever since. With him disappearing, backers who haven’t got their rewards up till now are furious, and Jack Penny ended up getting the negative impact. Now, Jack offered solution for those who haven't got their rewards to simply resolve the matters themselves by asking to contact Eddie in GW personally.

Not sure what is happening with Alex Chin. I, and we all, hope nothing ill happened to him, but as Adam said and I second to it, started to lose sympathy, considering… probably most of us here has PO’d the NPCCD 2022 had yet to get and it is 2 years late.

Thank you for explaining, and I don’t disagree. Only I’d like to add that for me, it’s somewhat of a rock and hard place. If there is one, I would consider myself the ‘main guy’ behind the Nazo Nazo. It’s literally my world. But all management was taken over by Alex in our arrangement. Is the main guy behind Odd Fellow Lorenzo or Alex Chin? But I understand and appreciate the delineation you are making to separate accountability!

But you had no way of knowing that Alex would "disappear". Before this, I would have said if there was one person in the playing card community that would be a reliable collaborator, it would have been Alex.

Its funny JBP should mention the odd fellows as I still never received replacements for all the damaged ones that arrived. Alex said GW had them and he would send out replacements and then never heard back all these years.

Thank you so much to Jack (and Sherm!) for going above and beyond to help those of us who had issues with our rewards!

Thanks to Jack's help, I finally received (most of) my pledge last week from Gambler's warehouse - after coughing up for shipping expenses.

Unfortunately, I'm among those who lost out on the Night Garden Deck that I added on to my pledge, because they apparently ran out of stock at GW. Does anyone know the story behind that? Did Alex just not produce enough of those? Were there a bunch of damaged decks? Or is there a cache of these just sitting around somewhere besides GW?

I think I bought them all

I can hook you up should they be otherwise unavailable - I have 8 or so, so I am sure I can spare one or two

th4mo wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2024 2:42 pm Unfortunately, I'm among those who lost out on the Night Garden Deck that I added on to my pledge, because they apparently ran out of stock at GW. Does anyone know the story behind that? Did Alex just not produce enough of those? Were there a bunch of damaged decks? Or is there a cache of these just sitting around somewhere besides GW?

Well, all 3 Night Garden decks I got in my pledge were damaged. I lost hope of a replacement very quickly. I'm glad Jack was able to go above and beyond to set things right with you!

Nice to also see Gandalf is able to supply one from his vault in the mountains.

GandalfPC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2024 3:04 pm I think I bought them all

I can hook you up should they be otherwise unavailable - I have 8 or so, so I am sure I can spare one or two

If you're selling one, I'd happily take one from your secret vault of treasures.

PM me - I have a few things I need to mail so the timing is good

GandalfPC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2024 3:04 pm I think I bought them all

I can hook you up should they be otherwise unavailable - I have 8 or so, so I am sure I can spare one or two

That is very generous, thank you! PM sent. I've just learned that Jack himself is also being shorted on the Night Garden deck, as he has yet to receive any of his own product from GW. Perhaps he can have the deck you would otherwise offer to me, if you only want to part with one.

Gosh there are so many nice people in this community

Thank you so very much everyone here that’s bringing understanding and positivity to a project so close to me but so marred by many things out of my control. I truly am trying hard to help anyone that I can, and whilst GW aren’t making it easy, they are facilitating some steps forward for most.

I’d be happy to explain the Night Garden situation to the best of my knowledge. So, just before Alex last and ultimately disappeared, I heard from him of some issues that he claimed to be actively pursuing and I expected to get updates soon on. One was that Expert hadn’t printed one of the uncut sheet sets. Another was that somewhere between Expert and Gamblers one box seemed to have gone missing - and they weren’t sure what was in it. It MAY have been the more limited Night Garden (there is no way of me knowing). It seems Eddie is collecting shipping fees and sending decks out without telling anyone this, and when they check and ask about the missing Night Garden, the response is just ‘it’s out of stock’.

As a result, despite having created it myself and bought my own inventory, as far as I’m aware I’m also not getting a single Night Garden piece. (I’m still unsure if Eddie is going to release any of my other inventory to me at all, it’s an ongoing uphill struggle, but the Night Garden seems to be out of stock for all, including me). This is not to complain, only to explain. I am not asking for anything, only sharing what I know.

I’m very pleased that most who were remaining are now getting most of their missing pieces. Whilst I don’t want to forget the Nazo Nazo in the least, I really hope to make it a positive memory and look to the story ahead.

kevork wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2024 3:13 pm Nice to also see Gandalf is able to supply one from his vault in the mountains.

Good thing his name is Gandalf, and not Smaug

JackBrutusPenny:

Based upon what I read here, you are very much a class act. I sincerely appreciate your continued participation here at UC and in our community at large.

Salut!

Finally some light at the end of the tunnel for the ill-fated P52 Nazo Nazo decks! Jack has paid out of his own pocket to get his personal inventory of the Nazo decks shipped to Japan from GW. It's been a long and costly journey for Jack to get what was due to him, but minus the limited Night Garden as mentioned earlier.

For the backers who weren't updated, Jack had some sent to SoCal for the US backers to get the decks with lower shipping a few days ago, but those sold out in a flash.

He now has received his stock in Japan and released it on his webstore. Go get them while you still can. 100 decks for the regular, 50 for the suite of 3 decks. Backers can write to him to see how to sort out your missing decks where possible.

Full details here with direct link to his store in the update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/po ... f=activity

He's not just a class act, but now the shining star, A++ role model of the entire school in my books.

I don't understand this situation. From this last post it sounds like nazo nazo was a project that went unfulfilled due to whatever issues but now he has received a small amount of the decks and is now selling them. Is that correct? Seems off so I must be missing some important information.

JazzBaloo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 14, 2025 9:28 am I don't understand this situation. From this last post it sounds like nazo nazo was a project that went unfulfilled due to whatever issues but now he has received a small amount of the decks and is now selling them. Is that correct? Seems off so I must be missing some important information.

That's not correct. P52 (Alex) was in charge of all fulfillment for the campaign. Alex disappeared leaving some backers in limbo and Jack didn't have the authority with GW to sort out the issues. He has now sorted all of that out and received the actual production from the campaign.

To add to that, Jack hadn't made any money or been paid for his work on the campaign. Alex received everything. Jack was going to get stock to sell on his site as payment. He also until now, hadn't received any personal copies of the decks. So he had nothing at all to show for over a year of designing the artwork. As for the campaign backers, most had been fulfilled before Alex disappeared.

Working full time for a year to design the deck? I guess it was working on it periodically throughout a year and 2 or more decks that aren't designed exactly the same? Kudos to Jack for fixing things.

JazzBaloo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 14, 2025 12:07 pm Working full time for a year to design the deck? I guess it was working on it periodically throughout a year and 2 or more decks that aren't designed exactly the same? Kudos to Jack for fixing things.

His artwork is very intricate and detailed. Much more so than any other deck creator I'm aware of. So it's time consuming as heck. I'm assuming this is a side job for him also, otherwise he'd be really screwed by his main income being 0 for a year because of Alex's abandonment.

If I recall from his patreon, he's an English teacher. So this is his side job.

I appreciate his contributions. Saying you worked on something for a year when it's an hour or 2 a day or every second day or maybe you only do on weekends....is disingenuous and misleading imo. Now that critique is for the action, not the person, so please no big hub bub.

Hi all,

Hope everyone is okay. Since I try to always be as responsive, open and honest as I can, I welcome anyone to message me anytime if they have questions about my work and creations. I was by no means loitering, but someone did decide to message me directly and asked me about this because a discussion was going on.

I'm happy to share my work-life. I am a senior teacher at a private school. I train other teachers as a mentor, have (a few times) won a top teacher in Japan award (brag) and work with students from children up to helping create sales presentations for company presidents. I have been a teacher for 20 years. But in 2011 when the last great earthquake hit (the one that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster), I evacuated to England and reassessed my life. After returning and since then, I started teaching only on weekends, and I went back to school for a little before trying to become a full-time artist/writer/creator. For the last ten years or so, I have been a full-time artist and creator. Monday to Friday I illustrate. I would say that I work 8 hours a day (sometimes less, sometimes more), but my lifestyle is odd. For example, I started work at 2:30am today because I couldn't sleep. But I feel the art still does not quite support me financially/with stability. So, for the last decade I have been a full-time artist, and part-time teacher.

It is always hard to calculate time worked for me, but for the Nazo Nazo, the process took over a year. I would say that it was the equivalent of a full-time job (8 hours a day) but that is of course divided between concept planning, research, design, dealing with people (like Alex in this case, and the 40-or-so collaborators) and more. I would go as far as to say that I personally and humbly suspect the Nazo Nazo had one of the longest focussed working hours timeline of any playing card project created (I, of course, am not trying and don't care to compare). I need to teach because otherwise, you are correct, I could not afford to live. So, actually (shared with a few people close to me in this community over the months of the Nazo Nazo campaign) I went into debt on the Nazo Nazo (I had to borrow money from family to cover mortgage and living costs until I was able to pay them back post campaign). Having no income until so much later was actually an ongoing tense discussion with Alex behind-the-scenes. I continue to teach to have the assurance of making the monthly payments, and my projects bring in the once or twice a year income that helps me grow and move into this career more. My goal is to quit teaching entirely, not because I want to dedicate more to this creative pursuit - I already do as much as any other - but because as it stands I work every day of the week except national holidays. My wife wants me to help her more, and I want to spend more time with my children. I take them to school, pick them up, wash and feed them, but I never get the 'play' time of weekends.

I cannot put into words, given all of the above, how useful Patreon has been as a platform for the last two years then - providing a more stable stream to help alleviating production costs and not putting expenses over my income. This is why I put so much back into that community, because they are a lifeline for me and I value it so. And it is also why customer service in campaigns is so important for me, because I know that without each backer, this isn't sustainable.

Finances aside, since people seem interested, 15 years ago or so I also worked as an actor in Japan and appeared in several J-Pop music videos, and an online Schwepp's add along-side Pierce Brosnan. I thought it was interesting, but there were too many unpleasant people in that industry, so I stopped that years ago. Still, interesting experiences.

As I say, you are always welcome to ask and are more likely to get the full story that way.

Kind regards,

Jack

Hopefully my comment was not seen as an aggressive act on you. By all accounts you seem like a great guy. Keep up the awesomeness.

JazzBaloo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 7:01 pm Hopefully my comment was not seen as an aggressive act on you. By all accounts you seem like a great guy. Keep up the awesomeness.

Hopefully all the accounts have it right. I felt no aggression - I’m just confirming how undisingenuously I try to always conduct myself! As I say, always welcome questions and communication. And hope people are able to enjoy the Nazo Nazo and can focus on the artwork and story, and not the surrounding situation out of the control of active members

If you're not already, I highly recommend Jack's Patreon!

KGthePrince wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 2:02 pm If you're not already, I highly recommend Jack's Patreon!

I like Jack's style and how he carries himself in life but none of his decks have interested me enough to purchase. I am however always on the look out for his projects to launch because I am keen to see one that suits me.

Just adding some positive vibes to this thread, with some excellent pictures from the excellent Sherman of Carat Case Creations.

And more positive vibes, with a few more photos of the cards themselves:









In a lovely Carat Case:



The panoramic artwork:

Is this considered muddy like Ark?