Two Mad Weeks and a new Postage Image

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Gavin Syme

Self Gratifying…only a bit!

Two weeks ago I posted about an offer that 15mm.co.uk was putting on that would give free postage on all orders for any address in the whole world. That would be on an order for anything or any number of orders too…which as it turned out was just as well! I am knackered and rather sweaty from the extra effort!

What a fortnight it has been for the company. It turned out that thanks to email campaigns, website promotion, blogging posts and word of mouth that not only was order volume up by a large degree but we also sold items from every single range we have including codes so odd that we do not keep them in regular stock. Customers placed two, three, four orders across a week or more and we had orders from half the nations of the world. Most of the orders were as normal from UK, Europe and North America but there were a whole load from Australia and New Zealand (as I had predicted). While it will be another week until all the orders placed are sent out I think we dealt really well and the majority of orders went out in our normal two day turnaround right up to the start of this week when the strain started to show. Even so that is still a fast turnaround and as one email said ‘dear 15mm.co.uk I live in Illinois and my order from you in the UK arrived before my order on the same day from a company in this state!‘.

I do not yet know if economically it made sense to make this promotion as numbers are still to be crunched but in sheer number of orders it can be concluded that wargamers love getting free postage more than any one single promotion on a range or a percentage discount on product codes across the website. If it did make business sense and I think it might well turn out to have then we may make this offer again during the festive season.

As an aside there were several emails and one phone call that I took during the offer that asked if we took credit cards (we do) and if we charged different postage rates normally by world region (we do not). This set me thinking that perhaps the existing postage image on the header of 15mm.co.uk might be out of date or a little confusing so donning my virtual design hat I put together a new one. You can see it above. It is bright, clear and easy to understand conveying the idea of postage and telling of the flat worldwide rate. Below it are the standard icons for Paypal and all the major credit cards. We will see if it makes a difference.

GBS

Free Postage – The Quest of all Wargamers?

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Gavin Syme

Does this image make Wargamers Happy?

At the end of this week 15mm.co.uk will be acting on input from a large group of wargamers all over the world who have been asking, cajoling, begging and so on for a ‘free shipping’ promotion on the website. All of these messages basically came as feedback to our two months of ‘one week offers’ which while on the website were mainly distributed through Mailchimp as HTML emails. This offer was suggested on almost all of the messages that came back to me. Based on this I have been thinking that perhaps ‘free shipping’ is the number one wish for wargamers, especially those far from the UK such as in Australia and New Zealand, even though 15mm.co.uk has the same basic postage rate for all regions.

As everyone knows I like to aid wargamers where possible so it will be interesting to see what reaction 15mm.co.uk has to this offer. Will it increase order volume, will it mean more orders from far flung places or will wargamers not take to the this offer preferring a deal such as those on certain miniatures or ranges as I have been organising through Mailchimp.

If you are reading this and have an opinion on this offer then please do comment or email me directly.

GBS

Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Gavin Syme

I thought I would try a micro posting, so here we go. Today while working I have had one track on You Tube on repeat and that track is the excellent ‘Anything Could Happen’ by Ellie Goulding. This ethereal track is new and well worth a listen. It makes me smile as so often now popular music is the same rubbish over and over but this is more like what I normally listen to (big fan of the Psych Rock of the 1960’s) and it is catchy as hell. So the link is below to the video…give it a try. Am I right or wrong that this is a top track?

GBS

Odeon Cinema – Epic Fail!

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Gavin Syme

Can’t see this properly. Annoying ain’t it.

I had planned on seeing Resident Evil 5 at the Odeon Cinema in Kilmarnock on Saturday late afternoon. But it was not to be. After an enjoyable morning in Wigton at the book festival (more on this in a later posting) I drove the sizeable distance from Girvan and bought to tickets. You might remember from my two previous film reviews at the cinema that it was this venue I travelled to for Total Recall (1st September 2012) and Dredd 3D (9th September 2012) that there were problems with the showing of each film. While I mentioned it (and blamed it on Eve Hallow!) for Total Recall where the screen went blank and the sound cut out I did not mention that the first five minutes of Dredd were out of focus leading me to miss the overfly of the city and its environs. Well this time is was far worse.

My good lady and I sat waiting for the Undead carnage to begin and sure enough the sound started and then..no picture. Ruddy Nora says me to the lady, three times in a row that is something. Anyway twenty minutes later the six people trying to fix it gave up and the film was cancelled. Being the only screen showing the film it was completely cancelled with no further showings. After then standing in a que I was given a refund and two free tickets to any showing for the next four weeks. I will not be taking this up personally as work commitments mean no cinny trips for me in October but it does mean that my eldest ‘The Thinker’ can go with his mother to see Paranorman next week. So some good from it does come.

My point being that I accept technical failure in this day and age but I do have trouble with staff members having no clue as to how their projectors actually work and being unable to do anything about it except stand about slack jawed. Three failures of varying degree for my personally across a month must mean that Odeon Kilmarnock has a big issue with its staff and or screens. I hope they work it out before it really comes back to kick them in the ass.

Besides who needs cinema when you have wargaming!

GBS

‘Scratchers’ why would you do that to yourself?

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Gavin Syme

Botched Tatoo in Fife by a ‘Scratcher’

An idle muse from you all. Last night on the Scottish News I saw an article on ‘scratchers’. A Scratcher is a person who does tattoo’s on the cheap (or sometimes not so cheap) but who does not have the training and or skill to do a professional and safe job. From the risks of poisoning to unsterilised needles and conditions less than sanitary. Now I personally am not all that keen on ‘self drawing’ but my good lady and a number of my friend have ‘ink’ on them so it is something I have thought about.

Why would a person get something permanent drawn onto their skin by someone who cannot prove their track record or their skill or their qualifications? It seems madness to me to do that just to save a sum of money and put yourself at risk of disease including Hepatitis B and C. Once again the behaviour of people makes me question the rationality of their actions. Be safe and if you cannot afford the work then wait until you can…it could be your very life that is at risk.

The article I saw concerned the rise of this in Fife and featured six or so images of botched and infected work. A web search will show you many more.

Those interested can visit the STV News website for more.

GBS

Roadway Rock and Deer

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Gavin Syme

Roads and Hazards

The end of another busy week is upon me so its time for a little muse about life and this time its about driving and the roads here in not so sunny Girvan. A few of you will know already that I had a very nearly bad accident in the middle of the week but no one yet knows of what happened only a couple of hours ago. Let me fill you in.

Back on Tuesday I was puttering back home in the car along the some of the same roads I usually drive. These roads are on the whole winding country roads with many little hazards such as blind corners, steep hills, tight bends, missing verges and the occasional insane tourist standing in the apex taking pictures for the folks back home. On the whole this is ok as I know the roads and drive with care but on Tuesday as I listen to some Peter Green (upcoming music posting) there was a flash of red and then a bullet like crack before a splash of blood and broken bones shot across my wind shield. I did not see what I had hit as it jumped out of the forested verge and its head connected with my wing mirror. After stopping (I was in the car on my own) I collected myself and after stopping went to investigate. It was not a person…. I had hit a Deer. Deer are common around here but I have not see many. It had been killed instantly, its head obliterated by the wing mirror. The car was not damaged at all aside from marks on the mirror. I think myself fortunate for this as if it had been a fraction of a second earlier then it could have been through the wind shield or worse. The poor animal and I met by fluke chance at that precise moment.

Today as I drove home…on the same road…another event took place. Not as dramatic but potentially more dangerous. The road in question is prone to weather related debris and this time as I rounded a bend I saw something in the road. Small items like branches you drive around, likewise little rocks. But this was a ruddy great rock sitting in the middle of the lane. It had rolled down from the slope next to the road. I could not in all good conscience just leave it there. So I stopped and put all of my warning lights on; then went to move it. So in the rain and mud I sized it up. It must have weighed more than 70lbs and it took some effort to lift. I pushed it down the opposite slope into the river. Despite being muddy and wet and the risk of being hit by a mad courier driver or big rig loaded with timber I feel I did the right thing. A bit of stone that size, in the dark, is invisible, and could easily cause a fatal crash. If I had heard of this later, having done nothing, it would have been heavy on my mind.

So there you go. It ain’t all just wargaming and such for me. Sometimes adventure awaits!

GBS

Big Man Japan (2007)

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Gavin Syme

This is not one of my normal reviews of a Japanese movie or anime. Oh, no. This is something far worse that I subjected myself to this weekend and kind of regretted it aside from a couple of moments of real genius in film making. But hey, for a fifty pence download I gave it a Sunday morning go. What I am talking about…Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Japanese mockumentary send-up of monster movies: Big Man Japan!

The Japanese are a unique people with a real passion for the creative arts but they sometimes create things which to a non Japanese (even someone like me who has studied that nation for years) comes across as utterly surreal. Big Man Japan follows Matsumoto’s Masaru Daisato, an unassuming, sad man living in a Japanese slum. His wife has left him, taking his daughter away, and he is despised by the people of Japan. Why? Because he carries on the tradition of his forefathers as a protector of the country. Unfortunately, this involved being zapped with electricity and growing into a giant man in small shorts who fights odd monsters who attack the country. These monsters are nothing like Godzilla and are in fact downright weird including a head atop a leg, a monster that throws eyeballs, a white and black rubber band man monster who has a comb over hair cut and many more. The film cuts back and forth between fight scenes (highlight of the film) and Daisato and his dull as dishwater, crappy life. The pace of the movie is all over the place and it is badly let down the by overly long and badly done ending tribute to Ultraman fight which as well as being shockingly shoddy is overly long and too violent to be funny (at least to me). The film ends with a conversation over dinner between monsters and Big Man…well no idea there.

Below are a couple of You Tube links. Be warned this is not for kiddies (due to its lack of sanity) but they will give you an idea of what this is about. The first one is the trailer, the second one is one of the weirder fights with the rubber band comb over monster.

You can get the film from Amazon for a few pounds in the UK.

Lastly the moment of genius…what is it? Well just before they blast Daisato with electricity in a Hammer Horror esq sort of way he stands inside a vast pair of underpants which he then grows into! Only in Japan would you see that. He might be mad and crude and weird..but he can’t be butt naked!

Watch it or don’t…but if you understand it..let me know. 🙂

GBS

Eurovision 2012 – My Prediction

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Gavin Syme

It is that time again that makes me realise another year has passed like lightening (very much like the annual London Salute wargame show does), Eurovision is to be held this Saturday!

For those who do not live in Europe or if you do those of you who live under a rock and manage to miss this event each spring Eurovision is a talent show of massive proportions where a musical act from every nation in ‘Europe’ (the definition is rather loose with Russia and Israel taking part for example) takes part and then all the nations vote for a winner. The semi finals are underway now to whittle down the acts to the final group that will sing live in Baku 2012 this weekend.

I LOVE Eurovision and watch it every year but its not for the music. It is for the little party I have in the house and for guessing the winner and for laughing out loud at some of the frankly sublime and crazy acts from every corner of the continent and beyond. I have done this since the mid nineteen nineties and each year I sit up late for the telecast votes to come in. This time we in the UK are represented by musical legend and super heavy weight Engelbert Humperdink. You can see our entry from him below.

So my prediction for this year? Good fun, good laughs, a lot of not so good tunes and the winner…well unless there is a major upset it will be yet another Eastern European state courtesy of the ‘perhaps we should all block vote for each other’ mantra. Chances of it being the UK or any Western European nation…slim indeed.

GBS

Gavin Syme

The online residence of wargame creator and writer Gavin Syme

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