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November last year when I spoke to you you told me that you had not sold any more than 16 or 17 helmets. I had been paid for 15 helmets In July of the same year 3 months previous to our call helmet number 22 was posted on the black market thread. I asked you about this during our November conversation and you decided to come clean. You said you were sorry but you had not been paid for 3 months by your hairdressing salon and someone had ripped you off to the sum of £2000 plus you had only sold 1 storm trooper set that year. I also asked you whether you had sold any stand alone domes and you said 1 had been sold. I did not make any demands at that time and you offered to pay a small part straight away and I understood your predicament. This is where i lost trust.
Greg, as I remember it I was in the car on my way back from a work engagement and didn’t have my book with me with the list of sales. I did get the number wrong. I also as you say apologised for that. But this was a hobby and I didn’t run it as a business. Something we also discussed at the time and I said I’d try and get on top of it.
I’m sorry that’s where you lost trust. It was never my intention to mislead you. I have emails to also back this up.
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This was not your money to keep.The whole point of the project was give my aunt a financial reward to pay off her mortgage and keep the gs vader in our family.
I was acting on her best interests. Initially the helmet was to be sold to pay off her final mortgage payments and enable her to give up her job at the ripe old age of 72 and to ease her pagets disease.
I was never privy to any of this information and is news to me. All I was told was that you were giving your aunt the money as the helmet was her late husbands. At no point was her mortgage or illness mentioned. Not that it makes it right I owed you a bit of commission but again I said I would always pay you.I never KEPT IT. I can’t be held responsible for your aunts mortgage payments. Your aunt could sell the original helmet if she "needs" the money. After all you told me the helmet was stuffed in a cardboard box on top of you aunts wardrobe. This doesn't sound like a treasured family heirloom. After extensive conversations with various people in the prop community who advised you on the true worth of the helmet you still think its worth the high 5 to 6 figures? even though every helmet like this has not sold for more than $12,000. I am sorry to break it to you but this is not a screen used helmet and thus value is dictated by previous sales of similar helmets.
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So in relation to the helmet sales I had one small part payment in 9 months and you had used £2505 of our part share for your own self. Agreed you were in a predicament but you could have sold some of the assets you possess instead
Agreed you had one payment in my difficult 9 months. Again I paid you what I could and explained that I would pay you as soon as I was back on my feet. We were still in the middle of the planned run.
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Every man has his breaking point and it was in April.
I am truly sorry for your loss and I was not aware of that when I made my decision to lean on you.The decision was made after you missed my call .
I did not think I would get any more payments and that is why I was going to take you to court. To be fair you always said I would get paid but I could be waiting years,not your words mine.
I called you back the day after I missed you call. You wouldn’t answer my call because you are to busy for a conversation.
I then immediately texted you with a complete update to my situation and you said you were sorry to hear that but we’re not willing to wait any longer. Then the court threats and sending a third party to get my moulds started. I said I was back in the workshop and you were my only priority to pay what little in the grand scheme of things I owed you. Not forgetting I had paid you “ a share of the profits” as you put it from the very first helmet we had sold even though we were far from any profit yet. You have received £10,000 from me.
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I also loaned you a film production helmet of c-3po for you to mould and did not expect or ask for any sort of financial reward.
Of which I humbly thanked you for. I had intentions of paying you for that too but you said not to worry. Again I thanked you for that.
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Over the past month I have made demands and you have paid me.
The one regarding you sending the "as is " moulds was not met by you. I agreed to forfeit any claims but you did not send the complete moulds. You could have told me at the time you were not sending the fibreglass jackets but you withheld them from me. You tell me now that the jackets are universal but were made initially for the "as is" vader.
I was going to have a play around with moulding myself for fun but never for sale or for anyone else. You see I have the original helmet to mould if i want.
Greg, I was always going to pay you. That is evident in all correspondence we had together. There was no need for court threats. I told you I was back in the workshop and you would be paid off shortly. This was after you refused to wait for me to sell my parents house and pay you everything in one hit. I saw no need to sell my personal artefacts.
Of course the jacket had been initially made to fit the “As is” Vader but they were always going to fit all the versions I was to make. This was our plan from the start. I only just told you because again you started changing terms of or settlement because you didn’t get what you assumed you would. In a full and final settlement you cannot assume anything.
You keep saying I didn’t meet the agreement of sending you the complete moulds. Again if you read all the emails we had I only ever said I would send you the production silicone moulds. The jackets are universal and were when you asked for them after realising that the production silicone moulds were just that. We don’t mould like most people. We worked in the film industry and my mate who owns the company that I pay to do my moulding and casting perfected a moulding process called cavity moulding. Which means as long as the shapes are similar we can use the jackets on all our different versions of the Darth Vader helmet.
Again part of our agreement if I was to front all costs of this project was that I would own all rights to all moulds. And that includes all versions. Again this was very clear from the start. I would never have agreed to do the work had this not been agreed. But again because you did not get what you assumed even though I was very clear on what I would send you you have changed the terms of our agreement. You cannot do this.
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The ending of the email that was posted by me was added by me as a question to you as to how this got to be so bitter. I did not space it correctly.
As for the audio files. I have had a 3rd party app on my phone for about 4 years now. It is called ACR and can be downloaded for free at the google play store. I use it for reference and not to secretly record anyone. It automatically backs up all conversations business or pleasure . I am not totally sure of the legal side as to posting it in public but I had the understanding it could be used in court if it was required.I shall seek some proper advice. However if you agree I can make it public with your consent.
It got bitter because you were not willing to wait for me to pay you.
Greg, you had absolutely no financial input into this venture. I paid for everything. All you did was not have your uncles helmet for 2 weeks whilst it was being moulded. Which you received back in exactly the same condition it was given. Whilst you were receiving money I had not heard from you in nearly a year. But that was alright because money was rolling in. Now because I fell on bad times I am being a terrible person because we haven't talked much. We never did talk much. My way of updating people to my personal situation is through my CFO Facebook page. You knew this. I have been very transparent to all my unfortunate events on there. But you said you don’t go on Facebook. That’s not my decision. Yes I could have personally updated you more. I admit that, but you knew as I had told you that updates would be on my page. But again when you contacted me I said I thought I’d have had myself sorted by the time you did. Unfortunately I hadn’t. Again we discussed this and I apologised.
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I do not have a personal crusade.
I am not pursuing you for any more money.
Then why do you keep mentioning £5500 that I don’t owe you? This is what you assumed you would earn from my versions. Again we discussed this and I offered a courtesy payment of £100 of each sale of my ROTJ version. Now I am only making the ROTJ version at this time. The ANH and ESB are twinkles in my eye. So why you think you are entitled to those being that we have never discussed an agreement to these I’m not sure?
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I am requesting that you do not recast or rework anything to do with the gs vader.
I have agreed not to cast and sell the “As is” GS Vader. I never agreed not to do the ANH or ESB helmets. Again this is something you have decided against since not receiving the jackets you assumed you would.. This was already agreed from the get go. Even in our full and final settlement you said:
“ The present Trilogy series you are working on belongs to you with no future liability or obligation to me whatsoever.“So because you did not receive what you assumed you have changed the terms of agreement. After the fact. This was after you accepted the cash and moulds as full and final settlement. You can’t keep changing your mind. You threaten me with legal action yet I’m am supposed to bow over everytime you change your mind. I have paid you every penny I owe you and sent you my silicone moulds that I paid for.
I did not need to send you my moulds but as I gave you my word I wouldn’t cast and sell any more I saw no need to retain the silicone moulds.
I’ve said it before. We would not be in this situation had you not threatened me. You would be receiving payments for years to come to “ Pay your aunts mortgage” but instead this is where we are. I am sorry it has come to this. My life is on the up now. I’m back in the workshop, I’ve paid my only debt off, you. My parents house will be going on the market soon and my money worries are over. Had you been slightly more sympathetic to my situation we would both be benefiting from this.
Sad to say you weren’t willing to wait.