Completed MJOLNIR: The minimalistic – but not boring – 9.7L Case

[smallfx]

That's amazing! Functionality and design aside, the Raw S1 seems to be much better value compared to the Mjolnir given that it is manufactured in Sweden and offered at the same price.

I'm not sure about the quality of their newer models, but the quality control on their S1 case was really bad. Worst $270 (or whatever it was at the time) I ever spent. Luckily I dumped it on eBay for a small profit, but that case was a huge let down. They did a pretty good job of misleading people with the units they used for photos, as the quality seemed really good, but it was far from reality when the cases actually landed.

I remember being in the group chat and sharing my photos and some people saying they had similar issues, while others claim their case is perfect. Then you would ask them to upload some photos of their perfect case and you would see a lot of the same flaws in their case, they just don't care as much, or they just didn't have the eye for small detail.

Mine had a side panel that would scrape the rails because it was tighter on one side than the other, and I would get small metal shaving from the grinding. My top mesh panel was warped, I had two different tones of silver on my front panel, the metal bends were hugely inconsistent, the gaps on the panels were all crooked, there were small white scrapes on the edges of panels, the threaded screw holes didn't all line up so you would get screws that didn't sit flush and would go in crooked/strip the holes, etc. Here are some photos:


I'm really hoping the MJOLNIR lives up to all the hype about their quality control and tolerances because the QC on the Ghost was embarrassing. I'll never buy another case from them.

 

[wolfatpno]

I'm not sure about the quality of their newer models, but the quality control on their S1 case was really bad. Worst $270 (or whatever it was at the time) I ever spent. Luckily I dumped it on eBay for a small profit, but that case was a huge let down. They did a pretty good job of misleading people with the units they used for photos, as the quality seemed really good, but it was far from reality when the cases actually landed.

I remember being in the group chat and sharing my photos and some people saying they had similar issues, while others claim their case is perfect. Then you would ask them to upload some photos of their perfect case and you would see a lot of the same flaws in their case, they just don't care as much, or they just didn't have the eye for small detail.

Mine had a side panel that would scrape the rails because it was tighter on one side than the other, and I would get small metal shaving from the grinding. My top mesh panel was warped, I had two different tones of silver on my front panel, the metal bends were hugely inconsistent, the gaps on the panels were all crooked, there were small white scrapes on the edges of panels, the threaded screw holes didn't all line up so you would get screws that didn't sit flush and would go in crooked/strip the holes, etc. Here are some photos:


I'm really hoping the MJOLNIR lives up to all the hype about their quality control and tolerances because the QC on the Ghost was embarrassing. I'll never buy another case from them.

Yeah. And when the defective panels were replaced, the colors were different.

Those who purchased the first batch had to pay for the defective product.

I felt like a lab mouse. My case is still two-tone.

 

[keepcoding]

Well that's really bad, let's hope Mjolnir will be much better!

 

[Phaerim]

Mjolnir is thicker and has really an outer and inside body so it might be better on this side as one piece are rarely on default, it is usually the interaction between two or more pieces that can bring problem such as the one you presented above.
Let's hope for the best and best of luck everyone that are looking for a GC (it sure make the wait for the Mjolnir more easy if we want one positive point)

 

[For_Science]

Since we are almost coming up to the 1 year delay mark from the original Kickstarter estimated delivery date, here is a summary of things that are supposed to be happening this week, how long the team thought it would take, how long it actually took, and my forecasted schedule.

Anticipated progress of this week
- All stealth units and their booster cells packed
- Packing of steel and dark to commence
- Alex receives stealth QC units
- Decision of whether stealth units will be sent out prior to dark and steel colors

Recall of factory schedule vs. reality
Schedule: Workers to start work on Feb. 20th, packing to require 2-3 weeks of work (750 man hours), then shipping.
Claimed case operation rate: 200-300 cases per week

Reality: 630 units completed supposedly on April 10th (not confirmed) meaning that it took 35 working days to complete 60% of the cases
Calculated case production rate: ~100 cases per week

Conclusion: Either the factory only started assembling the stealth cases on the last week of March (i.e. it took more than a month to setup the assembly stations) or the actual case packing rate is significantly lower than claimed rates.

Projected Schedule based on current rate of progress
Dark (~300 cases) packing time: 17 working days (lets say 3 weeks)
QC Shipping of Dark: +0 days (happens during Steel packing)
Steel (~100 cases) packing time: 6 working days (lets say 1 week)
QC shipping of steel: 1 week
Potential PostNord Screwups: 1 week

My guesstimated schedule
QC confirmation and freight negotiations for stealth to take whole of this week
If positive, the stealth cases start getting shipped out next week (a good marker for this is whether address confirmations happen or not)
Batch 1 backers and pre-orders for Stealth only start receiving their cases end of April/Beginning of May

Dark and Steel to be packed, QCed, and greenlighted optimistically last week of May
These orders start getting received in Early June

The sea vs air frieght logic to me does not make sense as the only reason why ThorZone would choose sea freight would be to save money, and to do this the backers must endure potentially 4-6 weeks of additional shipping time on top of waiting for all colors to be finished since it would have to be shipped together to make sense. So it really sounds like, this should be really reserved as a last resort if you cannot complete the project without taking this route (anything else is going to be interpreted as a reflection of chasing profits) so the only way forward with respect to shipping is to either ship them by air all together (i.e. all colors) or as they are done, meaning that select backers and pre-orders will receive their case before backers.

This technically is in breach of the kickstarter campaign rewards of "receiving the case 6 months before non-backers", even ignoring the fact of 6 months clause, if somebody who pre-ordered (non-backer) a single stealth Mjolnir S gets their case before (potentially by a month or more?) somebody who backed Mjolnir Duo tier through kickstarter, I think they really need a sincere apology and explanation as to why their contribution and patience is being taken advantage of despite them having waited longer, and technically promised an earlier receiving of the case. At this point I don't know if anybody is seriously considering writing a serious review of the case, but the timeliness of the review article would be hampered if you didn't order a single color that happens to be stealth.

 

[N9neBreak3r]

Since we are almost coming up to the 1 year delay mark from the original Kickstarter estimated delivery date, here is a summary of things that are supposed to be happening this week, how long the team thought it would take, how long it actually took, and my forecasted schedule.

Anticipated progress of this week
- All stealth units and their booster cells packed
- Packing of steel and dark to commence
- Alex receives stealth QC units
- Decision of whether stealth units will be sent out prior to dark and steel colors

Recall of factory schedule vs. reality
Schedule: Workers to start work on Feb. 20th, packing to require 2-3 weeks of work (750 man hours), then shipping.
Claimed case operation rate: 200-300 cases per week

Reality: 630 units completed supposedly on April 10th (not confirmed) meaning that it took 35 working days to complete 60% of the cases
Calculated case production rate: ~100 cases per week

Conclusion: Either the factory only started assembling the stealth cases on the last week of March (i.e. it took more than a month to setup the assembly stations) or the actual case packing rate is significantly lower than claimed rates.

Projected Schedule based on current rate of progress
Dark (~300 cases) packing time: 17 working days (lets say 3 weeks)
QC Shipping of Dark: +0 days (happens during Steel packing)
Steel (~100 cases) packing time: 6 working days (lets say 1 week)
QC shipping of steel: 1 week
Potential PostNord Screwups: 1 week

My guesstimated schedule
QC confirmation and freight negotiations for stealth to take whole of this week
If positive, the stealth cases start getting shipped out next week (a good marker for this is whether address confirmations happen or not)
Batch 1 backers and pre-orders for Stealth only start receiving their cases end of April/Beginning of May

Dark and Steel to be packed, QCed, and greenlighted optimistically last week of May
These orders start getting received in Early June

The sea vs air frieght logic to me does not make sense as the only reason why ThorZone would choose sea freight would be to save money, and to do this the backers must endure potentially 4-6 weeks of additional shipping time on top of waiting for all colors to be finished since it would have to be shipped together to make sense. So it really sounds like, this should be really reserved as a last resort if you cannot complete the project without taking this route (anything else is going to be interpreted as a reflection of chasing profits) so the only way forward with respect to shipping is to either ship them by air all together (i.e. all colors) or as they are done, meaning that select backers and pre-orders will receive their case before backers.

This technically is in breach of the kickstarter campaign rewards of "receiving the case 6 months before non-backers", even ignoring the fact of 6 months clause, if somebody who pre-ordered (non-backer) a single stealth Mjolnir S gets their case before (potentially by a month or more?) somebody who backed Mjolnir Duo tier through kickstarter, I think they really need a sincere apology and explanation as to why their contribution and patience is being taken advantage of despite them having waited longer, and technically promised an earlier receiving of the case. At this point I don't know if anybody is seriously considering writing a serious review of the case, but the timeliness of the review article would be hampered if you didn't order a single color that happens to be stealth.

I do not believe dark or steel have even been anodized yet. I posed this question to @AlexTzone over a week ago and he still hasn't replied. In my opinion, dark won't even START to be anodized until optimistically next week if stealth is completed and packaged completely by then. Steel won't even START to be anodized until probably the end of May or early June. So sad news for anyone who bought dark or steel (I got dark ) cause those cases won't be shipped till probably June/July. @AlexTzone please give me EVIDENCE to the contrary, or tell me that is the case so I and others can stop being crushed when deadlines set by you are passed and not met.

Love your editorial @For_Science !!

 

[For_Science]

I do not believe dark or steel have even been anodized yet. I posed this question to @AlexTzone over a week ago and he still hasn't replied. In my opinion, dark won't even START to be anodized until optimistically next week if stealth is completed and packaged completely by then. Steel won't even START to be anodized until probably the end of May or early June. So sad news for anyone who bought dark or steel (I got dark ) cause those cases won't be shipped till probably June/July. @AlexTzone please give me EVIDENCE to the contrary, or tell me that is the case so I and others can stop being crushed when deadlines set by you are passed and not met.

Love your editorial @For_Science !!

I am going to guess that the anodizing probably has already happened as in this update link we can tell that at least the baths were setup and operational for the three colors, and they had to built custom hangers for the shell and panels. Given that the hangers were used for the stealth, and that the same hangers were used for the other colors I would have thought the others would have happened already. My interpretation of the extra "care" needed about the dark is more of a QC issue than a methodological issue, steel probably requires the least QC as its pretty much just the raw material color (I guess?).

Of course a picture says a thousand words, so we can only wait for a picture of a row of dark and steel shells to feel comfortable that these units are ready for assembly.

 

[AlexTzone]

I can't reply to everything right now since we're doing lots of stuff ATM (picking up QC models, writing the address-update stuff, etc). But Dark and Steel anodizing started a long time ago, I think its finished now and they'll start assembling them this week. All stealth units are totally finished.

 

[mxlllw]

Yes it is, if you live in Shenzhen you can pick it up yourself haha (and we'll refund you the shipping cost)

Thank you. Unfortunately, I live in Beijing. If I were in Shenzhen, I might be the first customer in the world to get the product.

 

[AlexTzone]

OMFG, the production units are absolutely F*CKING INSANE!!! I don’t understand how something can be that much better that the pre-production units I showed you during the livestream, but literally everything has been perfected. Finished the address-update site & snapped a bunch of photos, time to start writing a new Kickstarter update as well as the email for all backers (with a link to the shipping address site).

IMO we’ve far surpassed the Ghost (yes I’ve owned one lol) in terms of surface finish in the pre-production units, but this is on another level still!

Don’t want to start celebrating before everybody gets their cases, but we’re so happy now!!

 

[robojim]

There's this myth that manufacturing in China is inferior. It's only inferior if you got for a low cost manufacturer but there's a lot of high end manufacturing in China. I mean the iphone and Apple laptops are all made there. High end knives and keyboard parts are made there. If anything, being made in Sweden adds unnecessary cost IMO because you don't have the right setup/tooling to go for the highest quality.

 

[Acen]

These are great news my friend ! Hope the dark finish will be that great

 

[keepcoding]

OMFG, the production units are absolutely F*CKING INSANE!!! I don’t understand how something can be that much better that the pre-production units I showed you during the livestream, but literally everything has been perfected. Finished the address-update site & snapped a bunch of photos, time to start writing a new Kickstarter update as well as the email for all backers (with a link to the shipping address site).

IMO we’ve far surpassed the Ghost in terms of surface finish in the pre-production units (yes I owned one lol), but this is on another level still!

Don’t want to start celebrating before everybody gets their cases, but we’re so happy now!!

Great to hear! However, I have a feeling that your review units might have been handpicked (golden samples)

 

[AlexTzone]

Great to hear! However, I have a feeling that your review units might have been handpicked (golden samples)

The reason why it's less likely is because we asked them to send cases that were missing some parts, i.e. we didn't have enough parts to complete them 100% after assembling all customer-units. The factory most likely thought these were to be discarded since they were incomplete, but last week we asked them to send them to us (which they did the next morning, while we asked them at midnight Chinese time that same day).

So 3 reasons:
1. 99% complete (still incomplete) units were most likely though of as discards
2. They didn't have much time to open the packages and replace the cases (at max 1-2 hours)
3. They can't easily replace those unique-incomplete cases (makes point 2 even harder to do within the timespan they managed to ship them)

 

[jm8080]

That is some big brain move you did right there

 

[AlexTzone]

Everyone from Batch 1 and the original Kickstarter, we've sent out an email to you regarding your shipping address. Please make sure to check your spam folders and update/confirm your address ASAP You can log in here - UPDATE/CONFIRM ADDRESS.

 

[Ovni]

Why do you need a phone number?

 

[For_Science]

Why do you need a phone number?

couriers normally need a contact number

 

[Ovni]

Well in Fryslân they don't. Every thing is done by track&trace and email ....
And if I am not at home, the postman just puts the parcel under the overhanging roof in the back yard.

 

[AlexTzone]

Well in Fryslân they don't. Every thing is done by track&trace and email ....
And if I am not at home, the postman just puts the parcel under the overhanging roof in the back yard.

We’re going with either DHL or UPS for air and they require a phone number, so please add one