The Full-scale prop in pristine condition
The Prop as discovered
Eric Scherer, of the Restore the Magic Group, created the GoFundMe campaign to raise the money needed, and Robert Kozul, who found Lady, has been taking care of her for the past few months. Unfortunately there has been severe issues with arose within the past couple of months and it has put the prop in danger of being disassembled and trashed. Here's the situation:
Eric Scherer lives in Orlando, Florida and as such cannot provide responsibilities for Lady as she is located in Los Angeles, California. Robert Kozul, on the other hand, is based in California, and as such, has generously taken on the responsibilities for securing the prop, relocating her to a proper storage facility and finding a restoration group or museum who would be willing to restore Lady to her former glory. As such, Kozul had been welcomed to the Restore the Magic team and promoted to Lead Team Member. So what went wrong?
Kozul explains in a series of tweets:
"Eric's plan was to move & purchase Lady the same day back in December... I warned him repeatedly as he was booking tickets "Don't come to LA right now, the Thomas Creek Fire is burning near Lady's location and it'd be a bad idea to move her in this weather" but he booked the tickets anyway. Lady was supposed to be moved to some kind of restoration facility, but after Eric had transferred ownership from the original owner to himself, he instead changed the plans to "Robert, find us a storage place to store Lady." So I did, and per CA rental laws you have to take out leases in person so I had to do so for Eric since he had flown back to Florida the day after he purchased Lady, so I essentially had become RTM's landlord for the storage space."
What had withheld Lady from being moved immediately to a restoration facility was the wildfires that had been spreading throughout California at the time, with was a devastating event. Some of us will recall the affect the wildfires had, particularly if you have in interest in the World of Disney's Railroads and have learned of the unfortunate loss of the Grizzly Flats Railroad Depot once owned by animator and Grizzly Flats owner Ward Kimball.
The Grizzly Flats Railroad Depot which was unfortunately lost to the California Wildfires of 2017.
Now Lady has been relocated to a storage facility where she is being preserved until a restoration group or nearby railroad museum volunteers to restore her. Now by legal right, Kozul has to pay for leasing the storage space for Lady during the time being and the deal was that Scherer would provide the money, as stated by Kozul in a Google Docx letter he wrote:
"I, Robert Kozul, first pay for Lady’s storage with my own private funds, and then Eric forwards me the money. This is not out of choice. Eric can not legally rent or own a storage unit in California, so he needs a California citizen, such as myself, to rent and pay for the storage unit."
Lady's full-sized prop in the process of being transported.
Unfortunately Scherer seems to have a bad habit for not taking issues seriously as the letter continues to state:
"I laid out very early on to Eric that after the first two months of 50% off storage, Lady’s storage would be $303 a month, and the fact that this month’s payment is in 12 days with no payment from Eric yet means I will yet again be paying $303 out of pocket in order to keep Lady stored in her unit.
I have been unemployed for almost 2 years and rely on Eric to hand me the payments for Lady’s storage, and considering last month it took him nearly 30 days to pay just for the prior month’s storage has given my doubt in my trust of him financially. There is no reason in this day and age why it should take so long to forward money from one account to another, and seeing as it has taken me at most 4 days to send large sums of money greater than $303 to my friends through paypal, there is no reason RTM should take a month to send $303."
"...on Sunday, February 18th,... RTM posted their $30,000 evaluation of Lady without a price breakdown. The next morning, on the 19th, an angry mob had begun to form on Discord & Twitter. Because I had been promoting their GoFundMe on the platforms most Thomas users use, mainly Twitter & Discord. Being a public listed member, everyone came rushing to me for answers they did not have, and when I brought this to Restore the Magic, they refused to answer any immediate questions, believing the community could wait until Sunday for an FAQ video. It wasn’t until larger members of the community gave some heavy vocal backlash on Facebook, where RTM operate, that they released their figures early.
Even so, they only released the figures on Facebook, despite the external community on other platforms such as Twitter & Discord, and said figure was a lump sum, not an individual price breakdown."
Secondly the figure should be a price breakdown, it helps to know what portions of the funds should go to which part of the restoration. A "lump sum" doesn't sound really like they care about the project at all. The term "lump sum" sound careless in itself; "lump" is, after all, just one letter away from "dump". Humour aside, here is the financial breakdown for Lady's restoration as of March 31st:
Custom Movie Props/Trade Show Props - $15,000-$20,000
- Manufacture of a new chassis- $1,000, replacing the wooden plates the castors are attached to with reinforced steel to prevent further bowing/degradation of the castors. The wheels will be reworked to be motor driven as opposed to chain driven to improve performance.
- Manufacture of 2x front lights - $2,000, $1,000 per light, to be remade from PVC tubing.
- Manufacture of 2x 3D lady Nameplates - $500, $250 per nameplate to be lazercut.
- Manufacture of new dome - $500 - material/methods tbd (to be determined).
- Manufacture of new funnel top - $500 - material/methods tbd, I will aide in production with parts from our own Lady 3d model on Sodor Workshops.
- Manufacture of new funnel base - $500 - materials/methods tbd.
- Manufacture of new face - $2,000 - to be made from either a styrofoam/epoxy or eurothane/epoxy material, face to be resculpted based on our own 3D model.
- Replacement of 4x castors- $500, $125 per castor wheel. A temporary frame will be constructed to hold Lady’s weight as the castors are removed.
Lady in her current storage space.
Now there has been the good fortune that museums that have been reached out in the surrounding area are willing to aid in the restoration for Lady. Kozul shares the following volunteers:
"The original plan... was to move Lady to the Pacific Southwest Museum in Campo, CA. They are 100% willing to transport, house, and restore Lady on their property, offering so much as to put her under their nonprofit in order to ensure a restoration grant, they just require they get 100% legal permission from Mattel to display, house, & restore Lady, with their only conditions being they wish to advertise her as an attraction to the museum, as well as to display her with her face as she behind the scenes & in the LA premier...
Additionally, I have spoken to the likes of Los Angeles Travel Town & Fillmore Railway for potential storage on their properties. Travel Town offered to store Lady on their premises at a reduced price, but without insurance sad to say. Fillmore, however, are willing to store Lady on their premises for free, but only after their director comes to inspect the prop at a date he determines as well as if they are given legal permission from Mattel to do so.
Lastly, I have been investigating local prop makers & carpenters to get a better evaluation for Lady. I’m hoping to lower the $30,000 evaluation in order for this project to succeed, and seeing as Lady isn’t a real train, hopefully I can get an evaluation that would more match one of a wooden prop in the shape of a train as opposed to a real engine."
Since March 31st, Kozul has since updated the progress by revealing his discussion with some professional prop examiners:
"I spoke to two different prop manufacturing companies who were more than eager to discuss the restoration of Lady’s prop with myself & the public. I spoke with two different evaluators, one from Custom Movie Props/Trade Show Props (same company, different sides specializing in different tasks) & a 2nd evaluator from Imagtivations...
...The plan is that while Lady is in LA, prior to any restoration she will be dismantled to the highest degree possible in order to ensure the easiest & most cost-efficient methods of transportation. Her parts will be split into two groups, her fiberglass, metal and other non-wood bits would be brought to the Pacific Southwest Museum in Campo, where the Custom Movie Props team would restore those parts on-site. Meanwhile, all wood that is still salvageable will be sent further south into Mexico for carpentry shops Custom Movie Props are partnered with for sanding/remanufacture, depending on the state of individual sections of construction. Once all the wood is prepared, it will be sent back to Campo, where Lady will be reassembled, back in her old colors, smiling as she had on the set of Magic Railroad.
Paul estimated that if the Mexico plan was taken into consideration, he’d need about $7,500 for his team working in America with the nonmetal bits & $7,500 for his connections in Mexico. His carpentry partners in Mexico would take about 4-7 days to sand the old parts & manufacture new ones.
After an hour between myself & Paul, he gave his evaluation & left. Andy from Imagivations arrived later.... in a phone call between Andy & myself, he estimated based on pictures of Lady I had sent the total job would take between $10,000-$15,000. After seeing Lady in person, however, Andy raised his evaluation to $20,000.
...sadly Andy didn’t deliver a plan as comprehensive as Paul’s was. He just stated that $20,000 would be a fair price for the job, and that should they be hired, Lady would be worked on at the Imagivations studio here in LA. Paul had taken an hour to discuss a comprehensive plan, Andy simply agreed with Paul’s plans, gave his estimation of $20,000 in 5 minutes, & left.
Between the companies, I am more satisfied with Paul of Custom Movie Props’ evaluation, and thank him & Andy of Imagivations greatly for taking his time to discuss in full any and all solutions to get Lady cosmetically restored to her former glory, as well as for being eager to share their bids/evaluations with the public."
So at any rate the restoration of Lady would have gone through quite well, provided that Mattel grants the aforementioned museums legal permission to restore Lady. Now, there have been some gripes within the fanbase that legal permission isn't necessary for Lady as her condition as a prop and they have made their comparisons with the models used in the television show TUGS, due to the fact that they didn't require any permission to be restored and displayed to the public. I would argue, however, that Lady is a character of the Thomas and Friends brand, a brand which is still largely active in comparison with TUGS which has been discontinued for nearly 3 decades, and even though Lady has not been seen in any line of episodes or books for some time she is still a part of the brand copyright and thusly HiT Entertainment/Mattel still have ownership over her as well as the final say on her appearances in their products. After all, she has made an appearance in Calling All Engines (which, in comparison to Thomas and the Magic Railroad, was a wasted use of her role and the film would probably be no different if she wasn't in it.)
"I spoke to two different prop manufacturing companies who were more than eager to discuss the restoration of Lady’s prop with myself & the public. I spoke with two different evaluators, one from Custom Movie Props/Trade Show Props (same company, different sides specializing in different tasks) & a 2nd evaluator from Imagtivations...
...The plan is that while Lady is in LA, prior to any restoration she will be dismantled to the highest degree possible in order to ensure the easiest & most cost-efficient methods of transportation. Her parts will be split into two groups, her fiberglass, metal and other non-wood bits would be brought to the Pacific Southwest Museum in Campo, where the Custom Movie Props team would restore those parts on-site. Meanwhile, all wood that is still salvageable will be sent further south into Mexico for carpentry shops Custom Movie Props are partnered with for sanding/remanufacture, depending on the state of individual sections of construction. Once all the wood is prepared, it will be sent back to Campo, where Lady will be reassembled, back in her old colors, smiling as she had on the set of Magic Railroad.
Paul estimated that if the Mexico plan was taken into consideration, he’d need about $7,500 for his team working in America with the nonmetal bits & $7,500 for his connections in Mexico. His carpentry partners in Mexico would take about 4-7 days to sand the old parts & manufacture new ones.
After an hour between myself & Paul, he gave his evaluation & left. Andy from Imagivations arrived later.... in a phone call between Andy & myself, he estimated based on pictures of Lady I had sent the total job would take between $10,000-$15,000. After seeing Lady in person, however, Andy raised his evaluation to $20,000.
...sadly Andy didn’t deliver a plan as comprehensive as Paul’s was. He just stated that $20,000 would be a fair price for the job, and that should they be hired, Lady would be worked on at the Imagivations studio here in LA. Paul had taken an hour to discuss a comprehensive plan, Andy simply agreed with Paul’s plans, gave his estimation of $20,000 in 5 minutes, & left.
Between the companies, I am more satisfied with Paul of Custom Movie Props’ evaluation, and thank him & Andy of Imagivations greatly for taking his time to discuss in full any and all solutions to get Lady cosmetically restored to her former glory, as well as for being eager to share their bids/evaluations with the public."
So at any rate the restoration of Lady would have gone through quite well, provided that Mattel grants the aforementioned museums legal permission to restore Lady. Now, there have been some gripes within the fanbase that legal permission isn't necessary for Lady as her condition as a prop and they have made their comparisons with the models used in the television show TUGS, due to the fact that they didn't require any permission to be restored and displayed to the public. I would argue, however, that Lady is a character of the Thomas and Friends brand, a brand which is still largely active in comparison with TUGS which has been discontinued for nearly 3 decades, and even though Lady has not been seen in any line of episodes or books for some time she is still a part of the brand copyright and thusly HiT Entertainment/Mattel still have ownership over her as well as the final say on her appearances in their products. After all, she has made an appearance in Calling All Engines (which, in comparison to Thomas and the Magic Railroad, was a wasted use of her role and the film would probably be no different if she wasn't in it.)
Unfortunately the gripes concerning legal issues has been lashed out on Kozul, which isn't very fair as he did not, and cannot, determine whether or not Lady requires legal permission, it was requested by the museums mentioned above:
"The sad fact is the Pacific Southwest Museum, as well as several other organizations I’ve spoken to, won’t take Lady in unless Mattel have granted permission for the project to succeed, and as I do not have direct communication with either them or their staff, I can’t do anything to speed that decision or bring it to some kind of timely conclusion."
"The sad fact is the Pacific Southwest Museum, as well as several other organizations I’ve spoken to, won’t take Lady in unless Mattel have granted permission for the project to succeed, and as I do not have direct communication with either them or their staff, I can’t do anything to speed that decision or bring it to some kind of timely conclusion."
And if that wasn't enough here is a tweet that Kozul posted concerning discussion for Lady's potential move to Strasburg:
This also brings an example which further demonstrates Scherer's irresponsibility in this project, by not communicating with HiT before speaking with Strasburg he essentially destroyed the chance of finding a home for Lady. Speaking of Mattel, here is the latest update concerning legal permission and it bears bad news:
"RTM have refused to talk to Mattel. They have claimed they don’t want to approach Mattel without nonprofit status as, according to them, Mattel could view them as a financial threat otherwise. My counter to this would be why would Mattel view RTM as a financial threat, and if they have already filed the nonprofit paperwork, why have they not produced proof the paperwork has been filed to Mattel, OR alternatively, now that the paperwork has been granted according to them, why have they not publicly produced the paperwork proving so?"
One of the latest attempts to get Scherer to see the situation was a Right of Reclaim sent by Kozul:
What Kozul recieved next was completely absurd:
Restore the Magic taking legal action against Kozul, and for what?!?! Taking responsibility for Lady's restoration! Frankly Scherer has proven himself to be immature and certainly unfit for this project. Even when confronted with messages from several fans and even the Sodor Island Forums he still denies that he has any fault in this and puts the blame on Kozul, after everything the latter has done in support for Lady. I myself have reached out to Restore the Magic, strongly suggesting them to reflect on their actions:
The response I got was pretty much the same: they weren't recognizing their actions and putting the blame, once again on Kozul. This has gotten to the point where the situation is becoming an impossible and intolerable one. Evidence has shown that Restore the Magic and the Lady project need to be manned by someone who is responsible, serious, and capable of tackling the goal of these projects and Scherer has failed to prove himself. In my opinion the behavior that Scherer has been acting in is at the same level as that of P.T. Boomer, the original villain who put his personal interests above anything else and had no care for Lady's situation whatsoever.
Restore the Magic is working on projects for the Thomas Fan Community and the Thomas Fan Community has pitched in to support their campaigns, so we have the right to know what is going on in full detail. Keeping information from us is irresponsible and it encourages a sense of dishonesty as we’re not getting the whole truth of the matter. It also breaks our trust of the said people as we all have hopes and expectations. Certainly my trust of the Restore the Magic Group is being strained at the moment. As this project involves the community plans for Lady should not be kept confidential. Nothing should be kept confidential unless they were part of a Top Secret Service or Restricted Facility such as Area 51.
It's ironic, shameful and disappointing that the people who are responsible for preserving and restoring everything associated with Thomas and the Magic Railroad would also be responsible for the potential destruction for the iconic engine of the story. If they are not willing to take up the responsibility for restoring Lady, then they don't deserve the responsibility.
As far as I’m concerned there are a great number of people that need to know just how reasonably responsible they are when tackling such a big undertaking. Hierarchy and pride are just two things that could disrupt potential ideas and plans and cause everything to fall apart.
We (myself, the other Thomas fans, and Kozul) are all open for and awaiting potential solutions that would bring good luck to the situation, whether it be someone who has a storage space for Lady to keep her for the time being or someone who has the finances to pay for Lady's storage rent. Whatever the solution it is needed as soon as possible because if this problem persists, Lady risks getting scrapped by May 4th. If this becomes a reality, then you'll know who to blame. Act now!
Restore the Magic contact info:
http://restorethemagic.org/index.php/contact-us/
Robert Kozul contact info:
Gmail: robert.kozul.764@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rrworkshops
Discord: rrworkshops#3154
Britt Allcroft Facebook contact:
https://www.facebook.com/BrittAllcroft/
Link to Lady's GoFundMe Campaign (Use for following links below):
https://www.gofundme.com/RTM-Restore-Lady
GoFundMe Report page: https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=contact/form&pid=2991_When_should_I_report_a_campaign
GoFundMe Refund page: http://www.gofundme.com/guarantee
