TenForward

Convention service crossroad

The TenForward Foundation exists as a loveletter to the passion and joy found at conventions. Our universal mission is to provide services to events that would enrich the experience of visitors, be that when buying new merch, learning about collecting or diving into new hobbies within the scene. Join us on our mission to work with visitors and event runners both to make sure everyone gets the most out of their event visits.

Fake is Sad

No one wants to accidentally buy a counterfeit when they thought they were getting the real deal. Since 2005 Fake is Sad has labored to make convention dealer halls a better experience for everyone.

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We do Gunpla

There is joy in creating and there is even more joy in sharing that hobby with like-minded people. WeDoGunpla aims to connect GunPla, Garage kit and miniature painting fans as well as creating an easy entry point for anyone interested in trying those out.

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About us

The TenForward foundation was founded some twenty years ago after a chance encounter between our two founding members. Both saw the rising amount of faulty product getting sold at conventions, plushies stuffed with rubbish, figures who's eyes were on either side of their head, ripped games in homemade boxes. They sat down together and agreed on one core thing: There's problems we can't fix, but we can at least start trying. With that mindset, they created TenForward and set up its first mission, FakeIsSad.Back then, aside from a passionate individual here or there, there was no one to go to when it came to figuring out if the products available at events were the real deal. You had either already educated yourself or knew the corners of the internet to scour for details to cross reference. Today there's new problems and challenges. Info is more readily available but the truth is mixed with clickbait, hidden in some chat server you're not in or just straight up paywalled. The stream of new types of counterfeit hasn't exactly calmed down either, especially with the tremendous growth of online shopping platforms, 3D printing and the rising challenges of AI.FakeIsSad is entirely voluenteer run, we're passionate fans, creators and veterans of the scene. Together we aim to share our knowledge, help out event runners and consumers alike. This mission is not about eradicating the problem. We'd love that! But for now we'd rather focus on making sure that at least at events you can rest assured you're getting the actual product you paid for.
Reality is that, even though we'll support anyone, this mission isn't really about the collector who already knows what to look out for. It's about the friends trying to get you a gift, about parents buying something for their kids, about getting yourself a little treat and not finding out later you got a dud.
FakeIsSad exists to make sure a cool event isn't soured by a sad realization once you're back home.Our second mission came much later and is also a lot more lighthearted. Over the years it came to light we, a bunch of nerds with a passion for merchandise and convention culture, might in fact also share a love for building model kits. That including very detailed little machines better known as GunPla. While they're a long standing product available at most comic- and anime events, there wasn't many groups organizing events around the model kit building hobby nor were there many avenues to dip your toe into what it all meant without making a serious investment in tools and kits. The WeDoGunpla project was created on the desire to gather fellow fans of the hobby as well as to create an easy avenue to check out what it all entails.
Providing a space at the events we bring the project to, WeDoGunpla is here to share the fun of model kit building.

Get in contact

[email protected]

Anti Piracy at Events

The uphill battle we'll keep fighting.

The FakeIsSad project exists as a service to event holders, vendors and visitors as a means to address and improve what is being sold at the given events. We are a team of volunteers with over ten years of experience in the eb and flow of counterfeit. The topic is an ever evolving issue, there are always new methods and forms of piracy entering the market and we strive to keep on top of it as much as humanly possible. As of recent we’ve taken note of the developments of AI as well and the unique hurdles it creates. We labor to introduce education and prevention of its sales at the events we service.
FakeIsSad exists not as a means to create any permanent changes in the industry. We would like for that, but we are a small team and the problem we target is vast. Instead, we focus on at least creating a temporary clean space over the course of the events we service. The goal is to have a fair market in places where the target audience is already limited by options. We cannot prevent everything but we hope to provide the assurance people can go home with products that are safe to use, enjoy and consume.

Our procedure

FakeIsSad functions as a consultancy though we’re quite a bit more physically hands-on with our procedure. Our volunteers are present at the events we work for and we take and in depth look at the products sold in vendor spaces. FakeIsSad provides documentation and analysis of both real and counterfeit products sold, giving event holders a means to be on top of what is actually brought into their space.