by 
Jasen Hicks, founder of Jasen's Customs and creator of the Panzer arcade fight stick range, has revealed that a manufacturing error has placed the future of his business in doubt.
Hicks, whose fight stick business dates back to 2012, explained on social media that the aluminium cases for the Panzer SLAB – an "all button" fight stick that costs $450 – had been machined incorrectly due to human error.
"After years of design work, the Panzer SLAB had finally reached production-ready status," explains Hicks. "The PCBs were programmed, the bottom pads had arrived, the screens fit, the wiring harnesses were built, the Brook Gen5X boards were ready to solder, and Angelica — my trusted assembly partner — was on hand to help get the first units out the door. Then I started building one."
Hicks reveals that, upon inserting the AUX buttons, "they sat flush with the case rather than rising above it." He initially assumed he had simply sent the machine shop the wrong file, but it turned out that "every dimension that matters is offset by 5mm," and that a small change he had made between the prototype and the final production case had resulted in "a cascading effect I missed before I committed to manufacturing."
"The mistake is mine alone, not the machine shop's," he admits. "Because each case is machined from a single block of aluminium, none of them can be salvaged or reworked. Every SLAB case in inventory has to be remade from scratch. The cost of that error is roughly $15,000."
As you can imagine, that's quite a blow to a small-scale manufacturer like Hicks, and he's very open about the fact that, while he's already working towards fixing this issue, his mistake could threaten the future of Jasen's Customs:
"I'm not going to soften what that means for a business with margins like mine. Combined with several years of softening demand for high-end fight sticks, this is the kind of loss that genuinely threatens whether Jasen's Customs can continue. I'm not ready to make that decision yet, and I don't want to make it in the heat of the moment — but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't on the table."
Hicks has paused pre-orders on the SLAB and is already reworking the case design. "Once the corrected design is verified, every existing SLAB pre-order goes into production. After those orders are fulfilled, I'm not yet sure whether I'll continue producing the SLAB at all."
He adds that anyone who has pre-ordered a SLAB and doesn't want to endure the extended wait can ask for a full refund. "That simply reduces the remake count by one. If you choose to wait, you have my word: you will receive your SLAB."
In the meantime, Hicks is asking his customers to share their experience with one of his sticks, in the hope that it will generate additional revenue and help get the business back to where it needs to be. "The single thing that gives this business a real chance of weathering this is renewed interest from the community that built it alongside me."
He's also running a sweepstake to win a "one-of-five prototype Panzer SLAB with custom art by BigRainbow and help keep the doors open." You can choose to pay $5 for the ticket and support Hicks, or enter for free – both options come with the same chance of winning.