Michael T Appling (trooperbay AKA MTK) is a recaster and it is a very very sad story of a betrayal ....
TE2 Tony Sagun "gunz" purchased the molds of TE (trooper Expert) TE was getting out of the business and Tony renamed his armor TE2 . the "2" stood for 2nd or next generation (paying homage)
Tony paid a lot of money for the molds and rights (20 thousand dollars) plus in the deal paid for Matt G (TE) and his daughter to be flown out to Hawaii for a vacation....
Tony starting making TK armor
Mike and Tony became good friends.. Mike Appling was doing doing decal for helmets and "buying" TE2 helmets putting them together and selling and Tony trying to help Mike by offering Mike's decals to all and Mikes services to build their TE2 helmet (Mike $150 each)
Mike lost his job . The same company that Mike was able to print the decals from....
To help Mike out so he could have money flow.... Tony was GIVING Mike helmet kits (free) helping a friend .
About little over a year into making TE2, Tony's wife got sick and was not able to work and had to have treatment . Tony stopped making armor/trooping to take care of her an their children.
Side note Mike had been making recast of AP armor and selling it as VT armor on Ebay ( One of the FISD staff member caught Mike red handed)
Mike was selling the TE2 helmets that Tony had freely given him at a higher price (demand was up because of Tony not making any) The FISD staff noticed that Mike was having a loooot of TE2 lids more than we thought Tony would have given him... Started watching Mike..... Mike then popped up in the FISD and said he was starting a new line of helmets "MTK" and they were off of the older maker called "CAP" , CAP was a making long ago and told members they did not care if you recast his stuff....
But believe it or not each maker armor have tells (fingerprints) and TK fans/prop guys know and can tell you which is what etc...
The second Mike posted pix of his "new TK helmet" 10 different members jumped on it stating that is not from Caps helmet that is TE/TE2!!! Mike finally admitted that his new helmet was cast off of TE2.... and his armor as well.
The sad part is the betrayal of Mike to Tony especially while Tony was trying to help Mike when Mike was out of work....Mike doing this to Tony while Tony's wife was very very sick (evil soul if Mike has one). Tony is a great guy and would never believed or done this to Mike or anyone...
Mike has been known for hijacking Threads to sell his Trooperbay wears... like when some would ask "what is the best glue to use for holding the rubber trim for helmets" . Ez to reply any superglue or CA glue (walmart, hobby shops, even dollar stores) Mike would come in a state only this brand of glue and give the link to his site...(which the glue he was selling it the same at any hobby shop but he up charges) to someone new they would take his word if he was the first to post the reply....
The "T" Mike's middle name, we all feel it is "Thief"
Michael T Appling
So mike is a recaster and not a dude the FISD likes to see anyone deal with.... Mike is a thief and stabbed his good friend on the back and stole basically 20 thousand dollars of Tonys to make a buck.........
Trey Ramsey wrote:I've heard some stuff about MTK being a recaster is that true? I really like the shape of his helmets.
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