Where's Francois?

[~kaos~]

This is kinda gunna be our serious version of where's Waldo?
Let's face it ppl in todays world it's not easy to just vanish. Especially with the world wide web at hand......
I'm gunna do some seeking, anyone that wants to get in on the search just LMK. Maybe we can divi up some of the search area.

[bullschmidt2k3]

what's his full name?

[~kaos~]

I'm sure there's more to it but what I know for sure is only "Francois Louvette".
I heard he originally entered the U.S. on a visa and then married an American. It has been speculated that besides the normal reasons it also enabled him to stay in the country & made it easier to own a business (or just put it in his wifes name). So here's some things we know......
~ Name: Francois Louvette
~ Prior biz: Diamond Labs & LES Industries
~ Manufactured in Bulgaria
~ Married an American
~ Last known biz Boo-Yah
~ Last contact area was Chicago

[Have Blue]

I had always seen his last name as 'Louvet'. Last I heard he was rumored to be back in France (his home country, AFAIK - industry insiders always referred to him as 'Frenchie')

[bullschmidt2k3]

I ran his name through google and found him!





:Photosmi: :joke: Just kindding... :goofball:

[usagi_tetsu]

I did just run his name thru Google and found multiple hits... all of 'em French or Quebecois genealogy pages of people long dead. *sigh*

[bullschmidt2k3]

I really ran his name through google too...

I bet you he does turn up in a google search, but it's probably in french

[Jakesak]

http://fr.yahoo.com/
Mixed with www.freetranslations.com
should be something to look into

[bullschmidt2k3]

I ran an actual search on google and yahoo france and all I forund were forums and a couple websites saying how Francois Louvet ripped them off. One was like, mako's forum. Both of them said stuff about HaveBlue and how cool he is by geting guns back o the rightful owners and stuff...

I quit... I searched for Francois Louvet "mako" Francois Louvet "tribal" and Francois Louvet "paintball"

[Jakesak]

use everything, such as toxic toys, diamond labs, LES Industries, and even try searching Bulgria.

Also, possibly searching wedding lincences in Chi-town connected to his name.

[bullschmidt2k3]

how do you search marriage licenses?

[Jakesak]

I am sure there is a way... But not one that I know of right now. Possibly doing a search on searching marriage licenses.

[bullschmidt2k3]

I just searched for his name with pretty much everything... tribal,toxic toys, paintball, mako, boo-ya, bulgaria, and another one, but I forgot it... all I got was some geneology stuff, some chemist dude, and paintball forums saying how alot of people don't like him...

he's probably dead if I had to guess...

If I find him, so I get a bunch of free stuff?

[warpedmephisto]

http://makostorm.freehosting.net/about.html

Thats the only link I found relating to him and the history. One of us probably typed that up though...

It'll be tough tracking him down only doing free web-searches. Best bet would be one of those "find a person" places on the web, but those can get costly.

[~kaos~]

You know...... I'm kinda good friends with Jessica Sparks (& Dan) over at APG. Maybe when we go to D-Day this year I'll try to pitch an angle for a story on the "resurrection" of the Tribal and the ppl behind it (the TRIBE/TOG). Maybe we can get 'ol Francois to contact us ;)

[bullschmidt2k3]

that'd be crazy if he just kinda showed up and started posting here...

[Jakesak]

it is the fucking internet for gods sake. You can find anything within 10 min. if you were trying hard enough. What I would do is break into steps:
1. Find his wifes name,
2. Search using the french translations of the words,
3. Look for something like 411 search but for france,
4. Use it,
5. Send an email to a paintball store in france and ask!

What we should do here is create a time table. How old is he? When did he first arrive to the US? When did he get married? that way you have a time you can ask when contacting people.

[bullschmidt2k3]

I thought he was from bulgaria...

[vaypourus]

He outsourced production to Bulgaria to keep costs down.

[maggy]

Hi,

I received this email from this guy a while back. I think it may be from Francois himself, or maybe not. The origin was definetly in France. email him if you want to.
.................................................. .........................................
Hi , I just happen to find your website while looking for something
else.....
You dont need to know too much about me except that i ve been in the
paintabll business for the past ten years , decided to retire and knows Mr
Francois Louvet for a long time.....We ve been business partner ......At my
own risk I would say.
I read the 2 posts on your website and even though they have something a
truth inside, 99 % of it is complete BS.....F.L is more than ever involved
in the paintball business today and he s currently dealing with lots of
Major paintball Gurus....
Feel free to answer me if you r e interested, Fat Angel [fatangel911@hotmail.com]
.................................................. ................................................

[warpedmephisto]

And the plot thickens... Have you replied to him?

[bullschmidt2k3]

when did you get this email? did you reply?

[maggy]

I got the email about 6 months ago. I only rplied to thank him. I didn't ask for any details

[bullschmidt2k3]

email him back! ask if there is a way you could contact francois!


either that, or we could all pool out money together and hire a private I...

[shiftycastro]

well i have contacted this fatangel911 and got a response and the email contains the following...........



Welll....How can I say ....The tribals were never intended to work on a
field ...they were just nice looking moeny makers to get finance for bigger
projects ....It was never intended to last or to be performing as a real hi
class marker .....






get rich quick scheme....at least the man had balls to come out and say it.

i will be forwarding this email i recieved to certain people ...... you know who you are

[shiftycastro]

sent to like 8 people ......so you should be seeing the original email and my response

[~kaos~]

Nice work Troy!!

[vaypourus]

Interesting....

[usagi_tetsu]

Welll....How can I say ....The tribals were never intended to work on a
field ...they were just nice looking moeny makers to get finance for bigger
projects ....It was never intended to last or to be performing as a real hi
class marker .....

*huh* Guess we're proving 'em wrong on that one: high performance and still going strong thru our members' efforts.

[bullschmidt2k3]

So, did you ask him if he knew how to get in contact with Francois?

[XtraBoy]

KK always seemed a bit... Oh i dont know... just.........french to me...

[Jakesak]

Towards shifty-**Sniff sniff** :cry:

Oh and, towards XtraBoy- Oh SNAP!!!

[~kaos~]

KK always seemed a bit... Oh i dont know... just.........french to me...
What the hell is that supposed to mean?? Maybe french fries...... if you're talking ancestory I'm Scot/Portugeese/Cherokee:2thumbup:

As for our friend fatangel911 I'm a little skecptical at this point. I sent him an e-mail extending him a welcome to the TOG. However I also asked him if he would answer a few questions that I knew Francois would know the answers to. It's been a few days without reply...... I will keep ppl posted.

[Edwin]

I too sent him an email telling him what we are trying to do for Tribal Owners, and pointed him to our forum also. Futhermore, I asked if he knew if Tribal Documentation was still around and if we could get our hands on it/them.

[vaypourus]

I too sent him an email telling him what we are trying to do for Tribal Owners, and pointed him to our forum also. Futhermore, I asked if he knew if Tribal Documentation was still around and if we could get our hands on it/them.

That would be pretty cool.....maybe he still has some stuff lying around that we could buy or accept as a gift. Promotional stuff and whatnot he might not need/want.

[Edwin]

Sorry Man , I m not the one you re looking for ...i used to be in the PB business long time ago, but I gave up on this shitty world ....
Enjoy your Tribal and good luck with it ...

Please dont spread my e-mail on your T.O.G , I dont have any more connections what so ever with the PB world...

I recieved the above reply from Fat Angel. I don't know what to say! Shifty's email sound like he was in the "know" with the business plan of Toxic Toys, and now he makes it sound like he was just in the industry..... ....don't know what to say, but he did ask no to spread his email.

[bullschmidt2k3]

lol, you put his email up anyway...

did you ask if he knew how to get in contact with contact with francois/someone that might know?

[shiftycastro]

well he blamed for having all the "sherlock holmes" of the tribe having his email.

if he looked at the first page he would see ,..... maggy gave it to us. i just told you i got a response from him.

[Edwin]

lol, you put his email up anyway...


Ummm, I did??? I don't believe I put his email address anywhere.

I did reply to him to let him know that I didn't share his email with anyone, but it was previously given out before I contacted him. I didn't mention who gave it out as I didn't recall the person at the time.

I did ask for contacts just like bullschmidt mentioned. I also told him I was interested in buying design information.

[bullschmidt2k3]

oh, my bad I read that wrong, I thought he meant he didn't want you telling us what he said in your email conversation. I'm retarded sometimes...

[WARPED1]

I know this is a mad old thread, but Frenchie still ows alot of people money(stores that ordered Tribals to sell, he took money then vanished).
MAKO was after his attempt to return after BooYahh.

[Edwin]

Yep that is the general consensus. He took all the loot and ran!!!

[WARPED1]

He made Tribals, came back with a Spyder clone(I forget the name, HaveBlue had one), then Diamond Labs to BooYahh, finishing up with MAKO.(I wonder if MOKAL is him?)

[~kaos~]

The clone you refer to was the URBAN. And i believe his latest biz venture is/was "3A" (barrels, etc).

[WARPED1]

3A? Are they gone already?

[Theguy]

3a was the company that put out subpar HPA tanks with the Anime chicks on them.

[WARPED1]

I know who 3A is, I had no idea Frenchie might be involved.

[teps75]

http://www.societe.com/cgi-bin/recherche?rncs=441086162

[~kaos~]

SWEEEEET! Nice work teps75.......:horsie:

[bullschmidt2k3]

I don't under stand french at all... All I got out of that was his name. Anyone know what it means?

[WARPED1]

I don't under stand french at all... All I got out of that was his name. Anyone know what it means?
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

[usagi_tetsu]

Without going into all the details via Babelfish, it's a directory listing of his business, 3A. Their phone #'s, fax lines, office hours, owner of the business (Louvet Fracois) - that sort of thing. So, if any of us lived in France, we could show up where this page points us (which is like a Better Business Bureau listing) and get turned away by his receptionist. If there's even an office still there.

[WARPED1]

Someone should call thier. Whoever can speak french.

[Theguy]

Just use a translator, to find out what to initially say when you call.

I wonder just how long of a distance my Free Long Distanct is good for. Thank you cell phone.

[Edwin]

Just call and get all the old Tribal Drawings.

[WARPED1]

Just call and get all the old Tribal Drawings.
I bet he'd demand a buttload of money or a percentage of all sales. He's a scumbag..................

[Edwin]

Another 3A info link (http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=AvPfi4eooBSvNEEDe4.F5R1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2Mzl 0bXAxBGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANER lg1XzMw/SIG=123napeh2/EXP=1133895223/**http%3a//www.achat-lyon.com/ann32326-3A-SPORT.htm)

[~kaos~]

No need to know how to speak french, Francois speaks english.
I can give you one sure fire way to get him on the phone..... tell them you OWN a paintball business and are very interested in using him as one of your major suppliers. The beauty about conducting biz online or over the phone is nobody knows how big or how small your biz is. Talk it up big and you'll get to speak with ol Francois himself....

[WARPED1]

I think it's cool you guys probably found Frenchy, but why would you call him? Just to get his hopes up then crush his dreams? Like he did to us.................... hey, good idea.

[Edwin]

The only reason I am interested in speaking with him (not like I am going to call), is to find out/obtain tribal information/documents.

[bullschmidt2k3]

you should call him edwin, I'm sure he'd talk to you since you "technically" own a paintball business and want to expand on his ideas...

[WARPED1]

you should call him edwin,
Why would he call him Edwin? His names Francois. :TooFunny:

[Justin88]

:dodgy: lol....

[WARPED1]

BTW, I knew what bullsmidt2k3 meant, I was just being goofy.

[Skwid]

Okay, guys...does anyone care to play 'catch-up' with me? Obviously, I am new here. I stumbled onto this thread, and had to read the whole thing. But I am still a little confused on a couple of things, such as: Who the hell is Francois, and who the hell is Mako? What is the story behind these guys and Tribal?

[WARPED1]

Fransoi started Toxic Toys which made the Tribal line, then he took off with peoples money, but he returned later as BooYahh(the egrip people), then MAKO. Among others.