Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I now own a complete farm of die cutting machines: Spellbinders' Grand Calibur Teal (my second one...the first one broke almost immediately), Spellbinders' Platinum (an early Christmas present), the Sizzix Big Shot and the Sizzix Big Shot Plus. I'm not bragging...I'm just constantly looking for the ONE machine that will do everything. I haven't found it yet, and the Spellbinders Platinum certainly falls to the bottom of the list because it will do hardly ANYTHING. To be perfectly fair, my machine came with only the small acrylic cutting plates, which, as with all acrylic cutting plates, don't last terribly long. I had to pay an extra $20 to order the big plates. I asked Spellbinders why the machine only came with the small plates and the answer was, "Most people only use the smaller dies." So why was Spellbinders so willing to sell us all those Grand dies? The truth, of course, is that the extras that would make this a real die cutting machine haven't arrived from China yet. The second thing that bothers me about the Platinum machine is the wiggly platform on the bottom. It's a little too small for the machine and doesn't stay put. And while the machine folds up, you're still left with the platform to store. But that's a minor problem. I'm at a complete loss as to how to emboss my enormous collection of embossing folders in the Platinum machine. Of course I can't emboss ANY A4 folders because I don't have the big plates (and I'm not sure that even when I get them I'll be able to emboss the A4 folders) and I can't emboss ANY of the Spellbinders 3D folders because they haven't produced their 3D embossing plate yet. But then there's my collection of Sizzix, Cuttlebug, Taylored, and all those European and Australian companies that turn out such pretty embossing folders. I can't get most of these little folders to emboss and as yet, I have not received an answer as to how to do it. Spellbinders' customer service takes days to respond and they seem to have a template of canned answers with "Did that help?" at the end. And usually they're no help at all. The big hype with this new machine is that it can be used with steel-ruled dies. Ho hum. After producing so many beautiful, detailed wafer-thin dies, do we really care if we can cut six clunky-looking birds out of felt AT ONE TIME with a steel-rule die? And speaking of cutting, I might be a less unhappy about the Platinum machine if it actually cut wafer-thin dies with ease and it doesn't. Last night I pulled out my most difficult die. This is the one I use to test any new machine, and if this die even makes a dent in the paper after I've run it through, there's hope. The Big Shot and the Big Shot Plus will cut it, but it takes about 20 trips through the machine. I've actually spoken to the company that makes this die and while they offer a few suggestions, like shimming it with Fun Foam, it's nearly impossible to cut this die. The Platinum machine merely made a few dents in the paper. It didn't cut after 12 trips through the machine, so I gave up. However the Platinum machine doesn't even do particularly well with Spellbinders own dies. It's certainly no better than the Grand Calibur or either of my Sizzix machines and many Spellbinders dies I've tried still require turning and running through the machine multiple times. Of my four die cutting machines, only two will fit on my table at one time. This is why I wanted ONE machine that did EVERYTHING. The Sizzix Big Shot Plus is a nice machine except that it won't emboss about half of my A4 embossing folders, including those by Spellbinders. And embossing anything in the Big Shot Plus requires removing one shim and replacing it with another. This isn't so terrible except the platform is huge. And the cutting plates for the Big Shot Plus are expensive (they do last well, though). The Big Shot is a small machine, but it's always been reliable and it's the only machine that will emboss Spellbinders' 3D embossing folders without shooting them into another room. The Grand Calibur is a good machine and the fact that it didn't cut steel-rule dies has never been a problem for me since I don't like them much. But these machines break...and break...and break. So I'm still waiting for the one machine that will do it all...cutting well and embossing anything I want to emboss, If you really have to have a Spellbinders Platinum Machine, (and I don't know why you would) wait for the slow boat from China to deliver all the spare parts. And don't watch their videos. They're all sales hype and no help at all.