"And deeper the crowd went into the BLUE HELL...."
First off, 5 new pins (6 if you count that MISSING ID has a blue and pink recolor) have been added to the campaign. I have added a "Bigger discount tier" that allows you to get nearly everything that is currently unlocked at a slightly cheaper price.
After opening questions, two kind folks got in touch with me to ask if it was possible to save a pet from BLUE HELL. At first I thought that was a ridiculous question. But then I got to thinking....What if we gave it a shot? What if we tried to find and save a pet from BLUE HELL? That being said, missions cost time, and time costs funding, so we'll only be picking one pet in the poll below to attempt saving.
I also have something else I want to offer you folks, free on the house.
"I'm offering a free digital grow your own pony kit to all backers."
It came to my attention the other day that many of you have no idea what a pony is. When I learned this I felt a dread in my soul. How could so many people not know about the wonders and joys of ponies? See, some of you believe that ponies are some sort of foul being, but I'm here to tell you ponies are nothing of the sort.
"Just look at their cute little false faces. Don't you just want to pet them?"
Ponies are the most intelligent beings to exist. Meeting a pony is a predetermined event.Even if you go out of your way to meet this creature, this event was planned out by the pony thousands of years before you were born.It’s said that every pony has a goal. That it acts in random ways to manipulate the universe itself, random values within the atoms. You do not own a pony. You do not trade a pony. A pony owns you.
So, when I say "I'm offering folks a free pony" it's more like I'm offering you all to get in line and be adopted by a pony. I mean, these ponies are digital, sure, but even in their digital image form their intelligence is said to be beyond ours.
......I'm not sure how that works, but I'm not here to question that. I'm just here to offer you a free pony, and getting one is simple. To request a pony you must be a backer. Please post 1 to 3 colors you like, but know that not all colors might be used in the final pony.
These ponies won't be here forever. They have better things to do than trot around a line of admirers. The sooner you grab a pony the more likely you are to get one so get moving you understand?
"All ponies will be posed like this. Cute ain't it?"
If you post your digital pony on the greater internet, do me a favor pal, credit ZooCorp and this campaign with a link.Free pony for free advertising, it's called a win win. Please don't do anything weird like trade your pony for money. I respect a hustle but not like this, you understand?
As it is not possible to post an image in replies, I will be using an imgur link. If you live in a country where imgur is banned please request an imgur alternative be used for your pony.
Update: Yes these are still open. I'm at nearly 100 free ponies. My dedication to bringing the joy of ponies to others is vast. If you request a completely random pony, you will be guaranteed to get one, and you will get it sooner than others, but I do aim to try and deliver a pony to everyone who asks.
Edit: These closed once the campaign finished as seen by the pinned comment, sorry folks but you'll need to wait till RED HELL to get a pony.
Shipping has been applied to all orders and is locking down after I have carefully tested the shipping fees of as many locations as I felt reasonable. Thankfully the estimates I calculated at the start of the campaign are still valid. Orders will be locked in 48 hours, so if you have any last minute pickups feel free to head on out and update your order. Once the 48 hour passes your order will be locked and charged for any extra products and shipping.
I am a believer of project money not being mine to touch until all items are packed and shipped to backers so don't worry, your money will be sitting nice and cozy in a safe location until December when shipping will gobble it up.
Poll About Plushies Below
I've been in discussion with my partner (Skipper/ToadsTown) about what size plushies folks are interested in. I don't have many plushies at the moment, so I prefer larger ones, but there's been talk of smaller, cheaper plushies having their own appeal. I'd like input on this matter from you folks. By the way don't worry, I put an option for folks not interested in plushies so you too can get the experience of voting!
About Pay Over Time
Forgot to mention this in one of my other updates but surveys are sent to backers of pay over time on completion of their payments (Of which they can pay early if needed.) Do not worry, if you are a pay overtime buyer you will be allowed the full time to do the surveys upon payment completion. There will be enough pins and other items set aside to make sure pay overtime users have the full list of choices. The only exception to this is the arise plushies, which if you want me to hold for you, please scroll down to get my contact information. (If you already backed an arise plushie during the campaign you are fine and it is already reserved for you.)
About Pre-Orderers
(This is different from a backer, if you are a backer this section is not for you.) The pre-order shop will be staying open until products are in hand. If you are a pre-orderer I will be tapping the lock order button about once a week for you folks so you can get charged instead of getting surprised much later, so if there is a delay with getting charged it just means I have yet to do my weekly rounds.
About the Pony Plushies & Shipping
They look fantastic and were completed ahead of time! This does mean that I'll have these guys at my place for a bit but other than figuring out storage this is great news as I expected these to take the longest to finish.
That being said, we are still looking at a December shipping date as one of my pin manufactures takes awhile to ship. All plastic goods are now in full production after an error in the sample for the photocards was fixed.
Anyway, to end this off, enjoy this image of dehydrated ponies. (Don't worry! They're not in pain! Ponies can live for millions of years in this dehydrated state. Just give them a little bit of time and they should puff back up, ready to get back to their task of universal importance.)
I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS needs a longer writeup, still, which I'll need to handle after work tomorrow. But, I'll poke you, it's been a week since the last update.
We're at a nice 88% completion, with an amazing 84% addon rate. Thank you! I went ahead and started DOG CRIMES' pin order this evening. We'll be getting pins started in a week or so. I am going to wait until we hit the 90% benchmark to get stickers in, since I tend to order more exact numbers for them.
You have 5 days left to fill out your DOG CRIMES survey, add more pins, or pick up a preorder. I'll be locking orders on the 20th. Failed payments will have until October 30th, or you're forfeiting any pledge rewards (and freebies).
Working an overnight event Saturday kicked my ass, and I've spent today getting and recovering from the seasonal shots. It's not all a waste of time: CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS' shop inventory is set up on the back-end, just missing photos. It's about damn time... but, I do need a couple more days to get the HUSTLE open again.
Thank you to any locals who made it out on Saturday and snagged your C3 pins. It was an amazing time, but I slept in till 2 PM yesterday and I still can't think straight. I need another day to not forget 2 pins on the order sheet I send to the new factory...
We'll check in a couple days before orders lock. I'll get a preorder store reminder out to you guys tomorrow after my morning shift. I hope you had a good weekend, and here's to temperatures dropping from here on out!
Hey folks, as you can see in these images, production is going great! The factory that does my colored pins is already doing final passes on pins, and the one that does my metal pins has just finished the mold stage. The washi tape is also completely finished and being shipped to me now. Please note there are only 100 of the washi tapes being made, so if you want one, pick it up now!
All plastic goods are getting one final sample made to correct some minor issues I saw with the photocard but production on those is so quick this is not going to cause any level of delay.
The only downside to this fast production is that it requires me to deal with waking up at 3am to three factories showing me pictures to confirm they can move to the next step / that errors have been repaired.
The pings haunt my dreams but it's ok because I love seeing the process.
Someone asked for a Pony Charm
Yep, a single person asked for the pony charm to be buyable. I was too lazy to do that, so I decided it would be easier just add the pony charm to every single capsule shaker. If you don't want it, just open it up and pull it out like with any other shaker charms in it you might not want.
By the way. What do you think the factory worker thinks when they have to make this shaker? Like. Have you ever considered that you're sitting in the factory. A new order pops up. There's the RED MAN there? No one tells you why the heck you're making these, just that they must be made, and then placed into a really cute little shaker.
Eh, you know maybe they deal with every other week. Creepy pasta is always in.
My partner, Toadstown (Skipper!) is launching a new project you might like if you love BLUE HELL, it's Blighted Bestiary! He is also running PaleoPals 2, though that's not some sort of terrible nightmare world situation. Blighted Bestiary takes place in the same reality that the HELL series is in though it might not be obvious how....... Check out a little sample of what's to come below.
Other than that, this update is now done! Next update will be me locking orders around the 14th.
"No hellish abominations here! Unless you count the Therizinosaurus!"
"Thank goodness I'm not doing GREEN HELL next because this is everything it wanted to be and so much more!"
Something Has Infected The Woods.
The blight has seeped its way into the plants, beasts, and minds of its captive residents, choking out the very essence of the enchanted grove. So warped is the forest by the rejection of the natural cycle that it may never recover. So, it adapts.
Cherry Sprinkle is officially in sample form and LOOK AT HIM 🍩🐾
The hot pink frosting, rainbow sprinkles, tiny details, and very pleased little corgi face all came out so cute. I’m doing the final sample review now before full production moves ahead, but obviously I was not going to keep this to myself 😆
Seeing the physical sample after looking at the artwork on a screen for months is always one of my favorite parts of the process.
More donut corgi sample peeks are on the way soon!
Thank you, as always, for supporting my tiny corgi bakery obsession 💕🍩
Not much to report, getting a lot of clerical stuff on CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS and shop inventory done this week.
We're sitting at 82% survey completion right now, which is decent, but definitely low for this stage in the game. If you're getting this email, make sure you picked your dogs (and dog accomplice re-offenders).
80% is usually considered a good margin to get accurate order numbers, but I prefer 85% - especially for stickers..
But, hey, 80% gives me enough to tell you guys what our top 5 pins ordered are. It's time for some fun numbers, to break up all the boring-ass technical and text heavy updates recently.
Disturbing the peace HOUNDS is our #1 pin, at 58 right now. That's... not what I expected! Do you all just have fond memories of hounds, or, just, vibe with the noisy chaos of these two? Either way, they have a nice lead on all the other dogs.
Our #2, the Impersonating an officer GERMAN SHEPHERD, is who I was figuring would take top spot. He's sitting at 49.
We have a tie for #3. These little bundles of joy were picked up by 33 backers, which is the age of most malteses I've ran into. This is the Gang violence LITTLE WHITE DOGS, and the Stalking BORDER COLLIE. I wonder which of them can rack up more blotter mentions in a week?
#4 is the Speeding GREYHOUND. Guess he still wasn't fast enough to get to #1. What a waste of a ticket and court appearance. Oh well, the Greyhound has 27 pins ordered.
Our Property damage PIT BULL is #5. Not surprising, these guys represent the majority of mixed breed and rescue dogs in my US customer base, and I don't doubt a lot of you guys have some door eating horror stories. He's got 23 pins going to criminal enablers around the world.
If you missed the campaign and wanna sway these numbers, the Preorder Store is still open. Normal surveys and preorders will both be open until September 20th.
As usual, if you're one of my 10 failed charges, you have until October 30th. This goes for both initial campaign pledges, and addons + shipping. You know the drill by now, get that fixed, or you forfeit your pledge - including any freebies.
I'm going to give things a little longer before I get the pin and sticker orders in, but, we have a very good idea of where we're sitting.
The quieter good news, is that, we will be remaking a few runs of CRITTER CRIMES' pins. I mentioned this a couple times, but, we did not have enough A grades to stock the HUSTLE for a few critters. Part of DOG CRIMES funds will be going to fixing this, and making sure I have enough retail stock for shows.
The Fox, Alligator and Sparkledog will be getting new runs with the new factory. Most importantly, the Dragon will be getting a completely corrected artwork, and all existing stock will be moved to B-grades.
There's some more technical shit about what's happening that I'll drop with CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS' next update, but, long story short, this is gonna be part of a slower process of moving all of my more popular designs to new factories so I can order them as needed.
Right now, knock on wood, we are possibly looking to be a little ahead of schedule. I won't jinx it like C3 and say when, but, if I can get an order in by the end of this month, we could have a refreshingly quick project. DOG CRIMES will have relatively few pins to grade and no combined shipping, so, once they're here, we're gonna have 'em out in under a month.
Thanks for dealing with the radio silence. Hope to have something new for you guys when we hit 85% surveys. If you're holding that up, go deal with it!
(Not into the boring stuff? Scroll down to Pet Vote for the fun stuff! Also follow RED HELL!) After a lot of juggling factories, tweaking vectors, and correcting samples, all items are currently in production! This means we're on track for products to hopefully arrive by November, and sent out by December as long as there are no delays. It's all in the factory's hands now, so I'll give you an update if they have any delays, but the factories I use are pretty reliable so here's hoping there are none.
Add-ons and Shipping Charged Around September 14th
While the final date for charges is still up to be determined, I will be locking down and charging orders around the 14th of this month. Currently we are on track for my estimates on shipping still being accurate. Please see the below for what to expect.
United States: $5
Canada: $13
UK: $20
EU: $20
Other International: $20
Arise and cekeki plush orders will add +$5 to shipping to cover the size.
The pony plush will add +5 to +$10 to shipping for all orders to cover the size. I will have the final number for this around the 14th after I test out calculations.
For International Backers: VAT tax is not collected by the survey, so you are responsible for paying your country's import tax, if any. Tariff costs will be mitigated where possible. Should any additional shipping costs be necessary, all backers will be informed in future campaign updates.
Pre-Order Store Information
The pre-order store will stay open until delivery in case any of your friends wants to pick up any items before their prices raise. Once the pre-order store closes and all items are delivered fully the items will be listed on etsy at a higher price, with the pins being raised by $2-3 and the pony plushies by $5-$10 so pick them up at a discount while you have the chance! I brought quite a bit of extras of all the pins, so I do not see any worries on that end, but I will remove pin options from the pre-order store if they get close to my threshold for A-Grade expectations.
And now for something more exciting. Help me out with picking a new "pet" backers can pick up. For my upcoming RED HELL project (Follow it if you haven't already!) we'll be hosting the little "grab a pet" event just like last time. Don't worry, you'll have a choice between the new species, or another pony during the project itself. I would never prevent the masses from getting a lovely pony. Anyway, let's see our contestants for this battle!
"Playing with your fears."
Phobe: The False Dragon
Phobes are a rare type of false dragon. They are notable for being fairly tame and attentive towards their owners. While they are mischievous they rarely cause any major harm. The species is so beloved and highly valued because when exposed to phobias it will change its hide patterns and fight off elements of said phobia.
"It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves."
Kafkil: The Absurd Lawyer
Tired of legal battles stalling for so long you literally know that the opposing side is trying to wait till you die? Summon a kafkil! Kafkils are created when a beloved non-rabbit animal, or object is sacrificed to the gods. These betrayed beings will loyally follow their owners, defeating all of their enemies before taking revenge on their caretaker. The best way to stop the stalking of a kafkil is to engage in a bureaucratic or legal process. Placing legal documents around one's residence, or directly upon their bodies will ward them off for up to a month, before they return, seeking updated paperwork.
"Do not be scared of her. Spiders do not even fathom your existence, I promise."
Karuhongsa: The Fear Killer
The karuhongsa is apart of the false dragon family. Flocks slowly grow around the locations of powerful dragons. The soothing presence of the karuhongsa causes those around them to seek to understand their fears, especially those around the dragon. As locals stop fearing the beast it slowly withers away into nothing, its anomalous energy fed upon by the growing flocks of karuhongsa.
"It says your name in his voice......You can't bare to throw it away"
Mirrorer: The Living Memory
Mirrorers are anomalous dolls that have come to life after seeing a mirror for the first time. They are lovable, if mischievous creatures that take joy of jumping into mirrors and becoming intangible. The longer they stick around an owner, the more they mimic their actions, behaviors, and voice. Even after the owner has died the mirrorer will continue its mimicking for ages, often becoming a metaphorical "ghost" of its owner for years to come.
Hi everyone! I wanted to let you know surveys on which pins/ merch options you want are going out early this upcoming week hopefully :D Pins are being made already so that they can be finished up and mailed hopefully the middle or late next month!!
The surveys have been sent out, so e sure to answer them as soon as possible so I can get my counts in! If you don't see the survey, be sure to check if your card went through, or if it was errored.
Now it's come to my attention that I made my own error, and didn't properly link the Doggust reward for backing three or more projects in the campaign. Rest assured, I'm properly aware of it now. It still won't say in the survey, but if you apply for the reward, I have it marked in my inventory so you'll still receive the reward!
