Hey All, Ive been meaning to check back in, and sorry i havent updated since. At GenCon the manufactuer was able to drop off a number of samples, which i was wable to provide immediate feedback to. And last week I got a box containing more samples. So lets get into them Full spread of things received. We'll start at the accessories Overall, most feedback was pretty well received and things are coming together. Shiled was a match, sword was good, Spellbook was good, Hat was good, staff was good, fish were good, boot was good, Main points of new feedback - Sometimes the magnet would be hidden behind some fluff making things like the staff, axe,fishing hook difficult for the owlbear to hold (needs to be on the outside -Below are the Axes (on the far right was the first manufacturer, 1st was the first version we got from this manufacturer, and 2nd is after our feedback to thicken it up...not quite there but at least ..serviceable.. could push for it being thicker..but the magnet is in there and it does work Other weirdness was that altohugh we added a label on the red potion (was only on the blue), for some reason (the pin for them is somewhere in the middle of the bottle and not on the neck)..just weird decision, but i noticed it existed with the first version they gave me as well
And outside of that really only thing left i need to see from them is the fixed foil finish on the bags..which left off a chunk due to bad tooling. Then accessories should be good to go!
Then the rest of the plushes As part of this project alongside the new Amethyst owlbear, we are reproducing the other colors. so part of the process. To achieve the charcoal color on the owlbear, it is quite literally the snowy pattern, then dyed.. So as part of the GenCon delivery, they handed me a grey dyed owlbear to confirm the color... Cool right... looks good, not too big a departure..should be good
Then in the recent package i get this guy ...which...aint quite grey...
Also the texture is right...but its missing the dark line bits that the current snowy/charcoal have Turns out..the color of the lower mesh really matter... kinda hard to see in the below photo but the current Charcoal has a Black underlying mesh (so when you see through the mesh you get those black stripes) ...on this 'blue' owlbear the mesh is the same color (it apeared they dyed the fabric completeyl the same color)
another angle to see the blue (left), vs current (right) And the rest of the Owlbears Brown regular and keychains have already been made, Green looks fine, and Snowy they were able to source the same material as the first one so that is good too.
Schedule-wise: Going to confirm, but as so far, Manufacturing for the Purple owlbear and keychain should be done by the end of the week, as should mossy. This leaves, Charcoal, Snowy, and Accessories remaining on the schedule before the finish line (which i hope to have an update on very shortly given recent rounds of feedback). We're near the finish line, and thanks for hanging in there with us. Andreas
Production update (stuff is getting made, but not all of it)
Hey All, I was able to nail down a few updates last week, but i thought i was getting samples this week (turned out it was a book sample for a different project). Some things are forward and other things less than I want them to be Accessories They've shown me updated axe, red potion and sword. I think the only things im left waiting on is the revised magnet placement of the staff and the gold-foil fix for the bags...then they should be ready to start production (but in my response to them, ive inquired for them tell me what they believe is remaining, and that Id like to review final samples before production, especially since its changed hands since)
What is moving (says should be finished production on 8/28) Full size plushes in production - Purple Owlbear - Purple Keychain - Mossy Owlbear - Brown Owlbear (more of them) - Brown Keychain (more of them) Not yet started need samples (they say a preproduction sample should be ready on the July 10th, which would then need to be shipped to me) - Snowy Owlbear - Snowy Keychain - Charcoal Owlbear
Also I saw a few emails come in about fixing up the merge on rewards, so will be heading to work on those. Should have another update sooner once these samples and accessories get locked in, Andreas
was expecting an update from the manufacturer today (like they named today as a date to be deliveed an update on things), not seeing anything in my inbox from them so reaching out and hopfully we'll have a fuller update soon
Wave One has landed at the Warehouse (no accessories though)
Hey all!! Apologies for the delay in updates, I had originally wanted to make an update for when products arrived at port, but I was waiting for the manufacturer to get back to me with the updates I wanted for the accessory kits. Unfortunately and annoyingly, the manufacturer has been painfully slow to communicate since CNY (which is a change from pre-CNY, and something I'll need to escalate internally again).
But now, Wave 1 of products have arrived at the warehouse! I just got my box with a little bit of everything that came inside (which is the keychains and the dragon turtle and phoenix full size plushes), all the pins we have already on-hand. I know they aren't the accessories, but its progress none-the-less.
That said, there is a handful of you that have rewards that only contain Wave 1 products. I pushed these orders to final address confirmation. (there was a small handful of wave one that also included some snowy and charcoal that we do have in stock so i included those orders as well, and you also would have gotten the address notification). this includes the following items:
Owlbear Plush Brown
Owlbear Keychain, Brown
Phoenix Plush
Pheonix Plush Keychain (bearded)
Dragon Turtle Plush
Dragon Turtle Keychain
Pins (all of them)
(we do NOT have yet)
other colored plushes inc purple
class accessories kits (wizard, fighter, fishing)
other colored owlbear keychains
------------- Accessories-wise, I have feedback I am still waiting to hear back from. (i was actually pretty suprised, that when I attended the GAMA trade show last month, and the manufacturer was there; They didn't take that as an opportunity to bring samples or provide any updates.
As said above, they've been painfully slow to respond since CNY, all the more reason to keep looking for manufacturers after this project is done. Just this week, I approved the new production quantities (doc below is what they provided this week), but that still shouldn't have slowed them down for any reason on getting those samples ready.
I will also try to continue providing production updates as they come in, sorry they didnt come in more on time, I wait for an update and more time passes than I would have liked (and then im just waiting for the update to come in). Also taxes made things busy on the backend busy as well.
If you need any assistance or have any questions, feel free to let me know Andreas
Hey all! Apologies for the delay in an update. But for the last two months, we confirmed error phoenix hats, owlbear colors and quantities, new owlbear keychain colors, and made comments to the second pass of accessories. Also we confirmed shipping quantities to our warehouses (US, UK, and AUS).
Main thing about accessories - fishing hook can support an owlbear (carefully) - axe was missing thickness and magnet - bags looked great and was missing the beak on the gold foil - magnet placement on axe and staff needed to be adjusted
that aside everyhting else was great
Schedule-wise, we're at the following.
Shipping (from manufacturer) before CNY (only to US warehouse) - Owlbear Keychains - Drgon Turtle Keychains - Error Phoenix Keychains (with little hats) - Brown Owlbears - Dragon Turtle Plushes - Phoenix Plushes
PS, i notice a few people asking about getting rewards (for those who just got pins or a single owlbear thats in stock), in the next few days ill run a couple filters and see which ones we can get fulfilled (usually its messy to spit things up, esp when export actions, but ill do what i can)
Christmas came early for me this week (well it was supposed to arrive monday, but ill take what i can get)
Here is a new purple owlbear, (and brown and purple dice for reference)
What i did this time was provided them with the pantone of the purple dice we have, since i thought that was a pretty good purple)
pantone for reference Now as you know, this wasnt our first purple owlbear, we had our prototype owlbear from our first manufacturer (below on the left), and as you can see that one is a little bit darker still.
And just because (with the fuchsi, below) (Left to right) Old manufacture sample, new sample, wtf is this purple sample
I think this new purple is far better, now as you can see there is some shaping of the owlbears that needs to be corrected (esp looking at the cheast and heads), but
overall, I think this color is good. but what do you think? (Darker? Good? if we go darker then ill have to pick a new pantone (and additional sample cost).
Schedule Also looks like me getting product will come in two waves (Freight leaving before Chinese New Year and after (which goes till march 3rd) Feight Before is (this would likely arrive ~April 2026)
Brown Owlbear Plush
Dragon Turtle Plush
Pheonix Plush
Owlbear Keychain
Dragon Turtle Keychain
Error Phoenix Keychain (with santa hats)
Freight After CNY is (likely arrive ~June 2026)
Mossy Owlbear Plush
Purple Owlbear Plush
Fixed Batch of Phoenix Keychain
Accessories (all of them)
Accessories In regards to the accessories update (they've confirmed they're going to finish their new sample on dec 22nd (so prolly arriving next after)
Tarrifs one unxpected benefit from this taking so long is that at least the tarrifs are not 100-300% anymore. they're still elevated (i think in the 20-30% range, but faaar better than that madness we had earlier).
Hope you have a great christmas holiday and more updates to come when i have them. Andreas
Hey All, Ive been meaning to check back in, and sorry i havent updated since. At GenCon the manufactuer was able to drop off a number of samples, which i was wable to provide immediate feedback to. And last week I got a box containing more samples. So lets get into them Full spread of things received. We'll start at the accessories Overall, most feedback was pretty well received and things are coming together. Shiled was a match, sword was good, Spellbook was good, Hat was good, staff was good, fish were good, boot was good, Main points of new feedback - Sometimes the magnet would be hidden behind some fluff making things like the staff, axe,fishing hook difficult for the owlbear to hold (needs to be on the outside -Below are the Axes (on the far right was the first manufacturer, 1st was the first version we got from this manufacturer, and 2nd is after our feedback to thicken it up...not quite there but at least ..serviceable.. could push for it being thicker..but the magnet is in there and it does work Other weirdness was that altohugh we added a label on the red potion (was only on the blue), for some reason (the pin for them is somewhere in the middle of the bottle and not on the neck)..just weird decision, but i noticed it existed with the first version they gave me as well
And outside of that really only thing left i need to see from them is the fixed foil finish on the bags..which left off a chunk due to bad tooling. Then accessories should be good to go!
Then the rest of the plushes As part of this project alongside the new Amethyst owlbear, we are reproducing the other colors. so part of the process. To achieve the charcoal color on the owlbear, it is quite literally the snowy pattern, then dyed.. So as part of the GenCon delivery, they handed me a grey dyed owlbear to confirm the color... Cool right... looks good, not too big a departure..should be good
Then in the recent package i get this guy ...which...aint quite grey...
Also the texture is right...but its missing the dark line bits that the current snowy/charcoal have Turns out..the color of the lower mesh really matter... kinda hard to see in the below photo but the current Charcoal has a Black underlying mesh (so when you see through the mesh you get those black stripes) ...on this 'blue' owlbear the mesh is the same color (it apeared they dyed the fabric completeyl the same color)
another angle to see the blue (left), vs current (right) And the rest of the Owlbears Brown regular and keychains have already been made, Green looks fine, and Snowy they were able to source the same material as the first one so that is good too.
Schedule-wise: Going to confirm, but as so far, Manufacturing for the Purple owlbear and keychain should be done by the end of the week, as should mossy. This leaves, Charcoal, Snowy, and Accessories remaining on the schedule before the finish line (which i hope to have an update on very shortly given recent rounds of feedback). We're near the finish line, and thanks for hanging in there with us. Andreas
What’s the status of the plushies/accessories/everything else?
We haven’t had any real updates on samples much less production status in awhile. Really hoping to get a timeline of when things might start to move.
Hey All, I was able to nail down a few updates last week, but i thought i was getting samples this week (turned out it was a book sample for a different project). Some things are forward and other things less than I want them to be Accessories They've shown me updated axe, red potion and sword. I think the only things im left waiting on is the revised magnet placement of the staff and the gold-foil fix for the bags...then they should be ready to start production (but in my response to them, ive inquired for them tell me what they believe is remaining, and that Id like to review final samples before production, especially since its changed hands since)
What is moving (says should be finished production on 8/28) Full size plushes in production - Purple Owlbear - Purple Keychain - Mossy Owlbear - Brown Owlbear (more of them) - Brown Keychain (more of them) Not yet started need samples (they say a preproduction sample should be ready on the July 10th, which would then need to be shipped to me) - Snowy Owlbear - Snowy Keychain - Charcoal Owlbear
Also I saw a few emails come in about fixing up the merge on rewards, so will be heading to work on those. Should have another update sooner once these samples and accessories get locked in, Andreas
