Our smoke test is now LIVE, meaning that 5% of you should have received your backer surveys! If everything looks as expected, the rest of the surveys will be sent within a day after that. Thank you for your patience as I pulled the final details together - a cold going around managed to catch me this past week, slowing down progress, but I am on the mend now. <3
For those of you with a lot of choices to make, the pin/sticker lists are LONG (18 designs!!) but are in alphabetical order other than the ridiculously cool backer sponsored pin added at the end, RAID, so I hope that makes things a little easier to find.
If you're one of the remaining 9 backers with errored payments, you can still correct your card information at the end of your survey. Your card will NOT be charged for additional items you add-on during the survey or for the cost of shipping until surveys lock down, which will occur after I have approved manufacturer samples for all pin designs. The current estimate for this is late April. After that point, I will provide one week of notice for you to finalize your choices - your surveys will remain editable until then!
Surveys left unfilled by the lock down period will not have guaranteed selection of their rewards, so please be sure to get these in. Surveys that remain incomplete by the time fulfillment begins in July 2025 will forfeit their rewards.
Speaking of RAID earlier —
HOW COOL AAAAA, here it is, the tiger source block!!
My manufacturing representative was kind enough to send me some sneak-peeks of the sample production process! Here's how the front and back of a pin mold looks!! The channels on either side are for charging the liquid zinc alloy.
Cheers to my rep for sharing these production photos with us!
And here are freshly stamped, unplated pins! My rep called the blue substance a protective "ink", which is covering the areas that will ultimately receive sandblasting and transparent soft enamel. Hard enamel paint is apparently difficult to wipe off, so this masking fluid prevents contamination of those areas. Really dang interesting to see!!
If you did not pledge during the campaign period and still want to grab some of these little buddies, the Short Circuit Pre-Order Store will remain open for the same duration as the surveys.
That's all for now - if anyone has questions or runs into snags, please reach out and let me know. Have a wonderful weekend!
