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Hey robot enthusiasts,

Survey lockdown has been initiated! You now have 48 hours to finish adjusting your orders - they will lock on the 18th. And then an ever so slight shift for the card timeline - after orders are locked, I'll set a 48 hour warning for that step as well, and the funds for add-ons and shipping should charge on the 20th.

Once again, a reminder to the handful of you who still need to finish them off: if you do not complete your survey on time, you might not be able to receive your first choice of rewards.

Onward to the ogling! As promised, a quick refresher summary of all the Spooky Goods in one place~

The shiny shiny fresh PINS! If you'd like a closer view at the newest samples and missed the last update, I also list them one-by-one over here.

All of the embroidered patches!! The remade glow-in-the-dark designs are from the manufacturer since the new samples haven't reached me in person, so they look a little scrunglier - as factory photos tend to - but they should give you a solid sense of the adjusted threads.

Finally, STICKERS! It's exciting to see all three new robot character art sticker sheets one after the other --

The robots, bot-boards, paw/foot prints, and text will all be useable, kiss-cut stickers. :D

And seen for the first time on Backerkit: the finished Decomm sheet!! <3

The new jumbo selective holographic sticker designs correspond to the pins, minus iCandy.

I'll be placing the bulk orders by Monday, so again please make sure to complete/adjust your surveys as needed. If you missed out on the campaign proper, last call for the Spooky Pre-Order Store.

Speaking of timelines sneaking up on us, gonna wrap up with one more shout-out from this space --

Soft Circuit is running as part of Pintopia 2026, which launches THIS UPCOMING THURSDAY the 22nd and runs until February 12th!! That's less than six days away! O: Peep the latest sample of the Byte plush above!!

If you haven't followed the Launch Party yet, please consider doing so! It increases the odds of a strong campaign start, which in turns allows us to bring even more new friends online and into your homes. I'll be parading out a couple new reveals over there tomorrow~ join us. <3 

Thank you so much as ever, and if you have any questions or need any assistance with your Spooky Circuit orders in any way, don't hesitate to reach out. Happy weekend y'allemaal!

Hey spooky robot crew,

I come bearing exciting news: the pin samples for all our remaining unlocks are complete!!

So let's dive headfirst into the parade of shiny. First up, the rest of the Void units! Defrag --

Their partner in crime, Decomm:

The ominous hare, CMD:

And of course, iCandy, the delectable freebie pin quite a number of you are taking home for backing 3+ Pintober projects:

Absolutely chuffed with how this line has turned out, and I hope you are too! The rainbow effect is so ethereal and everything I'd hoped for in terms of the added depth it lends to the designs and how it varies gently per pin.

Of course the effect is very lighting-dependent, so here's a whole pile of samples my manufacturing rep sent along, to see these friends catching some rays in a few different ways at a glance:

And then onward to cleaner pictures of the other buddies, our Line expansions!! The darling Decibel:

The lil hand bros, Stack:

And Patch:

And last but not least, the cross collaboration freebie, Abend:

I'm planning to initiate survey and payment lock proceedings this upcoming Friday the 16th. From there you will all receive a 48 hour warning, and then cards should charge around the 18th. The pre-order store will also lock down around this time so, if you missed the campaign proper, this is your last chance to get in on the initial fulfillment of the Spooky offerings!

6% of you have not yet filled out your surveys; please, please do so! I will be placing the bulk orders when surveys lock down, so if you do not make your selections before then, you might not be able to receive your first choice of rewards.

There's one final piece of the puzzle some of you may have been waiting on, and that's to see the inked and colored version of Decomm's robot character art that corresponds with their sticker sheet --

I've given this unit paneling reminiscent of tuxedo cat markings. <3 From the wiring, it looks like both Defrag & Decomm were busy decommissioning the same Fire line bot~

Inking on the second pose is underway, and the full sticker sheet will be shared in an all-item round up post that I'll put together prior to the 16th!

Very excited to get bulk production rolling on these friends!! Rainbow anodized plating takes a little longer than the metal finishes I've used in the past, hence the sampling time on these buddies, but as of now we're still on track for April fulfillment.

Speaking of PIN SAMPLES... the especially observant among you may have noticed something a little extra in that pile of pins shared up there --

A miniature version of Pause will be one of the freebie rewards possible to earn as part of the upcoming Soft Circuit pin & plush campaign!! This is my first truly mini pin, clocking in at well under 1", and will make for an excellent board filler.

If you haven't already done so, please go sign up for project notifications now to make sure you don't miss out!

Another freebie offering is Softwere, a pun I'd wanted to pun together from the very start. Anyone who backs for at least one pin within the first 48 hours of the campaign will bring home this 2" pin completely FREE!!

And because I absolutely cannot help myself, a number of the Soft Circuit pins have already been sampled, including the initial five of Unit Line: Light, all of which you can peek at in this project banner:

For those who didn't realize it yet, YES in addition to the robot plush, Soft Circuit will seek to fund a potential 9 brand new enamel pins (maybe more if things go really well!!), a whole mess of new stickers, and bandana accessories in both plush-sized and person-sized-entity flavors! To boost our chances with the good ol' algorithm deities, I would love to reach at least 300 project follows before launch. Click here to go count yourself in! More pin peeks are coming soon to an update over there, so make sure you follow along!!

TLDR version: Spooky Circuit surveys lock and cards charge on the 18th of this month, Soft Circuit launches in just 10 days, and everything is humming along as expected! As ever, thank you so much for being here and enabling me to create these little guys. <3

Hey robot enthusiasts,

First up, a quick interjection: if you're already following the Soft Circuit campaign you've been hearing from me there now and then. If not, I'd like to take a moment to tease some exciting developments: the first look at the Byte plush prototype was shared over here!

This next campaign will also seek to expand the bot-board pin collection a third time, with a brand new Unit Line: Light, and additions to previous Lines that are currently being revealed!

For those of you not in on that yet, voyage to the launch party page and pop that Count Me In button to join the Soft Circuit mailing list and make sure you don't miss out!!

And now, ALSO very exciting, back to your regularly scheduled Spooky Circuit updates --

The robot character art for Defrag is complete, and I hope you love them as much as I do! Everything here will be a useable kiss-cut sticker, including the text and the little geometric owl tracks. <3

In a previous update I shared images of the gorgeous, glossy embroidered patch samples I received in person--

BUT I never shared glowing pictures for the three designs intended to have that feature. Try as I might to charge them, they didn't luminesce at all - and after some back and forth with that manu rep, we discovered that he had accidentally sent me fluorescent (black light reactive) thread to pick from rather than the desired glow-in-the-dark thread.

Beautiful and vibrant though those colors are, I really had my heart set on the advertised glow-in-the-dark effect, so set about selecting from the new options to have the patches for Abend, Hex, and Web remade!

The closest luminescent option to yellow is the L6 sample on the right there (previously, GP21 was used), and the existing color of thread for the circuit line art on the two Fire units got even more lost with how bright it is, so that needed darkened as well.

Yesterday I got back pictures of the impacted designs with the new threads, including photos in the dark per my request, and they look so cool and much spookier!! Manu photos tend to involve non-ideal factory lighting and are a bit cryptid in quality, so I'm very excited to get my paws on these in person as well and take some nice photos for you all!

If you're not pleased with the new thread colors for any reason, feel free to edit your selections; your surveys are still unlocked and editable. If you need any assistance, please also don't hesitate to reach out. I'm delighted we could get these buddies glowing as intended!

Finally, I've also received a peek at more of the Spooky Circuit samples from my pin rep --

Decibel, Patch, and Stack are in the final coloring stage and just about ready to go!

And here's Abend with its plating and hard enamel fill, still awaiting its transparent soft enamel. 🎃💀

Both backer surveys and the Spooky Circuit Pre-Order Store will remain open until all samples are complete, so you can see how the effects look on every design before finalizing your selections! My rep let me know that the rainbow anodized pins take a little more time and care to complete, and the remainder of the Void designs currently in sampling are at the plating stage. We'll likely have more to see of them soon!

Thank you as ever for your support, and wishing you all a wonderful impending New Year!!

Closing link reminders --  

Short Circuit Discord: To see works-in-progress early and hang out with some lovely folks! 💚
Soft Circuit Launch Party: Count yourself in to the upcoming third installment of the Short Circuit 'verse to follow along with reveals and earn exclusive freebies! 🐺

Hey robot enthusiasts,

As of last week, the remainder of the pin samples for Spooky Circuit are officially underway! We already have established pantones for all the Unit Lines involved, so there shouldn't be any surprises, but it's important to me that you get to see each design with the transparency + recessed metal effect before locking down surveys.

The current ETA to lock surveys is January 10th, after which time your cards on file will also be charged for shipping and any add-ons you purchase. Surveys are currently at 85% completion, so thank you so much for getting those in! This helps immensely in planning the bulk order placement.

In the mean time, reminder that if you missed out on backing the campaign proper, the Pre-Order Store is open to grab any of the unlocked pins, stickers, and patches!

In other news, Soft Circuit has transitioned into the pre-launch party page, enabling updates and polls!! Click "Count Me In" over there to make sure you don't miss out on the chance to share your opinion as various stretch goals are assembled.

Currently running: if we fund the Byte plush and initial barrage of planned pins, then which ambassador robot would you be most interested in seeing come to life next?? Python and Remnant keep tying on and off, so it could be anybody's race!

I'm also currently working on the designs for Unit Line: Light, and torn between a few options! Coming soon will be a poll to determine if we go with a brown bear or polar bear based design for Light's ambassador unit, so be sure to follow Soft Circuit if you have a preference.

Finally, as a child of the old internet who loved to hang out on forum boards, LiveJournal communities, and IRC... now that we're nearly three campaigns deep in the series, it was perhaps inevitable that I set up a Short Circuit Discord server! 👩‍💻 Join up to discuss art, robots, and see the earliest sneak peeks as these little friends and new products are designed! <3

That's all for now — I'll update again in this space once I have some pin sample photos. Talk to y'allemaal in the Discord or over on Soft Circuit, and for those of you also in Nederland: een fijne Sinterklaas gewenst! 🍬