Bad news is, things did not go our way and we're definitely out of a pin shipment. So we have basically all of our freebie designs, a few of the minis and the re orders; but none of the new large (expensive T_T) designs.
Good news is that as it stands, everyone pledged enough in the add-on store to cover re ordering everything that's missing outright. We already had literally everything else made and ready to go, so not including the money in there that's put aside for your shipping costs, there's enough leftover from other products to just order the pins again from our other manufacturer.
So what we're going to do is go ahead and charge cards for add-ons and shipping in three or four days time. The manufacturer has agreed to rush our order a bit for us (although its a big, complicated order so 'rush' is going to be relative). We're intending, as long as everything proceeds to plan (ha), to start shipping this campaign after Mythical Garden and the Summer Sale are done - which might be late 2026 or early 2027, depending on the manufacturer.
Please make sure you're still happy with your order. The higher tariff rates will have been applied since you last took a look. If everyone wants to reduce their total I will totally understand but the plan might need to change. Hopefully it won't be necessary. You'll get a 48hr warning notice before the charge proceeds just like normal.
Thanks everyone. Drop a comment here or email the support email if you have any questions or need anything changed or clarified :).
Parts of this update are copy/pasted across different campaigns.
The overview currently looks like this; Midnight Ocean ~ In production/shipping phase one Mythical Garden ~ Shipping (temporarily on pause) Curiosity Shop ~ In production Pods and Pots ~ In production Literary Critters ~ Survey coming soon
Ooh boy this is not a fun update, sorry. Make sure you read to the end if you're backing from the EU.
First of all a general update. Its a good news bad news situation.
Good news, some of the pins are here and they look awesome; I'll get more pictures soon I just have no time at the moment.
Bad news, some of the pins are missing and we might have fallen out with the manufacturer about it.
We used two different manufacturers due to some of the special effects we ordered. One came through with basically all of our freebie and restock pins, and they look fab. The others never appeared though. We had some disagreements about it and then finally figured out DHL has been bouncing our packages.
We were sanctioned by DHL and we didn't even know it.
I can't get anywhere trying to talk to DHL, they are sending me round and round on a BS AI customer service loop. The manufacturers aren't quite understanding the issue, and no one else had ever even heard of it. We are not getting packages from them at all right now, and several things have been lost (not just pin stuff).
Right now we're looking at re ordering through our other manufacturer and just insisting they don't use DHL. But that is a lot of pins, and a lot of money, so I'm going to have to stagger it out a bit. I just can't do it all at once for a second time. Adding them to our next big campaign purchase will net us a better bulk discount so I'll see how much we can manage on the upcoming Critter campaign order.
Everything else is here though. And we might get a refund? Or a remake? We're still investigating the options. Hopefully next month I will have better news and a more solid idea of what's going on.
EU Backers
This one's the kicker, and there's just nothing I can do about it.
As of July 1st, a new rule went into a place that introduced a flat handling fee of £3 per item type included in any package heading into the EU. This is standard across all the EU countries as far as we can tell. We are not sure if that includes free items at the moment, we're still trying to figure out the details. So every EU order will now owe an extra charge of £3 per item type included.
On top of that, some EU countries are now requiring us to pay customs/import fees up front (so at point of sale). We no longer have the option of shipping 'recipient pays fees'. We aren't entirely sure which countries yet; we're still investigating. So from now on shipping is going to have to include the appropriate customs fees for EU countries upfront.
We're currently working with Backerkit to figure out to integrate these fees into shipping costs, but please be warned that your shipping totals will increase before we do charge cards. Once its been implemented (it hasn't yet) you should be able to see them on your survey. You can still go and edit your add-on choices right up until you've been charged.
That's it for now. We hope to have the EU charges sorted soon, and something better to show you before too long!
Well I've been sent an update with some of the pins so hopefully it won't be too long now. Unfortunately I don't have much else by way of news, everything else is here waiting to go.
Production continues, but a few things are back, take a look;
The fabric isn't as light as this looks I swear. Its so, so hard to get pictures of these. I love them, no notes. I had to order a second batch already.
They didn't die cut our XL holo sticker backing sheets this time, but the selective holo effect came out great.
Some test keychains we did for their special effects. We're a firm yes on the foiling, no on the pearl and the dangles are cute but chunky.
That's it for now. We're chasing up the manufacturer about the pins at the moment, but I'll keep you informed.
This update is partially copy pasted across multiple projects so sorry if you see it more than once!
The overview is looking like this; Bunnies and Branchs ~ Nearly complete! Midnight Ocean ~ In production Mythical Garden ~ Shipping early stages Curiosity Shop ~ In production Christmas Market ~ Shipping well underway
Nothing new to report. Production is underway. There were a lot of designs and some of the product proofs were quite complicated. We're expecting those to arrive sometime soon, but there's still going to be a while to wait on the pins.
