Hooooo okay. I finally have stuff to say, so it is info dump time!
We got to the end of August and I hadn't received tracking, so I was a little worried. Talking with my manufacturers efficiently tends to involve staying up very late for a night or two though, so I kept putting off inquiring. I've been suffering from stress/overwork related health issues for all of July and August and simply didn't have the gumption, and for that I do apologize. There just wasn't gas in the tank. I decided I would do so after our upcoming show.
Megaplex
Said show: we were vendors at Megaplex this year, and I had a small number of dragons who were shipped ahead for conventions up for sale! Eclipse was not available, but the rest were in extremely limited numbers. Overall, the plush had a mixed reception. The jumbos were well loved based on size alone, but people kept thinking the designs were inaccurate WoF dragons. Most folks weren't in to plunking down $80 on the 20 inch ones that they thought of as "done wrong." So that was a bit of a bummer, but it was hardly a unique problem. I've been asked if all my kobold and dragon designs are from HTTYD, WoW, or GoT too. I once even had someone convinced that Comet was a Targ.
Those who recognized they weren't WoF dragons, however, were very keen on them! Most folks who got either size had a story about a campaign or OC to share which was a delight. They did delight a lot of folks right as they walked in too, and the jumbos in their adoption bin got a lot of hugs.
All the dragons on Day 3!
After Megaplex we had a long flight home with a late plane layover. It was time to bug my manufacturer for an update at last. Imagine my delight when I took my phone off airplane mode and had a shipping update already waiting!
Shipping/Manufacturing Update!
Manufacturing is COMPLETE and the plush are on the way!!! They are expected to arrive at the end of the month, meaning we will be sitting pretty for the anticipated October fulfillment. We are pretty much just waiting on the plush! I'm currently in full scramble mode to re-organize all my space to make sure the boxes can fit. I don't have a box count yet, but I'm anticipating around 40 based on past experience. I look forward to taking pictures of a giant pile of boxes while the fall colors start setting in. While we are on the subject, here is what we can expect for shipping:
Single plush orders with no add-ons will ship first, and will be packaged in order of most ordered to least ordered. Size doesn't play a role in this. This is because these are the easiest sorts of orders to streamline!
From there, I will be sorting orders that match each other and work down them as a list from fewest items to most items. The very small number of shipping orders with no plush will likely be early in this process.
20 inch orders will go first because I can drop more of those off to the post office at once. I do suspect that getting the plush physically to the post office and not overloading our small town's single building will be a bottleneck as it has been with recent large pre-orders, but I'm planning to unclog that regularly with trips to the nearest city on weekends to drop parcels at a larger hub.
The last orders regular orders to ship will be those that involve stuffed jumbos. These take the longest to package and will require individual weights, and many will likely ship via UPS instead of USPS.
Orders involving customs or mega jumbos will be waiting for completed plush to arrive. This is highly variable since each plush has a different production time.
For customs, things have not really been moving forward. Every time it seems like I can finally submit them for patterning something work related pops up. Monday should be when it all goes in as I'm making that a personal deadline. I will be glad to get that process actually moving because the art has been sitting there finished all through production of the plush! I'm not proud of the delays, but it was in the name of doing the work that keeps the lights on.
Pre-Orders Opened
I quietly added pre-orders for Comet & Friends plush to lairbrew.com with Megaplex approaching so folks with lugegage space issues could choose to order them online instead. Now that fulfillment is rapidly approaching, I figure it is a good idea to announce that they're there! Fulfillment for these orders is anticipated to be in November because they won't be touched until the Backerkit orders have all been sent out. Campaign orders have priority. Pre-orders on lairbrew.com can not be combined with Backerkit orders, but in case you wanted more dragons or missed the campaign you can reserve them at last!
Find them on our site!
WE'RE NEARLY THERE! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND SUPPORT!
