and surveys are live! finally!! Smoke test was pretty smooth, there's one person i need to catch up with, i think there was a payment mishap but seems to be all set up good
I got (most of) the fixed stickers in and added the images to the listings- you can see them here!

I would have ideally liked to have black shuck pin finalized before opening surveys but I think i'm already behind schedule enough- I've sent in an order to try out two more colours but I think it's close, it turns out the black nickel was actually a lot darker than it appeared in the photo

so i feel like it's close, the blue is just a little intense still, I'm trying it out with black fill and a darker/greyer one, both with and without sandblasting.
I'll probably push the schedule if i can. to give everyone more time to answer, by about 2-3 weeks or so? I'd like people to have time to see the final black shuck well before having to lock orders in.

hello and sorry again for the long lull! the survey setup is done and smoke tests have gone out, so check and see if you got one! only 5% of backers get them as a sort of test run.
I was debating whether to post them or not, but samples came back from the manufacturer for black shuck and i was not happy with them, so i'm working to come up with a solution. they're in a weird goldilocks area where one of them was far too light and the other just didn't work despite me loving the material

I'm working with the manufacturer on solutions right now, including both visibility and hopefully getting that transparent fill more.. full? it's looking recessed and a little messy right now
It's not over yet though! Stickers came in and they also weren't quite right sadly.. 3/5 had the effect masking sorta off so the glitters were in way too many spots or even nonexistant in one. One of them I choose poorly on the colours.. oops.

The printer has already started work on replacements for free though! (not the one that was my fault of course, i', getting that one done myself) so the upside is i'll maybe throw some random stickers into orders here and there. I really hate not having photos of the limited stickers for you to see before choosing, but hopefully in a week or 2 I"ll have them!
thanks again for your ongoing patience!!

Hello and thank you for your patience while i still finalize the survey!
i've been picking out a very limited amount of items from my store to populate the add-ons with, i've put in the neon tetra, mini crow and screaming frog pins so far. I'm thinking maybe just 2-3 more. I'm largely trying to stay away from knifecats as there's just so many.
a small update is i've ordered stickers! there are super limited to 35 pcs each. Stickerapp was doing a sale and i couldn't resist. They are on effect materials like pixie dust, transparent and matte holo, run 3" at the longest dimension and use the standard pin art- so black shuck, gryphon, unicorn, fire wyrm and dragon. These will be available in the addons!
lastly I got in an order for black shuck pin samples! fingers crossed they look great and i don't have to wait more time to test more options! I was told they should be ready to see around mid march. I got it in black nickle and chrome matte metal and i'll upload pics of whatever i end up using asap once i have them. The surveys and preorder shop will be open until the end of april so there's going to be plenty of time to decide what you want.
i think that's everything, i expect surveys to be ready to go in about a week
M

Hi everyone! we're in the last 20 hours or so and i have a very important (and unfortunate) announcement about one of the pin designs.
As some of you may know the black shuck pin is the most complicated and experimental of mine in the project, and i had a nagging concern at the back of my head after getting it checked over by my manufacturer. They didn't specifically address a number of my concerns and simply sent back a quote and answered my main questions which i took to be confirmation that it was fine.
Eventually I went ahead and listened to my gut, contacted a second place that seemed much more communicative and was told there were numerous design-breaking issues- most stained glass areas being too small and unable to print silkscreen on the back.

I was recommended to instead do a multi layered sandblasted finish like shown below-

Given this feedback the blackshuck will sadly no longer be full transparent stained glass and am looking into designing it more like so:

My main concern with this is if the recessed/transparent fill will be visible on top of a black chrome or not. becasue of all of this uncertainty, black shuck will be the one pin that gets a sample created. If you're not happy with the sample and backed or added it on you can remove the item or I can manually remove and refund it for you if necessary!
 the good news is that the manufacturer says this can be done in hard enamel, so it will likely have a nice flush surface.
i'm really sorry for the hiccup and i hope you enjoy the final black shuck pin!

As of posting this the snail creature poll still has a few more hours to go! it's close-ish right now with garden in the lead.
usa tarriff update on chinese made items- it was walked back, though apparently temporarily! I don't know either!
It sounds like I'll have no answer for what will happen in a few months once all the pins are complete and ready to send off. The good news is it sounded like pins were only a 10% hit, so that's something i should be able to foot if it comes to it. I much rather pay out of pocket and send with delivered duty paid instead of you having to pay at the door. As someone in a country where the minimum is $20 who pays lots of duties all the time, it's almost more annoying to always miss the postal worker and have to go pick it up and pay there etc. than the duties themselves.
Last but not least- the last poll!! I'm excited to see how this one goes, I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out

like the base dragon, all of them will have pearl accented eyes and horns