Hi! This update will be bulleted to keep it concise-ish:
• I got out as many more packages before Colossalcon as I could!! That was about a dozen, I had some pending septum p...
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Midnight Springs
17 days ago
Those catmoth-and-no-machine-2 packages are all out! And...Upsetting remake update.
As the title says. The upsetting update is that all of the Abduction remakes have GLITTER in them instead of glowing. Genuinely can't believe this. To make it more clear how ...
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Midnight Springs
24 days ago
Spring update (remakes are STILL not done, I am constantly asking for updates)
Hello to the 98/148 of you who fulfilled your surveys but have not yet received your packages (and the 50 of you who have received them):
I saw some confusion under my last...
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Midnight Springs
about 1 month ago
Short progress update (Okay I lied, I'm done typing now and it's actually quite long. Sorry!)
Hey all, so they've finished the fish early because it's just dyed metal, but because of the chrome plating for some of the moth designs those are still not done and pretty m...
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Midnight Springs
about 2 months ago
Catmoths have arrived! + backer-only fulfillment update
The catmoths are here!
I am mostly through grading them and they look good. In particular, the print is incredible! Especially the black on black wings, it's only visibl...
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Midnight Springs
2 months ago
New catmoth mold!! + other updates
Hi everyone!
I finally have a catmoth mold reveal!!
Sorry for the quality, these are screenshots from a manufacturer-provided video.
The issue before was that it...
Hi! This update will be bulleted to keep it concise-ish:
I got out as many more packages before Colossalcon as I could!! That was about a dozen, I had some pending septum preorder packages I had to fulfill too and unfortunately with all of that included, I hit my physical limit quicker than anticipated. They're officially going out tomorrow, because I wasn't able to get out of the house until we head out to set up for the con tomorrow afternoon.
This puts us at only 78 left to fulfill.
I actually found more standard grade Abduction at the bottom of the box of sorted pins (they slipped out of the bag), so I had over 30. (Meaning almost another 20 can go out after the con!)
I have closed this campaign on the pledge manager, what that means is just that no one who still hasn't filled out the survey/paid shipping can do so. Basically: if you neglected to make sure you'll get your rewards from this by now...you will not. I can't keep the door open indefinitely. Everyone else is totally unaffected by me doing this!
The result of confronting the manu about the glittery ones: REMAKES WILL BE PRODUCED (again). Caps for emphasis of my relief. I'm so glad they agreed. I've already been sent proof of them glowing this time.
All machine 2 spins for this campaign (and paws) have the new, correct Wood - this should be clear by now but I want to reiterate.
ALL machine 1 and 2 spins AND the individual choice ones are set aside and were quadruple counted. I added a few extra just to be cautious.
My gacha machines will be at the con as originally hoped, but the difference is that Abduction in the machines will be the glittery one...and the Wood one will be the first iteration (as I mentioned before). I also, due to the sheer volume of seconds grades, only have about half the stock for machines compared to what I anticipated I would.
Moth seconds pin grab bags are available with my Monster Girls campaign (live now)! I have...a lot... but the ones I've listed are going pretty fast! May have to add more.
In his own Early Summerween campaign, my fiance has a moth as his freebie for 5+ pin pledges (the moth mold is a collab between us, hence the backstamp - but all of the designs from this campaign were solely mine except Wood) or also available as a separate add-on, in case anyone is interested!
You and the paws campaign backers SOLD ME OUT OF PILLS!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! 😭 I am so grateful!! The only ones I have left are red nebula, constellation, and r18 (and that's because more of those were made than the others...regretting that lol). The ones still needing to go out are set aside with the rest!!
Will update again in a few weeks if I have more news!! Otherwise, I will continue quietly sending out rewards as I can!
As the title says. The upsetting update is that all of the Abduction remakes have GLITTER in them instead of glowing. Genuinely can't believe this. To make it more clear how big of a deal this is, 73 orders pending have Abduction in them and I only have around 20 that aren't seconds pins (that are made the right way). This....is seriously insane. Genuinely can't believe it.
I haven't actually graded these remakes yet, just peeked at them, that will take me another day or 2 of doing that then attempting to negotiate for any other problems... I don't even know how long they've been done, I've been bugging the guy weekly but he only finally said last weekend (they shipped really fast), when I reached out, that they were finished. He also constantly leaves me on read now, I guess he's feeling as done with me as I feel with him. So I'm really nervous about the outcome here and will keep you updated.
I will have to pay shipping yet again if he sends me more remakes...I'm positive I was ripped off on purpose as this package was $65 and a pound of bubblewrap for no reason. I haven't been sent a tariff bill yet. That I might have to pay them twice for these remakes is very distressing.
Also, I now FINALLY have glitter laminate sticker sheets without any kind of peeling/lifting issues so those can now be fulfilled without incident. This was the 4th total time having those sheets remade. 😣
Once all remakes are sorted, those last orders sans 50+ Abduction-inclusive ones can begin going out....
At least wood is now made correctly. 🥴
Thanks for your patience. This is really upsetting for me as I truly just wanted this to be the last hurdle to getting everything out.
Hello to the 98/148 of you who fulfilled your surveys but have not yet received your packages (and the 50 of you who have received them):
I saw some confusion under my last update. As indicated in the first paragraph ("because of the chrome plating for some of the moth designs those are still not done and pretty much guaranteed to be charged tariffs upon landing stateside"), it was indeed about the moths and about the trade war affecting that shipment and future shipments. It was not posted here accidentally or irrelevant to this campaign. Pintopia's campaign was briefly mentioned as an aside because many people backed both (thank you!).
I want to say here at the top, too, again: please email me directly instead of contacting BK on your survey or through your pledge if you want to speak to me. Otherwise you will just get a staff member who may or may not fwd me your message. The site's notification system is also incredibly broken and creators almost never are notified of comments on their campaigns or updates. My email has been in other updates: [email protected]
Here are some bulleted progress notes separated by relevant section, if I were to type all this info in paragraph format I think I would drone on and this is already a lot. Most of this has already been said in previous updates.
Remakes:
I have been bugging my rep about updates about the moths pretty relentlessly. I really didn't expect the fish to be received sooner than them, but because they were done faster I paid for them to ship separately so I wouldn't be charged tariffs on the fish.
As a reminder, I'm not even selling those fish yet, I'm not making money off of them from anyone and I self-funded their production and shipment.
As another reminder, the orders that haven't gone out yet either contain wood or contain the chance of receiving wood (the gacha pool it is in) and it would be very unfair/misleading of me to entirely exclude it from the pool while remakes are happening. That's why those haven't gone out, not just the ones that explicitly claimed it, because not one of those reached out to tell me they'd be fine just receiving the misprint. If they had, and weren't pending anything else, they'd have their order. I took that as permission to hold off and just pursue the remakes.
I WILL be charged tariffs on the moth remakes because they didn't finish them last month. While they're technically "free" because they're replacing a small volume of the number I received that have severe defects, they still have an assigned value and I also have to pay shipping for them. As noted in the most recent cat paws campaign update, that shipping cost will be around $50-$70 based on past shipments of similar size (I'm giving a range here because this company agreed to remake fewer moths than the other one did for paws, so it will be lighter). Then there will be ~145% tariffs billed to me on the item value, and also import fees that didn't exist before.
Fulfillment:
7 shipping labels have been printed for catmoth orders I mentioned as being able to fulfill. They are going out this week.
The other catmoth-containing orders possible to fulfill are going out next week.
Because of the tariffs, I have mentioned in several updates that I have to have moth gacha pins at my convention coming up, as a heads up, even if I can't get everything sent out first before it. Everyone's pins are reserved!!! That is possible to guarantee even considering gacha chances, and as for Machine 1 pulls I've already done those and set them aside. There will not be stock taken to the con that has already been sold to backers!! Let me make that clear, again! I truly cannot afford to wind up in the red in any capacity over either of these pin campaigns, so taking them to the con is necessary for me - and for the paws, I am only taking seconds pins in grab bags, not even a machine.
Obviously...this campaign is overdue. The vast majority of the delay is because of the manufacturer. As I mentioned before and apologized for as well...I'm not working with them anymore. That's all I can really say, because I'm doing my best to rectify the issues they caused, and that I caused by putting my trust in them one last time.
Despite being overdue, it's "only" (not trying to minimize it) been a little less than 6 months since I received payment and was able to send it to the manu to get the ball rolling. CNY also happened in that timeframe, halting all manufacturing for weeks as workers across the country took their much-deserved largest vacation time of the year.
For those who also pledged for paws and are still waiting, it's possible for me to bundle shipments once remakes are in and refund 1 of the shipping charges.
I wish I was faster at physically packing things up when I actually have rewards right in front of me, and I did already for orders that could go out (pending the upcoming batch), but I am very severely chronically ill. I have to psych myself up for days to weeks to get 1 day in which I am able to do more than just life-sustaining chores and taking care of our pets. That's just how it is - but I also can't afford to not work. Because I'm American. Unfortunately many of you probably relate to that sentiment. So instead I spend most days practically a zombie.
I had my online shop closed for about 2 months just to try to recover a bit, and art is my only job. Crowdfunding is not for profit, it's to fund the rewards and then hopefully profit off of the leftover items later. So in those several months where I was closed and trying to fulfill what I could of the disaster handed to me by my manu(s), I was not secretly making money off of you or any other customers.
To reiterate as well, as mentioned in an earlier update and at the top of this update, I do also have 1/3 of rewards already fully sent out and taken care of. More are being added to that count this/next week. Not everyone is pending. If you are one of the backers who received them already, I hope you like them!
I just have to go at my own pace once things are in-hand... I apologize that it's slow. Everyone that filled out their surveys WILL receive what they reserved/paid for.
As always...please reach out where I will see it if you have any questions!
Hey all, so they've finished the fish early because it's just dyed metal, but because of the chrome plating for some of the moth designs those are still not done and pretty much guaranteed to be charged tariffs upon landing stateside.
I don't know what value he will declare it at so I don't know what to expect. And he just doxxed a customer he considers a scammer on social media yesterday. 🫠 full address and everything. So I am...being very cautious about how I speak to him right now and what questions I'm asking...not that I am or have ever been a scammer, and I'm not mean to him or any other reps. But at this point I am a little afraid of him after he pulled that stunt yesterday as he said to someone else that he doesn't care that it's illegal elsewhere to doxx people.
The current plan for Colossalcon stock specifically is that I will have seconds paws there available, but moths and all other collections will be in the machines as standards only. This is of course after all remaining orders have all of their items set aside and safely reserved (aside from the few I can't fulfill yet because of necessary remakes), something I'm almost done doing.
I don't know yet if I'll need help dealing with the tariffs if they arrive before Colossal, but right now other than reserved shipping for you I am running on empty so it is likely.
BK is working on a feature for all future (American, possibly worldwide) projects where tariffs will be added as a separate line item during the surveys in addition to shipping. So while this sucks and I hate to put it on other people, it's better for everyone than having to do something outrageous like a 200%+ buffer for each campaign goal/stretch, because of needing additional buffers for non-payer pledges and the tariff amount constantly fluctuating. It will be applied to the monster girls campaign next month if all goes well!
I am mostly through grading them and they look good. In particular, the print is incredible! Especially the black on black wings, it's only visible when the light hits it and is exactly what I wanted, the perfect subtle texture.
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Sorry for the brief advertisement, all fulfillment updates are below for backers only - but this is a reminder that late May will be my monster girl pin collection as a part of Early Summerween!
Returning backer freebie is a mini pin of my (currently retired) mini bat mold!
We are still moving ahead with this despite the economic uncertainty, a ton of planning went into this group project. Since we have 5 members, instead of cross-collabs we are offering a 5-pin freebie set to anyone who backs all 5 for at least 1 campaign pin each. Here is the list of all participants if you want to give anyone a follow!
(Also, this is my fiance's first solo pin project so it would be amazing if people would vote on his unlock order poll - thank you!)
