Hey everyone, here's how the last steps are going to go (loosely)
Hi, sorry for the silence, which is why this update will also be going out to MGR backers!!
I'm still physically recovering from Katsucon. Unfortunately, the event itself d...
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Midnight Springs
about 1 month ago
Final survey closing reminder!!
Hey everyone, final reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th, tomorrow, by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, r...
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Midnight Springs
about 1 month ago
Survey "closing" in 5 days!
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, really limi...
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Midnight Springs
about 1 month ago
SURVEYS SENT. PICTURE-HEAVY UPDATE: more pin + shaker (and some pudding) info
** Parts of this update were written weeks ago because of the issues I've been having with my hands; it took me a long time to get the survey out and take pictures of the pud...
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Midnight Springs
about 2 months ago
She's back and with brows!!!
However, since they made me send all the seconds pins back too I now have to re-sort through them...and they double-bagged them AGAIN even though I explicitly asked them not ...
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Midnight Springs
about 2 months ago
Some catch-up info
• Angel's issues have been fixed and are back into production with the new enamel types
• Demon has just been shipped back to me with fresh eyebrows
• Reprinted Gorgon just ...
Hi, sorry for the silence, which is why this update will also be going out to MGR backers!!
I'm still physically recovering from Katsucon. Unfortunately, the event itself did not go well for seemingly most sellers, including us - attendance was way down and many tables were added to the alley so the already stretched-thin economic situation was even rougher. I always like being in the area but unfortunately good vibes aren't enough to make a trip worth it for us, and the combined 28hrs on the train took a very serious physical toll.
I also had a brain MRI this week with concerning notes on it but of course the physician and radiologist both said my brain is normal despite noted abnormalities ... so I'm trying to follow up on that and not really getting anywhere yet as it's now the weekend. Fun! 🤡
Anyway, here are the next steps I have planned and hopefully can get most of the way finished before the end of the month:
More MGR1 orders to go out that can (considering remakes as still pending for that campaign), and MGR2 orders that are merged with MGR1 that can go out. Any Holiday Market orders combined with those, too. Any excess shipping charged will be refunded after labels are printed
Any Chocolat Chaud and Cryptic Compendium orders that are from backers who also backed MGR are going to be combined too and the shipping cost situation there will be figured out as soon as possible, as it's complicated quite a bit since Chocolat Chaud had to pay hundreds of USD to get the box of them to me to begin with. (Including nearly $300 in tariffs once they actually reached me...)
I can't send out gacha spins for MGR2 or individual Harpy orders yet... I wasn't shown what they looked like printed before they were shipped. Kuchisake-Onna looks great:
...but as a mixed black-and-white woman I'm really irritated by how Harpy looks:
Most prints are not just lighter than the pantone color I provided but also very grey. This makes her look really ashy which is unacceptable to me. I may be white-passing but I've still dealt with being called ashy in the past and the last thing I want to do is send out a design that looks so insensitive to darker skintones. 😡 I'd rather eat my own foot. When they return from holiday I'm going to beg for a remake of her. I have some things I'll be asking to pay for in the same email so I hope they agree.
Remake Angel is also here and looks great! So she can begin fulfillment along with the rest who were already done. The only obstacle to fulfillment for MGR2 is Harpy, but that affects gacha spins too.
The remade Geode Pets also arrived and look FAR better...mostly... so those will finally have their survey sent out soon and he'll make an update about all of that. He won't be charging shipping for people who can still combine with my orders, since my surveys went out first. It'll take a bit of figuring out now that there's so many different campaigns being combined for some...which I'm so sorry for.
From MGR1 the status is the same as last time, I'm still waiting on the remakes of Elfling, Baphomet, and the additional Ghouls they didn't originally send me...
Hey everyone, final reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th, tomorrow, by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, really limiting options for add-ons. There are still currently 9 unsubmitted surveys.
If you answered the survey but didn't hit submit because you're thinking it will auto-charge - that was just something done by BK for the holiday market so we could get our stuff out faster, I really do need you to submit once you've made your choices. If you just don't want to pay yet on the 13th or can't, that's seriously no big deal, just email me at [email protected] about it. But I really do need you to hit submit or I won't be able to reserve what you picked via survey (live campaign picks are already reserved).
The pins that will remain available to claim on survey after Feb 9th deadline are K-O, Harpy, Demon, and Mermaid. For grab bags, seconds pins of the monster girls and seconds pins of the minis will remain up on survey and preorder store. No gacha spins of any kind will remain up.
Then on the 11th, a 48hr notice will go out about locking orders, and on the 13th you will be locked and charged (if you didn't opt to be charged already).
New info:
Since I have to bring the girls to Katsucon so I have the best chance of it being worth the expenses out the wazoo I had to put into this, this was the fairest way I came up with to do so:
*still subject to change because I haven't printed those machine graphics yet. Ope
I made a slight change and swapped which machine Necro is in because I looked back at production costs.
$16/pin CHOICE: Mermaid, Angel v1, Elfling v1
Angel's remake is otw to me now (though unlikely to arrive by the time we leave Weds ...), and Elfling's remakes won't ship until next month ... but backers won't be receiving the ones I am bringing to the con, because the remakes will BETTER reflect the art and the price point, as well as almost-certainly be much higher quality overall. At the same time, because the first batches of those pins were so overwhelmingly awful, the ones that are actually passable as "standard grade" (but have the wrong colors/enamel type for the design itself) are currently immovable unless I bring them to this convention.
Since they'll be out on display, people can see how they currently look - which isn't like how they were advertised to all of you, which is why I'm making sure to fix it - and make an informed decision on whether they want them like that or not. I feel that's fair and also doesn't rip any of you off that are still waiting.
This brings me back again to submitting your surveys: I am using those counts to make sure your pins are absolutely 100% safe!!! I've reserved everything currently picked/unshipped across all campaigns' designs, +5-10 per design, but there are dramatically different quality levels per design (for example, I'm having all of Baphomet remade from the 1st because only 8 of her didn't have something majorly wrong in some form, and her eyes also didn't glow like I paid for. Nothing that extreme here since Angel was remade thank goodness!). Some of the puddings are also pretty limited per design.
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, really limiting options for add-ons. There are still currently 10 unanswered surveys.
The pins that will remain available to claim on survey after Feb 9th deadline are K-O, Harpy, Demon, and Mermaid. For grab bags, seconds pins of the monster girls and seconds pins of the minis will remain up on survey and preorder store. No gacha spins of any kind will remain up.
The general add-ons remaining left to claim after feb 9th deadline on survey and preorder store are konpeito milk and both types eye boba. Bandages also. No puddings or stickers as I can't be sure how well they'll do or not. No septums as I don't know how well they'll do either, I sold out pretty much entirely of the 16G ones I brought the last time I went to Katsucon, but this time I have almost entirely different designs in stock so 🤷♀️
Then on the 11th, a 48hr notice will go out about locking orders, and on the 13th you will be locked and charged (if you didn't opt to be charged already).
Thank you to the early payers, as I was able to pay that 2nd half for Harpy and K-O just as they were finishing up, they should ship to me tomorrow. I paid extra for fedex rather than UPS this time so they MAY reach me before I leave for katsucon next weds night but it's unlikely.
Because of all this uncertainty (which has nothing to do with those who chose to wait for the 13th, as you have every right to, and everything to do with my manus all taking so long across both collections!!), I have to wait last-minute to order my signage for my machines, as I don't know yet what will be in them, and it's really stressing me out. I'm currently about halfway thru grading the part 2 pins to be sure that everything claimed + 10 extra for good measure are being left at home. Your claims will not be oversold. The deadline of the 9th for claiming extras ensures this.
** Parts of this update were written weeks ago because of the issues I've been having with my hands; it took me a long time to get the survey out and take pictures of the puddings/shakers because of pain. **
I'm sorry, I know with Pintopia going on this is HORRIBLE timing but it's the best I could do. Hard-ish deadline for this survey is February 9th. On that date, I will mark anything low stock as "hidden" if I'm taking it with me to Katsucon, and you will not be able to select it. Anything purchased during the live campaign/selected before that point is still reserved for you. I will not CHARGE until Feb 13th, unless you are someone who selected the option to be charged upon submission. Shipping will begin in the latter half of February because I will need time to recover after Katsucon to avoid Post-Exertional Malaise. CONTACT ME if you need an extension on payment so that I know to still reserve your items - I don't bite!! (email: [email protected])
Pin updates:
Dullahan and Mummy are in my hands:
I haven't graded them all yet, but here are the pros and cons so far.
Pros: for very metal-heavy designs, there are very very few scratches; the pearl details look nice; the glow enamel works well; the polishing seems pretty even (no super blown-out lines); the print work is very clean. Con (singular con noticed thus far): all of Dullahan appear to have pitting in the black swirly pearl (the smoke). This means there were microbubbles in the enamel when it hardened, a lot of them, and when they were polished the microbubbles became holes. They're not noticeable at arm's length so I'm still considering them to be standards, but this is still an avoidable issue that's quite frustrating, so I apologize for it.
Correct Gorgon as well:
Reminder of Golem and TV Cat:
Stock is kind of tight on Golem because of high flaw rate so she will not be on the survey except for as gacha chance...sorry.
TV cat quality is pretty great!! Her pearl came out lovely.
WIP of remake of Angel with correct pearl effect:
Blue is masking fluid to keep enamel away from where it shouldn't be.
Harpy and Kuchisake-Onna are just waiting on printing:
She took many proof revisions to get the colors and printing right, they kept doing her hair wrong. I think the colors are going to all be good in the end result.
I'm pretty happy with how her tiny recessed metal detailing has turned out so far.
The 2nd half payment for Harpy and Kuchisake-Onna, which is required for them to ship to me, will have to be raised via this survey. Anyone who chooses to be charged upon submission will have their pledge (sans shipping) applied to that balance, helping me out immensely. Thank you!
Angel, Kuchisake-Onna, and Harpy should ALL be here before I begin shipping end of Feb.
Here are the gacha snakes I funded from the Gacha Marketplace, and their preorder store for individual choice is available here for just a few more days:
Extra Golem stickers are also in the survey:
I don't know what the final of the green bat looks like because they haven't shown me.
I also have the liquid shakers and I applied my art to them already, so I can show you how they look! They're on the survey!
Eye candy:**
All colorways I wanted to make of eye candy exist now! For the konpeito milk-inspired one, all the eyeball and konpeito colors and the decal are random. By the decal, I mean that I digitally airbrushed each "eye candy" logo independently with different pastels so none are exactly the same.
Chewy eye boba:**
Pink straw...
...or blue straw.
Check out the reflections for those eye beads!!
A purple version of the eye boba** is currently wip but didn't get here in time for this survey. It should be in my final online shop opening after Katsucon, and since I'll start shipping late Feb, I added it as a limited add-on but it will be technically a preorder. It looks REALLY cool:
I wanted it to be way more of a taro color, which is what they advertise, but I was told under no uncertain terms that that's just a reference and I can't actually choose. 😐
Also, "Mermaid slime jelly pudding" (unfortunately not actually slime, jelly, or pudding - it's a squishy) will also be on surveys:
Blue fish clasp...
...or purple tentacle clasp.
And I now have a couple colorway options for fangtastic blood pudding so I added that too (even though I opted not to do my vamp as a pin 🥲):
Glossy transfer sticker
Matte printed
The version with opaque pudding comes with a red ball chain and the version with translucent red comes with red syringe clasps. The art is also glossy (like most of mine) and hand-applied for the red ones, and the orangier ones are printed on.
I am also adding blood ion jelly** They come with red blood bag clasps.
Lastly I adapted the brain cake and zombie snax art I had before to a zombie snax pudding lid design** also!!
I.... really love the pudding squishies. And I'm allergic to silicone so it makes me extra happy that these are TPR not silicone. I have over 25 pudding lid designs now.
I apply all these transfers by hand (excluding the ones with matte printing) so placement will vary, especially because of my hand pain and tremors, but I'm doing my best and anything super off kilter I hang onto and will sell as B grade someday, I guess at conventions.
All of these things are also on the survey and kinda limited but I did have to order full stock of them, so I really don't expect anything to come close to selling out. So Katsucon will be very monster girl heavy for me lol.
I meant to send out surveys Jan 1st, but so many things just were out of my hands. Ultimately, I'm glad that Mummy, Dullahan, and Mermaid (backers only, see below) arrived before I sent them.
I have made a preorder store with the above listings. Preorder store does NOT include individual listings of girls, however, only gacha spins. Preorder listings for this campaign are NOT charged immediately upon submission, so please let me know if you are purchasing and want to combine shipping with something else that hasn't gone out yet.
**ALL ITEMS WITH THESE ASTERISKS NEXT TO THE NAME ARE GOING TO BE INDEFINITE MERCHANDISE AND ELIGIBLE FOR RESTOCK BASED ON DEMAND, AS THEY ARE CONNECTED TO MY GAME DEV THEMATICALLY. As a reminder, I won't never sell things online again, they will just be items dedicated to my games once all the misc now-considered-limited-edition merchandise has sold out. I will be keeping the midnightsprings.com url but I'm very unlikely to keep the bigcartel. We'll see what happens.
However, since they made me send all the seconds pins back too I now have to re-sort through them...and they double-bagged them AGAIN even though I explicitly asked them not to.
Honestly, for fulfillment for her I think I'll just sort as I go because this is too much. 🥴
These are all good!
Her eyebrows were really important because of her vertical brow piercings.
However, I sent them 12 Golem back to "fix" and they only returned 11 and are insisting I only sent 11, so now I'm just arbitrarily out $6 and have 1 less of her.
I have these now too, they JUST arrived!! It's not very visible in this lighting, but the sparkle in the smoke and the armwarmers/sleeves on Dullahan IS visible in person and they look amazing!! Especially the smoke.
Mummy's shadows on her veiny hands look very good, really subtle but they stand out in person like I wanted.
I am actively counting them because I JUST got them but ran to edit this update, which was only drafted with the Demon info, so that I could show you them. I hope they're great and will grade them as quickly as I can.
I also need to mention that Mermaid hasn't shipped to me yet because her printing wasn't done right, the skin (which looks amazing!) is much darker than intended because of the various steps in the production process, so when they printed the shadows on her skin they turned out WAY too pale and instead look like uncanny highlights. They didnt sample her, they did all 100 that way without running it by me so they are now printing back over them with a new color we decided on. This manufacturer hateeesss me now. 😬 the feeling is pretty mutual, how hard is communication...I mean, really... when she does finally ship she should be here within 3 business days since they use FedEx.
Working on survey now!! Will have big update post when sent out!
Thank you for your patience!!!!
PS: Assuming everyone will be done in time (including Kuchisake-Onna and Harpy, whose molds just finished being made last week), I will have a $15 spin GACHA machine at Katsucon and a $20 GACHA machine. So, you guys all got them at a discount, some very hefty.
