Ribbits everyone!

I've said multiple times now that I wouldn't update too much but I'm just too excited to not pop in and show some pins! I think you all don't mind.

More sample pictures
Past weeks I've been surprised by my manu with screenprint sample pictures. I had not expected them to be honest, but this is the first time I'm doing screenprint and working directly with a pin manufactor instead of a middle man. Pleasantly surprised tho! I'm only missing the Black rain frog. I received it but the screenprint was so light I asked if they could change it to another. Waiting on that one for now. All others are now approved tho! (The tadpoles were done already, they didn't had any screenprint.)

The Pacman frog had some issues with the screen print colour at first. So I asked for another colour but that was not it. But now the left is the final choice and approved one! Right is way too bright, would be a good one for the albino colour variant. Maybe in a future crowdfunding or pre-order in the shop.

Freebie enamel pin backing card
In the meantime I've also finished the freebie backer pin backing card. Not yet ordered but I'm still waiting on the pins so there's not need for it yet.

Combined Shipping
Regarding the combined shipping Roundbirbart has emailed a bunch of you already to check if you wanted combined shipping or not. I've processed those who emailed back manually. So those who mailed back should now have 'Local Pickup' in their survey country address.
Please double check yourself if you have the Collab freebie pin from us both and you want combined shipping to enter 'Local Pickup' in your address line instead of United States/Germany/whatever country the pins need to go to. This only counts for my survey.

Shipping and tariffs
Like the last update it's changing all the time. The 200+% has dropped down again now to.. somewhere around 50% for those in the United States. This will be until August somewhere but we'll just have to see how it'll go. To prepare yourself, expect a payment needed with anything coming from outside of the United States. For orders outside of Europe it's an additional 20%, but there's also the de minimum. My thoughts are: prep some budget on the side for any possible extra payments you need to pay as the person 'importing' the items. That way you are prepared!

Locking surveys and charging cards
Here to mention I'll be locking survey's and charging cards when I get a shipment notice of the enamel pins. Not sure when that'll happen,but I'll be sure to let you all know a few days before that. Just make sure all is set and filled in correctly. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier. Don't worry about feeling like you are bothering me with questions, I'm here to help!

When will the pins be shipped
I'll be honest, I don't know exactly if all the approved screenprint samples are now in production or done already. These photo's were sent to me over the past few weeks. I think it's safe to say I won't receive the enamel pins before the weekend of 7 and 8 June. I have the German convention DoKomi then and would have liked to offer pick up there. Bu I don't think I'll have them by then.

And that's all it! If you are attending DoKomi beginning of June I'll be in Hall 4 at booth 4M03 and I wish you a very fun convention weekend. The next convention will be Dutch Comic Con two weeks after. Can't wait till I have the pins tho, super stoked for them!

Wishing you a frogtacular early weekend!

P.S. I'm overly excited but I'm planning to do a much smaller crowdfunding in August. Focused on poison dart frogs and possibly salamanders. Hit the 'count me in' button if you like to stay updated. Nothing is set yet but hope you are excited for this as much as I am already, ahaha.

Ribbits frogs!

All enamel pins are officially in full production! To celebrate, here are all the enamel pin sample pictures I've received. There are a few with some minor edits and they are all very nakey without their screenprint.. but I'm super excited about them all! 

The Nothern glass frog will be partially transparent and the Black rain frog will have recessed textured metal with semi transparent resin in a brown colour on it. It's all working out as planned so far, so super pleased with that!

Love to hear what you think of all these Frogtastic Frogs!

A little information recap for your ease:

Locking and charging the survey's won't happen before the end of April.
I will first check for all the combined shipping if that's set up correctly and after that I'll give an heads up when I will lock and charge the survey's. I'll probably to the route that Roundbirbart did: charging and locking the survey's when the enamel pins are being sent yo me.

Please keep an eye out on your email (the one you use for Backerkit) in case I contact you about the combined shipping.

No backer but interesting in the frog pins?
For those who didn't join the campaign I have opened a pre-order shop!
Pre-orders made in this shop will be shipped out together with the Backer fulfillment.

What about the tariffs?
Just like Roundbirbart I am located in the Netherlands, Europe.
It's still unclear how this would look like with all the tariffs, but I can warn you all to be prepared to pay 20% extra on top when the parcel will arrive in the US. That's how these tariffs work, the percentage amount needs to be paid extra. That said for the Netherlands there's still the de minimum active (anything under $800 will be exempt for customs) so there's also a chance no extra costs will happen.

Everything else I'm still looking into, seeing how it's going for those shipping things out now, etc. But I think it is safe to say: expect to pay some more money when the parcel arrives in the US. These costs are for those 'importing' the parcel, so that would be you, the backer. There's also a chance no extra costs will pop up but I want to be clear and transparent on this part. I'll continue with the 'wait and see' mindset for now and keep you updated.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier.

Have a frogtastic week everyone!

Ribbits everyone!

My manu has sent me a few sample photo's of a few enamel pins!
I could not contain myself and wanted to show them to you.

Mind you they are missing the screen print still, a reason why the Northern Glass Frog now looks so.. odd, hahaha. Their toe misses resin which I pointed out to them. I also asked if they could give me a photo with the Northern Glass frog against some light to see if it's transparent enough. These photo's are always a fun one to work with.

A little information recap for your ease:
There are 9 survey's waiting to be filled in still. There are still 14 failed charges as well.
Fulfillment will hopefully(!) happen around June and after Backers (and pre-orders) have been fulfilled I'll place the leftover pins in my personal webshop and sell them at conventions I'll be vending at. Any late survey's or failed charges that will go through after this period will have the change to get fulfilled still but chances are you have little to pick from. Leftover pins only.

Locking and charging the survey's won't happen before the end of April.
I will first check for all the combined shipping if that's set up correctly and after that I'll give an heads up when I will lock and charge the survey's.

No backer but interesting in the frog pins?
For those who didn't join the campaign I have opened a pre-order shop!
Pre-orders made in this shop will be shipped out together with the Backer fulfillment.

What about the tariffs?
Seeing I'm located in the Netherlands, Europe I'm unsure about how this will go.. I can't ship them off before they go active, so I am currently going at this in a 'wait and see' mindset. The de minimum is still active for Europe so things shouldn't change really in that regard but honestly.. we don't know what stupid things the orange toddler will think of in the future. I have no clue and will keep an eye out on what folks will experience the upcoming months.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier.

Here's till next time with hopefully some more fun sample pictures!

Ribbits everyone!

In this update I'll tell you about what I've been doing, what to expect with the survey and other small bits good to know.

Pin order has been placed!
I've been busy vectorizing the frog designs. I love to do this but it takes a bit of time, it's all finished now so that's done!

While working on those files I've been going back and forth with my manu but the quote has been finalized and approved! Today I paid for the quote and sent all the files over. I now have to wait to check the artwork files and then wait on sample photo's. I requested samples of the pins first to check the colours. I want to be sure I picked the right ones before I approve for mass production. Making a sample takes just as much time as making a regular batch of pins so it'll be a while before I hear back after approval of the artwork.

What about the surveys and the combined shipping?
Almost ALL surveys have been filled in! There are about 17 not filled in but I'm leaving those be for now. Thank you all for filling in and leaving such fun suggestions and remarks.

There are a bunch of you who didn't pick Local Pickup but do want the combined shipping. For those I'll manually edit it so it's all correct before the surveys will be locked and charged.

I will also contact those who have the cross collab freebie pin but didn't mention the combine shipping nor did they pick Local Pickup. I can understand some just want two happy mail hop their way over, but to be sure I'll contact everyone about it when the time is due.

There are also still 14 failed charges on top of those 17 not filled in survey's.
I'm not sure I'll have to set terms and conditions about fulfillment after x amount of months, but know this: I won't know if I'll restock the pins when sold out so any late Backers will have less to choose from. Not something that'll happen soon, selling out and not restocking, but a heads up is always nice.

And what about charging the surveys?
I'm not sure yet when I'll lock and charge the surveys. I asked when Roundbirbart will and she won't do it until much later. I won't suddenly lock and charge them without letting you all know a few days before hand. First I need to check the combined shipping, but I don't expect to lock the surveys before end of April. I'll keep you updated about this, of course.

There are a few who had some hiccups with the surveys, I also still have one who's survey won't deem itself complete sadly, but I'm working on it. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier.

For now this will be the last update for awhile, until I have something important to mention. But if you need me you can reach out anytime!

Have a frogtastic day everyone!

No backer but interesting in the frog pins?
For those who didn't join the campaign I have opened a pre-order shop! 
Pre-orders made in this shop will be shipped out together with the Backer fulfillment.

Ribbits everyone!

Good news in this update because the survey has been approved!
This means I'll be sending out the survey this weekend.

Here's a little recap:

Combined shipping with Birds of Rotterdam.
If you backed both Birds of Rotterdam and Frogtastic Frogs you can use the combined shpping.
You pay shipping costs over at Birds of Rotterdam but need to follow some information I've mentioned in my survey. It's mentioned in the first question so it should be easily followed.

Roundbirbart and I will cross reference the information provided by you all and make sure both the birds and the frogs are in one package. Plus the two freebie pins of the duckling and frog on a lily pad, of course!

Only backed Frogtastic Frogs
If you only backed Frogtastic Frogs, you can ignore this information and carry on like usual for surveys and fill in your shipping information so you pay the correct amount.

Early frog freebie
The Early Frog freebie for those who backed in the first 48h will be added to your order automatically. The same goes for any add-ons you already added during the campaign. I'll make sure everything is added to your parcel when the time comes.
If you wish to add extra sticker sheets you can do so via the add-ons offered via the survey. That way you can get extra's with your extra's.

Choose which frogs you want + add extra's
Via the survey you'll let me know which frog you'd like to receive. You can also add some more add-ons before checking out, they are the same I offered during the campaign. Like socks, extra stickers and the sticker sheets.

No backer but interesting in the frog pins?
For those who didn't join the campaign I have opened a pre-order shop!
Pre-orders made in this shop will be shipped out together with the Backer fulfillment.

I believe that's all the important parts, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier.

Have a frogtastic weekend everyone!