I felt I was overdue for another proper check-in post to let you all know how the remaining fulfillment is going. I apologize in advance for the word dump, there's a lot I wanted to cover so I'm going to jump right into it - there will be a shorter TL;DR section at the end so scroll down if you'd just like the cliffnotes!
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FULFILLMENT UPDATE
In a previous update post, I offered 5 additional pin sets free of charge as a compensatory addition to pledges unshipped up to that point. Each person up to the time of writing this update who has commented with their pin selections has been accounted for - even if I didn't reply or like the comment. I created a comprehensive list of all remaining orders including everybody's requested pin selections
If you missed the post, or forgot to select extra freebies but would still like to: please do so on that same update post (just so everything is in one place) and I will add your selections to your order! You can also make a note if you specifically prefer to receive your order as-is. For those who prefer a refund instead I made note of this as well and will work to get your pledge refunded as soon as I am able.
To briefly restate my last post, my most recent college term was a lot more difficult and time consuming than expected, the short story is that I got really sick for a while right at the beginning and had to fight to catch up again for the whole rest of the term. Basically I was in survival mode and didn't get to work on fulfillment as much as I hoped to causing significant delays. I apologize for making you guys wait even longer - it was terrible timing. However since I'm on spring break right now, I've resumed the process of making my way down this list, adding freebie items to each applicable order, labeling and shipping orders. If for any reason your order is especially time sensitive (i.e. you are moving, traveling, etc) please let me know and I will prioritize your order. My goal is to ship out all remaining orders by the end of spring. If it looks like it fulfillment might continue into summer then I will let you guys know but I'm also going to make a better effort to balance remaining fulfillment and school work, once school resumes again for me on April 6th.
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ITEM QUALITY CLARIFICATION
I wanted to address a concern that somebody voiced in a private message, in case others had the same concern as well. Each pledge that is locked has had its items set aside already, and freebie pins are being quality checked as well - in other words, please don't think that any promised campaign rewards were sold (either online or at conventions) - leaving behind lower quality pins for the remaining pledges. This is not the case.
It was wrong of me to sell any more tiny warriors before adressing a large chunk of unfulfilled backerkit rewards. I apologize for this. All shop orders have been PAUSED for now until ALL backerkit rewards are shipped. Having said that, I'd like to clarify that those sold were extra stock intended specifically to sell.
The short version of what I'm saying is that 1. You don't have to worry about me running out of your promised pins and 2. I will only be giving backers quality checked pins and won't intentionally give B grades unless otherwise specified. Any unexpected B grades are simply a result of human error as I quality check each pin by eye myself and it isn't impossible that a small error would slip by unnoticed - but I do try my best to catch these even if it's just a scratch. Please know I really do care that the items you recieve are good quality!
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PLAN GOING FORWARD
I wanted to detail how I plan to restructure the way I handle my business from this point onward. I've put a lot of thought into how I can best improve and please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any more suggestions than what I've listed here.
FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
I have some product ideas for the future that I think you guys would love, and I would like to run another campaign like Tiny Warriors in the future - but not without substantial changes in how I operate the entire thing from start to finish. It's important to me that in any future endeavors you all can trust that you will recieve your items as smoothly as possible and without unnecessary delays. I've learned that there is only so much I can handle by myself and the best way for me to ensure a smoother delivery is to stop trying to run every single thing myself while juggling external responsibilities. Steps I will be taking:
In general, more thorough logistics planning pre-launch with informed second opinions. I want to handle this entire aspect of a project with a lot more scrutiny and care. The next step in the list contributes toward this as well as it will help me get a more accurate idea of the budget for shipping costs, materials, import fees - so there are fewer curveballs.
Third party fulfillment: I will utilize a third party service for any and all future campaign fulfillment. This eliminates a great deal of potential delays and issues because it won't matter if I'm busy with school, or burnt out, or sick, or traveling - I'll be able to focus on the art and the campaign itself and place the actual fulfillment process in more responsible hands. Less chaos.
More thoughtful consideration of timing. Something posessed me to run the Tiny Warriors campaign in the middle of a busy term at my school. I will not repeat this action. I learned the hard way from my Burnout Speedrun.
MY SHOP My shop is currently paused and I am not taking new orders. Previously, I kept my shop open at all times and allowed backlogs of orders to accrue until they became overwhelming for me shipping times, response times - everything - suffered as a result. When I've caught up on all outstanding orders and confidently feel that I am able to reopen, I will be running my shop a lot differently. It will likely go one of these two ways:
Option A: third party fulfillment; Similar to my plan for future campaigns I am considering third party order fulfillment services for my shop as well. I'm still looking into this option logistically but it would have my shop remain open for a longer duration of time since personal time management would be less of a factor.
Option B: small, controlled shop openings; This option has me continuing to handle order fulfillment myself but only during times when I have less going externally and can properly devote time to packing and shipping orders. What this would end up looking like is something like an order-capped 'shop drop' a few times a year rather than leaving my shop open at all times.
I'm still a bit unsure about which option is best between these two so I appreciate any suggestions as well. Please rest assured that I won't be reopening until I have a clear and concise plan forward.
COMMUNICATIONS
I've talked about this in all of my most recent updates as well but I'm working to improve my communication habits - I tend to get sort of 'lost in the sauce' between emails, twitter dm, instagram dm, etc - I may in the near future funnel all business related inquiries through email only so everything is just in one place. A good way to nudge and remind me is with a reply on these update posts.
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TL;DR UPDATE
Fulfillment:
Up to this date if you requested freebies due to delayed unfulfilled order I did make a note on your order.
Orders are being shipped with those freebies included, aiming for completion during spring
You will receive quality checked items (not B grades) unless I otherwise specifically communicated with you about giving you a B grade pin
Going forward:
Any future campaigns will use a third party fulfillment service preventing delays like this from repeating
My shop will probably either work the same or have small controlled opening periods
...Whew. I apologize for the text wall but I had a lot I wanted to say. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. I also understand completely if you are frustrated with the delays - but I am making progress. I'll continue to update frequently as well.
Just wanted to give a very quick status update (I'm going to make an effort to be more frequent with communications)
As I mentioned in my previous post my plan was to resume fulfillment after returning from vending at Anime Los Angeles. To make a long story short, I got super sick almost immediately after the convention. I got a pretty terrible cold that put me out of commission for about a week already, then while I was still in the midst of my cold, all four people in my house including me got a nasty stomach flu... I was double sick and at the same time actively helping take care of my roommates who were all also getting sick. Basically this entire thing was pretty terrible and draining, and inhibited me from doing much of anything other than just recover for multiple weeks. I'm doing much better now so I will be able to resume normalcy.
I wanted to share an update since my initial goal was to tie up all loose ends one month from my return from Anime Los Angeles (January 12th) - these circumstances have delayed me substantially so most likely it will take me a few extra weeks. I am a college student at the same time and doing my best so please bear with me. I appreciate all of your patience and understanding so much.
Hi everyone, now that it is January 2026 I owe you all an update on the status of your rewards if you have not recieved them yet.
I had hoped to resolve all outstanding pledges by the year's end, I am very sorry that I failed to do so. I want to compensate everybody in a way that feels fair based on the extremity of the delay on my part.
If you prefer a full refund please let me know and I will get this to you as soon as I am able to. To be fully transparent, with the largest pledge sizes this will likely be more difficult for me and take longer than just shipping the items. If you still prefer this option then of course I will do my best to get a refund to you.
I want to offer anybody who has not received their items to this point 5 additional pin sets of your choice (excluding Bramble & Ash which are in low supply until I restock) that I will include and ship with your existing pledge as a compensation and thank you for waiting. If you'd like to take this option then please reply to this update post as soon as possible with your pledge number/confirmation number (should be in your email) and your five pin set choices. You can also comment if you prefer your pledge shipped as-is without any extras.
I want to be as transparent as possible so here's where I'm at right now: I have two upcoming conventions in a row that I'm tabling at: Anthro Northwest (January 2-4) then Anime Los Angeles (January 8-11). Please don't think I am traveling frivolously and ignoring responsibilities. These conventions are important for me to recover funds so that I can begin issuing requested refunds. My intent is to resolve as many pledges as possible as soon as I return home from these conventions and ideally everything will be completed within one month from then.
If there are any issues with these solutions please let me know. I am trying my best to compensate everybody properly for the unexpected delays in reward fulfillment. Please know that I am working hard to restructure my business in a way that will prevent a scenario like this from reoccurring. Making art like this has always been a dream of mine and I am eternally grateful for the support I have recieved to make it possible. I was overly ambitious and tried to take on more than I could handle and I will learn from this experience. I thank you so much for your patience and understanding.
I wanted to apologize profusely for the delay in fulfillment of some remaining international pledge orders for this campaign. I'm going to do my best to explain what has caused this, not because I want to make excuses for myself, but because you all deserve better communication and I've been falling short recently.
Firstly, I want to say I am extremely grateful for the support Tiny Warriors has recieved, and I never wanted you guys to feel cheated or disappointed. To put it simply, Tiny Warriors was always an ambitious project, but even still I never ever projected the sheer scale that it would reach. Of course this is something I'm unspeakably grateful for. At the same time, its a scale I was quite ill prepared to handle to say the least. I had the support of my business partner Squiidg to run the campaign, and recruited help from some friends and family to pack hundreds of orders. Still the sheer workload of fullfillment became a lot for me and I could have done more to outsource certain work so that I could stay more on top of it.
The long and short of it is that I began encountering problems left and right with the shipment of international orders, some to the tune of huge unexpected shipping company fees which I've had to try my best to offset, and this lead into a huge executive dysfunction crash that honesty lasted multiple months. I am extremely ashamed to say it but for the last few months I allowed myself to fall extemely behind both my etsy orders and international order fulfillment for campaign pledges. I would block out all messages and emails for several weeks until they piled up and became more and more daunting. I entered a cycle of shame and burnout that self perpetuated. This obviously does not excuse my lack of accountability and I am terribly sorry for treating everybody this way, I just hope I can convey that it's a result of an internal struggle within myself and not an intent to scam or decieve anybody.
Some Etsy orders have been shipped already - this is only because international shipping through Etsy is extremely simple and streamlined in comparison to othet avenues. So when I fell behind on shipping orders it was simpler for me to chip away at the backlog of Etsy orders, but this was wrong of me. I should have prioritized Tiny Warriors pledges above all else even with the difficulties and I apologize for mismanaging priorities in this way.
If you have not recieved your pledge rewards yet, I do have it - please don't worry that I've run out of stock or anything of that nature, I have your order packed and awaiting labeling and shipment. Before the end of the year I am hoping to have completely caught up on my backlog of orders. Once again I am deeply sorry for the lack of communication and for hurting anybody's trust in me. I am making considerations for how best to avoid a scenario like this in the future including taking on less of the work myself and getting help from others to keep everything in check and avoid burnout like this again. I also want to do the best I can within my ability to make it up to anybody whose pledge reward is late. I'm unsure what the best feasible way to do that is, if anybody would be interested I could offer additional items as compensation or a significant discount code for any future orders, please let me know what you feel is most appropriate so I can make this as right as I can.
Thank you for reading, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns and I will do my best to stay diligent with this. I am once again very sorry for the inconvenience and I hope at least that this explanation can help you all understand where I am coming from without excusing the delays.
I wanted to make a quick update to let everybody know that physical rewards are being shipped now! In fact, a few of you have already begun receiving your kitties in the mail 👀 So keep an eye out for an email with your tracking number soon if you haven’t already got it!
I also finally took some photos of the actual sticker sheets to share with you all! They came out great, they are really vibrant and colorful in person! I have been running some very… scientific quality assurance tests (aka run stickers through dish washer) and can safely say these things are really durable. And waterproof!
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Sheet A
Sheet B
Sheet C
Sheet D
Sheet E
Sheet F
These sticker sheets are now available in my shop! If you missed out on them during the campaign or want to get more, now is your chance! As a reminder, I also have pin sets available for post-campaign pre-orders, which will start to ship out after campaign rewards have all been fulfilled.
A crazy kitty operation
It’s really crazy to be nearing the end of this Tiny Warriors adventure. I started sketching out these pin designs in September of 2024, almost a full year ago now! I seriously never imagined the sheer scale of what Tiny Warriors became and it’s so surreal that these pins and stickers are now real and making their way across the world. I want to thank you guys again for all your support bringing this crazy dream to life!
I can’t promise anything, but I’ve been thinking… Round two? During the tail end of the campaign I had decided I felt happy with the roster I ended up with, but as time goes on I do think I missed some characters that would be fun. BUT… there would have to be enough interest. Let me know if there are any characters you’re still dying to see!
