Good evening, gang! If you're me, and you work the hours, I do, typing this 20 minutes to midnight is still 'evening.' Cool it.
That's all, folks - CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS wrapped up on Thursday at 4 PM.
Overall, while we didn't unlock everything, we had a pretty successful run. It was a difficult year for Pintopia projects in general, but I'm satisfied with where we're at. I know we wanna get to the meat of things, so...
Here's some quick numbers.
C3 wrapped up at $14,441. We went, in our last 48 hours, from being KPH's second-worst performing crowdfund, to being the second best, behind last year's CRITTER CRIMES in the $15k ballbark.
C3's got 359 backers. This is second to BIRD CRIMES, at 469.
140 of you are returning backers. That's 140 of you who will be getting the silver Loyal Akita pin. Thank you for coming back and sticking with it through it all this year.
194 of you also backed Henrieke's THE HYENA FAMILY. That's a free 1.75" BIG hyena pin for you. Awesome!
We're finishing up with 79 total pin designs for backers to pick from. This is the highest, with GOLDEN AGE PARROTS our runner up.
We are 22 of 22 funded projects in the PIN SAFARI group! Thanks for supporting my animal artist buddies this year.
As mentioned, we have 79 total pin designs. Our two final 1.5" designs are the Duck Toller and the Werewolf!
The Duck Toller is our last-minute sponsor, from a very passionate breed enthusiast. These aren't the most common canines around, but they're an unmistakable working dog. Thank my buddy Fieldpup for this one, dog collectors!
Our Werewolf, ever popular (for better or... for, uh, rabid), will also be available.
You guys don't understand. I have already been paid unspeakable amounts of money to draw this character in compromising situations. Was the halal plate worth it? Who knows, man. But that fish fry got me through vectors, so, thanks, I guess.
We need to have a quick, downer, type of talk about the rest of the MONSTERS tier. I've tried to be pretty open about fraudulent, cancelled, or heavily downgraded pledges being an issue this Pintopia, and, lo and behold, it is going to bite us in the ass a bit here.
Our last-minute $600 pledge I was worried about did end up paying. However, we are out a startling amount due to failed charges right now. Cards just started charging today, so this is recoverable. But, due to an exceptionally high number of failed payments on my last campaign, and the extremely high rate of cancellations already, I am going to be erring on the side of caution.
Go make sure your card is up to date - mine wasn't! I was that guy, too. Sorry, everyone!
I may make the other MONSTERS pins available as cards successfully charge. However, it is a risky move to self-fund 4 more pins with the net amount we're looking at right now. I'm looking for total charges, plus after-campaign numbers, to reach about $16.5k to get here. I'll keep you posted. I'm sorry to disappoint, but, there are other options for now!
There are still preorders, too, to make up that number, so we'll see where we go.
As of right now, these 4 BIG pins, 75 1.5" pins, and all of their corresponding stickers are available to you!
So, what's next?
For me, it's custom pins. I have two of you, one with a good email rapport and references, and one who needs to send me some more information. I'm headed downstate for Chinese new year, so realistically, you're gonna be hearing from me the 20th or 21st. Not too late to send me additional refs or ideas, though!
We're on schedule for surveys, if not a little ahead of time. I've been getting pledge manager stuff set, getting giveaway and promotional backers smacked with some extra credits, and getting pin renders cleaned up. Late February, early March, is a good time to start expecting your survey.
Preorder store's probably coming then, or earlier! If you missed the campaign, you still have a chance to get pins at the $9 a head rate. While discount tiers are gone, and there won't be any more freebies, you can purchase most stuff at the campaign price, and you'll get it when our backers do in the spring.
I have some catch up work to do, too. There's still a few stragglers from CC who need custom work done. If this is you, please reach out to me.
If you purchased a CUSTOM CRIME for CRITTER CRIMES, you were subjected to unfair delays due to circumstances outside of your control. You are entitled to a $10 campaign credit on your C3 pledge. Contact me either in our work thread, or in a new email, to apply this to your campaign. This is even if you got your CUSTOM CRIME pledge already.
What's next next?
This is a hard one, and I will say, outright, I may lose a lot of you on my next project.
Let's stay vague: I am workshopping a mid-sized group event with several other creators for November. It's not golden age-styled animals, but it's something that became very dear to me this past year.
If this project is for you, it will really be for you. But, if it's not, there might be something else from another one of the wonderful, talented illustrators who have agreed to take the plunge with me.
That's all I can share for now, until we all have more done and we're given the green light by BackerKit. I'm hoping I have something to show you all soon.
As of right now, I'm OK with how C3 turned out. Things could have gone better, but in terms of everything I had in my reach, I did what I could. I turned out better than a lot of other Pintopia artists this year. Frankly, there's not really anything that made that difference except my audience. You turned out in droves for this, and for a project I was wary of taking a risk on.
Thank you for being here for these past couple weeks.
Hi everyone, Doodle here! Thank you for making my project a reality! For those who unpledged but want the Early Bird and weren't sure if they'd get it if they came back, the Worm has returned! Just comment on this update and I will include the early bird on your order as a thank you for your pledges :) You still have time to also add anything onto your orders, with the main line unlocked and steady progress into unlocking the next pin!
To both celebrate 350 followers and the success of this project, there is a live giveaway pinned on my Instagram that will close on 1/4/2026 at 11:59 pm AEDT!
Then a little bit about a future project, mainly to let people vote while this is still active! It will probably take a few months to a year to organize something a bit more formal for this project (this one took 3 months to build, whew!), the art is not finalized at all but I would love to see what people think and vote for to see if any particular birds capture people's whimsy
(also for wallet reasons this will be way down the line but ambition got to me and I already made the launching page-)
And then a few other things: A few things need to happen before we can commence production and fulfillment:
1. Backerlit needs to transfer over the funds so we have the money to make the rewards (this can take up to two weeks).
2. An earlier update around affordable shipping was posted recently, at the point of funds being collected, a survey will be sent out to everyone to start planning with FleaCircus the most affordable way to fulfil everyone's orders! Estimates were calculated in that update, but note that these are ESTIMATES and variations due to duties, taxes and tariffs may still unexpectedly influence the final cost of shipment. 3. I'll give you a heads-up before sending the survey so that you can watch for it. You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to answer your survey. The invitation email contains a link to your personal survey. It is important to submit your responses as quickly as you can since we need this information to process your rewards. 4. If you need to change your survey responses, purchase add-on items, or update your shipping information, you can click the link in your survey email again or request your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on the BackerKit project page. (This page will only start working after we send the surveys out.) 5. Answering your survey help us get your rewards out to you faster. BackerKit helps us save lots of time by streamlining the survey process, automating data organization, and providing us with pledge management software to make it easy to process your pledge reward shipments. 6. If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your crowdfunding account, the BackerKit survey link is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact me at [email protected]
Again, thanks for all your support. I'm excited to share these silly brids with the world!
Click the link to join the community and chat! It's free and gives all backers a free roll of washi tape themed with the Brids of Australia in their pledge! The more you chat, the more points you accumulate
Goal: 5,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
A project where you can take a bird into your everyday life! This plush has each wing designed to fit one standard credit card, one on the bottom of the body, a sensory popping toy inside the front and (potentially) a slot for spare coins and notes at the back of the body! Simply place your preferred card(s) in each slot, tap on payment terminals for a bit of everyday whimsy
A way better image can be seen in the update!
It's been a while since I wrote an update. I had to fix some other deadlines (taxes for one.. yuck) and I had my birthday come up! But now I'm back on the Frogtastic Frogs 2 train and I wanted to share the artworks for the big pins!
Giant Salamander, American bull frog and Cane toad
We've unlocked 2 already and are getting closer to unlocking the Cane toad but it's a real rollercoaster ride at the moment, ahaha. I do hope we can unlock it and the four Axolotl designs after it!
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Backing several campaigns in a short time can be a bit confusing so here's a little overview for Frogtastic Frogs 2!
• All designs are unlocked, except the stretch goals above. Totaling in 17 amphibians to choose from as of right now. (The big pins will cost the same as the other enamel pins: €12 no extra costs.)
• If you back both Frogtastic Frogs 2 and Birds of North America you will get the researcher collab pins of both of us added for free. One frog, one bird!
• Birds of North America and Frogtastic Frogs 2 are both very local so we are offering combined shipping! Perfect for those who wish to push down the expenses a bit. Info about this in the survey of Frogtastic Frogs 2.
• For US backers tariffs are calculated and added during the survey. At this point enamel pins made in China are 35% tariff so keep this in mind. We collect the tariffs so you don't have to expect any extra expenses when you receive the parcel this summer.
• Backers of pledge levels 3 pins or more get a free new mini pin set of 3 tadpoles! This mini pin set is also available as an add-on for the regular price of €12.
• We're part of Pin Safari which means if you back 3+ projects in Pin Safari you will get a free polaroid vinyl sticker of those backed projects added for free. Good to know: Birds of North America is part of that too!
• Previous Frogtastic Frogs 1 and Poison dart frog & Salamander enamel pins are all available as add-ons! So you can make your collection complete while backing this project.
That's it for now! Hope you all had a nice start to February, I know I did I got birthday cake!
I figure this is a great place for people to share their favourites, as I'm assuming most people here are excited about showing their love for our Aussie birds through their pins and keychains!
For me it's a difficult choice, as I love pretty much all Australian birds, but I might have to go with the Superb Fairywren. Very close contenders are the Budgerigar, Rainbow Bee Eater, and Regent Honeyeater. 💕
... and the Superb Parrot, and the White-Bellied Sea Eagle... and the Red-Browed Finch...
What an amazing start to the campaign in the first 24 hours! Thank you all so much for the support from the start!!
We've fully funded so that means all 15 amphibians are available to choose from when the campaign ends. And every backer that pledges 3+ pins gets a set of tadpoles mini pins added for free! (These are also available as a purchasable reward.) You can switch from pledge levels if you wish to qualify for this set of free mini pins.
Extra stretch goals
The campaign is active for another 20 days so let's try to unlock some extra stretch goals I've prepared! To begin with three big pins for three big amphibians: Giant salamander, American bullfrog and Cane toad. The last two goals are for the axolotl fans: each goal unlocks two different axolotl shapes with different colour variants. The first unlocks the Leucistic axolotl and the Dirty Lucy axolotl. (Pink and pink with dusty spots on their face.) The last goal does the same but then for the Wild axolotl and the Heavily marked melanoid axolotl (brown spotted and very dark almost black variants.)
New pledge level
For those who wish to pledge for all the available pins (including the new stretch goals when unlocked) I've added a pledge level called 'Whole pond - one of each'! With this pledge level you will literally get one of each unlocked amphibian and you don't need to specify later on when the surveys are send out after the campaign ended. (You will still receive the survey for address, combined shipping or add-ons.)
Perfect for those who just wants the full collection! (In case we don't reach the €10.000 goal I will update you in advance to take steps if needed.)
Last year I was so surprised with how well Frogtastic Frogs went so this time we prepared a bit more, with extra amphibians in the first goal list and already though out for the stretch goals. I assume that this is enough until the end, but in case you all would like to prove me wrong, (hehe) we can always make some polls for other amphibians to turn into pins! So feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments below, I will take all suggestions with me, even if that means it's for the next project.
Previous pin designs available
For those who missed my summer project with Poison dart frogs and Salamanders: these are available as an add-on! The add-on is called: 'One previous amphibian pin (previous projects)'. Both Frogtastic Frogs 1 and the Poison dart frogs and Salamanders are available in that add-on. A great way to make your collection complete if you missed out on it!
Other news: I received the enamel pins of the poison dart frogs and salamanders this afternoon, so let me share a picture of them! Fulfillment will start one of these days so for those who backed the original project, keep an eye out on your mail box!
And that's it for this update. Thank you all so much for the support, the great responses and the fun DM's over on social media. I love that you are as enthusiastic about this all as I am! 🐸
At the moment, the Jurassic Peck logo pin is in a few pledge levels and is available as an add-on. Should I make an additional stretch goal to include this as an additional pin option across all tiers?
I spent all day working on the project, and I'm happy to announce that all the pin artwork is done! With a little less than a week until launch, I could really use your help with deciding on how to sort the stretch goals. So I've made a poll! I'll use the poll to see which designs are most popular, and organize the order of the stretch goals accordingly. Hopefully we get to unlock all of them again :)
I don't want to keep you in suspense any longer, so here is all the artwork! Scroll all the way down to vote in the poll :>
Have a good day! See you next week!
Doreen
(disregard any target amounts shown, these are just placeholders)
We're only 10 days away from the launch of Frogtastic Frogs #2!
Getting pretty exited for it and I wanted to share the full line up of amphibians in their complete colourful finished piece! A total of 15 amphibians to unlock this time around, 3 more than last time. With 3 toads, 7 frogs, 2 newts and 3 salamanders! (And if we unlock all of these very early on I'll have stretch-stretch goals set up for more amphibians!)
Plus a sneak peek at the cross collab pin you can qualify for if you back Frogtastic Frogs #2 and Birds of North America!
During Pintopia we have several special sub Banners where you can get something extra! Frogtastic Frogs #2 is in the banner Pin Safari and if you back 3+ projects in that banner you will receive an exclusive Polaroid vinyl sticker from each backed project. Frogtastic Frogs #2 polaroid has a very disgruntled frog on it!
One disgruntled frog polaroid as a freebie!
All that's left is to finish up the Early and Returning Backer freebie vinyl stickers. These I will share closer to the start of the project along with a full overview of possible pledge levels, add-ons, freebie incentives and the cross collab freebie enamel pin!
