This was a truly insane journey the last few weeks, but I am happy to say that ALL COMPLETE ORDERS ARE NOW SHIPPED!!!

My progress has been slow and my days very long, often sitting until 10pm after work to complete these as soon as possible. My fantastic friend Blossom Beast has come down all the way from one end of Ireland to the other to help out with this and packed over 80 packages in three days. That's insane!!

This campaign has taught me a lot about streamlining the process, how various exports options work, how to use a label printer, and how to bulk upload shipping labels instead of copy pasting line for line. So thank you to all my friends and mutuals who have helped out along the way. This community is incredible and it's an honour to be part of everyone's lives here.

Be sure to look out for your packages, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know how you guys are liking the socks! :D Customer feedback is SO important to me, it helps me improve my art, craft, and how I approach designing new products. You can tag me with your goodies and reviews on Instagram, Bluesky, or Tiktok, all under @Erujayy

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Now for the stragglers.... There is around 16 of you who haven't finished filling out your pledge, or have problems with cards. That's quite a big number actually. So if you have any problems with that and would like help, either email me at [email protected] or contact backerkit staff please!

I will leave the project open for the next few weeks so people can fix up their pledges.

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Since this is going to be the last update of this project, I'm giving one last shoutout to my next campaign BUGGED OUT which is launching in a few weeks! Don't worry EU folk, nothing changes for ye, I will still ship.

I now also have some of the first pins designed! One of which will have community polls to decide for colours, so make sure to sub to the new campaign to know when those polls go live! :]

Hey robot dreamers,

Short update tonight as I'm a bit delirious with exhaustion from frantic house renovations (lot of pokers in the fire right now, but in the end there will be good things such as more space to work and handle all future fulfillments!), but I wanted to make sure I hollered out a confirmation that the dates listed in the last update are indeed proceeding as written. All Soft Circuit orders have now successfully locked, and cards are set to charge 48 hours from now. If you need to update your card information, this is your head's up to do so!

My wonderful sticker printer has been sending me plentiful updates as our order proceeds, so the remaining pieces of the not-plush-orders fulfillment puzzle should slot into place soon. :)

In terms of other imminent Circuit 'verse happenings, the dawn of Pintober and thus Spectral Circuit is now less than two weeks away! Many of you may have seen the Launch email teasing these friends, but in the event you did not, here's another glimpse --

There's a live poll over there to name the Scarab Bot Board, and tomorrow I'll be introducing a few more friends as well, so be sure to follow along if the newest units snag your fancy.

I gotta take my gentle house horse (greyhound, of course) out for his final walk of the day and then crawl into the bedmobile. Tomorrow is back to an all things Short Circuit work day! Thank you as ever for being here, getting to bring more and more of these lil creatures into the world is a delight. <3

Some housekeeping first, here is the updated timeline based on how proofing is going with the pins still in production:
NOW (October 1-15) 

Approximately October 15-31

Approximately November 1-15

Approximately November 15-30

If you compare this timeline to the last, things have pushed into November for rewards fulfillment. As is the case with all my projects I do not, as I cannot, ever guarantee holiday delivery times. Especially as shipping rates go up in the US due to the everything with the US right now and holiday shipping delays, I can't make any advance delivery estimates. 

I personally get sad when my timeline gets thrown off, so I'm going to throw in a BONUS STICKER with every physical reward! I've attached a poll to this update to get an idea of what my next project should be. This is to gauge interest and help me plan my campaign lineup next year, but the winner may not necessarily be my 2027 Pintopia campaign. 

So many shiny stickers, aaaaand...

Thank you all again for your support! I'll be back with another update soon!
Vipi

Hey robot enjoyers,

Update jam packed with pictures for you today, along with many status updates! Folks who follow along on my Discord have already seen most of them, so as ever feel free to pop in over there to get the as-it-happens scoop on all things related to my artwork and merch.

The bulk order of Soft Circuit pins and reprints reached me safely at last, and I have begun the long process of grading them.

For anyone new to the enamel pin scene, this is the process of inspecting each pin for deviations from the "standard" - small scratches or bubbles, over or under fills of the enamel paint - that sort of thing. Pins close to the standard are given an "A" grade, used for campaign fulfillment, and any extras are sold later at full price. Pins with enough flaws to bug me receive a "B" and will be offered for later sale at a discount.

After grading, the pins are de-backed, poked onto cards themed to match, re-backed, and carefully stacked into bins to await shipment packing. Occasionally my wife or metamour will assist me in carding and order packing, but for the most part this is a one-creature operation, so it takes a spicy minute to blast through it all. 

Speaking of timing —

Our sticker order was placed in August! I am contracting with an amazing fellow small in-fandom business in the EU.

Their timeline might be a little longer than initially expected, which actually lines up nicely with the time grading and carding will take.

Now that I also have the plush prototypes in hand, I can estimate a more accurate weight and box packing requirement for them and can finally set up my shipping profiles for the campaign! More on the plushies in the next section, but I wanted to get these dates up higher in the post:

🐺 Orders will lock on OCTOBER 7, 2026 💚

You have until then to add-on any desired items. For those who did not back the initial campaign: the pre-order store will also close on this date, and pre-orders will lock as well.

This gives you a two week window to make any adjustments! If you need assistance with your order, please feel free to reach out at any time via email: [email protected]

🐉 Add-ons, pre-orders, and shipping will charge on OCTOBER 9, 2026💜

Once orders are locked, I will initiate the 48 hour card charge window. Please make sure your payment method on file is up to date!

If your payment fails for any reason, don't panic. You can correct your card details up until it's time to ship your order. There are however a lot of moving parts to fulfillment, so it helps me out immensely if your payments go through.

🐻 Orders WITHOUT plushies or plush-sized bandanas will begin shipping on OCTOBER 14, 2026 💛

This currently includes 179 folks. Shipping of these orders will begin on October 14 and should conclude by early November.

🙌 Orders WITH plushies or plush-sized bandanas are estimated to begin shipping by APRIL 7, 2027 🧡

Now that I have the prototypes in hand, I've ordered an updated round of samples to adjust the stuffing level in parts of both Byte and Python, along with a couple of other details. Aesthetically the current samples reflect what the final plush should look like. More on that in the sections to follow!

The process from beginning to sample Byte to receiving them in hand took a whooping 10 months - much longer than I originally expected - since this supplier seems to go about a month between implementing the edits I request. A quick breakdown of the remaining estimated timeline is:

• 2 months for adjusted samples
• 2-3 months safety testing and bulk production
• 1 month quality control
• 1 month plushies ship to me (by sea!)

All of that would put us in April rather than the original ETA of February. It could be earlier, or it could be later. Best timeline scenario, my manufacturer nails the remaining edits in one month and bulk production only takes two months, meaning we could still hit February. But I would rather guess April to help set expectations!

This initial foray into plush has been very educational. I have more in mind, but I'll be running exclusively pin-focused campaigns in late 2026 and throughout 2027, as in the future I'd like to start sampling for a plush one full year prior to its campaign. Expect to see more plush from me in 2028. c;

Onward to footage of the soft friends, and details of what I'd still like to adjust to make them perfect companions!

I'm delighted to finally meet these two in person, and I so look forward to perfecting them and getting them into your hands as well!!

To go back in time a moment, as this was shared in the Discord but not here: the second to last Python prototype was pretty much on point, other than needing a nose job (much love to big noses, but this was not the intention 😂)

Over a month later my supplier adjusted it, and I asked to have the buddies and their accessories sent my way!

They look SO dang cute, and the pieces of art that they are certainly makes the long process so far worth it. Before I get into my final picky requests — some more footage of THE GOODS.

Byte and Python were sent with the small bandana samples, which look every bit as vibrant as their large counterparts.

You can technically even wear them if your neck is on the smaller side, though I'd still recommend the large circuit board bandanas for that.

There were requests to see Byte with the various bandanas, so I snapped quick shots of her in each:

It's satisfying to see the vision of these plush integrated with their bot boards come true at long last. <3

A couple customers also expressed interest in seeing scale, and I know a lot of folks who collect indie plushies are connoisseurs of plush in general, so I photographed a bunch of that as well. Check out the Development feed over on the Discord for pictures of Byte and Python alongside many other friends.

The Snughoul and lurking Wyrm on a String above are both available from Tiny Teeth, designed by the same artist who did our Byte Bytes keychain guest art, and you should absolutely check out that site if you aren't already familiar! I love shouting about the cool things other artists design, so if you ever see a plush, pin, print, patch, sticker, or so on in a photo I take and want to know who made it? Please always feel free to ask!!

Overall I'm so happy with the results. So what's changing?

Most of the differences between these prototypes and the desired final result will be in the physical experience of holding them rather than anything particularly visible from a photo. The only aesthetic change will be small embroidery color adjustments to the eyes.

Byte will have Python's eye thread colors and Python will have Byte's eyebrow materials, for visual cohesion. The contrast of the dark eyes also pops better on Byte!

Well, that and an oopsie I caught for the first time when seeing these guys in person - of course the purple joints are all intended to be the same.

Beyond that, it's all about the flop and construction particulars. I want you to be able to stuff Byte into more poses, use Python as a scarf, and flail them both around like those balloon creatures in front of car dealerships if so desired.

Enjoyers of weighted pellets in plush will be pleased to hear that the beans on and in the toes were insufficient to my tastes. MORE BEANS, MORE BETTER. And of course, the floppier, the more poseable and fun to hold!

And then, the detail I am going to be the biggest pain in my supplier's side about—

I don't enjoy glued on parts in plush construction, and I know a number of you feel the same! Meeting Python in person, I discovered that my supplier had glued on the nose tip and all the yellow antenna balls. While this isn't wildly surprising, it's not at all what I want, and I promise that this will NOT be the case in the final plushies.

I'm going to push my manu to sew them on, and I don't mind if that increases the unit cost on my end. If they won't for whatever reason, I will try to get them to send me the nose and ball parts separate with the final plush and I will sew them on my dang self. Hopefully it won't come to that, but to me glue really just isn't workable.

Lastly, I noticed that the bandana material is slightly see-through in some lighting, so I'd prefer to double side them. We're almost to a green light! Nailing the last few details is worth a bit of extra prototyping time.

Phew, this was a long post! If you made it all the way down to this section with me, thank you extra for your interest in the process. :D If you have any questions, requests of photos or videos you'd like taken of Byte and Python, or anything else - let me know!

As I've been gently hollering about here and there, I have two pin campaigns coming up in later October and November: Spectral Circuit as part of the annual Pintober event, and Gears of GAIA as part of TRIBUTES.

The next installment to Short Circuit is Spectral Circuit, which will introduce a seventh Unit Line: Blood. Quite a number of my supporters expressed that I ought to add more reptiles to my line up, and I am happy to oblige. :3

Gears features robots and themes inspired by a story that quite literally changed my life in unexpected ways, reinterpreted in a style that borrows elements from my own Circuit series. It's a crossover homage for the love of the game - both the video game in question and the pin game, since it's also serving as an opportunity for me to play around with the medium.

I'll shift both campaigns into Launch Party mode soon, to enable updates on their respective pages. Be sure to follow along with both if you're interested in seeing more artwork, and of course to snag the pins when they go live!

As ever, thank you so so much for being here, your support of independent artists in this complex world means everything to us. <3

Hi all!

Hope you had a great summer! 

Got a short update with some production photos. I'll have those in the backer-only section below. TL;DR: production is going surely but slowly and I don't have an update on when fulfilment is going to happen. I am encouraged by the quality I've been already seeing compared to the first production attempt of these pins!

All items are still available in the pre order shop!

Hello! Thank you all for your patience as I work with my manufacturer to get the colors of these pins just right. There were, as predicted, some production delays due to proofing edits. The Cheetahs and Wolves were the most complex and as such required the most edits, I am still waiting on final photos for these designs. Stickers are on their way to me and I should have the rest of them in hand soon, though they were sent to another address as I suspected. So here is the updated timeline, as of now:
NOW (September 5-15) 

Approximately September 15-30 

Approximately October 1-15

Approximately October 15-31

This pushes back the rewards ship date by one month from my estimated timeline. As a thank you, all backers will be receiving a bonus in their rewards. I'm currently designing a couple of things for this, but there will be a poll later once I have them rounded out!

And now, some tasty pin photos! (Yes they are naked, these are pre-print proofs, final pins will include print)

These are all the approved complex or combination pins (enamel with transparent/'stained glass' effects) other pin designs are still in the proofing phase. Once the final complex proofs are approved I'll post another update with those here! I'll be out of state again for Rose City Comic Con next week (if you're in the Portland area, come say hi!) but I'll be back by the 16th.

One last thing, I decided last minute to join the Super League of Science 2026! If you'd like to follow my campaign, the prelaunch page is here:

Returning Backers (people who have supported my past backerkit campaigns), Early Bird Backers (those who pledge within the first 24 hours), and Prelaunch Followers (anyone who follows the campaign before launch and pledges) all get a different special bonus sticker! 

Thank you all again for your support, I'll be back with another update later this month,
Starr Vipi

As members of my Discord heard yesterday, the Spooky Circuit leftovers have at last been inventoried, photographed, and made available for purchase!

If you wanted to add some of the pins/stickers/patches therein to your Soft Circuit orders, the leftovers have now been appended to the add-ons and pre-order store.

Pardon the slight delay on getting these live - my grandfather passed unexpectedly last month, which prompted me to make a surprise trip back across the ocean to attend his funeral and spend some much needed time with family. I'm finally back home and getting back up to speed on everything. <3

How to add the Spooky Goods to your order varies based on the form it initially took, and whether or not you wish to combine it or expedite it:

🐺 If you backed the campaign proper, you can edit your survey to add them to your order.

🐉 If you did not back the campaign and previously made a pre-order, I can manually add the desired item(s) to help you avoid paying shipping twice. Email [email protected] with the email you used in your order, along with what item(s) you'd like to add, and I will help you out! 

🐈 If you backed for a plush or plush bandana and want to place a Spooky order that ships sooner than the estimated plush fulfillment timeline (January-February), placing a separate pre-order that does not include a plush or plush bandana is a way to accomplish this on purpose. 

All other Soft Circuit orders are set to fulfill in September, which brings me to my next update.

I checked in with my pin factory representative to ascertain the status of our order:

Everything except the Northern Lights variants are done, as rainbow plating takes longer to complete; it's absolutely worth the wait though, because as we saw with the Spooky Void Line, this manufacturer absolutely knocks the anodized treatment out of the park with lots of beautiful variation. All the other designs are finished and packed!

My rep estimates the pins will be ready to ship to me in about two weeks time. From there, they take at least a week to reach me, and then I must once again undertake the long process of grading them - examining each of the thousands of pins one by one for quality control - followed by fixing them to their backing cards. This generally takes me another month to complete, so we can now expect all non-plush orders to fulfill in late September.

As plush sampling seems set to indeed wrap up by August, orders with plush and plush bandanas are currently still estimated for January-February fulfillment. Add-ons and shipping will also be charged in September rather than August! 

I cannot accurately calculate the final plush shipping until I have the prototypes in hand to weigh and box-fit test. If they haven't reached me by then, I will segment out shipping charges for the plush orders to happen at a later date. I'll keep all of you in the loop about when charges will occur, and you will also receive an email alert 48 hours prior. :)

Speaking of which - our final fiddly little details on Byte have been squared away!! My rep from that supplier sent me a video as final confirmation, so here are a couple stills from that:

She looks absolutely spot-on and is giving 90s robot dog in the very best way, I cannot wait to meet her in person. You can see this friend in motion over on my BlueSky or Mastodon!

I'm also excited to declare that we're down to last granular adjustments on Python!

Happily, the square sockets were able to be moved directly under the wings after all with the current materials, just by shifting the seam placement! And the nose pit arrangement looks correct in this pass as well.

The top vs bottom wing embroidery now includes the desired subtle variation in line placement, so that the panels overlap more like feathers.

I sent along my final adjustment notes as well —

The designer I'm working with has since clarified that due to how thin the horns are, applique + embroidery would make the corners too stiff, so they were made with splicing instead. So contrary to my change requests, those will remain fabric only/as they are, which looks great and is fine by me.

We've now hit an incredible 67 pre-orders for Python, so thank you again for loving this playful noodlefriend! I'm hoping it will only take one or two more revisions tops to land on their final, and then all the prototypes can make their way to me.

I've also received photos of the other colorways of the plush-sized bandana, and even in the factory lighting they're looking crisp and vibrant! I look forward to being able to photograph Byte and Python wearing each of these myself once the samples arrive. 😊

The final Soft Circuit goodie update is that I now have the character magnets in hand, which calls for celebratory photos.

I'm pleased with how they turned out, and the magnetic backing on them is nice and strong too.

I ordered plenty of extras, so if you missed out on adding these guys to your order before, you can still do so up until things lock down in September!

The gears keep turning, so to wrap up I'd like to offer two more pin-in-progress sneak peeks~

You can hop over to the GEARS OF GAIA and SPECTRAL CIRCUIT teaser pages to follow either or both campaigns. :3

That brings us up to date on the current status of everything for now! If you have any questions at all or need help with your orders, feel free to reach out to me at any time. Thank you as ever for being here. <3

Hello,
I had intended for an update to be posted last month, but unfortunately I had to fly out to Washington for a few weeks to assist with a friend's funeral. It took a lot out of me and honestly the time melted away while I was there. Last week my mom had heart surgery, so I've been assisting her too. Of course, now I'm back and I'm in the middle of moving both my household and my mom in to one house! Off-kilter is how I would describe the last couple of months. This summer really hit me in a series of strange, unprecedented ways.

Nonetheless, (wow that's actually how you spell that, I never realized) I have some unfortunate news about the sticker sheets, as they are delayed in their production due to the foil effect bleeding the words and details together. I'm not sure why the cheetahs are especially washed out in their print as the tigers are fully saturated, but they have offered to make corrections so the sticker sheets will be improved in the final run.

So currently I am waiting for my stickers manufacturer to get back to me with new sheet proofs. The rest of the stickers and the shakers are finished, but they did not send photos before they shipped them, so I hope they are correctly saturated upon arrival. 

Speaking of shipping~: Due to the timing of my move and my August convention schedule, it is likely the pins will be sent to my previous address sometime next month. I won't be returning until September 5th, at which point I'll just have to coordinate pickup from my sister. All the rewards will likely be arriving around this time to my previous address, so I will have to grade them in early September, which pushes my fulfillment into late September/early October. 

August is going to be chaotic for me, but I can promise to have updated photos as I get them from manufacturers. Anything that gets shipped to me of course I won't have quality confirmation on until they are in hand, but I will certainly have one giant update to fill in the visual gaps once I do. Originally I had wanted to run two Backerkit projects this year, but sometimes life has other plans. 

Thank you all for your patience as all this is happening, it's been a time. 
Starr Vipi

HELLOOOOO everyone!!

The time is nigh, it has finally come time to ship out everyone's rewards.

Here's all the things that have happened since the last update!

All pins have been graded! We have a pretty good ratio going. All pins are pre-backed except the minis. I'll be backing them myself depending on how many each person got.

B-grades classify as:
- Overfilled/underfilled epoxy
- Small missed enamel spots
- Small spots in the enamel
- Visible scratches or blemishes

The biggest rule I follow is if you can't see the problem from an arms length away, it is not a flaw worthy of being a B-grade.

Of course every backer will be getting A-grades.

SOME THINGS CONSISTENT ON THE PINS

The Notocupes pin has it's UV printing done on the top of the epoxy dome. This is a slight difference to what I originally wanted, as I didn't know the details of the process. I'm considering this a learning opportunity for future pins as it doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the pin.

The freebie Animal Akademia pin has a lot of flaws in it. There was a mistake in the order process and while it was meant to be 1.5in, it instead accidentally got swapped with the mini Thylacocephala. So the freebie pin is 1in, while Thyla is 1.5in. This has caused an issue where there are small blemishes on the metal. Since this is a freebie bonus pin, it will not be remade as I don't want excess stock of it since it was meant to be a bonus for you guys only. This is something I have noted in my notes so it doesn't repeat in the future.

I sacrificed myself to the heat of the attic to get all of these sticker sheets cut out. I'm glad I chose to do this in the morning of the ONE day that had slightly lower temperatures, because I think I would have actually died up there on hotter days. It was easily 40+C. A funny video spawned out of this.

The postcards look great, the stickers have special effects, and all the wooden cicadas are varnished and keyringed (is that a word?)

Yes the socks! I got the socks. The socks are here!!!!

Here's the video about the socks!!! -> Instagram | Tiktok

I coerced my brother to put together some of the shipping boxes for it.

You know... you don't realise how much almost 200 backers is until you have to store 200 boxes somewhere. I fear the requirement of a studio space may be needed soon.

I also got a label printer. So that's pretty cool. Gonna be testing it out with this campaign and hopefully it speeds up the label process a lot!

The rollout of shipping will be slow. On my last campaign I was able to pack maybe 20 packages a day- when working fully freelance. Now I only have about 2-3h in the evenings after clocking out so I expect this to take the rest of the month.

I'm going to ship in order of difficulty. Domestic order to Ireland will be first, followed by Europe, UK and then the rest of international orders afterwards.

This is a formal invitation for you to join me on my next project, BUGGED OUT!!

This is going to be a mini pin project in collaboration with the Super League of Science! There will be freebies involved ;D

The pins are going to be in a different style, but full of cuteness, chibiness, and bugs :]
I will also be entertaining more socks as a stretch goal!

So join early! Every button click counts :]

I will be sharing details about it during the launch party and on my socials too!