Just wanted to thank everyone who followed and pledged for this project. I'm sorry to those who wanted the items, but I think it's safe to say this project has failed to reach its goal.
This was my first BackerKit project, and I made some mistakes: making too many pins for a first run, not fully understanding the project setup and procedure (though I have a much better grasp on it now), and not searching for a lower manufacturing quote. There are a good handful of other things I shouldn't have done—like making a uniquely weird and unknown character the feature of the entire project.
To those still interested or curious, I will be trying another set of pins this October called "Puss & Books." My hope is that these designs will be generally more appealing to pin collectors. It's an old concept I played with a few years ago but never fully developed.
If that goes well, I hope to launch a more ambitious project for Pintopia 2027. As a toy designer of 20+ years, my goal is to develop a pin and plush toy project. More info on this in the coming months!
So, thanks again to all who backed and followed the Murf•Bot project!
Hope to see you around again soon.
Take care,
Jim "Arrrggghhh" Romer
PS: I really did have fun designing the pins . . . and SO MUCH TOAST!
. . . on to the next venture.
Mere hours to go before launch! This will be the last Murf•Bot enamel pin update before the campaign goes live.
The artwork has been finalized, cleaned up for manufacturing, and scaled to its confirmed production size. So this collection is officially set: 2" Black Nickel-Plated Hard Enamel Pins.
The 6-pin collection -- and two mystery pins??? The last pin to be decided by the backers . . .
I'm also giving out a free early bird 2.5" sticker to those who pledge in the first 48 hours which will be included with the order. (Those who back after the first 48 hours, can still get the sticker as an add-on.)
The Early-Bird Special - a free 2.5" sticker to backers within the first 48 hours.
I will be adding my children book at a discount during this campaign, along with some original artwork and sketches.
Just finished the 6th and FINAL enamel pin design of the set — OVERGROWTH! For this design, Murf•Bot discovers that plants and experimental science don't always mix. Vines, out of control, wrap themselves around the bot. Who knew a toaster head was the perfect place to grow a giant flower.
Murf•Bot Enamel Pin Design #6 of 6 OVERGROWTH
For this design, I wanted the plants to feel like they were completely taking over, while still keeping Murf•Bot in the middle of it all. With enamel pins, every color has to earn its place, so the greens do most of the work while the red flower and OVERGROWTH lettering give the design its big pops of color.
That's basically the intended set of 6 laid out; but now the work of adjustments for the enamel pins, making all designs unified as a set, begins. It's been a lot of fun coming up with Murphy's Law situations occurring in the sciences (-- and -- there may be more; it all depends on how well the campaign goes for the project.*)
Hope to you'll be here on Monday!
* Yes, add-ons and incentives are being planned, which will be shown on launch day, including a few more pin ideas and other items.
Just finished the #5 pin design, Radioactivity! Had fun designing this one — even though it's probably the scariest scientific thing to go wrong that I can think of.
In the recent poll, most of you picked BLUE over the original green for Murf•Bot. But for you few who picked GREEN, I came up with an alternative. For Radioactivity, it just made sense that the whole little bot would turn neon green from the radioactive leak — neon green has always been the go-to for illustrators depicting glowing radiation. Just look at any radioactive items on The Simpsons, Superman constantly dealing with green glowing radiation from kryptonite, and let's not forget what happened to ol' Bruce Banner!
THE NEWEST ENAMEL PIN DESIGN #5 OF 6
So if voting GREEN made you sad that BLUE won by a strong majority — cheer up, there's at least one green enamel pin coming in the set. Why, just look how happy it's making Murf•Bot! Remember to follow this project in order to see the exclusive followers-only sketches, polls and extras to these updates.
(Continuing the Pre-Launch Intro + added exclusive image for all followers)
Below is a collection of sketches I made while creating the Murf•Bot character. As you can see, sketching a character is a great way to test changes—trimming away what doesn’t work, focusing on what does, and practicing how to draw the character from different angles.
Combining all of this into one final turnaround reference, I convert the finalized character into clean vector images. This is the image I’ll refer to whenever I feel I’m losing the character design from memory.
Now I have the challenge of updating all of the final artwork images to match this exact character. As you can see, the first few designs will need work in certain areas—like the bulkier lower-leg calves. (And I’ll double-check that the toaster lever is always on Murf’s right side of its head. Can’t tell you how many times I messed that up.)
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