Hey All,
Ive been meaning to check back in, and sorry i havent updated since.
At GenCon the manufactuer was able to drop off a number of samples, which i was wable to provide immediate feedback to. And last week I got a box containing more samples.
So lets get into them
Full spread of things eceived.

We'll start at the accessories
Overall, most feedback was pretty well received and things are coming together.
Shiled was a match, sword was good, Spellbook was good, Hat was good, staff was good, fish were good, boot was good,
Main points of new feedback
- Sometimes the magnet would be hidden behind some fluff making things like the staff, axe,fishing hook difficult for the owlbear to hold (needs to be on the outside
-Below are the Axes (on the far right was the first manufacturer, 1st was the first version we got from this manufacturer, and 2nd is after our feedback to thicken it up...not quite there but at least ..serviceable.. could push for it being thicker..but the magnet is in there and it does work

Other weirdness was that altohugh we added a label on the red potion (was only on the blue), for some reason (the pin for them is somewhere in the middle of the bottle and not on the neck)..just weird decision, but i noticed it existed with the first version they gave me as well

And outside of that really only thing left i need to see from them is the fixed foil finish on the bags..which left off a chunk due to bad tooling.
Then accessories should be good to go!

Then the rest of the plushes
As part of this project alongside the new Amethyst owlbear, we are reproducing the other colors. so part of the process.
To achieve the charcoal color on the owlbear, it is quite literally the snowy pattern, then dyed..
So as part of the GenCon delivery, they handed me a grey dyed owlbear to confirm the color...
Cool right... looks good, not too big a departure..should be good

Then in the recent package i get this guy
...which...aint quite grey...

Also the texture is right...but its missing the dark line bits that the current snowy/charcoal have
Turns out..the color of the lower mesh really matter...
kinda hard to see in the below photo but the current Charcoal has a Black underlying mesh (so when you see through the mesh you get those black stripes) ...on this 'blue' owlbear the mesh is the same color (it apeared they dyed the fabric completeyl the same color)

another angle to see the blue (left), vs current (right)

And the rest of the Owlbears
Brown regular and keychains have already been made, Green looks fine, and Snowy they were able to source the same material as the first one so that is good too.

Schedule-wise: 
Going to confirm, but as so far, Manufacturing for the Purple owlbear and keychain should be done by the end of the week, as should mossy. 
This leaves, Charcoal, Snowy, and Accessories remaining on the schedule before the finish line (which i hope to have an update on very shortly given recent rounds of feedback).
We're near the finish line, and thanks for hanging in there with us. 
Andreas