Thank you so much for following along with Short Circuit 1.2: Soft Circuit! Launching in late January as part of the Pintopia 2026 event, we will seek to bring a whole new realm of robo goodies online - starting first and foremost with the Earth Line's feisty relaxation assistant unit, Byte!!
I've been observing other plush artists for quite some time, which helped mightily in putting this together!
After sending the above design spec to a whopping six different manufacturers for quotes and additional information, I pared down to the two I thought most likely to do Byte justice and paid them to create prototypes. Since plushies can vary quite a bit more in result between suppliers than the goods I've previously sought to produce, I figured it was worth the extra cost up front to ensure that we land on a solid result in advance of the campaign.
As the image above indicates, Byte will be approximately 20" (51 cm) from paw to paw when laid out, will feature dangly, poseable legs, embroidered details, and an optional bandana "motherboard" accessory to interface with any of the Short Circuit bot-board pins!
It's also very common practice to provide shape and material examples when putting together a design guide such as this, for faster communication. The leg type example photos are of the Magpie Wolf from the recent Feathered Fox Plush campaign - shout out to how wonderful they look, follow this link to check out their pre-order page! The robot friend is the Youtooz Wild Robot plush. I was very encouraged to see the latter, as it showcases the possibility of capturing a robotic aesthetic in a plush doll.
Really excited to see the plush samples come to life!!
One of the two suppliers already sent me several color book sample images to pick and choose from. Initially just a range of minky, but I asked after 5 mm cuddle and settled on the above combination to try! The grays there are 5 mm, the golds are minky, and I'm pushing for fleece or another flat material for the greens; I'm hoping pile height difference between the various fabrics will help sell the "jointed" illusion. 5 mm cuddle is so, so soft and still works well for creatures not intended to look fuzzy. I know this from my past endeavors, as I used exactly that fabric type to construct some of my costume work!
A couple of reptilian suits I made out of 5 mm cuddle!
The Soft Circuit campaign will of course also feature expansions to the Short Circuit bot-board collection itself. I'll dig into pin designing in earnest soon as well, to begin pin sampling and settle on pantones for the upcoming new Unit Line: Light!
The above are very loose sketches extracted from my sketchbook and subject to change upon clean-up, but represent a few of the designs in progress! They also reveal the first stages of how I've approached a lot of these: draw the target creature more "normally" first, then iteratively break down and simplify them once I've acquainted myself with their shapes.
Beyond the plush, bandana, and pins - depending on how much support and funding this update to the Circuit 'verse draws forth - I would love to explore even more pins, a bandana in the colors of each of the six Unit Lines, larger size bandanas, possibly some other wearable items, and... maybe even a second plush? 👀 I'll need to begin scheming for all of the above, so: if we did make it that far, then which other ambassador bot would you be keen to see in three dimensions?
Thanks again for tuning in! Vote for your favorite in the poll below, and link Soft Circuit to a comrade or two!!
