That exclamation point is pulling a lot of weight here, so, if you want a fun time, enjoy riding that high. It's only downhill from here.
Last good news before we get into the messes: all combined shipping orders are squared away, with a couple exceptions for wholesale orders that need some more As than I have. I've got emails and Telegram messages out to these customers so we can figure out what to do next.
Your pins are waiting comfortably for Henrieke's hyenas (and hyena accessories) to hit stateside, in bins covering half my office. I would take photos, but, there's full names on there that the internet doesn't need to see. Doxxing is not one of the off-label services I offer, unfortunately.
If you ordered a full-run defective Axolotl or Lioness pin, you have 3 more days to contact me about substitutions, B-grade comps, or other options. Check your email!
So, into the bullshit.
Short answer, we've been denied remakes by the factory, and denied a chargeback by my bank on any defective stock.
This is not unexpected, but, it's definitely obnoxious and terrible. I'm debating going a little more public about the situation, which factory is involved, and the extent of issues they are refusing to fix, weighing what good it will do vs. the issues it may cause for other artists that use them. In the meantime, it's a loss but not a business ruining loss. It's money I will make up through retail sales, eventually.
I will be paying out of pocket to remake needed pins with a new factory.
We also had a truly magical situation earlier this week, realizing that I was shorted 5 pins from the antique blue NIGHT OWL. All affected backers were contacted, and offered A-grade pin swaps as compensation. This pin in both colorways was meant to be limited, and I am not planning to remake it at this time.
Bullshit or not, there's no use crying about it. My customers need the product that they paid for. The following pins are being remade with a new factory:
Axolotl 1.5"
Lioness 1.5"
Owlbear 1.5"
Snughoul 1.5"
I am assigning the new factory, handling DOG CRIMES, to take care of these guys for me. I'm expecting them in late 2026, since they need to have molds fully remade.
Affected backers have already been contacted with the even grittier shit of the situation.
The only silver lining here, is that there is a lot less A-grade stock to inventory. I'm still gunning for an early-mid September HUSTLE reopening, with C3's stock up. I'll let you guys know when that happens, in case you want to snag some bulk B-grades and empty the bin that weighs more than me.
Right now, as far as C3 goes, we are only waiting on THE HYENA FAMILY pins to get to Henrieke, and get to the states. After that, combined shipping backers will start seeing packages go out.
I'll keep you guys posted when we know dates on that. Until then, your shipping funds are sitting safely in a HYSA paying some of their own rent.
My regular backers are probably getting this in quick succession with the DOG CRIMES campaign wrap. It is, also, probably, pretty clear to my regulars that the lack of anything genuinely funny in that one means I am so, so, goddamn tired.
It's not a good month over here, and I don't have anything objectively good to report about C3.
A couple things do have, actual, objective updates: the payment deadline on C3 pledges is up. If you did not contact me for an extension, your unpaid pledge has been cancelled. I won't be honoring any freebies or campaign prices unless you reached out to me during the correction window.
Next, I'm hoping to have retail stock up by mid September. I'll see what I can do, it's gonna be a busy as hell month and a half, but shit's gotta happen. My next task this weekend is to get all of the bracket 2 orders set aside, so I have accurate numbers for what's hitting the HUSTLE.
Right now KEN'S PIN HUSTLE should be done with summer hiatus and reopen somewhere around September 15th. C3 pins should be up at $10 each and ready to ship, along with $7.50 B-grades. There will also be the ever-popular random B-grade bundles - and, this time, there's enough variety you can make some requests! Fun. Ask and you shall receive a cursed handful of defective creatures.
If you backed for a Lioness or Axolotl pin, you have until September 1st to tell me how you'd like the defective pin situation resolved on your end. Otherwise, I'll toss you the defective pin plus a random government-assigned B-grade based entirely on vibes.
Speaking of defective creatures: yeah, that's not going great.
I'll save most of the bullshit for when the whole situation is over, but, long story short, we've been denied remakes on most designs by the factory.
This is kind of my limit with this situation. The excuse I was given was, in my finest French, a load of steaming bullshit, and should have been disproven by the 650+ photos sent to the factory to prove fault with the product. If they don't believe it, well, the cataloguing's already done, and I'm going to see what my bank thinks about me being charged for a defective order.
No matter how this shakes out, I will probably need to pay out of pocket to get the Axolotl, Lioness, and Owlbear pins remade at one of the other bright-eyed, bushy tailed factories I'm sampling for DOG CRIMES and ARCHETYPES.
No more details or screenshots while the bank dispute is pending.
Hitting you up today to let you know that almost all C3-only pledges have shipped. If you're in the USA, Canada or Australia, your critters are on their way to you.
Backers with first names A-first half of K went out on Monday.
If you're in that group, give tracking a look, and keep an eye out for your stuff. Large orders and sponsor tiers have been going to UPS Wednesday, with a batch of Canadians out this morning.
The trusty giant IKEA bag is sitting patiently in the backrooms with K-W. I'll have time Saturday to haul the rest of the 95 packages to the post office.
Wow I sure hope there are no distorted manifestations of my divorce and anger issues waiting around the corner to steal $5,000 of merchandise. That would be scary :(
Now, there's some exceptions here.
First off: we have 7 days left to address any credit card issues. Whether you're in bracket 1 (now) or bracket 2 (waiting for THE HYENA FAMILY or European shipping), you have until August 20th to fix your card on file, or contact me for an extension.
I will be cancelling all pledges with any unpaid balance on August 20th - in 1 week. Any partial balance paid will be considered a donation and spent on enamel pin samples, coffee, or Costco pizza for my helpers so it's still tax deductable.
All 11 backers with remaining balances have been contacted. Let me be clear: if you are on hard times, and need a reasonable extension until the end of August or mid September, respond and let me know.
Shit happens and life has been running a train on us all. But, I need you to communicate, or I won't know.
Next, I need to hear back from some Axolotl and Lioness backers. You guys got an email about the issues with these pins, and replacement/compensation options. If you backed the Axolotl or Lioness coin pins, make sure to let me know how you want me to handle your pledge - your last day is September 1st.
We're about the same on all other fronts. Bracket 2 combined orders are waiting on pins in from Henrieke. I have a couple other things I gotta work on on a tighter deadline, but, I will probably start setting these orders aside soon so I can just grab and go once hyenas arrive.
Late summer or early fall for C3 shop inventory is still looking accurate, but we might have stuff up earlier depending on how I want to do our second shipping bracket.
I am waiting on word about remakes from the manufacturer right now, and hopefully, next time you hear from me, it'll be about that.
DOG CRIMES is going for 1 more week. We have 2 new dogs. Go check that out, and pledge for your FREE repeat backer akita, yeah?
God, I hate that. I wanted to be writing this at noon, but, life happened.
Anyways, it's that time: after several weeks of indentured zoomer servitude, Jackass movies, and tearing my hair out, we have everything graded.
The numbers breakdown for C3 is wild. Some new numbers, and some you already knew.
We finished at $14,441. Lot of 4s! You guys already know that, from our end-of-campaign summary. However...
Backers added over $5,000 in addons after the main event. That's not including shipping fees - that is raw, straight up, "I can't decide what to get, let me get some more!" in surveys.
Maybe that's because we had 73 designs to pick from. That's a lot. You can see all of them on my couch up there, sans our additional promotional pins.
140 backers came back from other KPH campaigns. That makes 140 silver akitas going out, starting today. Thank you for being here, and please take good care of them.
1703 pins were purchased by backers. An additional 350 were purchased as preorders and wholesale runs.
5474 pins were ordered for C3. This is to cover ordered designs, B-grade buffers, and to have a nice cushion for retail sale later on. Does that seem like a lot? Well...
1834 pins are unsellable B-grades. That's more than backers ordered - an average of 38.2%. Good lord. This includes some rates as high as 60-90%, plus 100 pins from 2 50-piece runs, which are completely defective. Read more about that down below.
We separated the B-grade boys from the A-grade men over the course of several weeks. To say it was a discouraging, frustrating process would be an understatement.
I have almost 4GB of photos and videos from grading that I'll be using to request remakes for many designs. I'm hoping, long term, I can fix this issue. Until I can figure out what's behind this massive increase in issues, I am pivoting my 2 current projects to different factories.
The good news, is, for the most part, we got out safely. We have enough A-grade pins to fulfill most ordered pins. Like with CRITTER CRIMES, however, we are going to have some inventory issues for after sales. There are some designs that will be slim on the HUSTLE.
If you want them, be prepared to snipe these guys the second inventory happens. They will have less than 10 A-grade units available:
Bald Eagle
Blue Jay
Eurasier
Gryphon
Horse 3 (Clydesdale)
Husky (Gray)
Kobold
Labrador (Black)
Lion
Owlbear
Rat
Tiger
Tiger (White)
C3 pins should be up for $10 A, $7.50 B, on the HUSTLE some time in late Summer or Fall. I will likely have discounted B-grade assortments like for CRIMES pins. I'll figure out the price on those eventually.
Now, while we're in the clear for most designs, there are two designs that are being held back for full defective runs. The Axolotl and Lioness coins are missing fills.
Affected backers should have received an e-mail this morning about this. I pulled every Axolotl and Lioness order out of the fulfillment bins, and I'm waiting on your response to see how you'd like this sorted. There's options for substitutes, partial compensation, and holding off shipping until I can get replacements.
Your last day to respond about this is September 1st. After that, you are leaving things up to fate. And, by fate, I mean my assistants, who will assign you a random B-grade pin based on your name, email, and vibes. Nobody wants that.
Or, if you do, like, at least respond and tell me.
Another slow-burn headache to keep in mind, is Europe just fucked up packaging regulations - again. We're watching this closely, but, it may affect European backers and how they get their items. I don't have any good reading to send people on this, just yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on. We are still waiting on European and THE HYENA FAMILY combined shipping.
Local pickup - read this! If you're one of my Western New York miscreants, your best option right now will be a September 12th event. I will not be at a late August event due to other personal arrangements on the same date. Contact me if you will be here and want your pins then.
Other than that, we're kind of in the same boat we've been for a bit. I'm going to go start pulling orders. Shipping notifications received last week, as well as today, will be going to the post office tomorrow.
Domestic C3 backers, expect your stuff to start moving this week. Thanks for being here!
Anyways, you seen this mess yet? We're $150 away from the crusty little white dogs. Neat. Look at that.
So, after a little bit of a war behind the scenes, we should have all remaining backers charged. You may have not gotten an attempted charge until today. This is your hard-earned money, let's talk about what happened here.
There are some interesting code quirks here that led to some goofiness in how fees and charges were applied. Shortest explanation possible, we had to add the $3 combined shipping service fee based on how backers answered two things: combined shipping status, and geographic location. This was all a manual back-end process that needed input from BackerKit staff over a weekend.
Some local pickup backers were incorrectly charged their service fee because (god forbid) they stated they lived in the US and not the foreign land of N/A. Semantics, man.
I didn't charge any additional backers after I got the tipoff about this, and I went through and handled everything manually late last night and this morning.
So, what do you need to actually know about this headache?
If you're an American but did NOT back THE HYENA FAMILY, make sure you did not get the $3 service charge.
If you're a European combined shipping backer, make sure you didn't get charged shipping OR the $3 service charge.
If you're a local pickup NY backer, make sure you did NOT get charged shipping OR the $3 service charge. If you were, I will be in touch shortly and we'll see how to get you that single Taco Bell taco back into your bank account.
If you're an Australian or Canadian THE HYENA FAMILY combined shipping backer, you should be in good shape.
If anything doesn't look right, you know where to contact me - [email protected]
After all that - we have 31 people whose cards failed. Go ahead and make sure you're not one of them, if you didn't get a notification late last night or this morning. The hard deadline for payment issues is August 20th - your pledge will be considered forfeitted after this date.
Now that that's over - let's talk pins.
I'm almost done with grading C3's pins. There's 15 designs left, from Secretarybird to Wolverine with a couple outliers done and undone thru the roster. I'm expecting most of them to get done by the end of tonight.
We're sitting at a fist-balling 37.8% average flaw rate so far. This, of course, is an average, and doesn't give a great big picture. The second half of pins we graded watching Jackass and Kenny vs Spenny had some outliers in the 60 and 90% numbers.
There are considerable issues with overfills, incomplete plating coverage, and what we call the "landlord's special." This means, dark colored hairs or fibers left in the pins and painted over with light enamel. B's are still sellable, but, they are a lot more flawed than I usually end up getting.
There are enough A-grade pins to fulfill pledges for every shippable design right now.
Key word, shippable. We have another unshippable design in the Lioness, who is missing an ear fill on her entire run. Like the Axolotl, this is a production error, and the right fill is present on the proof from the factory. She will need all 50 pins remade.
The Axolotl and Lioness pins will not be sent to backers in this state. Like with CRITTER CRIMES' dragon, we are going to do a swap-wait-free B choice for affected backers on these designs.
I'll send these emails out after all designs are graded in case another run comes up with 100% flaws.
Grading should ideally wrap tonight, and the first round of domestic C3-only orders can start going out. I will have all first-bracket orders done in the next 2-3 weeks. Tracking numbers might be 3-4 days ahead of actual shipping, but, if you get one, you're up.
Combined shipping backers are waiting on THE HYENA FAMILY. Whether you backed it or not, I recommend giving the latest update a look - these pins are absolutely stunning, and Henrieke is godlike about getting factory photos and updates.
We are, realistically, looking at 3 weeks to 1 month before Henrieke's first set of pins arrives to her.
I brought this up briefly in the last update, and it's why I'm pulling funds now - while I wait, I'd like combined shipping backer money to start paying rent in a 3.5% APR account, no matter how long it has to sit.
USA, Canada and Australia combined HYENA FAMILY backers will need to wait for pins to arrive, be graded, and get to the USA safe for shipping. European HYENA FAMILY backers will need to do similar - your items will be shipped to Henrieke for combined shipping out of Austria.
I'd budget 1-2 months if you are a combined shipping backer from either side of the pond, but, be ready for delays.
I appreciate you guys being patient with both halves of this collaboration. We've been dealing with a good bit of manufacturer delay - though, Henrieke's is just her factory taking their time for good product, and mine are busy playing Jenga instead of filling ears on lions.
Hoping to have an update by the end of this week for you guys with final grading numbers. I'm off to go work on that now.
Anyways, DOG CRIMES launches tomorrow at 1 PM EST. Let's get one single win this 2026, yeah?
