At a backer's request, I went ahead and got some stickers made of the Early Bird and Night Owl designs.
They're considered a separate addon, but if you want 'em, they're there! They're 2" vinyls just like all the others. You can add them to any pledge thru your survey.
We're sitting at about 70% survey completion right now, which is pretty good. Generally, I want 85% done before I make the call and start getting final numbers in. If you've been waiting till the technical difficulties blow over to do yours, we should be in the clear now.
Make sure you get your surveys in ASAP - remember, an unfinish survey is a forfeit. This means losing freebies, campaign-exclusive rates, and your chance to get pins before they hit retail. I'd like to order stickers soon, so the more information I have, the better.
About half of pins have pantones, and are ready for production. From African Wild Dog, to Green Cheek Conure, our 1.5" pins are getting sent to the factory so they have a head start. I'm expecting to finish the rest tomorrow.
Customs are still waiting on thumbnails - thanks for bearing with me! I have most of tomorrow to sit down and crank stuff out, and you will be taking priority before the remaining vectors. There's no good sending the factory another 40 artworks when they're already busy with the first 35.
I need to make final accommodations for maintenance on Monday, so the great progress slump will probably start then. The more gets done before then, the better.
Finally, last annoying thing: the preorder store is open, and if you missed the campaign, this is your chance to get some goods!
I'm off to get a few more pantones assigned before bed. Take it easy tonight!
Hopefully our final update on the survey situation - things should be cleaned up on the back end.
If you were missing freebies, re-confirm your survey and check after. If you still don't have pins you know, for a fact, that you earned: start panicking again and comment or email me.
Snowy owl pins AND stickers are also fixed - I had to add them, individually, to pledge questions, so if you're missing one, let me know so I can assign it to you manually.
The mess here has eaten up a few days of our survey period, but you guys still have a good amount of time. You have until March 30th to fill your survey out, add new items, or change your picks.
You also have until March 30th to fix any failed payments. Right now, we have 13 backers whose cards failed on their initial pledge. If that's you... get in there, and make sure things get cleaned up!
We're not offering reserves, late charges, or extended surveys this time around. Don't miss your potential freebies, discount tiers, or have to wait till retail sales because of an expired card or a bank that didn't like Pintopia's sequential purchases.
Surveys are 50% complete, which is a very nice number this soon after campaign close. So, as a reward, let's look at our top pins so far!
Our more popular EARLY BIRD incentive pin is the Night Owl. Guess a lot of you guys need a better sleep schedule, huh? I can't judge too hard, so do I.
By far our most popular 1.5" pin is the Werewolf. All of you people need a bath in holy water. He has nearly twice as many buyers as...
The Eastern dragon, Snughoul werewolf, Rainbow Unicorn, and Red Fox, who are tied for runner-up.
Gryphon, Otter, Snow Leopard, and Western Dragon are within 1 point of a third-place tie.
Our most popular BIG PIN is the Trash Critters. They took the lead from Hyenas' antique pin earlier today.
Our most popular sticker is the Spotted Hyena. Hyenas are getting a lot of love this campaign, for sure.
Our most popular duos of pins are Spotted Hyena + Striped Hyena, Foo Dog + Eastern Dragon, and Lion + Lioness. Couples? Best friends? Rivals? Standing next to each other, unrelated? Who knows - these three seem to be inseparable, with at least a dozen backers picking both.
I'll do a round-up with some pretty pictures at the very end, so you can see how your personal picks stack up.
The most interesting data, so far, for me, has been our general drop in parrot popularity. My normal customers are birders and bird owners, and, in general, most of our parrots are doing single-digits! Our songbirds are still doing decent, but overshadowed heavily by our monsters and canines.
I've been hesitant to do non-feathered critters for a bit, but I guess the numbers talk. Did CRITTER CRIMES bring you to my work, or something else? Not mad, just, definitely curious where a lot more animal demographics are finding the HUSTLE.
Right now, it's time for me to get dinner and get pantones smacked on pins. Tell me how you found my work, what your first campaign was, or what you want to see next - something for me to read while I have an 8:30 PM coffee or five.
Good evening, gang! It's a ripe, bright, early, 11:43 PM, so I can still say that.
Surveys got sent yesterday, with some significant back-end issues that slipped both smoke tests and our initial staff review. Our 1.75" Pintopia freebie pin was incorrectly assigned to our 3.5" sticker backers. As far as I can tell, this has been fixed, but I still need to keep an eye on things.
That being said...
A large number of completed, confirmed surveys were REOPENED. Please go check yours if you finished it already.
Other than a very small number of backers, your progress should not be gone. Reopen your survey, speed through, and just re-confirm everything for me. If you were affected by freebie issues, you will need to do this. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.
If you were waiting to fill your survey out, now is a good time. Things should be mostly final, and ready to go for you guys.
The single headache is with our Snowy Owl options: I went ahead and got the owls on the first 10 pledge questions for pins + stickers, but if you need another added, feel free to reach out and I'll change things on the back end.
I'm tired, man. I'm going to bed. Thanks for bearing with it.
While I'd like this to be a happy announcement, I unfortunately need to tell you that two major issues slipped BK review + smoke test review.
At this time, you are, technically, OK to fill your survey out, but you might want to wait!
Snowy owl stickers and pins are missing. This was brought to my attention by a backer seconds after we OK'd 65% smoke test completion. Figures, right? We'll have them added soon enough. I'll send everyone an update when the winter owl option is available - you'll be able to edit your pledge and get 'em on there.
More importantly, I'm hearing that multiple non-cross collab backers are being given the 1.75" HYENA FAMILY pin.
First off, I am extremely grateful to have the customer base that I have. No less than a dozen of you have already emailed me, or messaged me thru private socials, about a free pin you didn't earn.
I'm in contact with BK support to fix this as soon as possible. While I can't foot the bill giving every good samaritan a free big pin, I'd like to figure out something nice for you guys for being honest with me.
Short, not quite sweet, I'll hit you guys up when things are all set.
CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS' surveys just passed BackerKit review. Veterans know what that means: it's smoke test time!
Smoke tests mean a lucky 5% of each tier's backers just got their surveys early. Check your email, see if you got one, and go fill it out like normal. What's the catch? Well, you've gotta make sure they work. Make sure...
...all of your freebies (early bird, returning backer, cross-collab, Pin Safari) are where they should be.
...all of the pins, stickers, and pin backs you pledged for are in your cart.
...all of the critters you expect to be available are showing up as options for you.
...there's no pins missing from your three, five, or ten pin tiers, and so on.
If you notice something's up here, or you notice any other issues, contact me ASAP. Better safe than sorry - worst case scenario, it's intentional, or someone else got it already! Shoot me an email at [email protected]. I'll toss campaign credit at anyone who finds something major.
One major thing you're going to notice is we aren't charging shipping.
There's only so many jokes I can make about the current state of American politics and overseas trade: things are fucked up right now. Sometimes they get more fucked, sometimes they get less fucked. We're going to be waiting a few months for pins to be produced and shipped over here, and we're gonna gamble that things might be better in a bit. There's no benefit to either you, or me, taking money right now.
You will be charged for shipping costs this Spring, when pins arrive - not now! This isn't a survey defect, and we hope it's the first and last time we have to do this for a HUSTLE project.
Smoke test backers have a couple days to get their surveys set. If we don't have any major hiccups. everyone else'll get theirs later this week. We're currently a little early, but on track with timeline estimates.
Other than that, it's onto vectors and customs. There's a whopping 81 total designs to get production-ready - while everything is pretty clean, art-wise, it's time to assign pantones. Some pins already have perfect matches in my GAP set. Others need a fully new palette!
I do want to remind everyone: the next week or two is gonna be weird for work. I have some emergency repairs being done on my apartment, and I have to evacuate all of my pets and most of my personal living stuff into half the space. I'm waiting on an exact timeline for all this, but my office might be full of birds and an upright mattress.
BackerKit desktop might be inaccessible. Store stock and workspaces are being covered for biosecurity, and fulfillment will not be possible whatsoever. I can respond to emails but actual work might be on the back burner for the next 1-2 weeks.
I'll flex the new millenial gray vinyl floor when it's done, but it's gonna throw a wrench in some campaign work. I promise, I'll put the shop on a nice sale to apologize later.
Otherwise, let's check in when smoke tests are clear and surveys are out. Take it easy this week!
