I don't have too much to share today, unfortunately, but I do want to keep you abreast of all the behind the scenes going-ons because....boy there's been a lot.
For starters I thought everything was delivered, but I learned Monday there's about 58 boxes STILL hung up in customs. These boxes contain 2/3rds of our dragons, and aaall of the punk outfits. My supplier is keeping an eye on it though, and we expect them to be released this week.
What's taking so long? I have no earthly idea. Customs has slowed down significantly since all the tariff nonsense began and packages face more scrutiny at each entry and exit than ever before, so for now I'm blaming that unless my supplier tells me otherwise.
We also learned last week that TWO of our suppliers didn't pack things the way we requested (pins are missing barcodes, and several SKUs with multiple items were packed separately instead of all together), which created quite the headache for fulfillment and required sorting before they proceeded with any packing.
Having a fulfillment partner saves me a tremendous amount of time generally speaking, but on the flip side it also makes it incredibly challenging to communicate and fix these issues promptly because they aren't me-- they don't immediately recognize when something is wrong and unless its labeled clearly they have no clue what it is.
Its so so frustrating how we seem to address some issues, only for wholly new issues to crop up in their place and slow us down all over again! 💔 That said, fulfillment is still limping along. All pins, freebies, and other small goods have safely arrived so we have plenty of stock to send out in the meantime.
Today the plan is to double check with the warehouse that our SKUs are all synced up, and then send another large batch of orders over for processing (basically everything that doesn't have a punk outfit or the yellow-eyed werewolf, which is still in transit).
Thank you for hanging in there. These delays are extremely disappointing to me too, so please know I'm doing everything in my power to get your items to you as quickly as possible. 💕
For starters, almost immediately after I shared that last update my pin supplier sent me a message saying the pins were finished! I was not expecting that at all, and I held off on sharing anything partly due to disbelief and partly due to the fear of jinxing it in some way.
Unfortunately a small bit of bad luck still managed to find me-- instead of the warehouse, the pins got delivered to my house. All 12 25+ pound boxes of them lol 😅 The silver lining here is that I got to inspect them in person and grab some quick pictures to tease you guys with! I'm very happy with how everything turned out, Many of them look even better than I was anticipating, which is always awesome.
The local cryptid pins are adorably tiny, and the soda turned out sick as hell! My original vision was for all the linework and details to be UV printed, but I'm so glad my supplier misinterpreted my instructions and went for soft enamel with UV print halftones. The textures are chefs kiss.
My Cryptid Romance is massive! Any smaller and I don't think the smallest bits of text would be legible, so this was a very happy accident.
A small selection of some others I was really happy with! Frankly they all turned out great, but some of them had really small, fiddly details that I was super concerned about and seeing them up close was especially rewarding.
Now on to where this little shipping oopsie leaves us! After inspecting everything, I packed the pins up again and sent them on their way to the warehouse. The warehouse is only about 6-7 hours away from us and they should arrive relatively quick-- today/tomorrow most likely.
In the meantime all plush-only orders (that don't contain freebies either) have shipped out and crushes are slowly arriving at their new homes! I expect a much larger batch to go out next week as pins are inventoried and freebie stickers arrive.
In preparation for importing orders into shopify for fulfillment, I've also added all cryptid crush plushies to the Tiny Teeth website! This means if you weren't able to pick up a crush you wanted during the campaign, you can now sign up for in stock notifications and pick them up when the remaining stock hits the store in late-April 🎉
Just click 'Notify me when available!'
I'll be back next week with another, hopefully even meatier shipping update! I hope these pictures will tide you over until then, and as always thank you so much for your continued patience 💖
I apologize for the lack of updates as of late. If you were present for the fulfilment era of Snughouls S2 then you may be able to guess what's happening...once again a supplier has overpromised and underdelivered, leaving us somewhat in limbo while we wait for items to arrive and I've been hesitant to share any new ETAs until I had something concrete.
I do take the blame here partially for not considering how the post-Spring Festival backlog would grind things to a halt on the manufacturing front as factories struggle to catch up with orders, but unfortunately that doesn't change the fact that items I expected to be delivered 2+ weeks ago are still in production and holding up much of our fulfillment.
The good news!
The Cryptid Crush plushies ARE here...mostly. We've still got about 40 boxes caught up in customs (and over 100 already delivered), but they're expected to be delivered today last time I checked.
Keychains and stickers are here. Currently waiting on a sample batch from the warehouse so I can personally get some good photos, but here are the keychains on a sheet of acrylic to share the vibrancy! Greens and purples are notoriously difficult to print so I'm pleased to see how bright these are.
The remake of the classic wolfman plush is finally complete and on the way to me as of today. If you remember, my supplier said they would have those out before February 15th and clearly that did not happen, but nevertheless I'm happy they're finally finished and on the way.
A scrunkly fella.
We have enough stock to begin shipping this week. You may have noticed I sent out the final 48 hour address change notification early this morning. That's because I plan to start pushing orders that don't contain pins to our fulfillment partner asap.
The bad...or at least less good news.
Pins were supposed to be finished on the 10th, but are still in production. Thankfully all this does is slow things down a little bit, but I know we're all anxiously awaiting our Cryptid Crushes so I hope you can hold out a little longer 🙏 The pins look awesome, even in this poor lighting (the mini mino and taken pins are missing from this preview, but I should have those photos this week) and I can't wait to rub my grubby fingers all over them in person.
I will be back with another update as soon as the first orders begin going out (hopefully in the next few days), and again when the pins leave the factory (again, hopefully in the next several days but please understand I'm at the mercy of my supplier here).
I also want to stress that Tiny Teeth has over 10k orders under our belt and I am wholly committed to getting folks their items and inflicting my cryptid obsession on everyone! But I'm also a one man show (apart from my fulfillment partner who I would die without 😭) and by no means infallible. My silence at times does not mean things aren't progressing, just that I've got my nose to the grindstone bringing these projects to fruition.
Thank you all for understanding! I'll see you later this week with the rundown on where we're at on fulfillment 💖
At long last the Cryptid Crushes have left the factory! All several thousand of them are en route as of last week, and are expected to arrive at the warehouse in the next 25-30 days.
'Why so long?' you may be thinking, and the answer is that sea freight is slooooow! Unfortunately, with well over 100 boxes to ship, traveling by sea is also the most economical option and why 99% of people in my position choose it.
While I'm thrilled they're finally on the move, this development comes with a bit of bittersweet news because my supplier made a rather large error when producing the Classic Werewolf. Instead of the finalized version, they made an earlier version with red eyes.
At first I was devastated for obvious reasons, but thankfully we did come up with a solution that means their hard work won't go to waste, and I receive the correct Classic Werewolf as well. What's more, this mistake shouldn't slow things down too terribly. V1 is in production now and should ship out in the next two weeks. If they ship them by air this will allow everything to reach the warehouse at roughly the same time 🤞
Now this also means I have an extra several hundred werewolf plushies I wasn't counting on! And I know some of you preferred V2 over V1, so if you pledged for the Classic Werewolf I would like to offer you the opportunity to sub your V1 wolf for the V2 wolf.
‼️By default, if you pledged for the Classic Werewolf you will receive the plush you paid for, but if you would like to receive the red-eyed wolf instead PLEASE FILL OUT THIS GOOGLE FORM:https://forms.gle/ELVxXTbF2zSPfQSC6 ‼️
You have until February 16th to let me know you would like to make the swap. After that date I cannot guarantee your form will be seen.
I believe that's all for now critters! With fulfillment on the horizon addresses will be locking in the next two weeks, so keep an eye on your inbox for that lock notification. I'll be back with another backerkit update at that time as well! 💗
Time has really gotten away from me this year. Admittedly it's been a pretty tumultuous and awful couple of months in my household due to a family member's failing health, which stretched us incredibly thin and finally culminated in their passing earlier this week.
This doesn't affect the project or item production in any way, but it does mean I haven't been able to effectively communicate what's going on because I've been in a constant state of fight or flight dealing with things at home. It sucks! I'm no stranger to loss, but losing someone in our household in such a long, drawn out way is a first for me and has been one of the most draining experiences of my life.
But I know these updates are crucial as well, and I'm sorry for taking so long to share what's going on.
Production has been slower than I wanted or anticipated, but we are a week or two away from wrapping things up according to my rep. Here's the latest update from my supplier,
And some photo updates from a few weeks before that (bear in mind these pictures are about 3-4 weeks old so the bulk order is likely complete and being quality checked/packed now).
So things are moving! Turnaround for bulk orders is advertised as 1-2 months and I'm disappointed this took closer to 4 months to complete, but ultimately I would rather wait an additional 2 months for a high quality product than receive something rushed and subpar.
CE and CPC certification for all plushies is complete now too! (They often safety test alongside bulk production.) But why does this look so much like a mugshot?? 😅
That's all the major developments for now! I hope to be back within the first to second week of January to announce that the plushies have left the factory and share some additional pictures of the piles and piles of cute cryptids 💖
