The following is an excerpt from the most recent MGR1 update:
I'm so sorry for pausing fulfillment again and being so quiet!! I have been extremely sick. I started having an extremely mild weird sore throat April 7th so stopped packing then, had a dr appt April 9th where he said he didn't see anything, got outrageously sick April 10th, have practically no memories from April 11-16 or so, and am still catching up on sleep because TMJ pain prevents me from keeping my mouth open when I sleep... so for quite a while I wasn't sleeping at all due to severe congestion. High dose antibiotics helped me immensely, but I still get out of breath just from walking around a bit, and I refused to touch literally anything that would ever be leaving the house because it would be repulsive of me to do so when I was so snotty. Also, in retrospect, I was so dissociative from lack of sleep and pain that I likely would have gotten orders incorrect even if I wasn't leaking from my face and decided to pack with gloves on, so it's a good thing that didn't happen. I've been unbearably unproductive in pretty much every area of my life, especially if it's off my phone.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I'm still out of breath just from existing so it's really freaking me out.
Where we're at now is that the remakes of Harpy arrived during my fugue, so I haven't graded them yet:
Poor lighting...sorry!
Even considering screen differences, her skin did turn out 1 or 2 shades lighter than intended despite weeks of back and forth on pantone shades. I even asked other artists for suggestions based on pins they'd had produced, too. Upsettingly, Pantone does not have many browns that aren't basically just grey so this was ultimately the best we could do. That's a systemic problem that I shouldn't get into here but I really should've been aware of the limitations, and I apologize for not being so. I still think she finally turned out really good!
The green mini bat has shipped and will hopefully be here next week with the MGR1 remake pins 🤞🤞🤞
The base goal will be the Vitrail de Cristal window collar pin sets designed by Chocolat Chaud, with all 3 gem colors available as shown there. There's also the glittery white with black roses mini bat and the freebie pins and stickers for qualifying backers that are all to be unlocked in the base goal as well!!
The first stretch will be the incredible Cœr de Chat necklace pendants also designed by Chocolat Chaud:
This design is really special, as it's inspired by the bittersweet love we feel as our beloved feline family members of the past remain with us in our hearts.
And the 2nd stretch goal will be the silver colorway of my guillotine necklace:
I haven't been this proud of a design of mine in years. It's been a bucketlist design of mine to have produced before I close my shop, because I came up with the idea in 2023 and couldn't let it go. The sample is on its way to me! It's meant to be a fidget necklace, basically, and is a statement piece in more ways than one. BK isn't letting me attach a gif here but...there are some in the campaign bio!! It still needs some fine-tuning with the glitter but the design is essentially perfect otherwise!
Many of the goals also unlock new colorway mini bat pins!
After that are goals for a new colorway of my spoonie pendant necklace, a restock of the silver one, and more forms of the stained glass design by Chocolat Chaud (necklace and adjustable ring!!)
I will be doing fulfillment so that the horrible tariff situation between Japan (where she is based) and the US will not impact fulfillment for anyone other than people in the EU, who will unfortunately not be able to back the campaign. It will be fulfilled sometime this Fall as long as everything goes smoothly!
Hey everyone, I'm super sick with something right now so I just wanted to post this quickly while it's fresh.
I was sent this pic and then told they should be done in bulk around April 20th since they're being "rushed". I told her immediately do not sacrifice quality in order to "rush" them... again. Really tired of this song and dance.
The remade Harpies also arrive this weekend.
I hope I can get everything still pending out by the end of this month but we'll see I guess...partly depends on what I'm sick with and how quickly I recover. thank you for waiting
Hi, sorry for the silence, which is why this update will also be going out to MGR backers!!
I'm still physically recovering from Katsucon. Unfortunately, the event itself did not go well for seemingly most sellers, including us - attendance was way down and many tables were added to the alley so the already stretched-thin economic situation was even rougher. I always like being in the area but unfortunately good vibes aren't enough to make a trip worth it for us, and the combined 28hrs on the train took a very serious physical toll.
I also had a brain MRI this week with concerning notes on it but of course the physician and radiologist both said my brain is normal despite noted abnormalities ... so I'm trying to follow up on that and not really getting anywhere yet as it's now the weekend. Fun! 🤡
Anyway, here are the next steps I have planned and hopefully can get most of the way finished before the end of the month:
More MGR1 orders to go out that can (considering remakes as still pending for that campaign), and MGR2 orders that are merged with MGR1 that can go out. Any Holiday Market orders combined with those, too. Any excess shipping charged will be refunded after labels are printed
Any Chocolat Chaud and Cryptic Compendium orders that are from backers who also backed MGR are going to be combined too and the shipping cost situation there will be figured out as soon as possible, as it's complicated quite a bit since Chocolat Chaud had to pay hundreds of USD to get the box of them to me to begin with. (Including nearly $300 in tariffs once they actually reached me...)
I can't send out gacha spins for MGR2 or individual Harpy orders yet... I wasn't shown what they looked like printed before they were shipped. Kuchisake-Onna looks great:
...but as a mixed black-and-white woman I'm really irritated by how Harpy looks:
Most prints are not just lighter than the pantone color I provided but also very grey. This makes her look really ashy which is unacceptable to me. I may be white-passing but I've still dealt with being called ashy in the past and the last thing I want to do is send out a design that looks so insensitive to darker skintones. 😡 I'd rather eat my own foot. When they return from holiday I'm going to beg for a remake of her. I have some things I'll be asking to pay for in the same email so I hope they agree.
Remake Angel is also here and looks great! So she can begin fulfillment along with the rest who were already done. The only obstacle to fulfillment for MGR2 is Harpy, but that affects gacha spins too.
The remade Geode Pets also arrived and look FAR better...mostly... so those will finally have their survey sent out soon and he'll make an update about all of that. He won't be charging shipping for people who can still combine with my orders, since my surveys went out first. It'll take a bit of figuring out now that there's so many different campaigns being combined for some...which I'm so sorry for.
From MGR1 the status is the same as last time, I'm still waiting on the remakes of Elfling, Baphomet, and the additional Ghouls they didn't originally send me...
Hey everyone, final reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th, tomorrow, by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, really limiting options for add-ons. There are still currently 9 unsubmitted surveys.
If you answered the survey but didn't hit submit because you're thinking it will auto-charge - that was just something done by BK for the holiday market so we could get our stuff out faster, I really do need you to submit once you've made your choices. If you just don't want to pay yet on the 13th or can't, that's seriously no big deal, just email me at [email protected] about it. But I really do need you to hit submit or I won't be able to reserve what you picked via survey (live campaign picks are already reserved).
The pins that will remain available to claim on survey after Feb 9th deadline are K-O, Harpy, Demon, and Mermaid. For grab bags, seconds pins of the monster girls and seconds pins of the minis will remain up on survey and preorder store. No gacha spins of any kind will remain up.
Then on the 11th, a 48hr notice will go out about locking orders, and on the 13th you will be locked and charged (if you didn't opt to be charged already).
New info:
Since I have to bring the girls to Katsucon so I have the best chance of it being worth the expenses out the wazoo I had to put into this, this was the fairest way I came up with to do so:
*still subject to change because I haven't printed those machine graphics yet. Ope
I made a slight change and swapped which machine Necro is in because I looked back at production costs.
$16/pin CHOICE: Mermaid, Angel v1, Elfling v1
Angel's remake is otw to me now (though unlikely to arrive by the time we leave Weds ...), and Elfling's remakes won't ship until next month ... but backers won't be receiving the ones I am bringing to the con, because the remakes will BETTER reflect the art and the price point, as well as almost-certainly be much higher quality overall. At the same time, because the first batches of those pins were so overwhelmingly awful, the ones that are actually passable as "standard grade" (but have the wrong colors/enamel type for the design itself) are currently immovable unless I bring them to this convention.
Since they'll be out on display, people can see how they currently look - which isn't like how they were advertised to all of you, which is why I'm making sure to fix it - and make an informed decision on whether they want them like that or not. I feel that's fair and also doesn't rip any of you off that are still waiting.
This brings me back again to submitting your surveys: I am using those counts to make sure your pins are absolutely 100% safe!!! I've reserved everything currently picked/unshipped across all campaigns' designs, +5-10 per design, but there are dramatically different quality levels per design (for example, I'm having all of Baphomet remade from the 1st because only 8 of her didn't have something majorly wrong in some form, and her eyes also didn't glow like I paid for. Nothing that extreme here since Angel was remade thank goodness!). Some of the puddings are also pretty limited per design.
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I'll be closing the surveys and preorder store on feb 9th by essentially marking everything as hidden that I have low stock on, really limiting options for add-ons. There are still currently 10 unanswered surveys.
The pins that will remain available to claim on survey after Feb 9th deadline are K-O, Harpy, Demon, and Mermaid. For grab bags, seconds pins of the monster girls and seconds pins of the minis will remain up on survey and preorder store. No gacha spins of any kind will remain up.
The general add-ons remaining left to claim after feb 9th deadline on survey and preorder store are konpeito milk and both types eye boba. Bandages also. No puddings or stickers as I can't be sure how well they'll do or not. No septums as I don't know how well they'll do either, I sold out pretty much entirely of the 16G ones I brought the last time I went to Katsucon, but this time I have almost entirely different designs in stock so 🤷♀️
Then on the 11th, a 48hr notice will go out about locking orders, and on the 13th you will be locked and charged (if you didn't opt to be charged already).
Thank you to the early payers, as I was able to pay that 2nd half for Harpy and K-O just as they were finishing up, they should ship to me tomorrow. I paid extra for fedex rather than UPS this time so they MAY reach me before I leave for katsucon next weds night but it's unlikely.
Because of all this uncertainty (which has nothing to do with those who chose to wait for the 13th, as you have every right to, and everything to do with my manus all taking so long across both collections!!), I have to wait last-minute to order my signage for my machines, as I don't know yet what will be in them, and it's really stressing me out. I'm currently about halfway thru grading the part 2 pins to be sure that everything claimed + 10 extra for good measure are being left at home. Your claims will not be oversold. The deadline of the 9th for claiming extras ensures this.
