Hi all!

After filling up my trunk with small boxes and then emptying said trunk at the post office, our favorite little fear demon is on its way! 

This means you should have your little nightmares arriving at your door as soon as our postal service gets them to your doorstep!

Huge thanks for the support and patience! 

If you haven't already either gotten your toy or gotten an email with tracking info, please reach out and let me know at [email protected]

Thank you!!
-Rick

Hello lovely humans,

I hope you've found the courage to face your fears, as Nightmare-Chan will be heading your way soon, and you know that he's hungry for fear!

So the most important part is that IF YOU HAVE MOVED RECENTLY, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS ASAP!!!

I'm going to try and pack everything up this weekend to try and get them out to the post office on Monday.

I've been busily cleaning, trimming, cutting, and assembling (and then packaging) your rewards, and here's some photos from the process of how soft vinyl toys get made.

So this is me dumping all the parts in a soapy water bath to get off the factory grime. I use a Home Depot bucket, soap and water, and then it's a quick rub and rinse and then they're all set out to dry on my beach blanket custom toy drying station. 

Next up is trimming! 

Notice I have to trim the neck area as well as cut out the arm holes. Soft vinyl is pretty soft once it's heated, so using a trusty heat gun I quickly soften the toys and then use an Xacto blade to cut out the arm holes, trim the vinyl around the neck (of the body and the head), and then while the body is still flexible, I stuff the arms and head into their respective positions.

Then you get a finished toy!

Then it's off to the packaging part of my apartment, which means trimming down cards, scoring them, doing some hand-embellishing, and then stapling them into a bag.

And then I get to pack it, slap on a shipping label, and then it's off to your hot little hands! 

Thanks again for all of your patience, and I can't wait to get these out to everyone. When they arrive, please don't hesitate to take photos and tag me (@rickkitagawa) if you share them on social media!

Thanks and hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Cheers,
Rick

Howdy all!

I'm hoping I get a UPS notification soon, as Mile High Sofubi has shared with me some process shots as he pulls the Marbled Red and Black toys!

Wild how that eventually turns into this:

Anyway, once I get in the toys, the next step is then washing them (they have a slight grime to them from production), sorting all the little parts, heating them and trimming the excess vinyl, cutting the arm holes out, and then assembling and packaging them.

Once I get the toys in, I'll let you all know, lock orders, and then start shipping them out to y'all!

Thanks again for your patience, and if anyone is interested in enamel pins, I've got another campaign going on as part of BackerKit's Pintopia pin extravaganza: Lovecraftian Horrors Season 2!  I know, I know, you've probably already heard of it, but in the chance you haven't, figured I should let you know :) 

Thank yoooooou!
-Rick

Yoooo, happy new year, Nightmare fam!

It's been a minute, but I hope that you are all doing well, and thank you again for your patience!

So Mile High has informed me that the molds are back in, so I'm getting the magenta toys and the marbled slotted into his production schedule. Last time it was about 1-2 months from when molds dropped to me getting that first batch, so while I can't promise shipping is around the corner, it's on the horizon.

If any of you also need more Nightmare-Chan in your life ASAP, I do have a few one offs up in the store if you need some soft vinyl horror right away. 

Thanks again and hope you're all doing well !

Cheers,
Rick

Howdy everyone!

A few quick updates on Nightmare-Chan.

So I just dropped off all orders that don't have a magenta or marbled figure as part of the rewards. Meaning if you only ordered pins, shirts, or robin's egg or glow lime toys, you should be expecting your package within a week or so (although TBH, not sure how fast UPS will get to the frozen tundra of Ontario, my Canadian friend).

The other update: I heard from Mile High that hopefully a new mold will be here in a few weeks. I'm taking that to mean "January or February" given the speed of mold making last time, but as long as we make it before all the early-year holidays (Lunar New Year, Golden Week, etc) that shuts down work in China, we should be solid.

Thanks again for your patience, and I'm working on the first painted release (a micro run of 5-6) to drop at DesignerCon in two weeks(!). If you're planning to stop by, I'll be at booth 1725 right by the larger Hollywood 100 gallery. I'll also have some one-offs, which you're seeing here first!

Hope y'all are having a good winter so far, and hope everyone is staying nice and toasty! 

I don't likely expect there to be much news until next year, so if I don't talk to you before then, Happy Winter Holiday of your celebratory choosing!

Thanks again,
Rick 

Hi fam,

So last week was a total wash due to a family emergency that had me flying to the Bay Area for the past week (which especially was terrible timing as I ended up missing the Blasphemeet show last weekend).

I just got back, so I locked shipping addresses for those receiving rewards that are NOT the Magenta or marbled figures.

I'll be spending the next day or two trimming, assembling, and packaging your orders - I realize that I didn't give y'all a chance to update your address, so if you got an email saying that your address was locked and you need it unlocked to edit, please just email me at [email protected].

Hope y'all are doing well, and looking forward to finally getting some of these toys out to you!

Thanks again for all your patience, and I due to the mold failure it's looking like everyone else will be getting their figures in the New Year ;_;

THAT SAID - there is some potentially good news.

So due to the way a small toy production factory works (both Mile High and other sofubi houses in Japan) work, is that due to the nature of how vinyl is poured into molds, orders are usually "ganged up" by color. Meaning that if there's a large order for a certain color, they will pull multiple orders of different toys at the same time. So if you happen to order toys in a popular color, those are likely to be fulfilled earlier as if they're already fulfilling another order in that color they can lump that part of your order in with a different toy being produced in the same color.

This is why the marbled ones came last - those are such a custom order that they have to wait until there's an open spot in production in order to get those done since no one else is ordering that color.

But the good news is that I ALSO happened ask for more figures in any other vinyl color that was being pulled - there was a darker maroon-ish color being pulled, and so I have a small quantity of those figures in-hand. Here's the body so you can see the difference with the magenta test pull I have.

I'm planning to do some customs for DesignerCon (Dec. 15-17 in Anaheim) using these as a base, but if anyone has ordered a magenta figure (or really, any figure color) and wants to swap for a maroon one, I'm happy to swap and ship it out sooner. Just comment here and I'll update your order. 

Please let me know if you'd like one (especially if you're swapping for a lime or robin's egg) by this FRIDAY (November 17), so I can begin planning my paint run and customs for the show (and also ship out existing orders)! Otherwise, any extras of these maroon blanks will be sold to the general public at DCON. 

Thanks again for all the patience and understanding, and I'll do my best to get you your demonic entities ASAP!

Cheers,
Rick

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to be able to update y'all with better news, but after some back and forth with Mile High, it's looking like the left arm mold has failed..meaning that a new mold needs to get made in order to finish the run.

So it's mostly bad news here tbh. I'm hoping it won't take the 9 months as my first molds, but suffice to say, none of the marbled or Magenta toys have been pulled and they can't be pulled until a functioning mold gets made :sob:

I expect to get the Lime and solid Robin's Egg figures in soon, so if you're not getting any of the above options, I'll start shipping those out ASAP. 

So this means that I'll locking addresses for some of you soon, but if you get an address lock notice, that means you'll be getting your pins/shirts/figures relatively soon. 

For everyone else, thanks for your patience. I'm so bummed this is taking longer than expected, but I guess huge delays is part of the indie toy creator world, sadly. 

The one good thing about all of this is that I had planned for the Robin's Egg to be the base color for my first painted run, which I'm hoping to premier at DesignerCon in December. 

So while we all patiently await our marbled (and Magenta) Nightmare-Chans, hopefully I'll have some painted figures for anyone swinging by Anaheim. 

Anyway, thank you again, and looking forward to sharing purely good news soon! 
-Rick

Howdy all!

Just wanted to give you alll an update, I just talked to the factory and it's looking like due to the large variety of colors I chose, I should be getting Nightmare-Chan in on or before October 9th - meaning that shipping is happening likely later that week. 

I'll reach out for address locking once I actually get a tracking number on the toys, and then I'll be madly trimming and assembling them for y'all. 

The enamel pins should be coming in the next few days, so I'll definitely share some photos ASAP. 

I'm going to do my damnest to get you your figures by mid-October, but just wanted to give y'all a head's up that I'm likely not going to have any for Seaside Oddities this weekend. I miiiight try to get a one-off done in time..

Thoughts - lottery? First come, first served? 

Thanks again for your patience and I'm now trying to wrangle all the manufacturers to get stuff taken care of! 

Have a great week!
-Rick

Howdy everyone! 

Just wanted to send a friendly reminder that we're locking orders and charging cards in 24 hours! So make sure to get those surveys in ASAP!

Remember that you can change your address, but you gotta tell me what you want so I can get it made! 

Happy Friday and thank you again!

-Rick

Howdy all,

SURVEYS HAVE BEEN RELEASED!

Make sure you keep an eye out, or do a quick search for "Backer Kit" and/or "Response Needed Nightmare Chan" in the event that it gets lost in spam/filters. 

Please fill these out ASAP - I'll be locking these down (meaning you won't be able to edit your orders) on the 13th - one week from now. 

You'll still be able to update your shipping address for a few weeks until right before shipping starts, but the sooner you fill out the surveys the sooner I can get these orders into the respective manufacturers to get you your fun toys and shirts and goodies on time. 

Thank you so much again and enjoy the weekend!

Cheers,
Rick

Happy Friyay everyone!

Just a head's up - I submitted the project earlier this week for review (to get approval to send out surveys), and they found a few things to patch up, which I did, and just resubmitted.

Hopefully this means that surveys will be coming over the next 48 hours, Monday at the latest. I'll definitely let you all know as soon as I do!

The faster you all get the surveys back to me, the quicker I can place all the orders, meaning the faster you get your rewards, so keep a look out!

I also wanted to give everyone a head's up that there is a local pickup option that saves you the cost of shipping if you're patient and want to pickup at any of the following conventions:

Seaside Oddities - Ventura, CA - Sept 30 + Oct 1
Son of Monsterpalooza - Burbank, CA - October 13-15
Blasphemeet - Los Angeles, CA - November 11-12
DesignerCon - Anaheim, CA - December 15-17

Please note that you must specify which event you'd like to pick-up at (feel free to email me at [email protected] with the subject "Nightmare-Chan pickup") and that you're responsible for buying tickets to said event. 

Finally, just a reminder that if you haven't already, there's the Nightmare Squad membership, which is a must for any collector :) 

Thanks again, and keep an eye on your inbox! 

-Rick