TL;DR: Everything is moving. For the UK & EU it’s almost moving towards you directly. Fulfilment will begin in early May.

You know those old slidy tile puzzles you did when you were a kid? Or the Wolf, Chicken, Grain boat riddle? Have you considered doing them for a job? But also parts of the river may be on fire, the chicken and wolf have closed the airspace around the far bank, and the slide puzzles occasionally have tariffs added or removed…

All this to say, that the moving of things around the globe for this project is well underway, and we’re approaching some seriously good news for all Backers in the foreseeable (and predictable) future.

Last week the Ways & Means books and new edition of Heart arrived in both our UK & EU warehouses from the manufacturer. They sailed through any legal processing, and as we’re sending this out, the warehouse teams have begun the process of picking & packing our freight deliveries for the USA and Australian warehouses. 

The final timelines for the USA and Australian freight movements are both still in negotiations, with boats and airplanes operating in the challenging environment we call ‘the world’. But we’re working with trusted partners, and are confident with the timetables we have for goods to arrive. We are requesting that no Delving Machines are used, due to their habit of screwing with time, but we have been warned that we may be forced to use the most eldrich horror of all: Amtrak.

We’ve got our sights set on shipping all the final items out of warehouses before the end of this week, with eyes on fulfilment beginning in the USA and Australia/Pacific around the end of May/early June.

We’re waiting on the final delivery of Delve Decks to make their way to our UK warehouse from China. USA & Australian copies have already arrived, but we’re expecting this final piece of the puzzle will be completed before the end of the month. At which point we will have all the items required to fulfil our UK backers. 

There will be one final movement from the UK to the EU of the Delve Decks, a quick hop over ‘het Kanaal’ to the Netherlands and that will allow us to begin EU and Middle East deliveries as well.

Here’s the current timeline by location:

The first UK packages will go out at the end of April, starting with orders that don’t contain the Delve Deck and working up to the largest packages over the following weeks. We will post another Update shortly before addresses are locked for this area, this will also be accompanied by an email from BackerKit about Locking Addresses. Look out for that email, or update your address NOW!

It will take a few weeks to fill all these orders. You’ll get a tracking code and we will also update your order in Backerkit so you know when it’s shipped. We’ll also update you again when fulfilment is done.

The first EU packages will go out in early May, again starting with orders that don’t contain the Delve Deck and working up to the larger and more complex orders over the following weeks, once the decks have arrived at the warehouse.

Once EU orders have been processed, the warehouse will move on to Backers from EEA and Middle East countries. This requires export paperwork, and requires a little more time to set up and put through with the correct customs paperwork.

Further details about the exact timeline for both of these will be in our next Backer Update.

Things are coming together nicely. The freight shipments to our US warehouse partners have been packed in the UK & EU. We’re booking passage by boat and air for these items at present. It usually takes about 30-35 days to get things by boat to the USA. But unexpected bugs (literal) discovered when the boat arrives in the US port or train gremlins (metaphorical) slowing movement on the tracks can add a few extra days. 

Once we know we’ve cleared USA border controls, we’ll have a clearer sense of the timeline, and we can begin to lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. Currently we’re expecting that information to come our way around the middle of May, with fulfilment beginning after that.

Pallets are packed for shipment to our Australian fulfilment centre – they'll be handling everything Asia-Pacific-related through the AusPost system. These will go onto an airplane in the next week or so and, customs willing, will be at the fulfilment centre in about 3 weeks time (mid May).

Once we know we’ve cleared Australian border controls and it’s all been inspected for illegal fruit and bugs (in this case, the absence of them), we’ll lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. Currently we’re expecting that information to come our way around the middle of May, with fulfilment beginning after that.

Thank you for supporting this project, folks - it’s been a fantastic creative endeavour and we couldn’t do this without you. We’d love to see pictures of your parcels as they start to arrive - you can tag us on Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook, or pop links in the comments here. 

Or join our Discord server and chat to others about all things Heart? 

As always, there’s a risk things will get dinged, damaged or lost in transit. If that happens to you, we want to put it right. If anything goes wrong with your parcel, get in touch with Jim or myself in the Customer Service mines by emailing [email protected].

Expect more communication in the next week or two,

xoxo

– Alex, and everyone at RR&D