Hey, I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Just a very quick update on the Owlbear Accessories Project .
(edit, i thought this would be a quick update, but i was very wrong.., just wanted to include the big picture on whats going on)
I should be getting updated costs today from the manufacturer, which helps finalize our counts,
- They say that updated samples are on their way (including fishing kit), that will arrive next week.
- Purple Owlbear sample is going to arrive before Chinese New Year (end of the month),
This unfortunately means that timing-wise wise we won't have production of the accessories done until March-April, which means they won't arrive at warehouses until June-Aug (which is way later than I want).
One thing to note is that I am getting a little annoyed at how long updates are taking without communication from this manufacturer (technically, it's a middleman, not direct to manufacturer. They do some creative work on their own, like translating accessory drawings into plushes, and they also led to the innovation of the toe beans and such.) I know it goes through a process, but the lack of hearing updates and timing is a bit frustrating, as I have to wait longer and I am unable to update you for the updates either. They're also seemingly more expensive than other manufacturers out there (part of the nature of being a passthrough), but it's gotten us to start looking around now that we've gotten our feet wet in plush production.
Plush Keychains
I am in talks with another manufacturer that has been courting us for awhile.
Instead of doing a production replacement with them (esp since so much work has already been done with this current manufacturer, and we cant really move over innovations they've done). We're looking to start with a wholly new product.
So, for Backerkit's 2025 Pintopia|Pins and Plushes, which will launch on
Jan 23rd 2025, we'll be launching a mini plush campaign, for
Baby Bestiary Keychains, we've gone through prototyping already with the new manufacturer, and this prototype was actually their design (they showed off to us at GenCon 2024).
Follow the KeyChain project here
*currently working through prototypes with the new manufacturer, but we should also potentially get dragon turtle and phoenix keychains to include as goals for the campaign, more on them below..
Pheonix and Dragon Turtle 
So I was originally anticipating on launching the
Pheonix and
Dragon Turtle as a single Owlbear and Friends campaign in Feb/March 2025, thinking that this accessories project would be further along.
Since we don't know which manufacturer we're using, we actually have both manufacturers working on their own production prototype for the Pheonix and Dragon Turtle. Since those prototypes are still being refined, we're gonna hold off launching the campaign for these two potentially later in the year (depending on when fulfillment of the keychains and accessories go).
Also, we're working on getting prototypes of keychain versions of the dragon turtle and phoenix, since we can introduce those plushes before the their larger friends join the fray, which might help drum up excitement for them as we get closer to their eventual launch.
Anyways...I know that was a lot, there's a lot going on, as aways.
I try my best to make myself available to answer questions to the best of my ability and happy to further discuss as we try to make more cute companions.
Hope everyone had a good holiday season,
Caretaker Andreas
