Reward Shipments In Progress
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Jul 04, 2017 at 01:13:12 PM

Reward Shipment Update

I am currently on the road, working my artist table and selling patches at two events in New Mexico in July. I just finished up the Roswell UFO Fest and I am gearing up for the Wizard World Albuquerque comic convention in about a week (for reference, I live in Northeastern Ohio). 

I shipped out the Limited Edition rewards before I left, and brought the rest of the merchandise with me to assemble and ship while on the road.

I set up my new-to-me Honda Element to be able to haul the table setup, canopy for one outdoor event, as well as use the entire passenger side of the vehicle for my sleeping quarters while on the road.

I had some rain at my first campsite, so I set things up to prepare rewards in the car.

I got to Roswell on the 4th day of driving.

There was no time during my stay in Roswell to get any rewards shipped, the 4-day event was comprised of long working days, amplified further by some canopy issues due to strong wings and sever thunderstorms. It was a hectic but fun and rewarding stay. And now I have two canopies, even if one is slightly damaged. Craigslist post forthcoming.

Got to make some new fans, spend time with existing ones and you might even see my patches on the Travel Channel in the near future…

But I am now in Albuquerque and have been getting the remaining rewards prepped, packed and postage added. I plan on spending the rest of today (July 4th) getting the remaining rewards ready, and dropping them all off in the mail tomorrow. 

Shipping On The Road Solutions

The tricky part of all of this was figuring out a postage solution for shipping while on the road. 

I did a test run of this when I drove to the Wizard World Philadelphia event last month, and shipped online orders from the road. I brought along my thermal postage label printer, and used the ShippingEasy service to import online orders and also be able to print basic packing slips using the thermal printer (no online shop I use formats packing slips for the 4x6 printers, which is an oversight). 

As far as I know, it's necessary to indicate the ship-from ZIP code if different from the return address. I think it matters more for Priority Mail because of zone rates, and might not affect First-Class Mail (which is how most of the rewards ship). 

But to be safe, I found a solution which allowed me to do this, with some added labor on my end. BackerKit has an integrated postage solution, but it doesn't offer the ability to set the shipping origin ZIP code, so I had to go back to using Endicia which was my first solution for shipping Kickstarter rewards. 

The BackerKit integration is a much easier workflow, but BackerKit not only charges more for the postage itself, but also uses payment processor Stripe which takes a 5% cut just for processing the payment for buying postage credit!

It's kind of bogus, but the ease of use offsets doing it manually. It still feels like a bit of a sneaky move on BackerKit's part to hide the ways they make money off of you. I'd rather they just increase their fee structure and bundle in all of this stuff. It leaves a sour impression, which is in contrast to how helpful the service is overall.

In this case however, I had no choice but to do it manually. It requires a bit more Copy/Paste and application switching, along with some spreadsheet wrangling, but it's not too bad. BackerKit's reward organization features definitely help the process along regardless of the postage situation.

I'm going to look into ShippingEasy in more detail if this comes up again, because the paid plans offer order uploading via CSV. For now, it's easier to just do these manually and learn later. 

But the cool thing is that it's totally possible to do this. That opens up possibilities for more distant events in the future. 

Upcoming Patch Campaigns

As always, I am constantly working on the upcoming patch sets and the related Kickstarter campaigns. I was aiming to launch the next one, "Legendary Legion", no later than July. That still may happen depending on how much work I can get done on the new patch art in the next week. 

That set will feature goblins, fairies, trolls, ogres, gnomes and elves -- all with a bit more of the darker side of things. The look of these were all inspired in particular by the artwork for the Chupacabra Corps from the Cryptid Command 2 patch set. 

 I'll be working hard to get this artwork completed as quickly as I can without compromising quality, and at this point I've got the Kickstarter campaign setup down pretty good so setting that up will not be much of a challenge.

Thank You!

First, thank you for your patience on the fulfillment of these rewards. I know I usually ship things more quickly, but this campaign was ready at about the same time as a lot of vendor (artist table) events I do started ramping up for the season. 

As I am am doing more and more of these events, I am still working to get into the right balance of time for everything. 

And of course, thank you for your support of this campaign (and and extra thanks to you ongoing backers) who make all of this possible. 

I feel very fortunate to have such an excellent group of supporters for these campaigns, and the campaigns allow me to not only get the patches made, but it makes all these events possible, and on a larger scale it inspires and motivates me to keep working on future patch and pin sets. 

I've got lots to share with you all, and can't thank you enough for making this all possible.

George
Monsterologist.com

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Production Update: Patches Completed
almost 7 years ago – Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 11:36:53 AM

Patch Production Status

It's been a while since the last update, but mostly I've just been finalizing the patch sew-outs (the pre-production physical proofs) with minor tweaks and edits. I approved the proofs a couple of weeks ago, and just got them delivered this week!

Next, I just need to assemble the patches to the display cards, sign and number all the limited edition rewards, and then move on to packing up and shipping out the rewards! The display cards should be here next week.

I like to allow a few weeks at minimum for fulfillment, and I will be working my artist table at some remote events in the next few weeks, meaning I will may need to ship them after I get back in July. 

I'm looking into perhaps doing the fulfillment from the road if I can make room for everything I'll need. 

Speaking of, I will setting up my artist table at the Roswell UFO Festival June 29 to July 2 in Roswell, New Mexico, and at Wizard World Albuquerque on July 14-16. 

Next Campaign: Legendary Legion

As mentioned in previous updates, I've been working on the artwork for the next campaign — the Legendary Legion. This will be a 6 patch set featuring fairies, elves, gnomes, goblin, ogres and trolls. 

I am aiming to launch this campaign right after the  Cryptid Command 2 rewards ship. At this point, it's looking like a July launch. I can't believe how the time has flown by this year!

Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter for previews of the artwork and updates on the campaign launch -- and my email newsletter is the only way to get the launch day backer secret code for a free bonus reward item!

Monsterologist.com

 

Those of you already on my email list know that I have also been working on setting up a standalone website and store for all my patches, pins and other monster merchandise. 

Monsterologist.com launched a few weeks ago, and I really haven't even had the time to do a proper launch announcement. But the cool thing is that I now have a central location to post art, sketches, announcements, host pre-orders and smaller crowdfunding campaigns. And it's all integrated with an online store as well. 

I could not have made this happen without all the ongoing support of all you awesome Kickstarter backers who have helped me get an inventory of merchandise together. Without that, there would be no reason to even have a store. Thank you for helping me to make this happen!

And an extra special thanks to all my Patreon backers, whose ongoing artist patronage support made it possible to set aside the funds to help pay for the costs of running the store while it gets going -- and hopefully started paying for itself soon. 

Thank You

Thanks again for backing this campaign, and making it possible for me to bring all of these ideas to fruition. I am honored to have the privilege of sharing my creativity with such an amazing group of backers and fans. The best way I know to say thanks is to keep working on more creative stuff to share with you.

I've been working on lots of cool stuff for future campaigns and patch sets such as horror monsters, dragons, mysterious places, more cryptids, more Halloween monsters, conspiracy theories and much more…

Cannot wait to share it all with you!

George

Surveys Closing, Patch Production Soon, New Enamel Pins!
almost 7 years ago – Wed, May 17, 2017 at 04:07:31 PM

Patch Production Update

It's bee a while since the last update, but the only real news has been some back and forth getting the Chupacabra Corps patch just right. But now I finally have the design and colors where I think they should be. 

Backer Survey Info 

A few backers still need to fill out their surveys, but I have enough at this point to get orders placed. 

I'm going to lock down the surveys this Friday, May 19. You'll no longer be able to modify your order yourself, but I can do that for you if you need to change anything. You'll still be able to modify your address, and I'll leave addresses open to modify until I get closer to shipping these. 

Since the last update, I've also gotten some more enamel pins -- the Bigfoot Patrol shield and the third heraldic shield from the Order Of Krampus set, as well as the Paranormal Forces logo pin.

I've added the Bigfoot Patrol and Order Of Krampus Head Profile pins to the BackerKit add-ons, so you can purchase either of them at a backer-only discounted rate and save on shipping. 

Pre-order backers for the new pins should see them on their survey now. If you do not see them in your item list, or something isn't listed correctly, please let me know. 

The Order Of Krampus Head Profile pins are brand-new, and there was no pre-order for these. You can still edit your survey to add one. 

If you have any questions at all, just drop a line or comment on this update if your question might be of help to other backers. 

If you can't find your BackerKit survey email or link, just head here and enter your email address to look it up: https://cryptid-command-2.backerkit.com/

Shipping Estimate

I estimate these to ship by late June or early July. I plan on placing the orders this week once surveys are finalized. It takes about 3 weeks to get them manufactured and delivered, and then I need to assemble the patches (display cards, limited edition kits) and then do all the shipping. 

Next Campaign

I'll be getting more artwork done for the next patch campaign soon, which I aim to launch on Kickstarter in June or July 2017. It will launch after I ship Cryptid Command 2. Overlapping campaigns is kind of confusing to say the least!

Goblins, fairies, trolls, elves, gnomes, ogres -- and more to be revealed! All on the Grimm side of things, of course…

I'm also working on even more conspiracy theory patch set concepts, the dragon set, and more monsters and mythological creatures! Not to mention more horror and Halloween ideas as well.

Thank You

Thanks again for backing the campaign! Your support makes all of this possible and I thank you for making that happen.

George

Patch Production: Sew-Outs Round 3
almost 7 years ago – Thu, May 04, 2017 at 07:36:54 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Patch Sew-Out Production Previews Round 2
almost 7 years ago – Tue, May 02, 2017 at 01:15:03 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.