Snughouls Series 3

Happy new year, critters! I have quite the image heavy update for you today, but first I'd like to apologize for my absence.

If you saw my Cryptid Crush update you'll know we lost a family member and member of our household a little over a week ago now and it has been an exhausting rollercoaster of a month. Frankly this whole 4th quarter has been a nightmare on the 'real life' side of things, and as a result I've found it even more difficult than usual to cobble my thoughts together into updates for you fine folks.

That said, on the Snughoul side samples are coming along swimmingly and I'm really pleased with our progress so far! The not deer, guardian lion, and gryphon are finalized and looking great. For some reason the not deer is almost twice as heavy as the other two, but I don't hate it 😅 Jostling them around is incredibly satisfying and I love sitting them in my lap while I work.

The furs on everyone are also perfect! Our texture sensitive pals will be thrilled by their softness. If you know what Thornheart Wolpertinger feels like, then you have a good frame of reference for these critters as well!
 



The first backpack sample arrived earlier this week, and I have no notes. It's perfect! It holds on without any additional straps, and can withstand all kinds of abuse without budging an inch. Now that we have our proof of concept, I'm super excited to get the ball rolling on the next two designs this week!




Next on the list to be sampled are the jumbo snughouls, and the mossy gargoyle and frogman! It will probably be around mid-January before our first look at some of these, but they have been paid for so it's only a matter of time now 🤞




And finally, we have our v2 and v1 Gutsy. Both adorable in their own ways, but unfortunately there can only be one 😭 Below is a poll where you can cast your vote and help determine the future of our mini Gutsy, as well as all mini plush going forward!  
 


Both Gutsy's are similar in size and weight, with the V2 Gutsy utilizing a fluffier material and a printed belly badge as opposed to embroidery.

While I know some folks are staunchly against printed fabrics on their plushies, I want to stress that at this scale the printed material has much more give and creates a cuddlier final product (in my opinion), so I won't be experimenting with an embroidered badge on V2 Gutsy. What you see is more or less what you get with these critters at this point 💖



That's all for now, my friends! Thank you so much for your patience as our household recovers from our sudden loss, and I hope to be more present again as we settle into our new normal. I'll be back next week with the results of the mini plush poll for sure, and if we're real lucky maybe even a sample update or two. Fingers crossed! 💖💖💖

Good news, critters!

Surveys went live a little earlier today, so you can finally browse the whole collection and make any preliminary selections-- but remember, you have until surveys lock to make any final decisions!

If this isn't your first snughoul rodeo, you'll notice there's a new option this time around.



If you prefer to be charged ASAP you can let me know via this survey question and I will get your pledge processed right away! The main benefit to this is not being surprised by a mystery charge 6+ months from now, but there are no penalties for not opting into this feature so please don't feel pressured to do so.

You can also change your answer at any time, so if a design you were looking forward to is revealed and you now feel confident in your decision, then your welcome to edit your survey!

My hope is this will lead to less failed payments and unpleasant surprises when the 'ghouls finally go into production 💖

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Now on to some other fun stuff! Almost immediately after updating everyone yesterday, I got an incredible plush update.

The guardian lion looks so much like the concept art now I'm actually blown away. I love their goofy face, and their big ole Garfield-esque mouth lmao-- aaaAAA! My final tweaks include making the face a little wider, and adding 2 more curls to the top of the head to fill it out a bit. Otherwise they look perfect!


I also got the V2 Mini Gutsy edited and sent my notes back to the supplier. I love them, and with the changes proposed I'll love them even more!! 🥹

Once we get the proportions just right, future mini prototypes will come together much faster. The first one is almost always a huge pain in the neck though 🥲

Heya critters! Real quick I'd like to apologize for the quiet November. While I continued to work hard in the background, the entire month felt like a wash due to multiple family and personal issues that just kept compounding.

Without going into too much detail, a family member that lives with us is now on in-home hospice and it took a minute to find our new normal. Then as things were settling down we had the thanksgiving holiday to contend with, and (unrelated to the aforementioned holiday) I got food poisoning and was pretty useless for a few days 😅 But I'm feeling much better now!

‼️SO, to dive right in to it, surveys have been submitted for review and should be going out in the next 48 hours!‼️ We're just waiting on Backerkit to double check everything and turn us loose, and then I can send the smoke test followed by the 2000+ surveys.

The preorder store is also live! But I want to stress that if you backed the S3 campaign, DO NOT use the  preorder store. Your orders will NOT automatically combine and you'll be charged twice for shipping.

(But the preorder store is great for seeing everything in one place in case you're unsure about what all we unlocked! 😉) 

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Now let's look at some samples!!!
 
First we have the finalized gryphon to ogle! I adore them. They look so much like the concept art, and the added detail on the beak is really 🤌🤌🤌

Then there's the first finalized backpack, which is freakin adorable. Y'all don't know this about me but I love tiny versions of everyday things, and this checks all my boxes. Cute, detailed, functional, and SMALL.  
 


The guardian lion is also well on their way to looking perfect already. I was pleasantly surprised by the first sample, but we've opted to go with a shorter material for the orange areas so the swirl details really pop. With a few more tweaks to the shape of their head and face, I think they're going to look perfect!



Mini Gutsy is proving to be a bit more complex, unfortunately. I have two suppliers working on them, and once they're finished I'll let you guys vote on which one we go with!

These are not the final samples. The left version needs a few final tweaks to the leg shape, and the right version needs a few color adjustments. but they are close! I hope to hold the poll within the next 2-3 weeks, so keep an eye out for that.



I believe that covers everything that has happened over the last few weeks! I'll share another update as soon as surveys go live, and then again as we get the finalized Gutsy from both suppliers-- you'll be hearing from me a lot this December! 💖

Sorry for the delay, critters! We had a market event on Sunday that I spent all of Saturday prepping for and then when we got home last night I immediately passed out lol. Even with a super simplified setup, lugging out all those tables and gridwalls is a workout!

The market went great though! If you saw us and/or adopted a snughoul, thanks so much for coming out 😊 Definitely going back next year, so if you're in Pensacola around this time come check out the Punk Rock Flea Market!

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NOW onto campaign stuff! We finished at an incredible 326k and a whopping 29 unlocked 'ghouls!!! What an accomplishment!
 
First I'd like to address declined payments. If your payment failed, don't panic! Backerkit will automatically continue to retry failed payments periodically over the next 14 days. If you need to change the card on file but are struggling to do so, please reach out to [email protected] for assistance. I'm not able to trouble shoot payment issues until the pledge manager opens in two weeks.

I'm also not able to make adjustments to your pledge until the pledge manager opens. When surveys go out in two weeks, you'll be able to add/remove items and customize your order to your liking. At that point I can help with adjustments and other order issues as well, so please sit tight until then!

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Secondly, some new sample pics are here! I'm sharing them along with the notes I sent back to the supplier so everyone can see the vision!

Beyond a few materials that need swapping around for better contrast, the first draft of the gryphon is looking INCREDIBLE. The beak is constructed in such a way that they can't embroider a mouth like they would normally, so I've opted to define it with a color change instead. I think this adds to the bird of prey look, and is an improvement overall. Yay for happy accidents!




We also received a mini Gutsy revision, and he's coming along swimmingly! My notes with this one are very minimal, just dialing in those final proportion tweaks for the perfect lil' guy. I'm especially excited to see him in motion because I just know he has the cutest flops.



I'm hoping we receive the first backpack sample later this week, and possibly our first look at the guardian lion! Next on the agenda for this week is paying for all of the giant samples, the jersey devil and the minotaur. My goal is to sample all the snughouls with "unique" shapes first, since they will likely take the longest. After that we can start on the color swaps!

That's all for now my friends, but if I receive anymore pictures this week I'll be sure to share them here asap!

Need something to tide you over until the next update? Join the Cryptid Cuddle Club discord!
There's no pressure to post, just lurk and catch updates in real time as I share pictures, sketches and other snughoul noodlins in the development channel  💖 

But with overtime mode enabled, things could go on much longer. Every time someone pledges, it resets the countdown to 10 minutes! 👀This is my favorite part-- let's GOOO!!!