Things are looking better here at home. Our first part of the repair has already been completed and we're finally onto fixing the roof of our house, now that insurance has processed everything. Whoo! I'm in a more comfortable and less stressed out point now where I can comfortably work on this.

All the plushies have now gone into production. We're about a month delayed from where I would have liked us to be, but as long as the gears are finally rolling, I'll take it as a win. At the moment, both iterations of the owlbears are going through product testing for ASTM F963.

What is ASTM F963?
It is a toy safety standard in the USA. The test intends to cover a wide variety of safety requirements for all sorts of toys, such prevention from choking, sharp edges (the beak is so sharp), and other hazards.

Speaking of the aforementioned delay: due to the delayed start in production, the completion is more than likely to be delayed as well. Ideally, we're pushed back a month, but I'll know more on the new timeline once mass production gets started for these guys!

It took a little bit for the Adventure Owlbears to come in, but they're finally home from their journey across the sea and lookin' so cute! Photographs are courtesy of my mom, since I was busy traveling when these little guys came in.

Once I have a little bit more free time, I'll make sure to take pics of them with their larger counterpart.

For the Brown Owlbear, there was a miscommunication and his eyes were embroidered black, but in the final mass production, it'll be changed to brown to match his big bro's eyes! 

I do want to thank you guys for your patience and understanding during the unforeseen damages from Hurricane Beryl and the delays it caused due to power outages and damages to my home. It took a lot of weight off my shoulders, and now that I'm in a much more comfortable spot, I'll be doing more regular updates as merch come in! 

I'm a little bit at a lost for words! I didn't expect all of the Owlbears to be fully funded in under a day!

This morning, I launched the campaign, absolutely prepared that it would take upwards of a week or so to get fully funded, and as I occasionally checked throughout the day, between errands, I was just in disbelief to see the numbers that we've hit!

From the bottom of my heart: thank you!
I can't tell you how excited I am for this project to come to life.

I've been working on this for quite some time. This owlbear you see today isn't the first one I tried to design. My first one, I ended up scrapping, because it just wasn't what I wanted.

I wanted a super chonky owlbear but often times, sketching something doesn't always translate as well into the 3D world.

So - dejected and defeated, I put the project aside.
After a few months, waiting for inspiration to strike, these little critters came to me!

There's still 32 days left to go!
I have a stretch goal in store - it's not another color variant. It's an 'adventure-sized' Owlbear!
I won't reveal anything just yet. I'm working with my production company to get a sample finished before showing it off! I want to make sure things are all groovy before I share it with you guys. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get the simple sample finished!

Help us get 50 RTs (reposts) on Twitter/X and everyone who pledges towards this campaign will get a "Proud Parent" holographic sticker!

Greetings Adventures,

A quick update to some survey hiccups: those who did not initially see their 48-hour freebie owlbear with their plush should see it now! Please let me know if there are anymore issues.

In addition, my family and I are effected by the recent Hurricane Beryl.

Two trees was knocked over and landed into our roof on the master bedroom side. We are without power and I'm unable to do anything at the moment. Right now, I am at our local grocery store trying to catch up on work. I'm going to try my best and get caught up with work, so please be patient if I'm not immediate to respond. 

Thank you for understanding! 

Incoming wall of text!

Times flies too fast! I need more hours in the day, honestly.

I've been working on the surveys the past 1 1/2 weeks. I'm doing my best to make sure all my t's are crossed and my i's are dotted. There's a lot to go on behind the scenes from making sure the SKUs match, all variants have options, all qualified backers have their freebies listed, etc. I'm working with the staff to ensure all the necessary steps are done before shooting the surveys out to you all.

Surveys will be released some time this week. Once the review passes, I will send out a smoke test. It means I have a small handful of people as guinea pigs to make sure everything's all gravy before I send it out to the masses! This makes it easier to ensure that if there are hiccups, it's easily remedied without having a large collection of individuals dealing with whatever mistakes were missed and need adjustments.

In addition, I'd like to send a reminder that when you're filling out your survey, you will not see a shipping cost! Shipping costs will be added onto the survey once we're closer to fulfillment. This allows me to provide you a more accurate pricing as shipping rates do fluctuate depending on the time of year. 

I appreciate each and every single one of you ♥
-Vivian

I'm late to celebrate the completion of our Owlbear Plush campaign.

The reason being: During Momocon, I got sick! I had the fever, the shakes, the cough - and all the worst things imaginable. I had to drive back from Atlanta to Houston suffering through it all. I did celebrate the final countdown with my partner, however, and then went back to bed. After I started to feel better, it was crunch time on catching up with orders and, although I have a small break, prepare for more conventions. Summer is upon us, and it's busy, busy, busy! No time to rest, no more time to get sick. *knocks on wood*

That being said:
Thank you for making this campaign a hecking success! I've been showing off the Owlbears, in person, at cons, and everyone's loved them so far. They're so soft and they get all the pets from owlbear lovers.

So, what's next?
Right now, we're in the "waiting" period. Pledges are being confirmed, cards are being charged. This usually takes about 2 weeks. Once the 14 days are up, I'll be releasing the surveys. It will ask you what variant owlbears you want and giving you a chance to add on more to your pledge if you decide you want other things or further grow your hoard of owlbears!

I'm currently working on the surveys; they're almost finished! I think I just need to double check with the Backerkit pros (the people actually working there) to make sure all my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed. 

Here's where we are for the prototype adventure-sized owlbear:

On the right side was how it was going to look line, with embroidery bordering the face. It's safe to say, I didn't like that. After some brainstorming with the plush designer, they said it's best that we increase the side of the lighter brown pattern in order to properly stitch the fabrics together instead of using embroidery. So, we did that!

From there, I had more notes: make the eyes bigger and raise the beak. Enjoy my hastily edited picture on photoshop early in the morning:

And now we're here:

I've asked for the beak to be lowered just a tad, but we're just about there.
Hopefully, in a few day's time, we'll be able to see the final product of our clippy owlbear! 

You'll still get a discount, so make sure to take advantage before the opportunity slinks away~