Update Addresses
over 1 year ago – Sat, Sep 10, 2022 at 02:16:25 AM

Hey everyone, 

I have a whole ton of address update requests and I wanted to make sure everyone has their address updated so that everyone gets their owlbears when they ship out. 

You should have gotten an email from Backerkit saying you have 48 hours to update your address.

This means you can go into backerkit and double check your shipping address and allow you to change and update it. If you are unable to change it (because you moved out of country or out of state) just send us a message here on Kickstarter and I'll get it updated for you. 

If you need to get into your survey, there is a link in the email, or you can find it here

https://owlbear-plush.backerkit.com/

and if you still cant get in, feel free to message us.

Tangent, remember how i said that it appeared that some of the shipment was arriving sooner. Well, last night my warehouse informed me that the 21 pallets of boxes (for shipping the owlbears in) have arrived. So now we just gotta wait for the owlbears to actually arrive!

Happy Owlbearing!

Andreas

Quick Update
over 1 year ago – Sat, Sep 10, 2022 at 02:15:24 AM

Hey Owlbear caretakers!

This will be a quick update, I wanted to get updates on a few other things, but they're currently forthcoming.

As a quick showcase, this is the current WIP of the lorebook cover, special thanks to @Mr. Rossi in the Metal Weave Games Discord (where we have a dedicated baby bestiary channel) for the amazing title suggestion.  (art cover is wip, so will look a little grainy since i don't have final art just yet).

Quick Shipping Update

For the USA, the arrival of owlbears has been delayed to September 20th; right now, I have a little bit of conflicting information as some of them *might* have already landed at port and might be on their way to the warehouse, but currently figuring that out and communicating between both manufacturer and warehouse to make sure. 

As for international, still working with fulfillment partners, hoping ill have better dates by the time of the mini-samples come in (see below).

Minis

Regarding the minis for the In-A-Box, last night I finally got in contact with a manufacturer that can produce the pewter mini, and I met with them this morning. I should be getting samples early next week (in which we'll share another update when those come in), and I think we'll be good to go in getting minis produced (and as I had expected, the cost of production was half of what the plush manufacturer had quoted me).

I'm still planning on doing a survey so see what backer preferences are (I had reached out to backerkit to see if there was a clean way to do a survey so it would be linked to accounts, but based on what they've told me today, its better if i set up an external survey, so I'll be setting that up as well).   

Digital Downloads

I know we haven't uploaded any digital downloads yet, I'll be working on getting those up and out this week, we've got a lot of files to share, and we'll be posting direct download links, as well as discount code links to redeem in the MWG store (you would do this if you ever want to get file updates/improvements,  or add to your MWG library). 

Address Updates

Ive gotten through a lot of the messages asking for address updates, and still going through a number of them. If you are moving and need to change your address, please message us through KS and let us know (this way i have one place to look for address changes that isn't muddied by other contacts)

Thank you all for your patience, 

we're so close to having the owlbears and I cant wait to get them into your hands!!

All the best

Andreas

Owlbears Inbound, and fun of freight
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 05:37:57 PM

Cool Fact! The volume of owlbears destined for the US takes up its own shipping container.

Hey Owlbear Wranglers!

Last month I had recieved the update that the owlbears were inbound and expected to arrive early August. During the course of the month i was working with the manufacturer and the various warehouses to coordinate customs and the sort, but I held off on updating until i had dates when things would actually arrive. 

Fun with Freight

Today, I received word of the estimated arrival dates for all three locations (direct quote from the manufacturer) 

• "US – has shifted slightly but delivered by date is currently estimated around September 5th"
• "AU – current ETA to final destination around September 21st (we are double checking this because it doesn’t normally take this long so we don’t know if there are delays in AU at the moment)
• "EU – awaiting final ETA from freight forwarder, will likely be closer to the AU date"

Also they informed me that the current estimated freight cost is going to be anywhere from $55-70k total (just for getting them to the warehouses).  When we started this project, the estimate was put at $14k, which is quite the surprise, as I expected 14k was already a lot in terms of freight. At this point, I'm still double checking finances and scheduling, to see where that puts us, but at least its not as bad as Ive seen other projects been. 

What comes with the In-a-Box.

I know a few questions have emerged from the what currentyl comes with the in-a-box set. As so far, its the following: 

• Plush (of your choice)
• Box with Drawer to hold accessories
• Adoption Certificate (and envelope)
• Owlbear blue cape
• Little magnetic salmon fishy
• Die bow-tie

Now, as some of you have remembered, there was a pewter-mini (accessory #3) at one point, as well as an unannounced accessory (accessory #5) which was unlocked and voted but never confirmed and announced properly.  

• With the mini, I ran into production problems as the cost of getting it included in the box was far higher than I would have liked, (was double the cost of minis I had produced elsewhere).  I was hoping to work with that company again to produce the minis however in the past they were not the greatest at communication, with covid my efforts fell through the cracks. 

As we speak, I have a team working on the Owlbear Lorebook, which we should be able to have produced by the times the owlbears arrive. 

•  Accessory #5 (unlocked at $300k), I had honestly totally forgotten about it, lost in the chaos of getting the plush produced (which also took longer than expected) and working on box and other accessories.  Looking back, it appears that the current winning vote for accessory #5 was a printed Owlbear Lorebook. 

With the mini though, whats unfortunate is the amount of time. If i had known last month I had two months to produce pewter owlbear minis it would have been a different story, but now I'm back where i was last month with only a month to potentially produce something. There are a few options of what could happen here, but here's how i currently see it: (1) You can wait for your fulfillment until we get the petwer owlbears, however long it takes. (2) we could produce something else, like a special owlbear pin, this would be more likely to arrive when the owlbears do. (3) we have 3d printers so we could produce owlbear minis, however we are not equipped to do 5000 minis by next month, so id probably rather do an opt in for those would prefer the 3d print over the pin. also the 3d print makes it tricky for anyone outside the US, since we'll have to make and ship them over.  (4) though I'm sure many will dislike this, forgo the mini for some additional digital rewards. 

Something worth considering and hearing your thoughts. 

Story Book

Travis Hanson has begun coloring the pages of the children's book, we started working on a few years ago. It tells the story of an owlbear cub who gets lost (from a pack of unruly adventurers) and needs to learn to ask for help to find their way home.

GenCon

If you're going to GenCon, we'll be there and we'd love to meet you! We'll be over at booth #1263 (its an endcap on the back side near artist row). 

We'll have our production samples of the owlbears there for people to check out, preorder, take pictures with, or hug. So if you're in the area, please stop by and say hi, I love meeting everyone. 

Shipping Addresses

I know many have messaged me to update their owlbear preference and addresses, I am still going through them, after GenCon I will be going through them and following up with everyone (and be posting an update so you can check to confirm your address is correct). 

If you still need to change your address (or update your owlbear preference), or for whatever reason want a refund, please reach out using the Kickstarter messenger and I'll get you sorted out. 

Thank you for all the support, I know its a crazy time, and I'm doing my best to keep everything going, so we can, ultimately, get these owlbears into your hands. 

Caretaker Andreas

PS also after GenCon I will be releasing a lot of the digital content on backerkit, so stay tuned for an update on that as well.

All Owlbears Have Been Made!!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 01, 2022 at 06:39:22 PM

Hey backers!!

Apologies for the delay, getting the samples too a bit longer than expected but we do have good news.

I was originally hoping to have this post last week, but due to travel I had to wait a week so i could actually check out the samples. But since then, I've had some conversations with the manufacturer and here we are. 

So for a quick summary

• ALL OWLBEARS HAVE BEEN MADE, and they're currently boxing and doing quality control before putting them on their respective boats to their warehouses.
• Delivery to warehouse is typically 6 weeks, so that means that Owlbears should start shipping to you is in 7ish weeks (giving some contingency time in warehouse prep).
• I've been unable to procure a mini that would make it in time for production/fulfillment (i wish i had known sooner to be able to work something out). At this point for the mini, I feel like the best thing we can offer is 3d files, and perhaps better focus on the digital content.
• Owlbear Pins (a lot of them have been ordered), have also recently just arrived at the US warehouse.  We need to ship a number pins to the other warehouses so they can be included when the time of shipping has begun.    
• With owlbear finishing production, we're going to now be putting more emphasis on the digital side of rewards. Ideally, a lot of these would be working in tandem, but I had a large print job and other life events making it difficult to focus my time and assigning out work, to ensure they get the love they deserve. 
• I just marked backerkit will lock addresses in two days, you can get to your survey here https://owlbear-plush.backerkit.com/. If you're moving out of state, you are likely unable to change your address because its related to locked-in shipping, if you are unable to do so, message us with your new address.  
• If you want to change your owlbear colors, you should still be able to do so, if not send us n message via KS and I'll get the color swapped for you.  
• We have a wonderful little community over on Discord if you want to join, otherwise you can follow the 

                 Baby Bestiary on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok, or 

                  Metal Weave Games on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok, 

Now onto the fun stuff

PRODUCTION SAMPLES!!

Shown below is the box, and owlbear! 

Hope you enjoy and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out, 

Andreas

First Look at Brown Owlbear
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 17, 2022 at 12:03:56 AM

hey backers, 

Last night the manufacturer sent me pictures and a video of the dyed brown, for the brown owlbear (getting this color has been quite the process if you haven't seen our past posts about us trying to get this color right). 

Since we were coming down to the wire in getting it, we picked a pantone color in hopes that it closely matched the brown of the owlbear i wanted (and a whole lot of attempted photoshop color manipulating to make sure we got it close)

So here is the pictures and video they sent me. 

• I should be receiving the production proofs in about 2 weeks, in which i can take pictures of everything together and allow everyone to make adjustments to their pledge (like changing colors and so forth). 
• Initial manufacturing should be completed in the next few weeks, and we'll get a good idea of where we sit with freight timelines. 
• Also, I've had issues with them producing the mini, and they can't produce it in the production timeline that is set. So I'm looking at alternatives in seeing if we can get a mini manufactured elsewhere (but it won't be inserted into the box).  

I'll have another update when the production samples come in, and we'll be able to talk more about everything, and where we're going. 

Also if you want to chat with me, or see updates to projects right when they come in, the MWG discord is the place to see where everything is going on with MWG, the Baby Bestiary, and everything else. 

Join the MWG Discord

All the best

Andreas