Quick Update
about 2 years ago – Tue, May 03, 2022 at 12:33:30 AM

I know I've been silent for a bit, there's been a whole lot of back and forth going on with the manufacturer to finalize box design, hangtags, certificates, mini and so on. Also, in the past week I became a father, which came with its own changes. 

Everything has been nailed down, materials have been ordered, and production is starting this week. 

This means I should be getting final production samples sometime this month, where we can look at the final colors and quality of everything (as well as see how everything turned out). 

Timeline-wise, production should be done by the end of the month and will be shipped to the respective warehouses. With current freight speed, this should mean that owlbears should be arriving at the warehouse (at least the US one), by the beginning of August, at which point fulfillment will promptly begin!

As we approach August, I'll be sure to remind everyone to double check their addresses, to make sure your owlbear is going to arrive where it's supposed to. 

There will probably be 1-2 more updates this month when i get more updates/samples. 

Thanks for your patience and the time for Owlbears will be close at hand!

Caretaker Andreas

an Owlbearful Update
about 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 04:44:46 AM

Hey Owlbear Plush adopters.

So big news up first, with the accessories, I am going to Lock Addresses and charge Credit Cards* on April 1st (next Friday)**. 

•  *(if you checked out using Paypal you've already been charged)  
• ** if you need me to delay charging your card for whatever reason, please reach out to me and we can run it at a later date.

And as a reminder, Big Fishy (Consellation Fishy) is available on backerkit to order for only $5. And we now have pictures to show it off!

If you need to re-access Backerkit, you can do so here https://owlbear-plush.backerkit.com/ (if you continue to have issues feel free to reach out.

Box of Samples

I was out of town for a few days, and upon arriving i was happy to find a box of samples upon my doorstep (i wasn't sure when they'd arrive, was initially thinking the manufacturer would tell me when they'd receive them before passing them to me.)

So whats in the box

• White Box  as well as certificate and envelope (not printed due to time files were submitted)
• Printed accessories (Cape, fishies, bowtie)
• Rose Owlbear (with matched colors and balanced design, since before it wasn't in the plan)

So lets open it up (no audio) Here was a quick process time lapse, didn't work as well as i wanted but helped show it off quickly.

**As a note the owlbear pictured is the new Rose Owlbear, they pretty much matched the color perfectly (as the initial color was a test, so they had to match sourcing the color/material)

The box

Box with the owlbear inside, surprisingly the box material was nice and thick and had a really solid feel to it, which i liked. 

Owlbears and box contents, 

showing the drawer insert, and how the fish and bowtie will be tucked in the box. Also the envelop with the adoption/name certificate will be below the insert (with the cape)

Fishie Closeup

Bowtie

Cape

And the last annoyance, 

Brown Owlbear Color

So as you know, we've gone back and forth a few times about the brown of the owlbear. They said they wanted to use Pantone 4725 (the the upper one on the piece of paper, which seems to almost match the light brown prototype), my response was that its far too light compared to the OG owlbear (pictured on the far bottom).

Since i wasn't 100% sure, i requested they send me the swatch of the fur they wanted to use, in addition to another swatch (Pantone 4625, the really dark one), which as shown, is a bit too dark. 

At this point, i don't want to end up with 4725, but we're pretty much out of time in experimenting. 

Im still waiting for  a communication back from them, since i sent the feedback this morning,

but my goal is to get something slightly darker than 4625 (as shown by the alternative colors on the right hand side).

not everything can be easy apparently. 

Final Words

But outside of that, everything else is approved for print! Once i get a response, I'm going to try and nail down dates and everything else. If you have any questions feel free to ask. 

Andreas

*ok...whew...i think that's everything

And finally, our owlbear family

And if you don't already, feel free to follow us on social media!

Andreas (Twitter)

Baby Bestiary (Twitter / Facebook)

Metal Weave Games (Twitter / Facebook / Discord) 

March Check-in
about 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 05, 2022 at 03:12:13 PM

Hey Beastmasters!

So a quick check-in and update with all going on.

Box design changed

(as much as the original box design looked ok, I felt like we could do better), so i ended up commissioning a piece. Fortunately, this was over the Chinese New Year break, so we had a little time to get that completed and submitted. And although having a snowy owlbear in the forested box might be a bit weird, I'm ok with that (as snowy is more of a variant).

Ensuring the Owlbear is the right shade of Brown  

They sent me specs of the brown owlbear, and after checking the swatch, I think it was not the right color. So I reached out to make sure we get that color right. They're sending me two swatches (one they wanted to use, and another I submitted). They said the swatches should arrive (to them) this week and be flipped over to me quickly after.   

Pre-Production Samples   

Pre-Production Samples will come after I confirm swatch colors, this was something that came up with the first prototype they provided, and so I'm super keen on getting this color right.    Pre-Order Lock Down/Charge  Two weeks after we receive Pre-Production samples I will then lock down Backerkit and charge cards  (note if you checked out via Paypal your credit card was already charged and this doesn't apply to you) 

Getting Some Dates

 I've recently chatted with the manufacturer about timelines, and our tentative ship-out from (manufactures) port is May 20th.  After which it will take around 4-8 weeks in freight to arrive at their various warehouses (depending on the state of freight)  

Large Galaxy Fishie is available  

We know a lot of people were super interested in seeing a large fishy being made. So after we decided on the salmon fishie being part of the box, we then chose the galaxy fishie to be made into the large one.   You can still add this to your backer order. 

   Backerkit  

if you need to access your Backerkit for any reason, be it changing your address, or your survey options, or addons, you can still do so until we lock it down.   When i do the Pre-Production preview, we'll be able to nail down a lock-down date.   if you need to access your Backerkit for any reason, be it changing your address, or your survey options, or addons, you can still do so untyil we lock it down.   

 https://owlbear-plush.backerkit.com/

Things are still moving and glad to have everyone onboard, 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Andreas

Box design and production update!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 01:25:42 AM

Hey all!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and new years break. 

I just wanted to give you guys an update with what's been going on on the Owlbear front.

This past week I've been going back and forth with the manufacturer confirming details, counts and so forth. From backerkit, it looks like we'll be producing 25,000 owlbears (10k brown, 10k snowy, 5k rose)!

Which is a heckin lot of owlbears.  (and with the sheer volume, an important need to make sure everything is right).

(hopefully)) Minor Annoyance

During my checks, i discovered that color they were going to use for the brown owlbear is wrong. So, I've reiterated provided a specific pantone they can attempt to source. (the one they had was too light, and not acceptable for me). Honestly I'm not sure why this keeps coming back as an issue, hopefully this will be the last time.   

Numbering

I may have mentioned it prior, but we'll be numbering all of the Collector's Boxes, and each of the Owlbear Hang-Tags.  And although we're producing a lot of owlbears, I don't know if we'll be able to continue producing them in the future.  

BOX

For the past several days I've been hammering away at the box design. and have come with the following design. 

Something nice and simple, with a nice background to complement it.

Thanks to the warp photoshop tool, I superimposed the boxdesign onto the example box. 

It might not line up perfectly, but at least gives you an idea of how it will look.  

Accessories Mockup!

I don't have these in hand so apologies for the little crappy photo that I'm zooming in on.

But here are the printed accessories! 

• the FISHES LOOOOK AMAZING!!!
• cape looks great (this is the underside, with the other side being just blue).
• and the bowtie looks adorable. 

Finally

• I'm just finishing up the hang-tag now. As they review and approve the box (and provide me any safety information that needs to be added). 
• Im waiting on the 3d model of the owlbear to start producing that (will be separate)
• I know fishes weren't part of backerkit, as I didn't know how to go about a separate order of them. I will be likely adding them soon, but I want a few other things in line first. 
• I'm waiting on the final 3d owlbear model to start producing them, these are going to be produced separately from the box, as the price given by the plush manufacture was higher than if i did it ourselves. 
• Artbook, adventures, and game content are in the works, but moving slowly. Once the plushes are ordered and out of my hands, I'll be focusing on them.   

And as much as i hate to say it, I don't have a delivery date yet, that will likely come into better view once manufacturing is chugging and most importantly when freight is booked (as then we can track it).

there's a lot of parts moving and I want to thank you all with bearing with me. 

Thanks for the support,

Andreas

Backerkit is here!!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 08, 2021 at 12:15:52 AM

Hey Everyone, 

just wanted to give you all a quick update, after much work at getting the calculations, bundles, and shipping calculated, Backerkit is here!

if you know how backerkit is, feel free to skip this update, the next one will be the box design. 

What is Backerkit?

Backerkit is an external platform to Kickstarer, that allows us to do many things that the Kickstarter platform should do. The most important features include: 

• Being able to collect shipping costs 
• Allowing you to manage your shipping address 
• More flexible surveys
• and most importantly, the ability for you to upgrade and add items to your pledge 

What should I expect?

It will likely be an email from [email protected], and it will contain a unique link to your pledge manager. If you have an account it should already link it by email. 

If you cannot find the email, you can recover it by using your Kickstarter email address in this URL.

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

If that doesn't get you anywhere feel free to reach out to me and I'll be able to get you a direct link. 

Something that is important to note is that if you're using credit card, we don't charge your card right away (just a weird way in how the payment processor works and is set up for this) (Paypal is an exception to this). 

We're planning on locking orders and charging cards sometime in February. I don't want this to burden anyone for the holidays and hope it makes it a little easier, financially, for everyone.  

This means you're free to wait with your survey and see how the box or accessories comes out, if you're still on the fence. 

A Reminder of Rewards

Digital Goodies

All backers $5 and up, get the Digital Goodies which include the following:

(We haven't sent any of these out yet)

(to avoid confusion none of these digital goodies will be offered as a physical addon )

• Digital Owlbear Artbook
• Digital Owlbear Rearing Guide
• Digital Owlbear-Themed Children's Book Illustrated by Travis Hanson (different children's book)
• Digital Owlbear Wallpaper Pack
• Digital Owlbear-Themed Ryuutama Journey
• Digital Owlbear-Themed 5e Adventure
• Digital Owlbear-Themed 5e subclasses

The Owlbears 

You have three choices: Snowy, Classic Brown, and Rose

In your survey, you'll be able to pick which owlbear colors you'd like to have. 

The owlbear will be delivered in a polybag, and will have a special hang-tag. 

All owlbear designs will come with the design improvements of 

•  toe beans
• claws
• magnetic nose

The standalone owlbear plush comes exactly as you expect it standalone and will likely be wrapped in a bag to keep it protected from moisture on it's long trip.

In-A-Box owlbear set, 

The In-a-Box Owlbear set is the plush accompanied with a designed box (we'll be posting the design in the next Kickstarter update), as well as all of the accessories including:

• The Magnetic Fishy,
• The Cape, and
• Bowtie
• Pewter Owlbear Mini
• Certificate of Protection

Since we're likely only able to do one run of the in-a-box, we're looking into serializing the boxes in some way to make them more collectible and worthy of being prominently displayed wherever you choose to show off your owbear.

• The cape is going to be solid blue on one side with an owlbear pattern on the other. 
• The bowtie will be blue with the pattern of dice silloutettes 
• The fishy will be a salmon, and is magnetic to the owlbears noce

(Im currently waiting for pictures of these with the patterns printed on them)

Other Addons,

We've been making stuff for awhile so there is a lot to choose from. And if you haven't already acquired a Baby Bestiary handbook (either for yourself or as a gift) we have the Baby Bestiary bundle available in both digital and print (all bundles are available in both digital and print). 

The one I'm most excited to bring forward is actually an ABC children's book by Dusty Peterson that MWG (our company) has made a publishing agreement with.

Anyways, 

Theres a lot going on, and if you have any questions or issues feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to get everything settled. 

Im hoping to have an update of the box to you before Christmas. 

ok, this was kinda a long update. If you have any questions I'm here to help and answer anything you got! 

Stay awesome everyone!

Andreas

Oh and of course I want to gush about the art that @hessaimarian did for Backerkit entries