Hey all,
I apologize for the delay on updates I was hoping for more information to make a more meaningful update. However, now that nearly two months have passed, Ive already delayed long enough for an update. Though, I will probably have a second update after Essen Spiel (a convention in Germany, because my manufacturer contact is attending and I will get updates after they get back -_-)

So where are things at.  Slowly progressing..mostly.

You're here for keychains so updates for that first.
As so far I am only aware of Phoenix plushes and phoenix keychains that have been produced (there is a chance they've gone ahead with other approved productions, but at this time I am not aware if any others have been manufactured). 

Last month I had recived the accessories samples, overall they were good, but the main point of issue i pointed out was that the texture of the material used is not good.

For example you can kinda see it here with the fishing rods where the texture of the their version(top), is not as 'fuzzy'  as the base one  (bottom)



There was also some weirdness going on with the fish, where there was some bad stiching (left) on the gullet of the fish, versus the base (right)

And the bit about the magnet is that, we found that during GenCon the fishhook could barely support holding up an owlbear...and now that we've achieved that, we expect that to be the norm. As I tested their version, it was not even able to lift it up, so that made it easy to call out that stronger magnets needed to be used all around. 

So on the Owlbear colors front, this week I got a box of the colors they were going to produce. (already had brown), Mossy and Purple.
They included keychain versions of those colors, which is cool, I wasn't anticipating making keychains of the colors, but I don't hate it so wouldn't be opposed to producing some, but I also have bigger fish to fry in getting things fixed.

Now this is very Fuchsia, like anime levels of neon. Now I dont hate it, but it was not what i was expecting, since they were to match the more royal purple color I going for.




At this point, with how things are going, I'm pretty much going to for sure go with an additional manufacturer to produce more plushes, and get a restock going.. so  we could include the Fuchsia in this production, i have submitted a color request for them to try and match the purple of the dice/other owlbear, but konwing how long things take ....i might want to just take the credit from this purple owlbear and go to a new manufacturer.

Speaking of which, ive been getting samples of the owlbear from other plush manufacturers, given how much chaos this has been, and I've seen an available swatch that should more closely resemble the royal purple I was looking for.
I am keen to get production going, so a smaller order of owlbears (as a general restock for us, and to include the purple is a possibility). On their swatch  card is this purple, id have to ask to get a smaple, but curious what people think about which colors to go with...cause i think for sure ill be doing a small order of brown/snowy owlbears from them as part of our general restock.

BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK (since you're the ones ultimately getting them)
USE THIS FORM - https://forms.gle/Ei1QpSRmnU4CvWYc6

So yeah, thats where we're at ATM....
Sorry again for the dealys, I should have another update to answer the questions I have after the manufacturer gets back from Essen Spiele. 
Thanks for your patience, 
Andreas 

Hey Caretakers!
I apologize for the bit of delay on an update, i started the last chunk of my paternity leave right before GenCon and it ended last week, so now we're returning to a normal-ish schedule (where the toddler is consistently at school again).
Nevertheless, a LOT has happened since, so this is going to be a bit of a story time, and sitting down to write it all down is going to take me a little bit.

TLDR. Things are still moving forward, keychains are being produced, phoenix keychains need to be remade because of a series of issues. Class accessories finally got production prototyped, and should be soon seeing the final color swatches for the purple.

Ok...so lets get into what happened,
So, as we were getting closer to GenCon, the manufacturer sent me what was supposed to be the final production copies of the product. This was hopefully going to solidify a bunch of feedback that I had given, and everything would be good. That...wasnt the case...
Instead, I had to send a angry  very concerned' email, since there was pretty much something wrong with every design (keychain and plush alike)...for instance: Owlbear plush shaping was off and feet werent level. Dragon turtle plush had issues with head shaping and spines looked squashed. Phoenix plush beak was waay too long. Owlbear keychain fluff was pretty long, and the beak was near non-existent. Dragon Turtle Keychain used had soft back spikes but looked like lumps. And pheonix keychain neckfluff literally looked like a garden-gnome beard.
What was worse was that I was expecting to get airshipped phoneixes for GenCon, and if manufacturing had already begun, how much work had already been done on faulty product.....these were changes i did not approve of.
(left, last best prototype - right was proposed production sample, see head shape and spines)


The concerned email was received and it seeemd like feedback was being taken seriously. I had some minor back and forth with them, and things were moving again (though phoenix keychain beard will come back).
While at GenCon I was able to meet with numerous members of their team, (not the person who i was directly working with), but enough people who i could air my frustration and annoyance with them, so they got the message that things gotta get fixed. There, I had learned that the person who was managing my product initially was no longer there anymore (and guessing with how things are being picked up), it wasnt a transition.

At the end of GenCon i had a video call with the person managing my project, and they had some plush updates...overall things were good...but it felt like they kept pushing for approvals on fixes, without giving me time to really evaulate the changes. One thing I didnt budge on was the pheonix beards...they said they tried to fix it, and it didnt really solve the probem.
Essentially (left was what i was expecting, and right was what i was being offered).


And they mentioned that since the materials for the phoenix keychain had been ordered, that it would be an additional cost for me for them to get new material and remake the phoenix keychains....I was non-commital on the pheonxies, and that left me writing ANOTHER angry concerned email, becuase...
Not only had I paid for most the project, they were essentially manufacturing product that was outside of my approval, and not reflective of the approved product.
And not only that, but they hadn't even started doing their evaluation of the accessories nor the owlbear colors (outside of brown), despite having my samples for the past 8 months! IN addition, their timeline was looking to try and split the accessories and purple owlbear later from the keychains...which kinda defeated the point of manufacturing everything together....

I had to aslo send in the pheonix keychain sample that I had, so that they could replicate it (despite sharing many pictures),. but whatever it takes at this point to make sure things come out right.
................

Friday, i get an email with the accessories they've produced, everyhting looks good (though at this point i cant hold my breath until i have the manufacture samples and see them for myself).
In addition, they reaffirm that new material needs to be ordered for the pheonix keychains, and that the ones they made are to be scrapped (though I did inquire if it was possible to save those, maybe i can hand cut the beards myself or something idk, or have beardy pheonixes with christmas hats or something).
But I dont have numbers yet at what they're going to cost it out as...

at this point im going at their pace and responding as soon as i get information..

Not the way I would have liked things to go...but at this point, I think Pheonix Plushes have been manufactured...and nothing else? Still figuring that out, as things are getting finalized and made..


but yeah..main frustration has been every time they make a change a new issue appeared..and I hope that is not consistent here on out...I had even offered to take plush production away from them just because of the timeline...but at this point, its very difficult to do anything re:financial stuff since I've already paid vast majority of the project and they don't have a US company operation for me to legally pursue. So I'm stuck with working with them and doing everything I can to make things right.


Also: I know there are some support emails about being charged/ or those who backed both..when i locked out a backerkit pledge the screen annoyingly hides information, which i was hoping to utilize to QC information when people asked for help, so Ill be getting back to people in the coming days about those inquiries.

I think thats all for now...
Hope everyone is having a great weekend,
Caretaker Andreas


oh yeah! and on Tuesday we'll be launching the crowdfunding for the 2026 calendar...(produced in the US, and nearly done with all illustrations). Its a playful nod to video game nostalgia reflavored to fantasy and our favorite creatures.
Follow the Campaign Page Here: 2026 Calendar

Hey Caretakers,
Thank you for your patience. I seem to have bad luck when it comes to manufacturers because its always just another thing....
Anyways as you know, we were using a new manufacturer for these plushes, and ended up bringing over the owlbear accessories to this manufacturer as well in an effort to save costs (even before tariffs but even more importantly so now).
That was going alright, and I thought things were shaping up to the point where we had submitted payment for production and was working with production staff to keep things moving. Turns out, person I was coordinating with, was no longer with them, and several things that were going on in the process just never made it to the production staff — like confusion on the dragon turtles green just missing other items in the order entirely -_-.
Ideally, I was hoping to have all this product fulfilled and by or before this years GenCon, but it's likely that product will only begin its freight journey in July/August, which is unfortunate for everyone.
Im currently working with the new rep to make sure everything is accounted for and moving so we dont waste away on any more of the schedule.
----------
New Items in Backerkit,
Since we're merging production with the accessories project, everything that we're producing in both projects will be made available to all backers. This includes:

Shipping
Shipping costs have been added in addition to relevant VAT.
As promised, Tariffs are not being added.

One thing to note, if you ordered just Pins, and/or just Owlbears (not purple), we'll be able to ship those out asap after order lockdown. (if you're out of the US, availability may might vary as we dont have charcoal/green or all of the pins available internationally yet).

SURVEY LOCK AND CARDS WILL BE CHARGED JULY 12th!
If you have not received a link to your survey, you can get it here
https://owlbear-keychain.backerkit.com/backer/survey

If you have any questions id be happy to answer, and also I apologize for not getting back sooner, but things are moving.
I also did not expect this project to run as long as it currently has, but at least the finish line is in sight (assuming the Trump administration doesn't do anything else stupid too late, they did).
Thanks for bearing with me,

Andreas