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americanmcgee
americanmcgee

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Beware Wearwolf Pigs and Vampire Yorkies

Dear Insane Children, 

We hosted a livestream over on my Twitch Channel yesterday... which, after a bit of a bumpy start, turned out to be quite a lot of fun. We covered a ton of topics including updates on Alice: Asylum (Design Bible stuff, Live Action Pitch stuff, and Spoiler/Narrative stuff); talked about design and narrative goals for a new Oz story; looked at some updates on Plushie Dreadfuls; and gave away some rare Vorpal Umbrellas. Oh, and I continue to suck at playing my own games. Woo. 

If you missed it live you can still watch the recording over on my YouTube Channel via THIS LINK

Among the things we revealed and discussed was everyone's favorite new animal companion (sorry, Cheshire Cat, get out of the way)... 

If social media excitement was money, we could fund Alice: Asylum on this design alone! People over on my Instagram were going NUTS about this Toto design!

And it helped push my thinking about another narrative variation in a different direction... so, hang on a bit while I work through that with Alex. We'll be back with a world and narrative where creatures like this make sense. 

Meanwhile... I think we need to make a Plushie Dreadful of this design. What do you think? 

Speaking of... 

Plushie Dreadfuls

We received some prototype photos from the workshop last night. First, I want to point out that they are really improving the quality of their Potato Prototype Photos. There was something charming about how terrible these pictures used to be... But I'm not going to complain too much about the new presentation style. 

These pictures of the Wearwolf Pig (Hammibal Lector?) had me literally laughing out loud in bed last night. And I said to Yan that if we keep up with these kinds of designs, we could really build the brand into something people recognize and crave. And how fun would that be for Lucky? A kid with his own toy brand! 

Let us know in the comments below what you think of the Wearwolf Pig. Anything you'd like to see improved or made different? We still have a round of feedback to do with the workshop. For my part, I want to see the eyes of the Wolf made into X shapes - to indicate that he's dead. A bit more dark humor in that! 

We also expect to receive a prototype of the Bearfisted Bear in the next few days. Rawr! Can't wait!

All of these Plushie Dreadfuls will be added to the Mysterious Shop soon. We expect the Angry Rabbit and Love Rabbit will arrive first - sometime mid-September. Then we should see the Wearwolf Pig, Pandapede, and Bearfisted Bear arriving every few weeks after that. 

Crowd Design Time! 

I do have a question for the Insane Children to ponder as a Crowd Design challenge... 

What sort of things would you add to the Plushie Dreadful packages to make them collector items, more interesting, more entertaining, and/or more unique? 

Right now, we plan on shipping A Plush + A Bag... 

But should we include something else? 

One idea I had... create custom coins (like the Chaos Coin or Pirate Jam Coins) and make a unique Coin for each Plushie Dreadful design. One side could be the Plushie Dreadful logo. The other side could be a design based on that particular Plushie (Angry Rabbit, Love Rabbit, etc). 

What do you think of that idea? Does it add value? 

What other ideas can you suggest? I'd love to hear your creative feedback in the comments below. 

One more question: Do you think we should add a brand tag/label to these Plushies? Right now, they are "clean" - meaning there's no tags or labels attached to them. I prefer my toys like that but I don't know what collectors or typical consumers think about this. Does a tag add value? 

We'd love to hear your feedback on all of this! 


From Shanghai with 99% Humidity,

-American 


Beware Wearwolf Pigs and Vampire Yorkies

Comments

LOVE, LOVE LOVE ALL of it !!!!!!

Love Toto!!! And love the bags, especially the angry one!!!

Sarah McKeegan

I'm going to be blunt. If the coins or whatever add-ons you are considering add too much cost I would ditch the idea. Or sell separately? Like just the plush and then the "deluxe" plush with bag & coin & w/e. For me personally they add no value. No one is going to come to my house and say "wow look at the coin" or see the bag that's going to get shoved in a tote. But the weird plushie on the shelf they will for sure notice!

Adding a different coin for each type of plushie would be cool and they should have a tag of some sort on them. Nothing too big though. Just a little sewn on logo or something. I also agree with a number of the comments here that the werewolf's nose looks a little off. It should be more pointed like a dogs nose and not be all grey. Other than that it looks cool and the flying Toto is awesome!

I love toto. The wolf looks more like a hippo so I would say make the snout a bit pointed with defined nose at the point. For the tag, I would say an embroidery is great or even a patch but I love not having a tag. I love not having something poke at me when I cuddle them.

Toto is amazing! Also I think adding some kind of tag would be good for collectors. I do feel it should be be small and soft so as not to take away from the comfort of the plushie. A small fabric square with a logo or some kind of embroidery would work great. Super excited for all the creativity happening right now.

I agree with my fellow patrons. The nose of Hammibal Lector is a little of, it's missing a nose. But I love the Idea of the crossed out eyes. Maybe a turnable coin as a collectible? Love putting collectibles on Display, so having a coin I could spin next to the plushie would be nice. Discussing Toto: Love the Design. Would love that dog in real life. But: There already is a batwinged dog plushie. Maybe make the fur super fluffy just like a yorkie, and a collar with a tag? Maybe even having the tag as a collectible coin?

As soon as I saw Toto I thought Plushie Dreadful! He will make an excellent addition. The wolf from one angle does look a little hippo. The eyes and nose need to be more wolfy, maybe bigger more obviously pointy ears too? I do love it though and am hoping they are buy able by Xmas as I have a nephew who will love it. The bags for the rabbits are very good, I don't see that a coin would add much but maybe a patch would?

Wearwolf pig looks more like an hippo than a wolf. The nose is too thick and too wide in my opinion. But I love the Idea of the plushie wearwolf <3

good point, yes that^^^

Everyone is saying the nose needs to be pointy but that isn’t quite it. A defining feature of canines is their spongey nose. There needs to be some kind of embroidered nose on the snout. A wolf’s snout doesn’t just end in nostrils.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

Love the pig, agree that the current snout looks a bit like a hippo at some angles. Should be a bit more pointed. I like the idea of “X” eyes better as well. As far as something to go with them I was thinking something small like a pin or pin set. Then read your coin idea and thought “that blows pins out of the water”. If you made coins you could even sell those on their own, I know I would buy those vs all the plush dolls (at some point it’s too much room). The only other idea I had is you could make small 1-2-inch 3d printed versions that go with them. That would let people display them on a desk, more mobile/small display friendly. As far as tags, having nothing hanging off is nice. You could go with an embroidered logo on the butt or foot/paw? Could be the Mysterious logo or whatever new logo you want the plush series to have. Best of both world, markings for collectors, no tags hanging for sanity! I feel like adding an item and a tag does add value to the product. To add to the “collector value” of adding an item, I would not sell it separately. Which kills me to say cause odd are I would want it….but that makes is more exclusive which is what collectors look for. Still loving bat toto! Cant wait to read your new ideas!

Honestly, if the rest of Oz is as cute and inspiring as Toto, I'd pay so much money. I don't know if you remember, American, but during Ozombie I did a piece of fanart proposing that Dorothy could summon all of her barnyard animal friends in battle and now I'm inspired to draw a redo of that in this style.

I adore Toto!!!! I could see how adding a “tag” makes a collectible more valuable, as a lot of cosplayers make their own toys so a “tag” makes this official merchandise.

Therese

Okay this is going to be a doozy lol so what if we had a scanning code on the tag of each of these plushie dreadfuls that allowed you to enter a pixel game world (Created by Jennifer as she is very talented with that kind of thing as I've seen on her Instagram) and you play as each one of the plushies in alternate levels with little story bits n stuff and each one could be really warped and cute! But then! We can link it to wonderland! Perhaps these characters are looking for something and maybe they are trying to cheer up a sad Alice or something and a little pixel Alice could be happy to have new (and slightly fucked up) friends! Just an idea and a very long one at that lol but i think it could still link to Alice and your game creation stuff! But yeah just thought it would be a cute idea 🥰

Where is the werewolf's nose? Kind of reads more shark than wolf.

Stephanie Groth

Need. Werewolf. Pig. Need!!!

From one of the angles I also kept seeing a hippo. Maybe with the Xs for eyes it might help. Still love it!

I love Hammibal Lector! But I think that the wolf seems more an hippopotamus... maybe a pointy nose could help? And maybe something else with the package could give more value. Maybe a ring :p don’ t know. And yes probably a tag is a good idea for the future, seems more a brand. X)

Does the werewolf have a nose? It doesn’t look like it, that’s all I’d say. As far as the bags go, maybe the Mysterious insignia should be prominently displayed? And on one of the feet of the rabbits?

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’


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