2025 Preview
2024 Review
We'd like to start off by thanking all of you for your support this past year! 2024 was a particularly challenging year for us so we truly appreciate all the support you’ve shown us through social media and our shop. We are genuinely grateful for you all sticking with us through these challenging times. Without you, we couldn’t do what we do! Looking back at our 2024 preview, we hit most of our goals, but some had to be pushed back. We do hope to be able to make those items at some point!
We want to be transparent and honest with you with some of the changes we are making for 2025. We are proud of what we have accomplished to this point but we've made some missteps in how we’ve done things the last few years. When the pandemic hit in 2020, we experienced a huge uptick in sales, like many businesses did. This caused us to ramp up our production numbers on new figures, pins, and plushies to meet growing demand. As the world slowly returned to a sense of normalcy, the dragons didn’t sell as quickly.
That downturn in sales turned out to be a much bigger problem than we anticipated, as we were still producing items at the higher volume, resulting in an overstock of various items that we already paid for. This experience has made us re-evaluate how we will be making products going forward. While we’d love to make more vinyls, they are a large expense upfront and take several months for just one to be produced. We have to be more careful in our frequency and planned numbers of these items going forward. Too few and fans are bummed to miss out, too many and we are saddled with overstock storage fees. It's important to remember that we are a small family business of just a few people, so finding that balance is crucial for our business to thrive. We want to bring light to the world through Becca's wonderful creations for years to come, and your continued support of our business is what allows that magic to happen!
What to Expect in 2025
We have some exciting projects to kick off this year! While we will surely have new items, you will see fewer new vinyl figures, enamel pins, and plushies overall. Manufacturing and shipping costs have continued to rise significantly, impacting how and what we are able to produce. All this said, we are very excited for the year we have planned for you!
Restocking Items and Product Inventory
In the past we've tried to restock some customer requested items but it has been quite challenging to fit those into our production schedule. Our philosophy has changed for our initial runs and restocks. In general we are going to be ordering fewer of our new products, and it's going to be less likely that we restock those. Barring an unprecedented demand for a new manufactured product, we should have enough so they aren't sold out within hours but if you wait too long, you could miss out on new products. We just can’t continue to overestimate product amounts if we want to remain in business.
Enough of the serious talk, let's talk about fun things!
In the Harmony's Gift story, you got a little taste of Hearthwing Haven, the main town in Emberglow. If you have signed up for our Jade and Lotus campaign, you have already been introduced to Cherryvale, another beautiful location in Emberglow. We are working on building a connected world filled with the dragons and beasties characters you've come to know and love. This is a brand new direction for us but we are super excited to bring this world to life.
You can immerse yourself in the world of Emberglow by signing up for Kit's postcards, a new subscription based product launching in early February. These will feature all new art and story by Becca! Each month you'll receive a new postcard from Kit, telling you all about her adventures to the locations of Emberglow. Anybody who signs up for the first month will get a bonus postcard for this first month as a thank you for beginning this fun new journey with us. Signups will be open from February 4th through the 20th for this first month but will be open from the 1st through the 20th on subsequent months. Stay tuned as Kit heads off on her adventure for a preview of the first post cards on February 4th. You can be a part of uncovering the world of Emberglow with Kit & Biscuit. Adventure awaits!
Limited Short-Run Figures
In the next few months we're going to be experimenting with some limited short-run products. These will cost more than our regular figures and will most likely have a more limited quantity of 50-100 in a run. These signature series short-run figures will all be signed by Becca and numbered for the collectors. These could turn into a full production run if they are popular enough or could just be a fun one-off idea. We'll have some new ones to share after our Jade & Lotus campaign ends on February 13th.
Crowdfunded Campaigns and Pre-Orders
Kickstarter and Backerkit campaigns have been a great way for us to accurately gauge interest in a product. We will continue to use these platforms for some new products where it makes sense, the first of which will be our upcoming Jade and Lotus project, launching on January 23rd. After this project comes to a close, we have another exciting crowdfunding project we are planning on...one that I think you guys are going to like. Read on down below to find out more!
We will also be doing more Pre-Orders for figures that will come with a bonus to those who pre-order. To reinforce our goals for production numbers being more manageable, we won't be getting a lot of extras for the shop from our crowdfunded campaigns or pre-orders so if you want those products, you should consider getting them during the campaign or pre-order window.
Jade and Lotus Pintopia
Our Backerkit campaign for Pintopia 2025 is launching on January 23rd. This is a crowdfunding campaign for deluxe jumbo enamel pins of both Jade and Lotus. These gloriously gold pins measure 4" wide making them the largest pins we've ever made. We know many of you have asked for Jade and Lotus vinyl figures but they would be very challenging to make and we aren't likely to make them as vinyl figures anytime soon if at all so this is your chance to secure your own Jade and Lotus.
The Jade and Lotus Pins will be $50 each ($45 ea. for limited early bird slots)
You can see Jade and Lotus here next to some of our other pins for scale.
Available as add-ons and included in the All-In Pledge, we'll have a sticker pack ($25), a print ($15), and an amazing Deluxe Pin Board ($50)!
All-In Pledge will be $185 ($175 for limited early bird slots) and includes Jade, Lotus, all these extras, and any unlocked stretch goals!
And last but not least, if we hit stretch goals, we'll unlock these Inari and Midori Lantern pins. If you are following our Jade and Lotus page, you can vote for which one we unlock first on January 19th and get a FREE coloring page (delivered by 5 pm on January 23rd).
Free Collab Pins
Part of Pintopia is about collaborating with other artists and we are excited to be paired up with Mimosa Studio for our campaign. You can get FREE pins when you back both of our campaigns! Her campaign focuses on Cute Chinese Zodiac Mini Pins so please give her a follow to show your support! You will need to back both campaigns and both need to be successfully funded to get both of these pins and this is the only way to get them.
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is the most anticipated time of year for Cherryvale, attracting those from all across Emberglow to attend. It is a time for friends and family to come together, create one of a kind lanterns, enjoy the delicacies and trinkets from the Night Market, and just slow down a bit to enjoy the holiday. To celebrate the Lantern Festival event we have some fun ideas planned for you all! Starting January 20th, you can design your own lantern and and help choose colors for a dragon to be featured in the Cherryvale Night Market print Becca will be drawing. The completed print will be offered in our Jade and Lotus Pintopia campaign.
Next Drop: January 29th @ 10 am MST
Mao Deluxe Metal Keychain
Our latest revealed resident of Cherryvale is Mao, proud owner of Lucky Paw Sushi located at the Night Market. Coming January 29th @ 10 am MST, you can snag your own Mao Lucky Cat Deluxe Metal Keychain!
It's the Year of the Snake!
Also available on January 29th are three brand new stickers to celebrate the year of the snake!
Zodiac Beasties Unvaulted
We will be unvaulting our Zodiac Beasties for a limited time from January 29th to February 13th. This is not a restock of any pin designs that already sold out, but we will have any remaining pin designs we do have available for purchase. Snag them before they go away again until 2026!
Coming Later this Year
Snowpuff Figure & Plush
We have finished the mold for the snowpuff figure and have a really awesome looking pattern for a Snowpuff plush. We will have pre-orders for both starting in May. Kit may have to do a bit of exploring to find out more about Snowpuff and where he lives so don't miss out on her postcard series.
One last thing to mention...
Coming in June, Harmony Deluxe Plush Crowdfunding Campaign with Zen Deluxe Plush available as an add-on! We've already started working on a new sample and we'll have much more to share about this later. Please note that the price of these will be higher than our first run of the plush but we thought you'd all like to know this is coming this year!
We hope you are as excited about Emberglow as we are and we hope that you'll join Kit and Biscuit on their adventure to discover the mysteries of the land! Next stop Cherryvale with Jade and Lotus!
