We've got a big update today with some new friends coming soon and some big news regarding tariffs. It's not all doom and gloom but it is important. Let's dive in.

Pollen Puffs (coming soon, estimated April 30th)
$30 ea or two for $55.

These adorable puffs (roughly 2.5" from snoot to boot) were featured during our Jade and Lotus campaign as a big part of Cherryvale. Very soon, you'll have a chance to adopt your own little pocket puff to provide comfort in these trying times. Carry them around in your pocket or give them a cozy corner of your desk, either way they just want to stay close to you! These puffs are the first of our limited short runs that we spoke about in our 2025 preview blog. Each puff is based off of an original sculpture, then hand assembled by Becca and the DB Crew. We are starting with a limited run of these adorable pink Pollen Puffs from Cherryvale but if they are popular, who knows! We might meet puffs from other regions of Emberglow!

Zen Mystery Box (Coming May 14th)
Priced at $70.

The long-awaited Zen Mystery Box is finally coming! Our original goal with these character themed mystery boxes was to keep them more affordable and deliver them more frequently. This has proven to be a very difficult task. Due to the nature of the items we have in the box and the ever changing world we live in right now with price increases on producing anything, this one will be priced a bit higher than past boxes at $70, but the items inside value over $85 and are ALL NEW ITEMS, so we think you will still find it worth the wait and cost! We love making these themed boxes, but their future is uncertain at this time, and sadly this may be the last mystery box we make. These boxes are LIMITED and the items inside will not be produced again. 

Also, we are doing something a little different with this box and will be highlighting SOME of the items beforehand to build up the hype! For those who still love the thrill of the mystery we will do our best to hide those spoilers.

This next section is long, a bit sad, but such an IMPORTANT READ FOR OUR SUPPORTERS.

Tariffs

We want to be transparent on the future of Dragons and Beasties. Tariffs are a major challenge right now. I'm sure you've seen similar notes from other creators/businesses about this issue. The US administration's extreme tariffs already have and will continue to have a huge impact on our business, our lives, and yours. In case this needs clarifying, tariffs are taxes that WE, Dragons and Beasties, pay when we import our figures, pins, and plushies that are produced in China. This additional fee is on top of our cost of goods and at their current rate of 145% is more than doubling our cost to produce the majority of our products. We got into vinyl figure manufacturing to try to bring more of Becca's creations to more people at affordable prices. As a small family business of only 4 people, our margins are already tight. The escalation of tariff percentages has created a very uncertain world for us. Selling vinyl figures and other manufactured items is the biggest source of income for our business, and that allows us to feed our families and pay our bills. There is a very real risk of not being able to share these dragons with all of you anymore if things do not change for the better soon with these tariffs. We hope things will settle to a more manageable level, but we just don't know if or how long that will take. 

We want to talk about some of our currently impacted projects. We have started production on the Jade and Lotus pins from our Backerkit campaign. We can hold the finished items at the factory for a short time but we have no idea what the import fees will be when these actually ship to us. With the current tariff structure, this adds an additional $8,000 to our cost… far more than we originally budgeted for importing fees. We WILL deliver on these pins and all items from the Backerkit campaign even if they are delayed but the unanticipated extra costs will significantly impact us financially. Dragons and Beasties is our sole means of providing for our family, and we love this business, but tariffs threaten this being our future. 

Regarding other projects down the road. We have a Snowpuff vinyl figure that has gone through molding and painting, and we think he looks fantastic!

We cannot start production on this figure and that sucks because he is all ready to roll! We have a Melonie (watermelon dragon) figure sculpture finished by Becca that we cannot afford to even start molding. The harsh reality is that we likely won't be able to make new figures, plushies, and even pins without some sort of a crowd-funding campaign or pre-order going forward. Options to create these items in the US simply don’t exist or are much lower quality. We are doing our best to adapt and are looking at all our options because we do want to continue to bring more of Becca's creations to you. We've heard from so many of you that have been emotionally affected by her work in such a positive way and we don't want to lose that. We love what we do but we'll need your help and your patience while we work through this. 

We are still planning to launch the Zen and Harmony Deluxe Plush Kickstarter on June 4th. To be perfectly honest, this decision terrifies us because of its unpredictability, but we have been so excited for this and know you have been too, so how do we NOT do this Kickstarter?? Our first run of the Zen plush was massive and by far our most expensive product to produce and ship. The ever changing tariffs make a crowd funding campaign extremely hard if not impossible to plan for when we don't even know what we'll be charged when our product does finally make it to our warehouse. If the tariff situation isn't more stable and reasonable at that time, we will not be able to launch this Kickstarter, plain and simple. We would really like to launch this as it's been our most requested restock from all of you and please know that we are looking into every option available to make this a reality. In the event that we are able to launch, please note that the plush will cost more than the original price of the first run Zen plush. We hope to have an expected price for you before launch but as we mentioned above, things are changing rapidly. 

Our Future

You will likely see prices rise across nearly all types of products as companies both big and small fight to stay in business. We are in the unfortunate position of likely needing to do the same for our products. We will announce a date for price increases if we do need to do this. We don't raise our prices out of greed, but simply to survive. Sales have been down for nearly all businesses across the board, including ours, even before these tariff changes. We know money can be tight for everyone right now, but if you would like to help, picking up that figure or pin you've been eyeing for a while for yourself or as a gift would be much appreciated. We also have a Ko-Fi you can donate to directly if you just want to help support our business, or you can sign up for our monthly postcard subscription there to receive a physical item in exchange for your support. Another very appreciated, non-monetary, way to help is to share your excitement for Dragons and Beasties with friends/family or on social media! It's gotten so much harder to reach people and grow these days, so any word of mouth traffic we can get is so helpful!

Lastly, if you are so inclined, contact your representative and let them know you aren't happy with how the administration's policies are affecting your favorite small businesses. 

We are tirelessly working on adapting and finding other avenues for producing new products/ items for you all with what we do have to work with. When times are tough, you have to learn to pivot, and we are doing our very best to figure this out as we go. The Pollen Puffs are one example, but we’ve also been working with artist sunnynika.3d to make this beautiful render concept for a Kit pendant which we are actively working to get made domestically.  

Keep in mind this is a concept and not exactly what the final product will look like. We should receive the pendant sample in a few weeks and if that's good to go, we will open pre-orders for it! This is all part of us exploring new avenues and opportunities within our control. 

We are NOT giving up, we’re still here and will continue to fight for this business!! We want to thank everyone for all the support throughout the years. We are so grateful and touched by all the love and wonderful stories on how we have impacted your lives and hope to continue to do so for many years to come. 

From the Beastie Crew - Becca, Matt, Reese and Heather, thank you.