Updates: Zine, plush + more
Hi, all! This blogpost is here to provide some much-needed updates to let everyone know where their goodies currently are in the production/fulfillment stage.
Zines
First and foremost are the Interstella 5555 charity fanzines. One of my largest concerns with zine fulfillment was the fact that all orders contain multiple different items that all have their own proofing and delivery times. Since I was moving, I was uncertain about every item both arriving safely and to the correct address, as delivery times aren't always reliable and sometimes landed around periods I either wouldn't be home or would be moving. Additionally, I wanted to avoid relying on mail forwarding and wanted to make sure the zine's return address was an updated PO Box in the event of orders being returned to sender. I elected to wait until everything was without a shadow of doubt finished changing until we'd begin receiving any items. The zine's socials haven't been adequately updated to reflect these delays in our projected schedule and so I'm terribly sorry for the drop in communication! Thank you all so much for your patience!
On that note, I'm excited to announce that the zine is finally entering the proofing stage and that packages will be going out August! 🎉 Any leftovers will likely drop for 909 Day!
Sweatshirts
Sweatshirts are in production! These were done locally, and since I've moved I have to wait on most of these shirts to ship to me in my new city. However, to cut down on wait times, any standalone shirts will ship from the printer. Shirts part of mixed orders will ship from me with the rest of your order.
Spinner Pin
The restock of spinner pins are done! These need to ship to me still. Initially I planned to adjust the pin slightly by adding a third backing piece, but this ended up making the pin too heavy and bulky, and had some snagging concerns. Thus, the design has remained the same as the first wave of pins.
Misc. Items
Any orders that contained currently in-hand items have been sent out! Orders that contain preorder items will be sent when the preordered items are completed.
Most miscellaneous items (charms, totes) that haven't been mailed already are in bundle orders that contain PO items. The only misc. item left for me to receive and mail are the shoe charms.
Plush
The big one! I'm adjusting one small part of the Mini Daft Plush and then the proofs are done! After this I'll receive the prototypes and check their quality in person before all plush are produced to go to their new homes. I'm terribly sorry for the sheer length of time the plush prototyping has taken; my manufacturer moves veeeeeeeryyyyyyyy ssssloooowwww, but the patterns for the plush robot helmets are rather complex which has made me hesitant to switch manufacturers (as we'd have to start from scratch). </3 Life's a tradeoff.
Justice Plush needed to be pushed back until Daft Plush were completed due to their limited nature and the cost to manufacture them (especially while tariffs are still high). The prototypes are underway! I'm doing my best to expedite this process so it doesn't take nearly as long as the Daft Plush did, and I'm hopeful the body patterns being the same improves that time significantly. I'm hoping with high optimism that they'll be going home during the last leg of the North American tour so they can rock out at the shows!
Future Considerations
This last May I graduated with my two bachelor degrees while also working multiple part-time jobs. Just recently I've started my MS degree in a new city! My academic career and my jobs often took up most of my time and were my top priority, and I've elected to start sizing down my sodasprouts storefront in order to better balance my life responsibilities with my hobby store. As much as I adore making fanmerch, it's difficult to juggle so much at once without passing external delays down to fans. Thank you all for always being so supportive of my work and so patient!
There will likely be no new items dropping on 909 Day this year; instead, I'll focus on clearing out current stock. I'll be downsizing Daft fanmerch, though I may explore new Justice items in the future (especially since I had to push back the joint spinner pin design). Please stay tuned for what the future holds!
Thank You!
As always, thank you all so much for your support!! I'm so privileged to be able to have so much fun making these knick-knacks and I'm so happy they get to bring joy to others!
Check out my Twitter for smaller updates; if you need assistance or have a question, you can always use my contact form!
<3