Production begins- here we go!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 11:58:25 PM

As we head into this year's holiday season, this project has now entered into it's next exciting and crucial stage- production! All of the parts for the Beasts of the Mesozoic: Raptor Series have been received by the tooling factory in China and I am currently working with people there via email to help get tooling prototypes made for each figure.

Tooling Layouts and Special Instructions

To help communicate what I need for each item or SKU (stock keeping unit), I have created extensive layouts and given each piece a number/letter designation so it's more clear what each SKU requires. Many of these figures and sets share parts so without this system in place, it can all get very confusing.

Here is the main parts map for tooling- this includes all parts for the entire series, right down to the tiny little ball foot pegs.

 And here are just a few of the parts layouts- one of these was created for each SKU.

 Special Instructions

There are also some cases where adjustments are necessary, but it's more practical to have it done during this stage. For example, I was informed recently that the Buitreraptor did not have enough teeth and the ones I sculpted were too big. I want to thank backer Sim for bringing this to my attention as he was right. However there was not enough time for me to make such a significant adjustment if I was to get all of the parts to the factory in time to stay on schedule. So instead of delaying the project for one small part, I have given instructions, with photoshopped versions of what I want, to make the changes there in China for the final 'fine cut' version of the figure. (Fine cuts are final approved resin prototype versions of a figure or set made by the tooling factory. These are the actual pieces used for the metal tooling molds and it is not uncommon to make small adjustments at this stage.)

In addition to last-minute adjustments, I also noted which parts are to be flexible material and those to be cast in specific, not opaque materials. Here are some examples of these instructions.

I am told that the factory could have fine cuts done for each SKU in about three weeks. Once those are approved by me, the new molds will go on to the production factory where the actual product will be made. At that stage I will be providing paint masters for each figure as well as packaging graphics and layout designs.

I can't express how grateful I am to have the opportunity to do all of this. It's becoming redundant by now, but again- thank you all for your help in making this project a reality.

Printed materials arrive- Calendars begin shipping soon!

An update on the printed materials- production is complete! Everything turned out great and I'm especially impressed by the calendars. Here's a look at what's been received.

 These 'Raptors at Dawn' prints were sent directly to Mark Schultz for signing. He was kind enough to take this photo upon their arrival. If you look closely, you can see Mark in the reflection of the plastic wrapping.

And good news for those who ordered the calendars. Not only did they arrive quickly, but they look fantastic! I even took a short video to give you all a glimpse of how they turned out, but I will say that the color depth and sharpness are much better in person.

I will begin shipping calendar orders out before Thanksgiving (Thursday). All print orders which include calendars will have priority as my goal to is get them all to you all in time for Christmas.

Main Raptor Figure Run Down

Kickstarter backer Galmorzu recently requested that I show all of the painted raptors together in once place. This made me realize that I hadn't done that yet, at least no larger than thumbnail size anyway. Seems like a good idea to me, so here you go- all of the main painted raptors in one place (and without graphics).

Looking back at these I'm still pleasantly surprised at what this project has evolved into. Each one of these designs has become very personal to me.

BackerKit Surveys

Now that we're in the thick of BackerKit lock downs, there are a few items I want to address here.

First, if you have multiple orders and would like me to combine them, please let me know. Even if you've submitted your survey and it's been charged, I can still make this adjustment for you.

Another item of note is the unanswered BackerKit surveys. As of this update, there are still 85 backers who have not answered their surveys. Thankfully this isn't like Kickstarter where if you don't answer in time, your pledge is dropped. There is time to answer, but I ask that you do it as soon as possible as it can effect project funding and it's also good to lock in your orders for the final production count. It's not uncommon for these BackerKit emails to get lost and end up in the spam folder, so please be sure to keep an eye out for that if you are unsure.

Also, there are currently 37 backers who's credit cards have been declined. Again, you do have time to fix this, but I urge you to do so soon. Some cards are declined because the bank does not recognize Stripe or BackerKit and it is flagged as possible fraud. If you are having trouble, I suggest that you please contact your bank. Also on that note, a few people have attempted to add funds via Paypal, often at the instruction of the BackerKit team. I have emailed them about this recently and am awaiting a reply as I was not aware that this was a payment option. My fear is that these payments and orders are not reflected on the BackerKit surveys and which could be an issue during the fulfillment process. The fulfillment service who will be sending out your action figure orders next year will be working directly from the BackerKit information. If the order information is incomplete, this will lead to items not being shipped. I will follow up about this once I know more.

And lastly in regards to BackerKit surveys- I've noticed that a lot of you have not yet finalized your addresses. If you have ordered any print materials, I ask that you do this as these items will be shipping soon and I don't want to risk shipping to the wrong address. You will still be able to edit your address later if needed up until the figures ship.

Thanks in advance for your help in these matters. I just want to make sure everyone's order is accounted for.

One more thing...

If you've managed to read this far down (I know these things are always so long), I do have more more announcement to make.

As I continue to work with BackerKit, I am learning more and more about how it all works. I recently discovered that the pre-order store is not actually shut down, but 'paused' which means as long as this project is open, the store can be as well. So within the next month or so, after final costs and production numbers are finalized, I plan to relaunch the pre-order store and it will remain open until this project closes next summer. After that, I will be selling any remaining product on my website. For this version of the pre-order store however, there will be some slight differences:

-items will be limited based on the production run for each

-some items may increase in price from the first pre-order store depending on actual production costs (no more than $5-$10. I will keep the prices the same whenever possible.)

-items can be added to existing orders until they are ready to ship to save on shipping charges

-Kickstarter backers will still be allowed to add Velociraptor osmolskae to existing orders

-no lock down. Cards will be charged within 24 hours of their order.

There is no set date for this as it depends on how soon I can get final numbers, but I estimate it to be around the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I will keep you all posted as things develop.

Okay, that's all for now. As always, please continue to follow my progress on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.

Enjoy the season and have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

BackerKit Lockdown tomorrow- production to begin soon. Plus Nestling Package art and more!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 12:19:22 AM

BackerKit survey and pre-order Lock Down is Tomorrow, Nov. 14th!!

It's almost here! The BackerKit surveys and the Pre-Order Store are set to lock down tomorrow night at 12:00am midnight (eastern standard time). Be sure to make your final selections, especially if you have not yet submitted your survey. You will not be able to order again until the remaining stock goes up on my website next summer. By that time the stock availability and pricing is subject to change but it's too early to know.

It's been quite a journey already to get to this point, and I thank you all for your patience while I've prepared the new prototypes. Now we'll soon begin the next and critical stage of this process- production! I am currently finalizing the resin pieces to be tooled for all of the Beasts of the Mesozoic action figures. It's mostly general clean up and sharpening of details, but also some minor articulation improvements. Tomorrow I will be sending the parts out to the tooling factory in China to get the production process rolling!

Nestlings Update

I do want to apologize for not presenting all of the painted Nestling prototypes yet. It came down to preparing those and delaying production a few more days, or preparing the tooling parts instead and getting production started this week instead of next week. I felt that since I have shown all three unpainted prototypes and an example of each painted, that there is enough information to base a decision on. I really need to get order counts for production to proceed thus the BackerKits much be closed. I will of course be showing the remaining painted Nestlings, it will just have to happen a little later unfortunately.

Package Art

That being said, there is some positive news about the Nestlings- new package art! For these little ones, I once again commissioned Sara Richard to do the art- her fun, energetic style brings a playful quality to these baby dinosaurs. Take a look!

I noticed that her interpretation of the grey nestlings was a little different that what I had done on the prototype, using more yellow on the face and incorporating black tones into the greys. Instead of asking her to change it, I decided it was better than what I had come up with and I changed my prototype instead. Hope you all approve of the adjustment. I didn't think it was too drastic, but it seemed to make the color design a little more interesting.

Forest Egg Clutch paint adjustment

 And since we're on the subject of paint adjustments, one of the backers here, Duncan, referred me to an interesting article on color evidence for dinosaur eggs. While the article is in reference to Oviraptor eggs, it did offer some helpful insight. After reading the article, I decided to incorporate some color into the Forest egg clutch adding a light green tint to what was off-white before.

Completed Diorama Photo Album up now

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to shoot the Beasts of the Mesozoic raptors on the NECA environment dioramas made by Stefan Folkins. For your viewing pleasure, I have finally photo edited and uploaded all of the images to an album here on my Creative Beast Studio Facbook page.

  Printed Materials Update

I want to let everyone know that all printed materials have been ordered and are on the way. The calendars have actually been shipped already and I should be getting those soon. Calendar orders will have priority since they are time-sensitive and will begin shipping out as soon as possible. I expect to get them to everyone by Christmas. Please note that on the calendars- since I had to order a specific amount, I ordered enough to cover all current orders with a few extra. The calendar is now a limited item and as of this update, there are 8 left. This calendar will likely not be sold again.

And here's a look at the final layout of the postcards. All will have this format with the name of each species and the artist's name on the opposite side.

The Fans Choice post cards are the same with the exception of the 'Fans Choice' logo in the lower left.

And for the Kickstarter backers here, there are still a few more slots available for the Mark Schultz 'Raptors at Dawn' signed print. These are currently being printed and will be shipped directly to Mark for him to sign and return to me.

A Quick Note about Adding to your Submitted Survey

Since revealing the recent items, many people have asked me to add items to their submitted survey, and that's completely fine. However several people have suggested an alternative- go to your survey email and look for a link toward the bottom that says 'update your cart'. I can not try this myself, but it's worth a shot if you find yourself wanting to add more to your existing survey. And in the event that you can not locate your email to get back to your survey, just message me and I'll get it to you asap.

 This is it guys, the last call until next summer. Time to make your final decisions and if you need any help, just contact me. I'll keep things going on this end and will have more updates as usual here and on the social media.

It's time for the next phase- it's happening. Thanks everyone for your support!

Accessory Packs and Nestlings- Final Painted Prototypes!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Nov 08, 2016 at 11:47:21 PM

Alright, we finally made it! We now get to see all of the planned physical product for the first series of Beasts of the Mesozoic (with one minor stipulation, but I'll get to that later).

First, we have the Accessory Packs!

Accessory Packs

Here are the final prototypes with all parts. I admit that these turned out more elaborate than I had estimated for and because of this I'm willing to bet that the price will have to be raised about $5-$10 when the remaining product goes up on my web store next year. But for you all right now, consider the current price of $30 each to be at a discount. They had to be this way, so I have no regrets.

And while I'm on this topic, there have been several people asking which raptors go with which environments. While this is ultimately up to you and how you want your display to look, I did put together a list of suggestions (some could work for more than one):

Wertlands- Saurornitholestes, Acheroraptor, and Atrociraptor

Desert- Velociraptor (m. and o.), Tsaagan, Adasaurus and Linheraptor

Forest- Balaur, Zhenyuanlong, Pyroraptor, and Adasaurus.

Mountains- Dromaesosaurus, Acheroraptor, Saurornitholestes, and Atrociraptor

Now, on to the photos!

Wetlands featuring Buitreraptor

The water effect here will be achieved by only painting the bottom of the clear base piece. Gloss will be added to the top for a better transparent effect. Also, the plants will be cast in a translucent green for a more natural look.

 I do want to note that the ball foot peg is not final and is something that I will need to work with China on, however it will function as advertised. Since it's not something I've seen done before, I will need further input on what my options are. It will be included for certain and I may include multiples with each set depending on cost.

Desert featuring Mononykus

 Jumping rod will consist of a 5.25" ABS clear rod with cradle clip at the top. Again this is another item I will need work with the factory on to perfect it, but I got my simple resin copy to do this so I feel pretty good about it.

 Forest with Microraptor

This tree ended up being 3 inches taller than the proposed 7" tree because it just wouldn't be worth doing if it were any smaller. This is one of the main things that will put these sets a little over budget, but I feel they need to be there. These araucaria trees are the only thing out of scale in this series. It would be enormous at 1/6th scale but a tiny young tree wouldn't have the design presence I was looking for. It's a compromise for the sake of overall atmosphere.

The tree as well as several other environment accessories, plug into the bases via that same 3/16" ball used with the posing rods and foot pegs. Mix and match however you like to create a custom scene.

 Mountains featuring Troodon juvenile

 Also utilizing the araucaria tree, this one is painted in a more winter themed color palette.

 You may have noticed that this piece is no longer part of these packs. What is this piece? It was supposed to be a clip for holding a background image included as part of the packaging. However, the background image can be designed to fold in a way to stand on it's own, so this part no longer necessary and has now been omitted.

So there you have the Accessory Packs!

Until next time!!

Oh wait there's something else...

Nestlings!

Due to an error on my part, I only ended up with one set of castings for these little guys instead of three. But the others are on the way and I will get to them as soon as possible. In the meantime, I thought it would suffice to paint each of the three designs to represent each of the three sets. All three for each pack will have identical colors so this should give you a solid idea of what to expect.

 And with now we can bring them all together for some complete Mesozoic scenes!

Phew- that's a big update. If you got this far- thank you.

That'll do it for now (seriously this time). I will be sure to post more nestling photos once I have more painted which should be this weekend. I will also be updating the photos on BackerKit very soon as time allows. Hopefully you all have more than enough info now to help make your final decisions in time for the BackerKit lock down next Monday, Nov. 14th. I will also be preparing the final parts for tooling to ship all parts to China next Monday. We've come this far but there's still plenty to do!

As always, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram if you don't already. And if you're a part of other social media formats such as Reddit or Pinterest, please pass along updates on this project so others don't miss out before the deadline. The pre-order store will remain open until Nov. 14th as well. And if anyone is having trouble adding on to their survey, feel free to contact me.

See you all next time!

New Resin Nestling Photos and BackerKit Date Announcement
over 7 years ago – Sun, Nov 06, 2016 at 06:08:39 PM

Nestlings assembled!

The response to the recent Nestling updates has been very well received and I thought you all would enjoy seeing these little guys before I paint them. One thing I should note about the paint- I will only be painting one for each set to show by Monday, with the rest to soon follow. But that should be enough to give you all an idea of how the others in the set will look as the paint for all three within each set will be identical.

 Also, I wanted to show how the ball foot-peg system works. Utilizing the 3/16th hole used for the posing rods, the foot peg attaches to the feet of smaller raptor figures and can also be moved around for the best balance and positioning sort of like an extra articulation point. The final ball foot-peg will be cast in the base color and will pushed down a little more than seen in these photos.

 And here we have the whole family- nestlings with the 12" Tsaagan figure all on the Desert Accessory Pack base with egg clutch and hatchling. The ball peg holes here are being utilized by both the Tsaagan and nestling figures.

 And one more just for fun...

 One Week BackerKit Extension- now Nov. 14th

In the previous update, I'd stated that I wouldn't have all of the prototypes ready to show until Nov.7th, which was the planned lockdown date for the BackerKit. Since it really leaves very little time to make your final decisions, I proposed leaving the BackerKit open an additional week to allow people ample time to decide what they want and you all unanimously agreed that an extra week would be ideal, so the BackerKit will remain open until Mon. Nov. 14th. Thank you to everyone who weighed in with your comments. And to those who had questions, I will be getting to those sometime this weekend. Very sorry if I've been slow responding lately- it's crunch time over here so my internet time unfortunately has to be limited. But I will be getting back to you all as soon as possible.

Painting the bases and accessories today so expect more photos to pop up soon for those.

Stay tuned!

Sculpting completed! A closer look at the Accessory Packs and Nestlings preview
over 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 04, 2016 at 06:58:34 PM

It's been several months since the Beasts of the Mesozoic Kickstarter when all of those stretch goals were (unexpectedly) met and as you all know, I've been trying to catch up ever since. Well I'm happy to say that all sculpting for the Beasts of the Mesozoic: Raptor Series has been completed and I am now on pace to show everything by Monday, Nov. 7th as planned. A lot of you have probably been following my progress on the social media sites, but I wanted to collect the recent developments here in one place to for everyone to see.

Accessory Packs

Before I painted these, I wanted to show you all the unpainted parts and what each set will contain. I also wanted to note the intended placement of the accessories. In addition, the accessories and posing rods are designed to be modular and attach via a 3/16" ball plug-in design to allow for interchangeability and customization between all four sets..

 Nestlings

I unfortunately was not able to take many photos of the nestling sculpts due to time, but I will be receiving castings back today so expect more on these very soon. The main thing you may notice that is different from the proposed drawing is... articulation! Instead of making three unique static sculpts as I had originally planned, I decided it would be better to have three different figures that share some parts, and have articulation points at the jaw, neck, shoulders, torso, and hips. All of the proposed poses are still achievable and then some. In addition, the necks, arms and legs will be interchangeable between them. Each will also receive a standard base similar to the Accessory Pack foot bases.

 BackerKit closing date

When I extended the BackerKit this last time, my plan was to give myself a one week cushion at the end to complete the prototypes if I fell behind and was hoping to give you all at least a few days to see everything to make your final decisions. But as I half expected, the 7-day contingency cushion was necessary for me to fill as these took longer to make than anticipated and I am planning to show everything just by the lockdown date of Nov. 7th (yeah, cutting it close I know). So I wanted to ask you all, would you prefer that I leave the BackerKits open for an additional week with all completed content shown and close them on Nov. 14th, or leave the lockdown date as-is to close at the end of the day on Nov. 7th? I realize that trying to decide what to order in a few hours is probably not ideal for most so I can leave it open one more week if people would prefer. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section. I can always lock down individual surveys upon request. And for those who have already submitted your surveys or have pre-ordered: if you want to add more items, contact me and I can add items on your behalf. There is no need to make an additional pre-order and pay for extra shipping.

That's all for now. I expect to show plenty of progress this weekend so keep an eye on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates as we count down to final stages of the prototypes. You all have been super patient during this process thus far and I really appreciate it- thank you.

And as always the BackerKit pre-order store will remain open until the final lock down as well.

That's all for now- back to work!