YOKAI CLUB

This fierce guy held us up a little bit because I was so focused on finishing the pretty winkers that I forgot I hadn’t chosen colors for the nue design since that requires help from Taka who has been sleeping a lot due to his recovery. When I went to write this email I realized I didn’t have the colors and had to wait all day for him to wake up with enough energy to pick colors! >_< That said, the nue is all finished up and I really like the design because it has a lot of movement to it.

PRETTY WINKERS: PS

Super Sailor Moon joins the Pretty Winkers, as does Tellu. I do feel this month was more challenging because while Taka was able to get me really nice sketches, I had to do a lot of reworking of the hair, weapon and compact for Super Sailor Moon. The colors on this design feel especially bold which is a contrast to many of our other Sailor Moon/Usagi designs and I’m actually really happy to have something so bright! I also feel like she looks a little older/more mature than in our Sailor Moon design which is perfect since I believe she’s about 15/16 when she becomes Super Sailor Moon. Though her maturity might honestly have more to do with the fact that her mouth isn’t wide open like in most our designs with her! 🤣 Tellu has a simple background with mainly lines for the greenhouse from the manga scenes, and petals for her Tellun flowers. I do think it will look really beautiful even though it’s simple, much like how when we did our Calaveras design because the dark glittering background will really contrast with her green hair!

PRETTY WINKERS: SG

I already showed off Lady Eboshi and some of the background about design choices in the last email, so not too much to say about this one, but I’m still really happy with it and can’t wait for this and the other Mononoke designs to come in.

LONG HOLIDAY

I wish that long holiday was for me! 😖 Just a heads up, I have gotten some new pins in from October/November and will begin grading and packing those for you all in the next 2 weeks, but I wanted to remind you all that it is about to be the long ~10-14 day Lunar New Year holiday for the factories in China which means all production comes to a standstill. So regardless of how far along they are on some of the December and January designs, all companies are required to close down and take this time to celebrate their traditions and see their loved ones. I know most of you are seasoned pin collectors so you already know to expect this in January/February, but just wanted to let you know that I won’t be getting any updates, manu pics or shipments from them until nearly the end of February. I’m getting our manus paid up for February designs, but besides that they won’t likely begin the new designs til near the end of the month. I do find that after they have their vacation they really ramp up their production speed with a renewed energy so usually I get my first shipment by mid-March. Thank you all and be in touch soon!