Printed item fulfillment status and more prototype reveals!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 07:32:37 AM

Printed Items Shipping Now

I hope you all are enjoying your holiday season and I know many of us are gearing up for Christmas, myself included. That being said, I've been shipping out as many of the printed items as possible this month. They all arrived as of mid- December and are looking great! But with such a limited window to ship before I go away to visit family (today actually), I decided to prioritize the calendar orders since those were the most time-sensitive. I did manage to send out plenty of postcard sets and a few prints, but the remainder will have to go out after the holidays. My apologies to anyone who's order I get to a little later, but know that the remaining orders will be a priority once I return at the beginning of the year. With that said, here's a look at the printed items!

Calendars

These turned out great and I'm excited for people to have these on display throughout 2022. If you missed out on these during the Kickstarter, I'll have a small quantity available at creative-beast.com in early January, so keep an eye out for that. 

I'm happy say that I managed to ship all of the calendar orders before Christmas, so if you haven't received yours yet, rest assured that it's on its way.

Postcards

There were a lot of postcard orders and while a portion did go out, there will be more of these sent in early January. These too turned out fantastic. 

Prints

Possibly the most impressive of the bunch are these signed art prints. I want to send a big 'thank you' to the artists, Ezra Tucker and Raul Ramos, for taking the time to hand-sign each one of these. 

 Again, many of these prints have yet to ship, but the remaining orders will go out in early January.

Painted prototypes update

In other news, there are two more newly painted Tyrannosaur prototypes with full galleries'. Take a look!

Qianzhousaurus sinensis

Alectrosaurus olseni

Small Tyrannosaur update

Thanks to my mold maker, Jeremy Monz, I've received castings for last four Tyrannosaur prototypes- Proceratosaurus, Suskityrannus, Eotyrannus, and Moros- and am very much looking forward to building and painting these after I return from my trip. I wish I could take them with me!

 Expect to see plenty of updates on these guys next month.

That will do it for now- I suppose it's time for me to pack! 

Remember, you can always keep up with the latest Beasts of the Mesozoic news on my social media at Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter. Or just check out the 'News' section of my website, which is updated each week. 

And if you missed the Kickstarter, the Tyrannosaur Series pre-order store can be found here.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas and best wishes for a great new year to come in 2022!

-David

BackerKit survey launch status and Teratophoneus gallery!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 13, 2021 at 03:21:56 AM

 Revised BackerKit launch date

 I just wanted to give a quick update on the status of the Tyrannosaur Series BackerKit. The surveys and the preorder store were just recently finished, but we'll need to wait just a few more days for the BackerKit team to approve the project. So I'm expecting the surveys to be emailed out either Monday or Tuesday of next week, with the preorder store launching at that time as well. I know many of your are looking forward to this, so I thank you for your patience.

Teratophoneus prototype

 Another of the prototypes was just recently finished. Here's a look at the Teratophoneus curriei!

 I can't help but to think of this one as the 'Forest Ghost'. It kind of reminds me of the Ghost Predator that I designed for NECA a while back, though this wasn't intentional. 

 With its older relative, Lythronax.

 With some Kaiparowits Formation contemporaries.

 And with our stand-in human that you may have seen before. More photos can be found in the gallery, here.

Qianzhousaurus paint in-progress

 And with one more prototype done, another is well underway. I'm hoping to wrap this one up in time for Legions Con on Sunday- here's an in-progress look at the painted Qianzhousaurus prototype!

That'll do it for now. Still plenty of packing (and painting) to do for ToyCon NJ and aforementioned Legions Con.

Stay tuned to my my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or on the 'News' section of my website for the latest news, and keep an eye out next week for those BackerKit surveys.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I hope to see some of you at the show!

-David

BackerKit launch info, painted Dryptosaurus prototype, new package art, and more!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 07:11:35 AM

 Hi all- things are moving forward with the Tyrannosaur Series and there's plenty to catch up on here. Let's begin with the biggest news first- a rundown of the new BackerKit details!

 BackerKit launch 

We're just over two weeks out now from the end of the Kickstarter and the next phase of the Tyrannosaur Series is about to begin with BackerKit! The BackerKit Surveys and preorder store will be launching next Friday, November 12th and the orders will lock down on February 22nd, 2022. You all will receive an email invitation to your BackerKit survey at that time with instructions on how to set it up. Your pledges will be transferred over automatically to BackerKit and there you'll be allowed to input your shipping addresses, add additional items, and adjust your pledge tiers and if needed. Here's what you'll need to know about the Tyrannosaur Series BackerKit:

-If you had an errored Kickstarter payment, these pledges will still be transferred over and will show a balance that can be paid through BackerKit. Please message me if you need assistance with your BackerKit payment.

- Both credit cards and PayPal will be accepted with BackerKit, however PayPal payments will have to charge at the time of ordering, while credit card payments won't charge until lock down. 

- Additional items added through BackerKit via credit card will not be charged until the orders lock down on February 22nd, 2022.

- The Special Edition T. rex figures (Dino Riders and Walking with Dinosaurs homage variants) will only be available to add to pledges up until the lockdown date of February 22nd, 2022.  

- as of November 12th, postcard sets and calendars can still be pre-ordered on creative-beast.com, but will not be part of the BackerKit. 

- The Tyrannosaur Series preorder store will also go live on Nov. 12th for those that missed out on the Kickstarter campaign, but this will not include the Special Edition T. rex figures or the print items. 

- After the lock down date, additional items can be added to pledges by myself manually by request.

- processed preorder funds will be automatically committed to the project and the order quantities will be  factored to decide production run totals. So as with the Kickstarter, charged items can not be refunded. 

I think that about covers the main BackerKit information, but of course if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or message me.

Dryptosaurus prototype

 If you've been following me on social media, you may have seen that the painted Dryptosaurus prototype is finished! These are just a few select images from the photo shoot. A full gallery can be viewed here. 

The next gallery will be for Teratophoneus, which is almost done now!

 Package Art

 At the conclusion of the Tyrannosaur Series Kickstarter, there were two package art illustrations that were still in-progress. Well both are finished now so let's take a look!

Qianzhousaurus sinensis

Here is the final package art for the 'itchy' Qianzhousaurus by Shannon Beaumont! 

 Tarbosaurus bataar 

And last but certainly not least, here is the package art for intimidating Tarbosaurus, by Raul Ramos!

 Both of these package illustrations will also be available as postcards in set #3.

Toy Con NJ/ Legions Con

For anyone in or near the New Jersey area, I'll be attending the Toy Con NJ/ Legions Con event next weekend, November 13th and 14th! Plenty of Beasts of the Mesozoic figures will be for sale, I'll be showing off the final samples of the Ceratopsians wave 3 figures, and most importantly, the Tyrannosaur Series prototypes will be on display for what will likely be the only time to see them in public, at Legions Con Sunday, Nov. 14th only. Hope to see you there if you can make it!

That's all for now. As usual, you can follow all of the latest Beasts of the Mesozoic news on my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or on the 'News' section of my website, which is updated each Sunday. And if you have a pending order from wave 3 of the Ceratopsian Series, be sure to check out the most recent update on the status, here.

Take care everyone- until next time!

-David

An amazing finish for the Tyrannosaur Series campaign! THANK YOU to all of the backers!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 09:40:46 PM

THANK YOU!!

We did it! With the help of 2,158 backers we funded the main campaign plus all eighteen stretch goals and then some! Our most ambitious Kickstarter has turned out to be the most successful yet and it gives me great hope that the Beasts of the Mesozoic action figure line has a bright future ahead!

Many of you have been extremely generous with your support not only with your pledges, but also with your time, participating with feedback, helping other backers here with their questions, and of course sharing the project on social media and dinosaur/ action figure-related groups and forums. I really appreciate the overwhelmingly positive comments throughout the campaign as these Kickstarters are always a big challenge to undertake. The encouraging community here has been a great motivator for me to make this campaign and these figures as good as they can possibly be. I'm truly grateful to you all for this opportunity to being you these awesome figures.

Now with the campaign concluded, there have been a few issues that are being brought to my attention that I'd like to address here.

Declined Credit Cards

For those who've received a declined card notice for your Kickstarter payment, don't worry as your pledge will still remain in the system and Kickstarter will allow you multiple attempts to adjust your payment method and try again. Unfortunately, I can't be of much help with this process though as I have no authority to approve payment methods so if there is an issue, I recommend contacting your bank or reaching out to Kickstarter directly for advisement. 

Missing pledges

I'm hearing from some backers who aren't seeing all of their rewards in their pledge, and while I don't know why that may have happened, please know that you will be able to add those missing items to your pledge in BackerKit, so don't worry- you won't miss out! 

And on that topic...

BackerKit

The next step is now for me is to set up the BackerKit pledge manager for this campaign. It's basically a matter of transferring the Kickstarter backer information over to that platform and I'll also need to build the product list with images, pricing, shipping rules, etc. 

The entire process usually takes about three weeks, so in about that time you should be receiving an email invitation to your personal BackerKit profile where you'll be able to add your shipping address as well as having the option to add additional items. The funds that you've pledged here in Kickstarter will be transferred over to your BackerKit as well as all of the items. Remember that while you can adjust your pledge tier level, the Kickstarter credit is committed to the project at this point, so you can only add to that total, but not subtract. Some items such as the postcards and calendars, will only be available to add for a very limited time since they ship in December. And while I don't have a lockdown date yet for when the BackerKit items will be charged, it will probably be in February of 2022, similar to the Ceratopsian lockdown. That way , it will allow plenty of time for everyone to decide on what they want well after the prototypes are finished and the additional charges will not impact your holiday spending. 

There will be more info on the BackerKit as it gets closer to being ready.  

Potential BackerKit additions?

So we have well exceeded our stretch goal minimum of $530K, does this mean there will be additional items in BackerKit? Well, it's very possible, but it may take some time before you see something new pop up. Anything that I offer in addition to the funded items will need to be researched, budgeted for,  and created, but I think the three new items that are most likely are: baby Ceratopsians, baby Tyrannosaurs, and extra prey accessory inclusions for the smaller Body 1 figures (which could simply be included with the figures). None of this is confirmed, but those are the three that I'm currently considering the most right now. There's also a chance we'll see more Glow-in-the-Dark variants at some point, and while Fans Choice Tyrannosaurs and Ceratopsians are still possibilities,  I haven't decided yet where those would fit in. I'll be sure to let you all know as soon as any new items become available.

My new interview with Jurassic Outpost

Here's a new interview that I did with Jurassic Outpost which was just posted this morning. Again, I'm going on about dinosaurs and action figures like I tend to do, but I think it turned out pretty well! 

Dryptosaurus WIP paint

I'd mentioned in a recent update that I was beginning the paintwork for Dryptosaurus soon, and while I still have several more hours to put into this, I though you all might like to see the progress so far.

 Now that the campaign is over, I'll be able to devote more time to finishing these prototypes and I'm really looking forward to it! You may not see me posting as much on social media for the next week or so, but you can be sure I'm over here painting and sculpting the remaining Tyrannosaurs.

Cyberzoic tease

Now that the campaign has concluded, I thought some of you might be interested to know what dinosaur was shown in that Cyberzoic teaser image. Well, it was none other than the aforementioned Dryptosaurus! This figure is planned to show up again in Cyberzoic, and here's an early concept art rendering for that figure courtesy of Ross Persichetti.

We're only in the early design stages so far with Cyberzoic, so there's no release date yet for any figures in this line, but it's really great to see it taking shape. Keep an eye on my social media for more updates on Cyberzoic in the coming months!

So thus concludes another chapter of the Beasts of the Mesozoic Kickstarter history. As always, I'll be showing you progress for this line every step of the way and will continue to update you on the prototype progress, BackerKit, and all that is to follow with production. 

And for those Ceratopsian wave 3  backers- I haven't forgotten about you! I'll be posting a new Ceratopsian Series update soon with all of the latest details and developments. 

And if you're waiting to hear back from me right now, please know that I'm still getting caught up on my messages and emails so please be patient and I'll follow up with you as soon as possible.

It's been a crazy past few weeks and now I need to find a way to calm down a bit. Lucky for me there's plenty of painting to be done. :)

Take care everyone and thank you again. I'll talk to you all soon!

-David

Albertosaurus sarcophagus is UNLOCKED! ALL STRETCH GOALS ARE FUNDED!!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 02:16:53 AM

As we continue to wind down the final day of the Tyrannosaur Series campaign, we have indeed unlocked the final stretch goal- Albertosaurus sarcophagus! Congratulations to all of the backers for the huge support and unlocking all 18 stretch goals!

As with all of the stretch goals, this figure can now be selected from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge.  Add-on price: $117(US)/ $122 (INT)

 The Albertosaurus figure measures 20"/ 51cm in length and features 22 points of articulation, three sets of alternate feet, base, interchangeable standing lower legs, and a bendable tail end.

The preliminary paintwork for this one was done by Shane Foulkes and naturally did an amazing job laying down the initial colors for the final look. The lighting is a bit yellow here, but in-hand the green was more noticeable. Believe it or not, I pretty much used all the same colors to finish it, but just slightly more green.

 So for some comparisons, here's the Albertosaurus with it's close relative, Gorgosaurus.

 And here it is with some potential prey, err... ceratopsians.

 And with the adult Tyrannosaur rex.

 And of course, 'human' scale.

 I'd definitely meant to post this update sooner today, but the photography ended up taking longer than expected. It's very hard work... no fun at all. Really...  

Anyway, you can view the full gallery here.

Sculpting

 The Albertosaurus head was beautifully sculpted by Jake Baardse. This may be my favorite head sculpt of the line and that's saying a lot.

 Part separation for the head as well as printing was handled by Raul Ramos. Seen here with the thicker Tarbosaurus neck, it has since been revised and the final version will resemble the painted prototype. 

 And of course, this figure shares the Body 4, originally sculpted by Raul.

 I also want to give a big 'Thank You' to my mold maker, Jeremy Monz, for all of the excellent work he's done throughout this series with molding and casting the countless number of parts for these figures.

Package Art

 One of the standout illustrations of the line must be this action-packed piece by Raph Lomotan. Not only is it very dynamic, but also incorporates the BotM Pachyrhinosaurus and... lightning! Because why not? I do love a good thunderstorm.

 This package art is another to be included in the Postcard set #3 add-on. 

Will there be any more stretch goals?

The short answer- no, but I should elaborate. I've had time to give this a lot of thought and while we've managed to come up with some great ideas, I wouldn't want to offer anything else at this time without it being thought out and well-researched. Keep in mind that the 18 stretch goals that we've unlocked have been two years in the making so I feel pretty good about offering those. And we simply don't have enough time to do a proper Fans Choice vote either. But as many of you know, I tend to add things here and there to the BackerKit pre-order store sometimes so don't be surprised if you see something new pop up early next year. I think that baby ceratopsians and tyrannosaurs are great ideas, as well as Fans Choice recolors of some of these newly-funded figures. But the fact remains that I'm still behind on the current prototypes so my priority right now is to finish painting and sculpting the figures that aren't done yet. But don't worry, any overfunding here can only help with offering a few new items later on without Kickstarter. 

So with that we go into the final hours of the Tyrannosaur Series Kickstarter campaign. It's very exciting to have everything funded well before the end and like you all, I can't wait to see all of these finished prototypes. How well can we do here? It'll be fun to see, but I think I'll go do some painting now.

Have a great night everyone and thank you all again for the amazing support!

-David