A Studio Bad Egg fan-made tribute to Amphibia, Gravity Falls, and The Owl House
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Wed Apr 30 '25 Announcement
11 months ago
– Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 02:19:31 PM
Hi guys!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so (we wish we had), the trade situation between China and the USA is continuing to worsen and - frankly - get a lot more confusing.
In order to get some sense of security, we’re going to have to hold off manufacturing figures until numbers stabilise - in the past four weeks alone, we’ve seen at least four different numbers bartered around regarding tariffs, and when the difference could be well over $100,000 in extra costs, it hits hard! We’re going to stave off of placing the order until we’re absolutely certain of our position. We expect to finally get the machines booted up in mid-May and get to production at full pelt by then.
With this in mind, you’re probably not going to receive your BYEEE campaign orders until the end of the year - most likely November/December time.
We’ll try and make it faster - we promise! - but we have to be cautious and to protect ourselves as much as we’re trying to protect you guys. It stinks, we know. We totally get it. But it’s the way of the world!
We’re sticking to our commitment - we aren’t going to charge you guys extra cash for a situation none of us could have really planned for - but we do need to keep ourselves as secure and comfortable as we possibly can when situations outside of our control just keep on happening.
We’ll be honest, it’s a big ouch, and a pretty painful pill to swallow - but we’re sticking by our decision to get our collectables made and will make sure all of our friends (that’s you guys!) won’t have to shell out en masse because some politicians got their panties in a twist.
The long and short of it is that once the BYEEE campaign (and our recent A-Ford-A-Bill campaign) have been ordered in, we won’t be doing toys for a good, long while. You might see Studio Bad Egg produce some really cool pins, jewellery and accessories, but big investments like toys just aren’t feasible in this climate.
But we’re still working…
In case you guys are worried about our commitment, we’re still shelling out cash for samples, tariffs be damned, because we want to make sure the collectables are ready to be made as soon as we can get the all-clear.
As a result, the latest sample of Ford - with moulding corrections, colour corrections and some tinkering with the tech - is currently on its way, and should be ready for you to see soon. We’re really excited to see how The Traveller is turning out, and we expect the second samples of our other figures to follow.
So stay tuned - it isn’t all doom and gloom, and we haven’t put anything down - we’re still bringing the BYEEE campaign to life in response to your feedback, and it’s all looking incredible!
Wait, Jam! I want to help!
We totally don’t expect you to - please don’t feel obliged - but if you feel like you want to help contribute to potentially paying off six figures worth of tariff fees, we’re going to be launching a 5th anniversary pin campaign on our website.
This is going to include Gravity Falls, Amphibia and Owl House pins - along with some really neat Studio Ghibli stuff. Preorders will be open for a month, and includes some items that we originally planned for the BYEEE campaign before we completed the product lineup.
We’re really excited to bring some stained glass pins and our largest pin EVER to the store, and we hope that you’ll be willing to buy a pin or two if you’re able to do so. If we can sell a decent number of these, we’ll be back in the green and will be able to distribute the profit to our other campaigns, and stabilise ourselves for the coming year.
It won’t speed up production or anything, but will help lessen the huge blow we’re experiencing this year.
Again, please don’t stress out guys - we’re working, we’re committed and we are getting things done. It’s just taking us a while. At the very least, you’ll have lots of lovely things waiting for you
after what - no doubt - is going to shape up into one hell of a weird year.
Love,
Grunkle Jam, Richmond, and everyone at Studio Bad Egg HQ
Tue Mar 18 '25 Announcement
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 18, 2025 at 07:22:13 AM
Hi everybody!
We’re still hard at work on the BYEEE campaign behind the scenes, and unfortunately, it isn’t all good news this time around. Let’s get to the big announcement first and foremost:
Shipping delay
Sadly, while we were running ahead of schedule, the political situation between our suppliers and the United States have changed. As you’ll be well aware, tariffs have recently been announced by the US government on international trade, particularly with China.
As we’d hope you’re all aware, these are costs that negatively impact any kind of manufacturing and dispatch between countries, and have to be absorbed by somebody in the supply chain. In most cases, this would apply to you - the consumer - which is partially why so many costs in the USA are skyrocketing as of late.
Unfortunately, this is also effecting our relationship with our suppliers.
Following the Lunar New Year, our manufacturers opted to hang fire until the tariff announcement - and then, just this week, gave us a new invoice that involved nearly doubling the unit prices of our figures. This would make the collection no longer viable for us to manufacture, and - let’s face it - doesn’t make a lick of sense when push comes to shove, even with the new costs in mind.
Obviously, our main priority is getting the collection made and shipped out, so we’re currently at the negotiation table arguing our case. In the meantime, it means that our figures are now running two months behind schedule and still aren’t in full production.
As a result, the BYEEE Campaign is experiencing a delay and will not hit its July shipment date.
We know this is hugely disappointing, but this is something completely out of our control and being experienced by many SMEs across the USA. Our main priority is still getting things manufactured, and we guarantee that you’ll still receive your items - but until we can get an agreement on the table, we won’t be able to get those machines running.
We’re hoping to have a concrete shipment period for you in our next update - but we’d rather inform you early and give full transparency as to why.
(As an aside, please don't use the comments section for a political debate. We're here for funny cartoon characters, not arguing about what goes on in The White House. This is just the reality of the world now. It sucks, but hey ho.)
Frobo Refunds
These should have all been processed. If you haven’t received your Frobo refund, please let us know - any stragglers will be refunded via paypal (so we aren’t handling your bank information), so simply pop an email to [email protected] with your paypal address and we’ll get right on it. We really appreciate you guys’ patience with this - IndieGoGo doesn’t allow partial refunds (because it’s an immensely broken, stupid website) so we’ve had to go through this manually. It’s been painfully slow but we’re pretty sure we’ve got all of you now.
If you don’t have a paypal account, please do set one up for this refund. We don’t want to handle any bank information insecurely and we presume the cost of Frobo is worth the effort - you can always close it after you’ve received your cash and withdrawn it.
Pins and Keychains
These are all manufactured, happy as Larry - thankfully having been finished before the tariffs came into play. These are all fully secured and undergoing final quality checks before arriving in CA - which kind of proves just how irritating this is. If it wasn’t for the figure issue, we’re convinced we’d have dispatched earlier than expected.
A lot of folks will probably ask, and the long and short of it is that no, we can’t dispatch the pins and keyrings early - as much as we’d like to. When a big campaign like this ships out, it’s done so in bulk to not only reduce the chance of mistakes but to keep your packages secure and our processes as simple as possible.
We sadly can’t split manifests reliably and IndieGoGo/Backerkit is set up in a way to only really process labels en-masse, rather than individually. As a result, even if you’ve not ordered a figure, we’re sorry to say you’ll still be subject to the same delay. We’re really sorry.
Address Changes
We understand that this delayed shipping date may mean you require a different address for shipment, and that’s absolutely fine - we’re happy to organise this for you. If you require an address change, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll get this sorted.
I’m expecting to get access to Backerkit’s systems soon which will enable me to ply through them manually - if you’ve sent in an address change and not received a reply, rest assured I’ve got it on file.
Help Email
Remember, Studio Bad Egg is now operating via the email address mentioned above. I man this myself and will generally respond to you in less than 3 working days (unless I need to investigate something) - this is the easiest way to get issues sorted. Unfortunately any emails to the old address are not likely to be answered, purely as the inbox is full of spam.
That’s [email protected] - please don’t hesitate to reach out, I promise I’m a friendly chap :)
And Finally…
We want to thank you all very sincerely for your patience and understanding during what, to be honest, is a very troubling time to be a small business that relies on overseas partners. We will never demand more money from you and we’re dedicated to not letting you down - you will receive your items whether by hook or by crook, they’ll just be a little late.
We hope to have good news soon, and be able to start cracking on with all of your suggested improvements to our figure samples. Stay tuned!
Wed Jan 22 '25 Announcement
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Jan 22, 2025 at 06:08:54 PM
Hey guys,
Thanks so much for your patience while we were evacuated during the ongoing fires. Things are still a little touch and go, but we’re back at SBE HQ for now to make sure work can continue on the campaign!
You’ll be pleased to know we’re positively flying at the moment. Lunar New Year is now coming upon us, and we’re very eager to give our overseas partners their time to rest - so we’ve been working hard to make sure we get base samples of our main products as quickly as we can.
Remember, you’ve still got two days left to preorder something from our Backerkit store, just in case this convinces you to pick something up - I wouldn’t blame you. It’s all looking so beautiful it might as well be a gold chain.
…Sorry, I think my Grunkle side was showing there.
Anyway! Let’s get stuck into the latest arrivals.
First off, batten down the hatches and get all easily-scythable objects out of the damned way, as Darcy’s sample has finally arrived! We think they look absolutely incredible, though a few changes are still necessary - namely that we want the purple to be a bit darker and a couple of fine details to be perfected. Huge thanks to the legendary Maodoodles for offering a couple of suggestions!
Of course, for every shadow of darkness, there’s a beam of light, and we were incredibly happy to see Marcy arrive at the same time. This figure really makes us smile, and we’re so proud of her - we don’t see anything we wanna change, but let us know if you have something!
McGucket has also arrived, looking suitably dynamic and screamy. And boy, has racoon-wife brushed her fur for this? She looks spectacular! We’re super, super pleased with how Fiddleford has shaped up. He’s proven extraordinarily popular, which is super cool. You guys clearly love a good Hillbilly. I think that makes more sense than those with triangle fixations, but hey, who am I to judge? Merely a simple Grunkle. A simple Grunkle Jam.
It’s all very much shaping up to expectation, which we’re super happy to see! But things always carry a little trouble here and there, and when that happens, we have to consult the drawing board.
Perhaps the biggest change from our original plans is The Bill of Evils, who’s proven rather challenging to finalise. We went through a few iterations of this fella, and unfortunately the resin centre proved particularly troublesome. Not only was it way heavier than we expected, but hard to really get the floating effect we were hoping for.
Our big-brained manufacturers started experimenting with ideas, and came up with this baby - a sort of Bill Cipher Matryoshka doll, involving a take-apart-sarcophagus, a transparent membrane shell and a magnetised fleshy Bill centre. It’s like a ferrero rocher but evil and demonic. How could you say no?
We think we prefer this endlessly to the resin idea, not least as it means you can now take Bill out and throw him across the room. Or treat him like a goldfish. I won’t judge.
(I will judge, and judge fiercely.)
We look forward to hearing your thoughts!
As ever, any Backerkit issues should be sent to support(at)backerkit(dot)com
And any StudioBadEgg specific issues should go to contact(at)studiobadegg(dot)com
Love,
Grunkle Jam, Richmond and everybody at Studio Bad Egg
Sun Jan 12 '25 Announcement
about 1 year ago
– Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 08:51:58 AM
Hello, hello!
It’s been a very troublesome couple of weeks - though not for campaign reasons. As many of you know, Studio Bad Egg is based in LA. Unfortunately, that means we were ordered to evacuate during the current swathe of wildfires striking Tinseltown.
All of our samples are safe, as are we - but much of our equipment is back at home, which we’ve had to leave behind. Of course, none of our manufacturers are LA-based (imagine how expensive they’d be!) and production is still unabated, but you might find us going a little quiet on socials while we process what’s happening back in LA.
We’re considering ourselves very lucky - but the upheaval of leaving our home behind, and seeing our friends and loved ones so severely impacted has been painful, to say the least, and is naturally at the forefront of our minds.
Long story short, your orders are safe, and we’re safe, but things might slow for a little while in the interim.
All the best,
Richmond, Susa, Grunkle Jam and everybody at Cipher Cult HQ
Fri Jan 3 '25 Announcement
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 03, 2025 at 12:39:10 PM
Happy New Year, everybody! We’ve had a busy festive season at Studio Bad Egg HQ, where we’ve been positively hammering away getting your collectables manufactured and our designs finalised. As we kind of expected, it’s all proven very expensive, but we’re getting through it all very efficiently. We’re super excited about our progress, and we hope you will be too - even if it’s not all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops (as Mabel tries to enforce with an IRON FIST.)
Pins pins pins!
You want pins? We’ve got - uh -
We’ve got a lot of pins. In particular, we've almost got our full pyra-pin set assembled, including the legendary creator pin.
We’re still working on some hiccups here and there - note Sasha’s pupil on the Amphibia pin - but this is completely natural for designs with so much intricate detail. Progress is being made at an extraordinary pace, and we’re pretty confident that we’ll soon be buried under an avalanche of pin badges and keychains.
That’s not all, of course - we’ve finalised the design for our pin backing cards, too, which we’re sure you’ll agree is exactly the vibe. A 10/10 vibe. The Pyra-pin set will of course have a dedicated box that we're working on. Stay tuned for that!
A Farewell to Frobo
Sadly, our biggest announcement of the day is our sorry need to rationalise.
Sometimes, running a campaign can be deceptively expensive - especially when you’re dealing with big, big items like the ever-complex, ever-detailed Frobo. When we first introduced his design, we were super excited, and just presumed we had enough money to absorb the inevitable cost-to-sale ratio that made up his fabulous being.
Sadly, after our amazing manufacturers assembled a (beautiful) sample and started pricing full production costs, Frobo came very close to breaching six digits. That set him as the most expensive Studio Bad Egg collectable in history - yes, even more than Ford with his fabulous lights and infinity mirror.
For those who need a little more definitive calculation - we’d have needed to sell 300 of Frobo to break even. As you can imagine, he didn’t quite manage to meet that - in fact, our remarkable robot (and his glorious Soos car) hasn’t yet hit 100 sales, despite two Backerkit extensions. With over 65 individual components and 75 different colours, it was simply too expensive for us to absorb the cost, as we’ve done with items in the past.
As a result, we’ve made the sorry decision to cancel him from the campaign and refund all buyers accordingly. We know this is super disappointing, and we couldn’t be more upset - between you guys and I, he was one of our all-time favourites. But that’s the game, and an important lesson for our ambitious toy-creating minds. We’re truly sorry for any disappointment - hope you can all understand and that you can at least buy yourself something just as beautiful to make up for the loss. Trust me, we’re really sad too. We loved that guy.
In brighter news…
Sampling is currently underway (and making excellent progress) on Darcy and the Bill of Evils, which are once again running ahead of time. We’re largely focusing on the sarcophagus design for the Bill of Evils so it suits our vision - splitting a shell isn’t as easy as it appears! But we’re confident it’ll not provide any major hurdles.
After this, Marcy, Sasha and McGucket will be underway, and hopefully finished before the end of the month. We’re not foreseeing any substantial issues with this phase of sampling, and as we continue to streamline the campaign and work out feasibilities, everything is still looking very positive and being proactively developed.
All of this is progress - big progress. We’re still fully on track to get things at our HQ on time and in ship-shape fashion, which we’re sure you’ll agree is the best possible fashion to be in. Y’know, tri-corn hats and epaulettes and all that.
GET YOUR SURVEYS IN!
Don’t forget that Backerkit comes to an end on January the 24th 2025. You need to get your surveys in ASAP if you’ve pledged on IndieGoGo, or your order will remain in limbo, unable to be fulfilled. This is a system to help us confirm you have everything you want, to lock in addresses and ensure our stock is properly allocated.
It also means that if you want to add something extra, you’ve got the opportunity to do so. If you can’t find your survey, just click here:
