Kickstarter

Greetings from London, England, where we're participating in the Google Zeitgeist conference!

That's cool, but not as cool as the news we have for you! Many of you have asked, and we are pleased to announce that we are going to deliver... EXTRA PLASTIC!

But before we do, we'd love to get an idea of what you want in addition to your current plastics: Extra amounts of the standard colours? A mini-pack of Glow in the Dark? Or a range of Fantastic Fluorescents?

To help us decide we've set up a Facebook survey for you here.

We'll be looking at the number of votes, comments and creative suggestions in order to decide which will win out. But no matter what this means more plastic for everyone!

To answer some general questions you may have...
> Currently $50 backers are getting 10 strands of plastic: Green, Yellow, Blue, Red and Black. x2 strands of each.
> $75 backers are getting 20 strands of plastic: Green, Yellow, Blue, Red and Black. x4 strands of each.
> $99 backers and above are getting 100 strands of plastic: Green, Yellow, Blue, Red, Black, White, Purple, Silver, Light Blue, and Brown. x10 strands of each.
> Unfortunately you cannot choose which colours you get. Logistically-speaking that would be very tough for us to handle.
> Additional plastic will be available on our e-store in the coming months. Watch this space!
> Is that it? No. We are also working hard on a series of stencils and projects for you, as well as a fully fledged community site packed full of handy resources.

Thanks!

The 3Doodler Team

p.s. check out the amazing Glowing Eiffel Tower created by Marzia Niccolai (one of our backers) at Google Zeitgeist yesterday!

Thanks to everyone who has completed their survey for the Hall of Fame, ABS/PLA choice, and delivery details. We've had an amazing response rate!

A quick reminder for those of you who have not completed the survey yet. Please do so by midnight on Sunday 12th May 2013 EST. If your survey is not completed by that time we'll be putting you down for our default plastic choice, which is ABS, and your name will appear on the Hall of Fame as per your Kickstarter account name. 

Why the deadline? We have to finalize the plastic order in the coming weeks so that we can ensure it ships with your 3Doodler! :)

As previously mentioned, we'll be back in touch closer to shipping (via an external platform) to confirm your delivery details. And for any of you who need international shipping but accidentally selected domestic, we'll be in touch within the next two months with a payment channel for processing those shipping upgrades.

If you have had any technical issues with your survey please contact support@kickstarter.com and they will be happy to help out.

Thanks!

The 3Doodler Team

It's time to talk plastic! 

As you may have noticed when you first backed us, your 3Doodler comes with a bunch of plastic "ink". You have a choice between ABS and PLA, and many of you have asked us what the difference is, which we prefer and which you should choose. The team has been toiling away and we are now pleased to release our ABS vs PLA Infographic.

To reiterate some of the key points made in the infographic:

• We love using ABS for 3Doodling from stencils (like our Eiffel Tower), making bendable items (like jewellery), for spirals, and for drawing directly upwards off the page

• We love using PLA for 3Doodling on windows, metal and an array of other surfaces (because it sticks a lot better), and for those lovely translucent 3Doodles

Our overall verdict is as follows:

• We genuinely like using both plastics, but for different purposes. We've made great things with each, but at the end of the day it depends on the use, look and feel you are going for

• From what we have seen so far most people starting out with the 3Doodler like to 3Doodle upwards, make things that are strong yet bendable, and create easy to peel stencils, so if you are new to plastics and want maximum versatility at the outset, we suggest you start with ABS and experiment with PLA later on (but please do give it a try, as they are both great materials in their own unique ways)

Please feel free to send us any comments or questions. This is the first draft of the infographic and we plan to update it with any know-how that comes our way from the 3Doodler community.

Next Steps

This time next week we'll be releasing a survey to all backers of a 3Doodler pen asking you to choose between ABS & PLA. At the same time we'll be collecting Hall of Fame names (those of you who have had a survey on this already, we have yours!), and we'll be asking for your shipping address (don't worry, we'll ask again before we actually ship).

You will have exactly two weeks to complete the survey, following which plastic orders will be set. As mentioned before, we can't do mixed sets of ABS and PLA, and in addition to the wide array of plastic sources available to you, we will be offering 3Doodler plastic strands for purchase on the 3Doodler e-commerce store in due course.

Thank you!

The 3Doodler Team

We're thrilled to announce the opening of our pre-order e-commerce store at the3Doodler.com, powered by our friends at Celery.

For anyone who missed the Kickstarter for whatever reason, or who wants to go head to head with their non-backer friends, you can now pre-order a 3Doodler + 10-color plastic pack for $99.

These pens will be shipping as soon as we have completed all Kickstarter orders from February 2014 onwards, and will be accompanied by x10 awesome packets of plastic, each a different color. As per our Kickstarter orders, each bag will have x10 strands of 3Doodler filament (ABS or PLA). That's 100 strands in total.

A quick shout out to the team at Celery (who also happen to be Kickstarter grads). They built their platform with the maker community, and the need for pre-ordering in mind. The system we are using allows our customers to pre-order and pay for their 3Doodlers, ensuring their place in line, and then charge for extras, such as shipping + taxes at a later point in time. Deferring things like that, while we focus on production and getting you the best shipping rates was really important to us. Thanks guys, your support has been great!

And now for a few rules of the road:

• We will not be able to bundle Kickstarter orders and Website pre-orders together.
• Website orders will be filled on a "first ordered first served" basis.
• Orders via our online sales platform will be limited to x10 3Doodlers per order.
• When ordering you will have to select between ABS & PLA plastic "ink". We cannot do mixes or take special color orders.
• Additional plastic will be available at a later date. Please sign up to our newsletter at the3doodler.com and watch this space.
• As mentioned above, shipping + taxes will be charged at a later point in time and you will be given the chance to cancel your order if you don't like the look of those charges.
• If we see the same people ordering an excessive number of times with the intent to wholesale or block others from ordering, we reserve the right to cancel orders (at our discretion).

Thanks again everyone!

The 3Doodler Team

35 days ago, after months of preparation, we launched the 3Doodler on Kickstarter. We can't thank you enough for supporting us and making the 3Doodler a reality.

We also want to thank our partner artists for joining us well before the madness started. Bud, Ruth, Ele, Ecco, Nakisha - we can't wait to see the 3Doodles and stencils you create.

Kaila, Mark, we're sure it was the music that did it!

And a big shout out to the Artisan's Asylum for housing us over the past two years. Without your space and support we wouldn't be here.

In the coming days/weeks/months we'll be sending out the following surveys, so please keep your eyes peeled:

• Hall of Fame survey. Some of you have said you want to dedicate your spot to someone else or not be listed at all - we'll be in touch to ensure the right names appear.

• ABS or PLA? We'll be sending out a plastics comparison and a survey asking which of the two you would prefer with your 3Doodler. As mentioned we will not be shipping mixed bags/sets of ABS/PLA.

• Shipping addresses: we'll be in touch before we ship your 3Doodler to obtain your latest delivery address, so please don't worry if you are moving or if your Amazon account is tied to a different address.

And now for some fun stats:

• $2,344,134 raised from 26,457 backers (7813% funded)
• Over 25,000 3Doodlers to be produced, as well as 120 artist's 3Doodles
• 1.5m Kickstarter Video plays and 3.6m+ YouTube views
• Approximately 61% of our backers are from the USA, with a whopping 39% being international
• Kickstarter's longest ever FAQ (we think), weighing in at 51 Questions to date!
• The most number of hours worked by the 3Doodler team with no sleep: 50
• And the first collection of public 3Doodler stencils received from backers. Please keep them coming so we can feature them on our community site once it's up!

If you have any other good facts or stats for us please send them over!

Finally, a few of you have been messaging us about earlier reward levels and payment processing/order issues:

Earlier Reward Levels: Q: What will happen with the earlier backing levels where spaces opened up before the Kickstarter closed? A: We'll be filling these earlier slots (there appear to be five) with backers from later groups, but on a "first backed first served" basis (all pledges are time-stamped).

Payment Processing/Order Issues: Q: I got an email from Amazon saying my payment failed / I thought I had cancelled by pledge. A: We have very little control over the payment processing system, so if you need to change your payment details or there is some kind of payment error, please get in touch with Amazon. For other issues with the backing system, such as cancelled pledges, unintended multiple pledges, etc. please drop Kickstarter a line. For anything else let us know and we'll do our best to help you where we can!

Thank you!

The 3Doodler Team