Kickstarter

Swiftpaw is one of the most popular creatures in my online comic, Alien Dice.  He's a skittish little fox with a pleasing nature about him.  He's not much of a willing combatant in the game and would rather be getting into trouble with his best friend, Drift, a round pudgy owl griffin. 

Swift's probably among the most cuddly of the Lexx's dice and also the friendliest.

And thus, I thought he would be the best subject for the first toy I'm getting made myself.  He's going to be 9-10 inches in size and a nice soft plush toy.  I've already designed him and the next step is getting the prototype made and then putting them into production. I am going through Gann Memorials -

http://www.gannmemorials.com/

Through this Kickstarter you can get Swiftpaw for $15 + shipping.  After the Kickstarter, he will be $20.

This kickstarter is to cover the cost of producing a prototype, producing a batch of 500 toys, paying the taxes and other fees on the money raised, buying the polymailers and shipping them. 

Here is the breakdown:

$5,000 for toy production including a $500 prototype fee.

$1,667.00 for postage (needing 334 people to participate.)

$150 for handling, envelopes, labels, ink etc packaging costs

$668 for fees

$1,000 for taxes

 Total: 5,000  + 1,667 = 6,667 + 150 + 668 + 1,000 = 8,485 Round up to 9K to be safe.  It's already past 8K, so might as well push it to 9K.  Why?  My quote is only good for 30 days, which means it may be more or it may be a little more or a little less so I want to be safe. (Edit: 8/25 - I realized now why I rounded up, something in the back of my mind that didn't come up that.. uhh... you are only figuring in local shipping charges, but that should cover the international buyers. :)

I am keeping this one simple for the moment, but will likely add a few Swiftpaw related items as the month goes along.  I don't want to add to the amount needed if I can avoid it and extras do add to that.

Edit 8/26:  Because I don't want to add to the base amount, one of the additional rewards you will have access to is a short Swiftpaw Origins story, which will begin updating in a week.  I would have it updating now, but I have a 9 year old... and she's pesty.  School begins tomorrow and I will have my full work time again!

Within the next week, I will get up the additional items a few at a time.

If the Kickstarter goes beyond that amount, what happens to the extra?  Well... I may add a surprise item to go out with Swiftpaw since it will be 90-120 days before he will arrive to where I am AFTER I approve the prototype, which I will show off when I'm happy with him.  I'm not saying what it is right now, but it will be artistic. :D  I will post updates frequently as I have news.

As for anything else, it's going to pay off my daughter's hospital bills. (We just lucked out in her not needing another heart surgery this year. :D  Yes... that is lucky when she's already had three.)  So anything above will go to a very good cause, but the primary reason for this Kickstarter IS getting Swiftpaw produced, not paying bills. 

- Tiffany Ross

PS  My daughter, she's 9, has promised to be good for a WHOLE week to get one of these.  I'm not sure what she means by that.  She's pretty good all the time. :D