ESC Beko

The ESC-Toy Experience

[escbeko]

Join the Live Stream for some special treats and more!

twitch.tv/esctoycom

[escbeko]

Company I work for ESC-Toy will be doing a Twitch Stream today starting at 2pm. 

We will be showcasing the Uncharted 4 DLC for Multiplayer. Check us out at https://go.twitch.tv/esctoycom

[escbeko]

Hey guys.

First of all, sorry for the time of absence. I spent a crazy quarter preparing for my graduation and portfolio show. For those of you who might not know, our portfolio show is where we showcase ourselves as artists for prospecting employers. Though I wont bore too much with those details.

Since 4th quarter started its been a steady regime at ESC that I’m trying to get used to. I’ve been told that this is the first time the company has ever gotten this many releases one after another. Least to say, that’s the reason things have been kind of crazy at the office. That and the fact that the papa and mama crow just had a little baby bird. Congrats to them! ^_^

With that all aside, I would like to catch everything up to date.

Klei’s Don’t Starve made two new releases recently. Both of which I took the photos for. The office is located in Las Vegas so finding lavish locations can be kind of tricky in a desert. I screamed frantically when the massive shipment of these new releases came into the office. I wanted ever so much to rip open a box of Mandrakes and jump in them as they all sang to me but I maintained composure. What’s exciting though is the DLC that comes with the plush. I’ve played with both the Meepsak and the Glommer backpack and both are super cute. Make sure you guys check them out because I’m sure there is more to come from Klei’s side.

Speaking of DLCs, ESC-Toy is also doing Pre-orders for their Uncharted 4 Nathen Drake figure. This guy was pretty sweet to take photos of. He has 15 points of articulation and a functional grappling hook. It was really fun hanging this guy from many different places around the office. What I’m really excited about though is the DLC skin that is bundled with it.

Another Pre-order that is up on the ESC-Toy Store is the Bloodborne figures. These guys are so cute. I kind of want the Doll figure myself.

Last but not least! My two most exciting news. Hatoful Boyfriend!

As many of you may already have seen. The Shuu Poncho that I designed went up on the store on Halloween night. I had been dying to see them hit the store so I could talk about them. It took a while to get the hood right and make sure the scallops were perfect. They are made of some super soft materials and you can sleep comfortably in them or flap your wings about gleefully in these ponchos. More bird styles solely depend on how popular the idea of bird ponchos are as with most things in merchandise.

The hoods were made super deep so birdies can be creepers about it and playfully be the bird. One of our interns took that very literally and got carried away with her wing flapping.

It was a beautiful thing...

MOVING ON!

Everyone must be SUPER excited! As of November 3rd, 9:00 pm (Lives in Nevada) the HATOFUL BOYFRIEND SECOND SEMESTER PLUSH PROJECT went live! 

I was busy watching my fill of Leverage when it went up and since this is my first Kickstarter at ESC in which I was present from the very beginning, I was more than enthused. As someone who was working on assets for the campaign, it brought tears to my eyes to see it all come together.   Within the very first hour, all the Little King rewards were gone. WOWIE!

There are two places to punch in your pledges. The first being the all familiar Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/731983185/hatoful-boyfriend-2nd-semester-plush-project/description

The second location is at PreOrderEvents:

http://hb2plush.limitedrun.com/

Be sure to check them both out and snag a bird or two.

[escbeko]

Big news! For those of you who are big fans of the Hotline Miami franchise and were also hardcore backers of the previous figure released by ESC; the Kickstarter for The Swan Twins has just launched! A lot of work went into these two and I have been edging on my seat for this to kick off. Some of my intern work went into this as well as the new interns so I think we are all eager to see this campaign through. Be sure to check it out!

Speaking of Kickstarters, a super big congratulations to Floraverse for making it up and over their projected goal! The last few days were a little nerve wracking inching towards the goal but once the stretch goals were added on, it was as if the flood gates blew open. I was so happy for Glip I couldn’t stop squealing with her when she came into the office. I swatched out the two additional dolls and helped her with some revisions she wanted done to the first set.  In other news, I have been working hard bouncing back and forth between the multiple different projects as well as hashing out merchandise for the Hatoful Boyfriend shop. We had a very long discussion over some merchandise that I’m overseeing and the production of it. Let’s just say that I am very meticulous about the quality and hope it will be appreciated for it once it’s finally released. Other than that, I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks about this campaign or future campaigns they would like to see. I have been getting messages over some ideas that you guys would like to see and while I don’t feel it appropriate for me to respond about future merchandise productions, I would like all of you to know that I do take each and every message into consideration and would love to hear more. 

[esctoydotcom]

Very awesome #handmade #hatofulboyfriend #ryuuji #slippers by our #esctoys #staff

[escbeko]

Made these mock ups to try and pitch the idea to Erick. What do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Ryouji is the father you wish you had? I’m going to be straight with you guys; I’m not a fan of crazy killer Shuu but Ryuuji X Isa gives me all the feels for both birds. (And I mean that in terms of mentor/student relation... not Oh Ho Ho! relation)

[escbeko]

Had multiple meetings today over future projects. Some known and some not yet known. We all pow-wowed in my office and had Teacher Voltron do a breakdown of some assets for a future project. We were debating whether we liked Pixel Art or Line Art. Least to say, the room was pretty divided on the topic. It’s something that will have to be hashed out further as time moves along. For those wondering, I was on the side of...

So yesterday was my birthday! Erick and Shirley were splendid enough to patch together a lovely lunch. I was so focused on vectoring an artwork that it slipped my mind that it was nearly 3 and my office-mate had yet to inform me that they were going to lunch. This was when the continuous fumbling noises in the lobby became noticeable to me. It was a very wonderful surprise to come out to as well as some of the gifts that came home with me. <3<3<3  Vastly grateful for these guys for being so sweet!

Hopping back to today’s events, we were visited by someone special.  Exty came by for a visit! I’m going to be honest, for someone who doesn’t work in house, I’ve been working with a lot of their art on the job which caused me to develop an artist crush on him so I was more than a jumping jellybean about meeting him.  My first thought was, “HOLY THE CRAP, YES! HE IS WEARING A DIGIMON SHIRT!” (Everyone at my school aren’t into Digimon except for me.) Geeking out aside, I was too shy to make any direct contact with him the entire day but did suggest a staff photo since he was only going to be in town for today.

[escbeko]

Catching back onto Hato News...

Fulfillment was completed over a week ago and things are slowly but surely getting back into paces. We had our fulfillment completion luncheon over ramen and briefed over the coming projects. One of which has now become publicly known to many of you.

That’s right, I’ve been sitting on the egg of the Hatoful Boyfriend Shop and now I can finally talk about it! The shop was released on the 5th mere minutes before leaving the office and within the hour I was given the notifications of over 70 orders. For many, this gives a chance to purchase birdies missed from the campaign. Ultimately though, this should also give the very strong hint that there is more to come. 

http://hatofulshop.limitedrun.com/

I’ve been mulling over multiple concept ideas to the point that ideas are coming faster than I can pen them down. Just yesterday I pitched an idea that I had while reading one of Moa’s comics for research. 

I would be curious to know what kinds of things birdie fans would love to see in the shop. Since we are coming towards the end of the year, we are mostly focused on production, quality checking, and making sure details are correct with product whilst also doing current projects handed to us. 

I’ve also been learning the process of how to make the PVC tags. For my graduation show, we have to make give-aways as marketing material for ourselves. I can show what I’ve been personally working on for this later. 

[escbeko]

Glitched Puppet and Erick Scarecrow come together to make a limited edition Floraverse plush set, starting with the Toy Cat, Beleth!

So it has been more than a hot minute since the last time I posted. This means I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve been busy personally with a new move into my life but that’s a different story.

I’ve been meaning to highlight this earlier for support but as they say, it’s better late than never! 

I strongly implore everyone to check out this kickstarter by Glitched Puppet for her Floraverse plush set. Also to make sure to look up Floraverse if you’re not aware of it already. I took the time to thumb through one of her printed comic books and the art is very adorable. Her kickstarter for the plush set stays true to her comic’s essence as all the rewards of her campaign are just so freaking adorable! Seeing the samples in person, I couldn’t help but obsess at the little Beleths.

Make sure to check them out quick! There is only 10 days left!

[escbeko]

Hello once again! Beko here straight out of work. Currently waiting for my class to start and thought it would be nice to give an update on today’s progress. 

I started off the day wanting to come into the office early to try and see if I could get a jump start on sorting the packing labels but being the scrub that I am, I accidentally punched in my security code wrong and set off the alarm. Not a great start to the day but I was still able to kick out those labels before anyone else came into the office. So, maybe good job? >w<;;

I wish I could give you guys an estimate of how much we did today but we did so much today that I don’t even know! Today’s pile was HUGE! To give you an idea, it was taller than ME! USPS had to send a backup truck since we filled an  empty one up again but with only HALF the pile.  OwO;

Still very much excited for everyone to get their birdies. As a reminder to everyone who has already received their birds and may have any sort of issues to make sure and send an email over to [email protected] so that we can take care of any matters that may arise. 

(And while I can’t give anything away. I do want to say that some interesting conversations did occur today about future projects. That’s a hint to keep tabs on ESC-TOYS.)

[escbeko]

Hey guys! 

Beko here for another update. 

Would you guys believe that the post truck was completely empty prior to arriving at the office? ^w^

Another 500 birdies went out today so we really are plowing through all the boxes. It took me longer than expected to validate and organize the shipping labels to backers requests.

I’d like to go over some inquiries about the postage speed.  So once these little birdies leave our warehouse, the process is completely out of our hands. The biggest things that will hold them up are Customs and VAT(Value-Added Tax). I was informed that if a birdie is put under VAT, a notice will be sent out to the recipient to pay the VAT. The birdie will be put on hold until the VAT is cleared by the recipient.  Putting aside customs and VAT, the quoted time estimate for Japan is roughly 2 to 3 weeks whereas delivery to UK would be shorter than that. Keeping in mind that this is if there aren’t any hiccups experienced along the way.

I hope that answered any questions backers might have had about post times. I’d like to keep everyone up to date as much as I can. 

Wishing those little birdies a safe voyage!

[escbeko]

So I needed to double check if it was OK for me to post this stuff but as many of you may know, we have started with fulfillment on the Hatoful Boyfriend Kickstarter! Everything is moving full swing at the office and we’ve been doing the expected running about printing all the labels in the world to send these little guys. It’s really exciting to see these little birdies finally fly home. I know everyone has been freaking out about when theirs will come. It is a process. For whatever reason, they keep sending us the tiny USPS neighborhood truck to do our pick ups and we CRAM as much as we can in them. 

So for everyone who are still waiting, worry not! We literally are trying our best to ship them out as fast as our little wings can go. 

HOWEVER, today we were able to pack OVER 600 birdies for shipment that our postman had to come back to us with a LARGER empty truck. We ran through all our resources and actually even ran out of shipping bags. Once we get more in tomorrow, expect another big haul of birds to go out Wednesday or Thursday!

If anyone experiences any issues with their birdie package, please make sure to address them directly to [email protected] so that we are able to handle each issue accordingly.

@esctoydotcom

[nekobeko]

So an update to what’s been going on, I haven’t really been active at all lately but I’ve had a pretty hectic schedule this quarter balancing between work, school, portfolio prep, and internship all in one go. 

The very internship being at ESC TOY which is well known for their involvement producing merchandise for multiple widely popular game titles. That being said and after completing more than the required 99 hours of internship, they were happy enough to want me to be a part of their company as Jr. Brand Manager. This is an amazing event for me and I’m looking forward to going with them. Keep on the lookout for new activity from them because things are looking to be quite busy soon. 

After this quarter I will have more time on my hands and I’m aware that there are some asks that need some attending to. I plan to get to them soon enough. 

[escbeko]

Going to try and keep things clean for those that aren’t interested in my personal life.