I've said this before, but 01 and 02 were me dipping my toes in the water. I have a vision, but it's not quite clear until you actually start making moves and make things. Figuring out what works, what doesn't, working on the process and trying to understand how to make it quicker or more efficient, what's worth doing, or not worth doing. Then how to improve on those things.
I have a lot that I want to do, and a lot that I'd like to make or create, but I understand that I have to work within my constraints or resources I currently have. A lot of my ideas are on the back burner until I have the resources to make them possible. Until then, it's all very much DIY.
I learned a lot about packaging and what I wanted to change or improve upon after releasing 01 and 02.
When I released 01 I just wanted to keep a simple black box inside a black bag with the stat card. The card was printed then cut by me. There's no backside to it, just the stats card. I figured people could throw away the box and keep the velvet bag, and stats card. I think the idea of a stats card was really important to me. I had wanted to put art on it, but I wasn't happy with my art I made at the time.
I felt like, this was good packaging for my first attempt. It had everything I felt was necessary, but I knew I could improve on the card. I was also still figuring out what kind of art to include, or rather, finding a consistent way to give people pieces of art. During 01 I really just let people have random sketches, it was sort of a mess.
I also made string during this time, hand made, one by one, which was honestly, not worth the effort. It was the most stressful and difficult part of the process and I likely won't do that again until I build a rig to make string. I still think my string is good, but I just don't have the time or effort to make string one by one again.
I had originally intended to partner up with P44 string and try to recreate my string with them, but things fell through and I'm likely just going to supply kitty. I think most people have their own preference in string and will likely use that anyways. I really hope to have space for a rig in the future, but being that the "workshop" is actually just my room, I'm limited on space. This kind of goes with my introduction, finding what works and what doesn't.
When it came time to release V2 I decided to try and print two pieces of paper then glue them to an existing bulk TCG card. This made for a much better stat card, and had the art on the front side of it which was my goal.
I love cards, starting early with my favorite X-men being Gambit. It just got worse when I discovered Pokemon, Yugioh and MTG. I enjoyed doing magic tricks and throwing cards as well, which often got me into trouble.
I also still think about all the odd card related toys we had in the 2000's or late 90's like the Digivices, Kamen Rider Henshin's, or Rumble Robots, basically the closest thing we ever got to Medabots IRL.
Now that I'm older, I don't really had time to play any TCG's since I'm so focused on Dreamcraft, but I still have that love and desire to play. Simply put, I love cards, I can't explain why other than they're pieces of artwork that also have a purpose. For me, the defining goal in my life was to make art that served a purpose or had a use.
To me, these stats cards are my way of adding art to the product but also serving a purpose. It shows all of the info you may want to know about the yoyo and authenticates it along with having art on it. I also think that storing cards is just a lot easier than actual artwork. I feel like most of us probably relate to the TCG aspect and have a collection of your own.
Very briefly for anyone who is confused. "Suspense" and "Nobotik" are the same person, me. It's just a play on both my first and middle name which I use interchangeably depending on if Suspense is taken somewhere since it's so common. I apologize if there's confusion.
I also made a new pin to go along with v2. Though, this was one of those learning processes. The pin came out really cute, but I had put far too much detail on her given the size. I think that next time I can improve on the design by making it more basic. I still really, really love the yoyo mascot I made and is one of the parts of Asora I'm the most proud of.
Next was trying to figure out what kind of art I wanted to include.
I don't know if anyone reading this has done much buying on the BST but I will swear that it's likely the kindest BST in any hobby scene. The extra goodies people give, and the little hand written notes are enough to make a grown man shed a tear of joy. It's something I've always loved about yo-yo, the community and what kind of people come together over a "simple toy."
I honestly could've tried to start a brand in another hobby all together, but I wanted to be apart of the yo-yo community and help grow it to cultivate more people like this. The connection I feel not only to the yo-yo, but to the community is unlike anything else.
This isn't something anyone HAS to do, just like I don't HAVE to do all this art and work on the yo-yo. Most people would be happy with just the yoyo. But when something really speaks to you; you don't forget about it, you remember how it felt and that emotion it evoked. That's our community and the standard they set. These kind of people are what make up a large percentage of our community.
Surely, there's bad apples, but I feel like, if I can help set a good example, it will help continue to keep that spirit alive.
I wanted to make art for the community, I wanted to help grow yo-yo, I wanted to share that love and joy I received with others, and this is my love letter.
For 02 I really wanted to include art, but in multiple ways. If you do plan to sell Asora, you need to sell it WITH the stats card.
STAT CARD MUST ALWAYS FOLLOW THE YO-YO PLEASE!
The stats card is the way to identify, authenticate, and number the yoyo. You are not supposed to keep it if you sell the yo-yo.
However, I felt like people might want to hold onto "something" from their purchase from me and felt like the best solution was to include a TCG card sketch along with random other sketches. Again, I love cards, and think this is a simple way to keep consistency.
I ended up making a sketch of my character then duplicated it 30 times over for everyone.
The stickers from the post office are a classic old hack I used to do when I was a teen since they're free. I cut up some paper the size of the stickers and did sketches on those as well.
I will likely not be doing the larger sketches unless requested in order notes on this next run of yo-yos. During 01 and 02, there were only 30 yoyos to sell, and it took months to sell out which allowed me plenty of time to draw bigger pieces for everyone. This drop will be bigger and I don't imagine myself having the time to draw detailed sketches for everyone.
This time around for Asora 03 I wanted to try to improve again. This time my primary focus was on the boxes themselves, how Asora was displayed, and how the cards looked as well.
I really wanted to have holographic cards, but the issue I kept running into previously was either the holographic itself was terrible looking or the process in which I made it was too difficult to replicate over multiple times. I didn't like the art enough to allow myself to print this, and I also couldn't get the right holographic print to look correct. Sometimes the cards were also "too holographic" which distorted the image too much.
Initially, my idea or desire was to print something like this, but the process to print this likely isn't possible with a printer at home. There's some sort of opaque white layer that gets printed first. The only way to achieve this at home is to put holographic vinyl over a card, then print the image reverse onto a clear film sheet, then paint the back of that sheet with the outline of the character, and glue the clear film sheet onto the card. instead of painting you could use a white sticker or vinyl, to the back of the sheet. That process just isn't going to happen when I have to make so many.
In the end, the solution was to not overcomplicate things and go simple to make my life easier but also make the best product possible. I think that, doing more with the card just made it worse, so actually, less is more in this situation.
Another thing that I was working on for a while was the design for the card. I knew from earlier that this was the hardest issue to tackle for me personally. Creating a piece of artwork that I was happy with to print on the card. I actually think this is probably the best piece of artwork I've done for dreamcraft and was really happy with it. I can feel myself improving as I continue on this journey. Each card is signed by me (imagine it's Asora who's signing it though) and will be numbered on the back with the stats info.
These cards are not perfect, so please don't expect high quality cuts or perfect alignment lol. These are purely for fun since I don't have the budget to buy custom made cards.
The next order of business was working on the box for the yoyo. Since I decided to release more than pink this time around I felt like the yoyo should be visible inside the box. wanted to display the yo-yo if possible and try to step up my game. It's almost like eating with your eyes first, the same thing goes for a yoyo. You don't get to actually "taste" the yoyo until you play it and get it in your hands, but the first look at it or how you see it on the shelf in a store can also speak to you on various levels. To me, presentation is important and I want to present this yoyo to you all in the best way I can given my resources.
A lot of this box design is unnecessary since these won't be hitting the shelves anywhere except for yoyostore.es. In my mind, or my vision of what Asora was supposed to always look like was inside a clear box. Granted the actual box design I want is a bit more intricate and expensive, this was my best solution for now.
The box was intentionally bigger because I was planning to build a smaller box for the yoyo to sit on which could hold the velvet bag inside. Boxes were way harder to make for me, so I went with these yo-yo stands suggested by some friends. There's still plenty of room behind the yo-yo to add the velvet bag, pin, string, and stickers. I honestly think they came out perfect, given the only thing I bought was the box and velvet bag in terms of the packaging materials.
In the end, the finished packaging worked out perfectly. I just need to finish everything, making the stands, cleaning the silicone from the yoyos, assembling, and putting on the power stones, then finishing the cards and art. I'm on the home stretch and my plans to have some available for worlds looks to be on track. (that's if I can go to worlds, father's health issues are a bit concerning at the moment)
PSA: I apologize for the videos shot vertically given you're on a blog. I struggle with wanting to shoot horizontal but shoot vertical for social media. I think that.. I'll eventually just convert back to horizontal and post more on the blog. I find issues with twitter, instagram, etc, and feel like the best place to actually document everything is my blog.
At first I felt like uploading little stories and reels on my personal instagram was a good way to keep people updated since there's a lot of people on instagram, but I truly feel like I would much rather document on the blog over instagram moving forward.
Like I've said countless times, I'm still learning as I go. Figuring out what works and what doesn't, trying new things, ditching old things, switching up things, whatever I can do to make it better. This is in every regard, from the yoyo designing, to the website, to the social media.
Thank you to everyone who has been patiently awaiting this new batch. I know it takes me a while, but I hope that showing you some insight to the process helps you understand what I'm doing.
I wish I could duplicate or clone myself, but I'm just one man trying to do it all, and I like it that way. It just means that it takes me a bit longer since I'm balancing every part of the company trying to prioritize what's most important. I'm finding my footing though and we're ready to head into a full sprint.
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