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General Information
If you back within the first 48 hours, at any tier that isn't the Coupon tier, all domestic (USA) backers will receive a FREE 'Anatomy of a Dragon' chart, illustrated by the designer of Weighted Wonders, and approved by a professional anatomist for its 'scientific' accuracy!
As these will NOT be available in time to ship for the 2024 holiday season, we will provide high quality PDF files that can be printed or simply emailed to a potential recipient to show off their soon-to-fly gift of a Weighted or Warmable Wonders dragon!
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About the Plushies
The faux fur we use for our plush meet the Global Recycled Standard for recycled post-consumer polyester content. Each dragons uses an OEKO-TEX certified minky fur in it's production, as well, and is double-stitched for durability.
All of our plush are safety tested to the highest international standards, receiving certification by a CPSIA accredited laboratory to comply with US, EU, UK, and CA safety standards for potential chemical, mechanical, and flammability hazards that are recognized throughout the world.
These tests can get pricey when you're producing so many colors and designs all at once. Funds for testing have already been baked into the campaign pricing structures and will be freely available for viewing by any interested parties once production is under way.
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If this is your first crowdfunding campaign, please know that your card is NOT charged until the end of the campaign (Dec 31st, 2024) and you will not provide your shipping address until the post-campaign surveys are sent out.
Glamour Shots
How about some fun shots of the dragons exploring the wild outdoors?
If you're in Seattle, perhaps you'll know this park by a few fun context clues thrown in! 👀⛩️
If this is your first crowdfunding campaign, please know that your card is NOT charged until the end of the campaign (Dec 31st, 2024) and you will not provide your shipping address until the post-campaign surveys are sent out.
Additionally, all color choices of your dragons will not be made until those surveys are collected as well.
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Weighted Wonders
The main attraction!
Each Weighted Wonder dragon will come in at a whopping 4.5 pounds (2.04 kg) and will be 24 inches from nose to tail tip regardless of their color! We aim to unlock 9 colors with, perhaps, a secret 10th if we get so far!
These buddies are designed specifically to put most of the weight onto the vagus nerve in the belly area, activating the same relaxation that a good hug or a sleeping cat might!
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Warmable Wonders
With each stretch goal unlocked, the corresponding Warmable Wonder color will become available as an option for backers.
Being smaller, Warmable Wonders will lack the embroidered details along the body/tails of the plush, but retain the color schemes of the original Weighted Wonder designs.
They will be made of the same recycled Oexo-Tex certified faux fur as well as be double-stitched to assure durability.
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Initial Funding Goal
As we expect to SMASH through the initial funding goal of $50,000, the actual 'initial funding goal' is the first $200,000 to unlock the 'base colors' of Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow.
Take a look at these hefty fellas!
With ALL the primary colors unlocked, we will be moving onward to the rest of the rainbow!
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Stretch Goals
If over $450,000 is achieved (holy smokes!), a special 7th Stretch Goal color will be revealed at a much higher tier level as a 'pie in the sky' stretch goal that will act as a limited edition Weighted/Warmable Wonder!
Should this happen, this color will become available as an option to all backers, just as all the other stretch goal colors did.
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Shipping Information
All plush are expected to ship in May 2025 and will be fulfilled in-house by myself, my partner, and a small team of friends and family over the course of several weeks.
There will be thousands of packages needing packing upon completion of the campaign and this WILL take time. It is hard to give a full estimate of how long it will take to both quality check the plush and pack them out, but we will be moving as fast as a dozen or so people can move in order to get them out in a timely fashion and updating you all during that process!
All domestic pledges will be shipped via USPS Ground Select Mail in a recyclable cardboard box. This class of mail comes with tracking information that will be updated on your account after orders are dispatched.
We are working with NextSmartShip's fulfillment warehouse in China to ship near-directly from the factory to several international locations.
This means that international backers may receive their orders before American backers simply due to the proximity of the factory to the fulfillment center. We will communicate the start and finish and help with any issues backers may run into during the shipment process to the best of our ability.
As required by law, the importer (customer/backer) will be required to pay any relevant taxes due to custom agencies of their country. This is only relevant to non-USA backers.
We are not responsible for any custom agency seizure or holds and cannot communicate directly to custom agencies on behalf of the customer due, largely, to language barriers + responsibility legally belonging to importer of note.
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Weighted Wonders and Weighted Wildlife are designed by autistic indigenous artist, Nathaniel Manns, owner and operator of Roamin' Bison Workshop, LLC, who was looking to create a better weighted plush after finding the current offerings in the toy industry do not truly cater to those living with autism, anxiety, and other related struggles.
Ultimately, Weighted Wildlife and Weighted Wonders are meant to be an answer to the throwaway culture amongst many plushie companies that care little for sustainability, labor rights, and quality.
About the Artist/Crew
Weighted Wonders and Weighted Wildlife are designed by autistic indigenous artist, Nathaniel Manns, owner and operator of Roamin' Bison Workshop, LLC, who was looking to create a better weighted plush after finding the current offerings in the toy industry do not truly cater to those living with autism, anxiety, and other related struggles.
He has successfully created and fulfilled over 10 crowdfunding campaigns, including the Weighted Wildlife Kickstarter campaign which remains in the top three most backed plushie campaigns across all crowdfunding websites.
He holds a degree in traditional animation from Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and once worked as an animator, but set out to run an art-based business in 2018 when he found traditional employment incongruous with the challenges that come with being autistic. His work has been sold in science and art museums, boutiques, and wildlife rehabilitation centers. His special interest in animals continues to inform his work.
With a strong background in quality customer service, Leah had begun helping Weighted Wildlife with it's clerical needs during the summer of 2024 and will help throughout the campaign and it's fulfillment to answer emails, comments, troubleshoot any issues, and make your adventure to obtain a dragon of your own a smooth one!
When she's not providing excellent customer service, she is busy cooking, reading, playing horror video games, and hanging with her dog Reggie.
As a small (micro, really) business, we employ family and friends first and foremost to help during the fulfillment stage in order to provide financial support to loved ones as the business grows.
These will be the hardworking group helping to quality-check, pack, and ship out your orders in spring of 2025!
Ultimately, Weighted Wildlife and Weighted Wonders are meant to be an answer to the throwaway culture amongst many plushie companies that care little for sustainability, labor rights, and quality.
We never aim for the cheapest, or even the easiest, option at all levels of design, production, and fulfillment, hoping to cultivate a brand that can grow into the future to provide not only a great end product that lasts, but financial stability for everyone involved with bringing these plushies to life.
We promise to NEVER overproduce, a chronic issue throughout the toy industry, with thought always given to what world we are leaving to the next generation. Plushies may not seem like a serious business, but we take seriously the triple bottom line in all our decision making both for the satisfaction of our customers and the future of our planet.
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Environmental Responsibility
Additionally, all our packaging is 100% curbside recyclable and made of recycled materials where possible, including the use of water-based kraft tape, cardboard, paper infill, and 100% recycled, zero waste thermal labels for our shipping labels from EcoEnclose.
A portion of all our income goes to various wildlife and indigenous organizations, as well as humanitarian charities, examples of which include Tanka Fund, Rainforest Trust, Oceana, Northwest Harvest, and Doctors Without Borders
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