We're back!
We're finally settled in again after our 15 hour road trip. *Whew!*
To borrow a line from Monte, all I can say is, "Wow!!"
It was a genuine pleasure to meet all of you. Meeting EN Worlders and gamers we've only known online was one of our primary goals at GenCon and we really enjoyed it. The Ennies were great, we got to talk to a lot of folks there.
We're
very pleased to hear y'all are enjoying your bags. Getting positive feedback is always very motivating for us. It lets us know we're doing things right. I think one of the best comments I've personally ever gotten had to be, "I can tell these bags are made by gamers."
On the heavenly (tm) scent...DC hit it correctly, it's from the wax. We use Dreamers Candles (R) to wax the cords because they're large, double-wicked, burn evenly and produce a clear wax. The bonus scent also makes quite an impression apparently.
We were going to try to find a scent-less candle but we think it gives the bags even more character.
Speaking of the turned-in bags: we got 14 bags, with 2 Crown Royals amongst them. We were hoping to get more, so we don't know what we're going to do. We were thinking that we might just hang onto them until next year, run the same deal and hopefully get more to add to the pile. Then we can make something.
On the bag going through the wall: anyone who's been to our website, or our booth, has seen the green/red/black leather bag with chainmail and spikes. That is the
bag of throwing . Katerek relayed the story to us of how his little brother was swinging the full bag around his head in a flail-like attack pattern when it flew out of his hand, smashing a Royal-sized hole through a plaster wall. It apparently stuck there. Ouch. We inspected it at the Con, found the only damage was to the (no longer used) leather drawstring and one spike was missing.
We replaced all the leather cords with our now-standard, much stronger, twisted-rope cord and replaced the lost spike - free of charge, of course. Thanks for bringing the bag by Katerek, it was nice to see the "super-custom" bag again.
For those wondering about Piratecat's bag: we decided that we should give something back to someone who has given us what must be hundreds of hours of entertainment with his Story Hour. So, we made him an Ocean Waves pattern bag with his avatar embroiderd on it and "Piratecat" monogrammed in this cool piratey font. We don't have any photos, hopefully Kevin will post one soon.
Special thanks to: Paladinwife, the aforementioned Michelle, and our silent partner Bea (who had a baby while we were at the Con) for all of their extremely hard work; to Monte Cook for letting us do
Arcana Unearthed and Malhavoc Press bags and for producing some of the best gaming products around for someone who's not a publisher
; MEG Hal (with pants) and the MEG crew for taking us under their wing and showing us the GenCon ropes - without Hal we would've been completely lost, and to
all of our fellow gamers who continue to support us - without your support we couldn't keep doing this.
gariig - link away!
FYI, we'll be getting started on all of the ordered bags today, first up: we have to go get some more material.
