Duck Insomnia

So sorry, I have not written in a while.  I actually don't think I have ever been in a more stressful situation in my life. 

I lie awake at night in a cold sweat and then drift in and out of sleep.  I never in a million years anticipated the production issues we would have here.  We are working them out, but having to innovate a whole new way of creating painting spray masks to make it cost effective on the fly.  We have gone through over a dozen sets, each time revising them.  

The thing is, next weekend is the first ever duck race in America with ducks actually made in the USA!!  Well, they're actually Loons we did for the State University of New York, but you get the idea!  Turns out it is one of the most complicated painted birds we have ever done, and our painters have not had a spray mask that works for them.  So, today they actually packed up 500 of them and shipped them off to my artist who designs our ducks to work through the weekend painting them!!!!  

You believe this.  

Talk about pressure!  

Plus, we still have to revise all the SAM spray masks as there was a minor issue with them fitting right.   Oh, and did I mention that with the deadline coming up for one of our upcoming events with a Fortune 500 Company, the Post Office lost our Express Mail package of our sculpts and now we are having to redo them with their deadline approaching!!  

Well, hopefully sleep is overrated!

...and so it goes....

The Loons Are Here!

Ok, here are some pics of our first Made in America Loons!! 

And why am I showing this?  

Because the State University of New York has decided to do a Loon race and wanted them made in America....YEAH!!   

So come this May, we will have what I do believe is the first ever duck/loon race in American history with real Made in America ducks, I mean Loons!!  

This is really an historic moment for us.  We just got the first Loon bodies today and Chris painted one up by hand.  

It's so exciting.  

I so hope other companies, non-profits, etc., find out about us and realize that they too, can now do duck races with ducks made in the USA and thus support their charity and American jobs at the same time!!  

How cool is that!

Sam Goes To The Toy Fair!

This week we are at Toy Fair 2012 at the Jacob Javitz Center in NYC!

It's exciting as this is the first time people are actually having a chance to see Sam in all his “Hatched In The USA” glory!  

As you see in the picture (one of our east coast vendors is displaying him at their booth) Sam is sitting in a box despite the problems we have had finding a printer.  

We haven’t found the “CelebriDucks printer” quite yet so we had some boxes made just for the Toy Fair.

At this point there are two printing companies that are in the running - at least to start with!  Maybe things will change over time in terms of who we work with, but this March I plan to have Sam on the market - so full production will begin shortly.

In addition to Sam, we are also doing a Loon for a duck race with the State University of New York in April, so production needs to begin with them to get the Loons made it time.  

So, USA made rubber duckies are really happening....slowly....but it is actually happening!