We really hate to seem cocky, but we're both flattered and overwhelmed by how much the demand for our dolls has risen this year. With Otakon right around the corner we decided to offer those who follow us on various sites the chance to get the first commission slots and/or the chance to buy and hold a specific doll (you can see our in-stock dolls at our Etsy Store)

If you'd like to, for Otakon, commission a new design or have us hold an existing one for you, please e-mail us at hookedonchibis@gmail.com

ALL THE CONS

Wow, a bit behind aren't I? Sorry for the delayed con report, but we've been to pretty much a con a weekend for all of April and May! We've gotten to see a lot of cool new places, try regional fast foods and take lot of interesting new commissions. I shall break up the report with random cosplay photos in no particular order.

See, BOOM, Cloud in a dress

So where did I leave off? Katsucon, right? Well after that we headed to Genericon, which is a super friendly con over in Troy, NY. I know Troy can have kinda a bad rep, but the nerd community there is great and has some amazingly talented cosplayers, like our friend Jen. 

No, this is not a movie poster

After that was ConBust in Northampton, MA. Northampton is just a couple towns over from our home base in Deerfield, so it's a delightfully low-stress con. We were humbled by how much we sold at a con of only about MAYBE 300 people. The great things about small cons, however, is the fact that you can just hang out with people all day. We also took commissions for cons later in the year. Note: If you ever want a doll but don't want to pay shipping, feel free to check our con schedule and see if you're attending any of our shows. We'll have it ready for you when you show up!

Germany pets his mini-me

One of the commissions we took was for a Rainbow Dash. Usually this is the part of the post where I then show you the doll, but I'm not going to because, well, that commission was quite the learning experience. We realized that ponies do not translate well to our medium. If you were ever considering commissioning a MLP doll from us we highly advise against it, haha. 

Because I can't show you Rainbow Dash you'll have to settle for the equally fabulous Ruby Rhod

Oh God and then after that was Anime Boston. We went in quite understocked for how much demand we had. If anyone encountered us at AB and found we were out of a doll they wanted, please check out our Etsy Store and we'll gladly make you the design you wanted. One thing that made us feel really good about the track we're on design-wise were the commission requests for dolls we already make. “Can you make a Weavile?” We already do!

Note: This Black Mage was bought in 2009 and this photo was taken this year. This is why our dolls are $20. Dolls made with cheaper yarns won't even look this good 3 MONTHS later.

After that was ToraCon, and the staff put their AA in a much better spot than last year, but super over-booked the room! It was very sardine-y in there, but we still did well and finally (we think) perfected our new display setup. I have a friend who went to RIT, so I kept texting and asking for directions. “Chris, it's Sunday, what's open for food around here?” RIT has a large deaf student body, and I know basic ASL, but Jenn doesn't and the cosmos loves to take me out of the room any time I can possibly be useful, so of course any and all deaf browsers we had came while I was eating or in the bathroom. 

Though while in the bathroom I did get to experience this lovely sticker.

Then came the storm. After being wiped out by Anime Boston and barely being able to restock for ToraCon, we were working our butts off trying to be ready for ACen, which has even more people than AB. We packed our travel bags so that we could work every possible second, and we were ready to pull an all-nighter the night before the con to get as much done as we could.

Then Jenn had to go and get herself all hospitalized and crap. What a bother.

Jenn ended up with a large and painful cyst in her arm, and it developed while she was on the train from Springfield, MA to Chicago, so we couldn't just get off and go to a doctor. By the time we got off it was the size of a golfball, so we decided to hurry up and rent the car so Jenn could drop me and all our luggage at the hotel and then head to the nearest ER. The problem was Enterprise doesn't care if you have all the money in the universe unless it's on a major credit card. If you have an out-of-state license they can't take cash or debit as payment, so we had plenty of money to rent the car but we weren't allowed to. We then took all our luggage out to the street and got a cab and asked them to take us to the nearest hospital because we had no idea what was where in Chicago. We had to figure out how to get Jenn checked in with out-of-state health insurance and move our luggage and get me back to the hotel all while Jenn was getting cut open! 

This girl made it all better, however, by dressing up like Tomo from Fushigi Yuugi, who was my husbando when I was 15.

Jenn was eventually let out and the table was open at all the times it was supposed to be. After all that we then ran into the issue that is ACen's overly-huge AA and Dealer's room. Some 200-something artists and 300+ dealers all in one room is far too competitive and spreads out sales way too thin. I would have rather not gotten in than be in a seller room that large. Also ACen seems to be very well known for its rave, and post-con forum posts taught me that the high attendee numbers are partially inflated by people who just wanna attend the rave. Our hotel stay was really the only positive point in the trip. A glitch made all our room service free and we got to have authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Alas, Hooked on Chibis will not be attending Anime Central again.

Archer didn't even show up

Returning to the local con scene, we then went to BAMcon, which was a first-year con in Pitsfield, MA. They have a good start, and if they can advertise better I think they could grow into a great con. Huge Hetalia showing, and while the fandom can be known for immaturity an overall spazzy-ness, these girls were history nerds that Jenn played teacher to all weekend. Our friend Aimee at AA&A Artistries makes the cutest hats based on the flags and icons of various nations, so she had a bag of flags, some of which she couldn't identify. Cue the entire Hetalia crew swarming Jenn to use her iPhone and learn more about the lesser-known flags of various countries.

Hooked on Chibis is here for all your Geography lesson needs...

We also had a very proper business discussion over dinner with fellow artists Coventry Decor, Hey Look, A Sign! and Team Rocket's Pokemon Emporium. As proper as you can get with mojitos at Applebees.

For Mother's Day weekend we went to Oaks, PA for Zenkaikon with Jenn's husband and two kids. That way we could table for the weekend and then Sunday afternoon/evening we could visit Valley Forge and Jenn could frolic through history like she does. Zenkaikon is con with a rather young crowd, so while great for the kids it wasn't good sales-wise and we won't be returning unless it's a trip with the boys or a Sonic run (which we tried for the first time that weekend!). We did do an art trade with our friends at No Title Productions though. Also Valley Forge is badass. 

About 9 men slept in a cabin this size so that we could be America today. You best respect.

 Right after family-friendly con we had Nauticon, which is a 21+ con right on the beach in Provincetown, MA. Nauticon is an amazing experience, but not the best con. I think it they focus more on making it a nerd retreat with activities instead of a convention with panels they'll pretty much be the highlight of my year. 

I took this picture from my hotel room door. I'll just sit here for a moment while you recover from your immense jealousy.

The thing with such a social con is the buying mood is pretty non-existant, and I actually got more sales from hanging out at the bar and talking up the business than I did sitting at the table. And yeah, not gonna lie, I did spend a ton of time at the bar. It was hard not too! With a wise-cracking bartender and two really cute guys who wanted to play cribbage with me, it was a great time. Everyone starts of with fandom and nerdiness to unite them, but once you GET TO BE OUR AGE (I'm almost 25, Jenn is 35) you have a lot to talk about. Nauticon was Eat, Drink, Chat and Be Merry Con. 

Also bond-over-mutual-love-of-hats con

I got home from Nauticon to find our 10^th Doctor doll had gotten a DD on deviantArt, so I had a ton of stuff to respond to as soon as I sat my butt down. Still, it was a huge compliment and I'm grateful our fan Adreas suggested us. That was incredibly thoughtful.

In honor of our Doctor DD, have some SuperWhoLock cosplay

And now we're caught up to Animzement, which is in Raleigh, NC. What a lovely con. Great area, well run, great cosplays, great venue and great location and hours for the artists. Animazement became Commission Con, with everything from comics to anime to video games to requests that we make chibis of actual people. We also got to try Steak and Shake, which was great. 

Though I also ended up with a craving for Captain Crunch... dunno why

Getting there, however, was a nightmare. The train from Massachusetts to North Carolina doesn't allow you to have baggage until New York for some reason, so we had to take a bus to NYC, take a cab from the bus terminal to the train station at 1am (and the rolling suitcase's wheel broke!) then sleep in the train station until we could board at 6am. We're probably not gonna go by train when we go next year, but we'll be sure to make tons of spare parts so we can be ready for whatever commissions they throw at us! 

Taking a plane means no Amish people though :(

So what's next? We have ONE weekend off and then four more cons in a row! I'll be turning 25 in New Jersey while attending Anime Next. Then we'll be flying down to Florida and teaming up with AA&A to take on MetroCon in Tampa, FL. The weekend after that is PortCon in Maine, and then the biggie: AnimeExpo in LA. Again, if there are any dolls you'd like to pick up from us at one of these cons don't hesitate to e-mail us!

Thank you again for all your continued support. I hope we can keep putting out designs that you like!

-Casey 

PS The full album of all the pictures we've taken at cons is on our Facebook Page.

Clearance Sale and Contest!

Hooked on Chibis is having our first ever tumblr contest and our first (and probably only) ever CLEARANCE SALE! We have a couple of dolls left over from when we first started and since they're made if different yarn and have suffered many packings, we're letting them go for less. These dolls are also the last of their lot, so once they sell they're gone

THE CONTEST
Reblog this tumblr post and you'll be entered into a drawing to win any of our regularly-priced dolls! We'll post the winner on tumblr (as well as on our blog, Facebook and dA)

Katsucon Con Report

Katsucon got me thinking about a lot of things. For one, the Friday of a con is kinda slow and I'm beginning to wonder if we wouldn't be better off with Saturday/Sunday cons like Zenkaikon in PA. I know a lot of people who have work and/or school on Fridays that they can't afford to miss.

Appa, however, had an Artist badge so he was set for the weekend

Friday was a very slow day for sales for us, but there were some great cosplays!

I am a HUGE fan of friends all cosplaying together. Also Romana is my favorite companion.

Many times, when Jenn and I are stuck at a table for too long we pretty much go cosplay and clothing shopping like the people walking by are modeling for our very own real-life catalog. This included having to see amazing Dragon Age costumes that we wanted so badly to cosplay with. We're in the middle of planning Isabella and RogueFemaleHawke costumes. When these people

came along it was hard not to just rush back home and start working on them immediately.

Katsucon had photo backdrops this year and I felt like I was the only person using them (and we were seated right next to them, so if anyone used them I'd see). There is a running joke in our house about the anime cliche where a late student runs to school with toast in his/her mouth, so when someone showed up in that cosplay I got a great shot of him in front of the high school backdrop!

And on the day of the cherry blossom festival no less...

Jenn also had a spaz attack before we even got to our table because she saw people cosplaying from the old Atari game Adventure.

Jenn: Do you not know what this is?! That's a DRAGON, Casey!

 
 Katsucon is also the most beautiful convention I have ever been to. The main area was lit up and had all sorts of fountains, rivers, plants and other amazing photo backgrounds. Those lucky enough to have hotel rooms not facing the street got ones overlooking the convention. I'd kill for one of those rooms next year. The space was especially good for Disney cosplay.

          

Jenn brought her Darkrai costume and let me shoot a few pictures of her (until the battery died -_-) so I could practice directing people in photoshoots. How nice of her, I know. Not many people would let their friends take a bunch of glamorous pictures of them. I am truly blessed.

I shot it like this because Darkrai is a ghost and I wanted it to look like you were trying to sneak past her but she discovered you.

We finally went to the hotel around 11, ordered pizza and Jenn read me Fark headlines like a bedtime story. We also worked on a Feralligator commission. Cause yeah, when I think of cute amigurumi plushies I think of a Pokemon whose name is a mix of feral and alligator, haha. But sometimes it's the ones who got no business being cute that turn out the best.

Saturday brought in better sales and more great cosplays. Because the camera died we had to use Jenn's iPhone. A GREAT Zoro kept walking by while Jenn was buying a drink or going to the bathroom. He was nice enough to keep checking in so we could get a picture.

We explained that we like photographing our chibis with other cosplayers, and the guy was so chill about the whole thing that he let us balance one on his head.

Saturday was also a great FMA cosplay day. We got our second Roy Mustang commission and after having him requested twice we're going to add him to our stock.

Yup, that seems about right size-wise...

Hughes can't even help showing pictures of his family to people made out of yarn

We are also very big fans of gijinka cosplay, and love to see how people respond to the challenge of creating 100% human (no animal parts) versions of different creatures.

    

I would have never thought to do Tonberry's eyes with giant sunglasses!

We also had about 25 people ask to buy Appa (which confuses me because Appa isn't crochet so we obviously didn't make him, but I can also understand how beloved he is as a character). We directed everyone to eBay and Amazon, in the hopes that people will buy up tons of Appas and we can have some grand flying bison army some time in the future.

Did I say army? I meant one giant flying bison group hug...

In case you haven't noticed yet, we love every era of video games and anime. From Atari to the Record of Lodoss War we've been catching what we could for years. When we started out this business we just made what we liked, and for the most part it worked. Some dolls, however, have been with us for years because no one buys them. We hold on to the hope that some day they'll find a forever home, and some, like Mion from Higurashi, sold this weekend!

Others, like this Selphie, only get visits from their pals. Some day, you spunky girl.

We debuted a whole bunch of dolls at this con too! Our new 10th and 11th Doctors and Yoko.

One of these Yokos is much rounder than the other...

We forgot to photograph a bunch of stuff, too. We have an Ezio and Kratos design now as well, so expect pictures of them soon. Actually, Kratos, Ezio and a Tonberry went to a guy dressed as Luffy. What a crew, huh? Who does Luffy need dead THAT badly?

We also didn't get any pictures of the two Michael Jackson cosplayers who began randomly dancing in the middle of the Artist's Alley. It was amazing and completely unplanned. The best part was one was black and the other was white, but they were in the same exact outfit. Then one of the artists pulled up "Thriller" on his laptop and blasted it over his speakers. And it all happened right next to our table.

Sunday was pretty uneventful cosplay-wise, but that was because people were apparently too busy buying everything! We had some commissions that day, including Perry the Platypus (again, watch out for him soon!) and Al Elric. We never thought to make Al because we thought people would want him to be shiny, but this customer said it was fine to just do regular grey yarn. He actually came out great and we plan to make him now as well!

Lookit his faaaaaaaaace

The whole con was a great time. Really the only issue we had was this run-in where Team Rocket tried to steal our Pokemon.

Arisia, the Bestest Con Ever

I hope you're prepared to hear me gush about how much I loved Arisia. I barely know where to start.

We got there Friday afternoon, as the Dealer's Room hours were 5pm-9pm that day. Things were slow, and most people were just browsing. Arisia is an all-sorts-of-nerdy con that caters to an older audience, so many of them had to get out of work and/or find a sitter and other stuff like that.

Once the con was in full swing for Saturday-Monday there were constant events. Panels, workshops, auctions and spontaneous groups of people talking about anything they wanted to. The con provided free food (REAL food, like pasta salad and artisan bread)

Also a Storm Trooper cake. NBD

and tables for people to sit and eat. The food was kept fresh, clean and constantly restocked by a team working round-the-clock. No con had ever done something so generous before, and it blew me away how hard-working and in-control the whole staff seemed all weekend. The Dealer's Room coordinator even gave us all her cell number in case we needed her.

It was like a family reunion at times, with people shouting each other's names excitedly and running into welcoming bear hugs. "How have you been? Did Joanna get that promotion?" I overheard all sorts of conversations from my table, some between longtime friends and other between people who had just met. They were about everything from books to make-up to raising kids to fabric choices. At one point I got tired and sat next to a guy dressed as Henchman 24 from The Venture Brothers. Out of nowhere I told him he sounded like Ray Romano. He laughed and we started talking.

Customers were polite and hilarious. One guy bought a Vash (new design for this year!) and surprised us the next day in costume!

We heard you like Vash so we put a Vash in the pocket of a Vash so you can D'awww while you D'awww

A Borg showed minutes after we had sold our only Borg plushie, but she looked great so we asked her to pose with our Q plushie.

In case this isn't hilarious enough, she had to go as soon as we got the shot because she had a belly dancing class to get to. She came back later with an adorable black bob haircut and a pink wrap shirt. Conclusion: belly dancing will reverse assimilation.

 Those who haven't see us at cons don't know that we've begun selling our Eds with buttons on them that say "Actual Size!" A Roy cosplayer picked one up, laughed a bit, then said "Yeah, seems about right."

Disclaimer: We at Hooked on Chibis do NOT condone lighting our chibis on fire with alchemy.

The stars of the show, as far as stock goes, were by far the Doctor Who chibis. We carry the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 11th. 

So... much... scarf...

People kept asking about 10, however, so we decided we'd try to make ONE and see how he did. He was sold before we even began designing him. In the last hour on Monday we finished him and the look on the girl's face when she came to get him was priceless. We'd been trying for a while to decide how to get his hair accurate. 

I have no words. That hair makes me laugh every time I see this picture.

In short, it was an amazing time. We met the people who run other cons, fellow artists who gave us compliments and pointers, and random people who were nothing but fun to talk to. I'm counting down the days til I get to go back. 

- Casey-chu