Fangamer

It finally arrives! A triumvirate of Omnitarian excellence:

• Dem Bones Shirts
• Starry Starry Pipes Poster
• Star Legend Pinset

Next weekend: new/restocked EB merch!

To all those Fangamers out there who rush ordered a Shirtness combo pack please send us photos of you and your shirt doing Awesome stuff from this Halloween night. We will post the most rad on the blog to share!

Send all photos to team@fangamer.com with the phrase “Awesomeness Halloween” in the title!

It’s a big day for us :D

The Awesomeness Combo Pack is ready much sooner than we expected, which means that Shirtness is finally being unleashed after months of research, design, and production!

Good news: if you’re dressing up as Ness for Halloween and don’t want to duct tape a shirt/hat together, we’re offering a Halloween rush for an extra $10! Place your order before 11:59 PM on Tuesday and we’ll get it to you before the festivities begin.

More good news: if you already bought Hatness, you can save a few bucks and get a combo pack without the hat :D

(As a side note, we’ve been preparing an SMRPG update for a while, but unfortunately we’ve hit a few last-minute snags with the shirt/poster production. We’re definitely going to be releasing it before mid-November though, so check back soon!)

supercommuter has launched their first album, and all the proceeds go to Childs Play! That’s so awesome that Steve took the time to make this awesome video… which explains why supercommuter is awesome:

Go buy their album/shirt!

We went to PAX on a mission: to show the world what happens when puny fanboys are transformed into mighty fangamers! But then we remembered that our presentational (and preparation-al) abilities hadn’t gotten any better since high school, so we ended up with this seat-of-our-pants THRILL RIDE. Gold star for effort? No? Well can we at least get our parking validated?

“Fangirls and boys, unite! Then suck it up and stop acting like fanboys — there’s work to do. Listen as we relay the decade-long sorrows and triumphs of a scrappy fanbase. Cackle at the futility of petitions, boycotts, and nerd rage; bask in the warming glow of community and the zen doctrine of “screw this we’ll do it ourselves”. Enter as a fan; leave as a warrior trapped in the doughy and misshapen body of a fan.”

1. Chronometer shirts have been quietly restocked. If you were hoping for a black shirt, now’s your chance!
2. EB’9X has been redesigned and re-released, in case you weren’t paying attention at the end of the EBFGP!
3. Steve (our one-man mailroom) has caught up on all shipments and we will not be shipping any packages until September 9! So if you place an order now, you’ll need to give us at least a week to get it in the mail. We’ve been preparing for our PAX panel ever since the end of the EBFGP, and with the entire team flying into Seattle tomorrow we’ll be unable to get packages shipped out until next Wednesday.
4. Are you gonna be at PAX? Check out our ‘Fanboy Stigmata’ panel this Friday at 7:30 PM (Pacific time) in the Wolfman Theatre and you might get your hands on our latest pin set! Even if you can’t be there, we miiight be broadcasting the panel live on USTREAM. If not, we’ll definitely toss it up on YouTube, so check back here for details. You can also try to catch us before or after the show and challenge us to a thumb-wrestling contest. Any and all survivors of the ordeal get a free Fangamer business card for their trouble ;D

If you’ve placed an order in the past few weeks, you might have noticed that our shipping has been VERY slow. We apologize profusely, but it’s for a good cause — we’ve finally moved into our new office, and are currently burning our way through the queue which has built up in the meantime!

Here’s a quick video in case you didn’t see the original pre-move-in video

And in case you’re bored in front of your computer on these hot summer nights, every evening this month we’re streaming EBFGP events and random Fangamer Office-cam goodtimes:

One last announcement: new merch coming soon! We’re reprinting the EB9X and improving everything in the process — new colors, new shirts, new printing process (smooth, lovely waterbase prints instead of that chunky silkscreening). On top of that, we’re going to be releasing merch for a new franchise soon as well :D

Here’s a hint: it’s one of the three best SNES RPG’s ever~

Hey folks, I’ll try to keep this quick, but we’ve got four awesome announcements. Here they are, in order of excellence:

• Fangamer/Starmen.Net will be presenting a panel at PAX 2009! If you’re going to PAX, pencil us in — we’ll be speaking from 7:30-8:30 PM on Friday, Sept 4 in the Wolfman Theatre. Our panel will be a multimedia event for the ages. Seriously though, if you’re an EarthBound fan you should seriously check it out. More details later, but one thing is for sure: we’ll have a lot of cool swag and memorabilia to check out, including Meeellla’s figurines from the MOTHER 3 Handbook :D
• Fangamer is moving into its first office this week! One year after my house was first invaded by boxes of t-shirts, I’m totally pumped to announce that we’ve nailed down an office here in Tucson after a month of searching. It’s a short-term gig, but we’re going to make the best of it. There will be many pictures and maybe even a permanent mailroom-cam coming soon :D
• The EBFGP is underway! In case you’re not familiar, the EBFGP is a yearly event in which the EarthBound fans at Starmen.Net get together and play through EarthBound together. Every gameplay point is being hosted live by community members, and the last gameplay point (on August 23) will be hosted by yours truly at the new Fangamer office :D
• MGS preorders are finally shipping! We’re hoping to have them all shipped out by Thursday morning. We got the dogtags, and while they’re not exactly how we wanted them, we decided it was better to get the orders shipped out than wait another couple weeks to redo them. Unlike the dogtags, the shirts are perfect, so enjoy!

Of course, due to all the stuff going on right now (and especially the advent of the new Fangamer office), shipping is going to be a little slow around here. Sorry in advance for the delays, we’ll be working as fast as we can to catch up!

We’ve got an email sent out to all our preorder customers, but as a more public notification, we’ve got to delay the shipment of the MGS-inspired merchandise for a few weeks due to some issues we’re having with the dogtags.

Long story short, they weren’t up to our standards, so we made our most serious Solidus face and sent them back to the drawing board. The company is telling us they’ll be done by the 27th, but we’re going to play it safe and say that it’s more likely they’ll show up the following week.

We’ll email everyone as soon as their orders ship, but in the meantime the shirts and bags have arrived, so we’ve posted a few pictures! You can see the super-expensive embroidery on the Special Forces Bags and the Les Enfants Terribles Shirts, whose pictures turned out particularly well thanks to Camille!

If you have any questions or concerns about your order, email us and we’ll get you taken care of. Thanks for your patience!

We’re officially taking our Metal Gear Solid merchandise out of preorder and into the store at large!

• Les Enfants Terribles Shirts
• Special Forces Messenger Bags
• Solid Pin Set

The shirts, bags, and tags are arriving this weekend, so the preorders will begin shipping on Monday (Tuesday at the latest). As a way to thank our preorder customers for their patience, we’ve come up with a pretty cool packing slip just for the MGS orders :D

Steve has been working like crazy and has almost caught up on the orders. The preorders will be keeping us busy this weekend, though, so forgive us if processing is a little slow for the next week or so~

Hey folks! We’ve been getting an absolute flood of orders these past few days, and we’re shipping them off as fast as our skinny little arms can go. Due to the sheer volume of orders, shipping may be a little delayed, but rest assured you’ll get your swagtastic merch post haste from your hasty local post office!

Also a huge thanks to Destructoid, Gonintendo, Tiny Cartridge, Offworld, Kotaku, Game Set Watch, and all the other sites that wrote such kind articles about us! We love you guys!!

Long day, huge update. I’ll let the links do the talking:

• Pandora’s Happy Box Shirts designed by Omnitarian, plus some free/awesome multimedia accoutrements…
• PSI Rockin’ Shirts, easily our most-requested shirt, is finally reprinted!
• Escargo Express Messenger Bags were a surprise hit which sold out quick. They’re back, with more pockets and zippers than you can shake a stick at~
• Courage Badge Keychains (in bronze!) are being re-minted — we’ll accept orders until Wednesday of next week before telling the mint how many to produce, so get your order in before then!
• The MOTHER 3 Handbook PDF is our first-ever digital download! If you feel like your Handbook was a good deal, please consider supporting our work (and ensure you’ll always have a copy) by purchasing a copy of this print-sized PDF :D
• The M3HB Combo Pack is a Handbook+keychain+PDF combo which nets you a $6 savings!

Whew. There’s tons of other news that I’ll probably post about later. In the meantime, you should check out our Twitter page where we’re always posting about new stuff, like the sweet Metal Gear Solid stickers which came in today — one will be included with every MGS merch order!.

I’ll cap this update off with Steve’s super-incredible Pandora video. Caution: you may be compelled to partake of this eye candy for several hours straight; please consume responsibly.

Hey folks! This is just a quick update to let you know we’ll be rolling out with some new products (and a few revamped classics) next week!

• Pandora’s Happy Box Shirts: Designed by Omnitarian, available in asphalt and purple.
• PSI Rockin’ Shirts (reprint): Designed by PD_DX0, available in asphalt, royal blue, and raspberry/yellow.
• Escargo Express Bags (reprint): Designed by Jon Kay, new and improved rapid dominance brand, available in white and red.
• Mother 3 Handbook booster pack: A great companion for any handbook owner, or purchased alongside one! More details on this later.

Feel free to leave us some comments or discuss your merch on the Merchazawa forum. Thanks!!

Thanks to our fast-acting friends at Sunrise Silkscreen, we’ve restocked Hatness! Unfortunately these last few hundred hats are the last we’ll be able to stock until we find a new manufacturer, so once these are gone, they’re gone!

Also, shipping has been a little slow and will continue to be slow through the end of the week—Steve, our dedicated mailroom employee, is on vacation until next week, so I’m covering mailroom duty alone until then. Sorry in advance for the delay!

Note: We stop accepting MGS Preorders on JUNE 8! We might try to extend that a few days to make up for the late notice (just got a message out to the mailing list today), but if you want to guarantee yourself a customized dog tag, play it safe and get your orders in ASAP ;)

Whew, huge update time!

• Chronometer Shirt
• Millenial Fair Pins
• Borange Figurine
• Punk Skateboard
• EB Saga DVD + Poster

As usual we’ve got plenty of EarthBound merchandise stuff this time around, including our first-ever Meeellla figurines for direct sale! These little Boranges are already going fast—more than 1/3 have sold and they haven’t even been posted for a day yet—so if you want one, order soon!

The EB Saga DVD Poster is easily one of the coolest products in the store right now—not only were we able to produce a DVD poster combo priced at $20, but we managed to get the production costs low enough that more than half of each purchase goes to support the Ubsey Movies guys as they work on EB Saga 5 ( http://ebsaga.com ). Awesome.

Our first piece of functional art comes in the form of a Punk Skateboard designed by the irascible Alex LiCausi. Skaters can bolt on some trucks and ride, art lovers can hang it on their wall, old people can shake their canes and mutter angry platitudes—everybody wins.

We’ve not only restocked the black+gold Chronometer shirts, but they now also come in dark gray (Asphalt) screenprinted with metallic silver ink. They’re lovely and good, and they go well with our newest piece of Chrono Trigger inspired merch, the Millenial Fair Pins, designed by Jon!

One final note: THANK YOU. Our customers are so awesome. You guys never complain, and when you have questions/concerns you’re totally cool about everything. Not only that, but you guys snap up this merchandise at an insane pace, which keeps us happy and busy. If you would, take a minute to pat yourself on the back… and once you’re done with that, maybe tell a friend about the MGS merch, because it represents the future of Fangamer’s business! We can’t only do EarthBound merchandise forever, after all ;D

Thanks again everyone! Keep an eye on the Merchazawa forum—we’ll be making a topic regarding our next franchise later this month :D

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Finally, the reveal: we’ve teamed up with MGS:TUS to create an amazing new line of merchandise inspired by Metal Gear Solid. Thanks to Jon’s design geekery and Ryan’s code monkeying, if you preorder a shirt or bag you’ll not only get a high-quality piece of merchandise, but you’ll get a custom-engraved dogtag too :O

This is our first (of many) sets of merchandise whose profits will be going to support fansites. We think there’s no better way to truly support a franchise than by helping the fans help themselves (of course we’re a little biased). With that in mind, a portion of the shirt profits will go to the MGS:TUS folks and a portion of the profits from the bags will be going to support our friends at The Speed Gamers (who are doing a Metal Gear Marathon soon)!

• EB Saga DVD plus free poster (!)
• Shark Skateboard (limited edition of 50!)
• New, non-auctiony Meeellla figurines (!!)
• Chronometer reprint (plus a new color combo)
• A little something to go with the CT shirts :)

At 7PM CST on Monday night (May 18) the Speed Gamers will be auctioning off three Meeellla figurines for charity! Be there :D

Update: They blew past the donation goal of $6,000 after less than 48 hours! MOTHER fans are amazing :D

The Speed Gamers are doing a marathon run through the MOTHER series this weekend: 72 straight hours of MOTHER 1-3 from 6PM CST May 15 to 6PM CST May 18.

Speed Gamer marathons are always run for a cause. This time they’re raising money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to help find a cure for breast cancer.

To support this effort, Fangamer is offering offered rewards to people who donated to the marathon. If you want to support this great cause and score some free MOTHER series swag, go and visit The Speed Gamers and donate!

We will get in touch with the donors once the marathon is over for details.

As noted yesterday, we’re now totally stocked up with four brand new products, including:

• The new Hatness for those who don’t want to waste 9 months looking for one on their own ;D
• Our first Patch Pack (which includes the first and last version of the M3 Fan Translation patch you’ll ever be able to buy)
• Fobbies are Borange Pins, including a new 1/128 pin (Mondoooom~)
• Totally handmade Plushie Gummies by Eyes5

In addition to these, we’ve fully restocked the EB Yourself Shirts and added two new colors: kelly green and slate!

Also, if you’re a customer living outside the US, don’t forget to check out our revised International Shipping Policy, since we’ve had to change the way we handle lost first class shipments.

Since yesterday, just prior to the very kind Kotaku mention which is going to have us filling orders all weekend (thanks Luke [seriously!]) we’ve been steadily adding new products to the store. You can see all the new stuff in the rightbar, but I’ll save the ‘official’ new-merch update for tomorrow evening.

If you’re subscribed to the mailing list, you might want to hold off on your purchase for another day or so—we’re hoping to send out a small coupon tomorrow night :) In the meantime, some miscellaneous news/announcements:

• Orders will be shipping a little slow until this weekend, so please bear with us as Steve, Camille, and I work through the backlog (a good problem to have, for sure).
• We’ve got at least one big announcement coming a little later this month as we prepare to make strong moves into some new franchises. We’re also going to be giving new definition to our business model (hint: Starmen.Net isn’t the only fansite which deserves great merch). It’s gonna be awesome.
• I’ve been doing some miscellaneous maintenance on the store, but most importantly, I finally implemented product variants! No more massive lists of shirt styles/colors—everything is now pared down into nice pulldown boxes.
• Our friends at Mana Potions not only wore one of our shirts in their awesome chain gun video, but they also sent us a really cool package filled with neat things designed to increase our heart meters (and our heart rates)! I love those guys/girls.
• Brandon Boyer from Offworld, Bob Mackey from 61 FPS, Michael Abbott of Brainygamer, Rant Howard, and lots of other bloggers have bought their own copies of the Handbook (and other merchandise as well!) and then given us some very kind reviews. No payola or anything, just dudes who love good gaming merch! Heart = warmed, thanks guys :)
• You’ll notice that our merch updates are getting more ‘diverse’, and we’re starting to feature merchandise which supports independent artists. This is a goal I’ve personally been working towards for years now (oldbies may remember Artistorm), so it’s really exciting to finally see it happening. If you know a great artist who loves the classics and is interested in selling some handmade art, let us know!

PS: You can finally leave comments on these front-page updates! Hoorj!