Want to grab any of our Kickstarter-exclusive rewards before they disappear forever? If it's listed below, you've still got time to pre-order now!
PLEASE NOTE: The physical rewards below will not ship until at least July 2022. Digital rewards will be distributed as soon as they are ready.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
MST3K Weekly Update: August 9-13, 2021
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 12:23:52 AM
G’Day, backers!
We’ve got a briefer-than-usual update today, as Ivan is feeling under the weather and we’re encouraging him to get some rest. So it’s just me, Lesley, as your correspondent this Friday. Let’s get to the news!
PRODUCTION NEWS
Episode Writing is Ongoing! We are still on schedule, finishing Script 7 today, and after a lot of roadblocks finding a good print of Gamera with English dubbed dialogue, riffing on that started this week. Fun fact: Our agreement doesn't allow us to make any edits to Gamera, so we need to show you ALL of the 83 minutes, which means that'll be an extra-long episode. To make up for it, the Gamera Writers' Room won't be riffing a short.
(As an aside, I’m writing on this episode, and if I’m honest, the first couple days I was really goofily overwhelmed to be contributing to one of the jewels in the glittering MST3K Gamera crown. It’s also interesting to be working on an unedited movie; it definitely makes you appreciate the editing MST3K usually does to make certain movies less of a plod. But now you, the viewer, will get to see every fascinating minute of these rubber monster battles!)
Elsewhere, Joel has been on a much-needed family vacation this week, so the rest of us are holding things down and doing our best to stay on schedule.
KICKSTARTER NEWS
This is very much Ivan’s domain, but I wanted to let you all know that NO, the reward survey still hasn’t been sent out yet, but we are very close to launching. Watch these updates for more precise info next week.
EVENT NEWS: SUMMER FILM SERIES
Last Friday, over five thousand of you joined us for the first screening in our "Mindless Summer" film series, as we watched The Horror of Party Beach. Ready for more?
The MINDLESS SUMMER FILM SERIES continues TONIGHT AT 5PM PT / 8PM ET, with Tormented!
Join Matt McGinnis, along with Rebecca Hanson, Conor McGiffin, and Yvonne Freese for this seaside ghost story. The event begins at 5pm PT / 8pm ET on our YouTube and Twitch channels. If you can’t make it, we’ll leave the stream up for a week so you can watch it later. Hope to see you there. Tom Stewart killed me!
ALSO! Our pals at RiffTrax — Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett — are heading back to the big screen, with an all-new LIVE performance of a MSTie favorite: Hobgoblins! They'll be broadcasting to over 700 theaters across the U.S. this Tuesday, August 17th. Visit Rifftrax.com to find a participating cinema near you!
Join them, won't we?
COMMUNITY NEWS
Over on the forums we’ve got some new guidelines to replace the boilerplate language that was there before. Please give them a read, and as always, we invite you to join us if you haven’t already done so. To entice you, check out these topics from the past week:
Special to Pennsylvania MSTies: tickets to the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh shows will go on special backer presale starting on Wednesday, August 18. The presale code remains the same: MVSGN.
As always, find all the current tour info at MST3KLive.com. A few more dates will be added in the coming weeks.
MEET THE TEAM
Each week, we’re introducing you to another member of the MST3K production team. This week, it's...
MARY CHRISTEN, Writer
In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K?
I’ve been a writer on the show since 2013, the pre-Season 11 days. I get to watch bad movies and write riffs (or as they should be pluralized, “rives“...have I made that joke before? I feel like I have...) and sometimes I get to write a sketch or help develop an invention exchange. In Season 11 I even got to make a couple props (spoiler: that Cubist Tom Servo self-portrait from The Beast of Hollow Mountain wasn’t actually painted by him).
What do you love most about your job?
Getting to meet and work with the other writers since they’re all crazy geniuses (genii). We’re all life-long fans of the show, and since MST fans are always the nicest people, naturally MST writers are the nicest writers.
Tell us a fun fact about you.
I make videos of insects and spiders and set them to 8-bit sounding music I compose. Is that fun? It’s definitely a fact.
That’s all for us this week. As always, please do join us on the dedicated forum thread to discuss this update, or leave your comments below. We hope to see you at tonight’s Mindless Summer screening, but otherwise, have a magnificent weekend.
Your pal,
Lesley
MST3K Weekly Update: Aug 2-6, 2021
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Aug 07, 2021 at 12:43:46 AM
In This Update
Production News: More issues with movie rights. Costume fittings!
TONIGHT: The Horror of Party Beach screening at 5pm PT / 8pm ET
Meet the Team: Melody Orellana, Production Assistant
Hail and well met, friends!
It’s a new Friday and that means Ivan & Lesley are here with a new update.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
PRODUCTION NEWS
The Return of Movie Rights: Remember when we told you all the movies for season 13 were locked? Well, in an example of how tricky acquiring rights can be, we may have lost the movie we’d intended to use for our holiday episode. The good news is, we have another one that might be even better (or worse, depending on your perspective) already on deck, so we are working to finalize that.
Episode Writing on Schedule: Writing finishes today on Script 7, which means that script will begin revision next week. Since there’s not a ton of new stuff to report about writing at the moment, we’d like to invite any questions you may have about the writing process itself, and Lesley will include the best ones in her upcoming in-depth update about the writing process.
Travel Planning Underway: We started one other important task this week: we’re making plans for our cast and key crew to travel and stay in Pennsylvania for a few weeks in October, where the live tour cast will record all of their episodes before hitting the road for the tour. (Well, almost all of their episodes: right after the tour ends, they’ll be back on set to shoot the holiday special, which will include Jonah, Joel and Emily.)
Costume Fittings: Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Beez is hard at work prepping costumes for the live tour and the first few finished scripts. We don’t want to spoil anything by showing new costumes, but we can report that Beez and Yvonne met up for a fitting.
The pizza has nothing to do with the costume fitting. It’s not a clue.
KICKSTARTER NEWS
1. The REWARD SURVEY has not been sent out yet, but we’re almost there!
Right now, the biggest remaining task before sending it out involves the reward designs – we’re trying to finalize a few more details and design previews, especially for rewards like the T-SHIRT and CHALLENGE COIN, where there will be more than one design available.
Other than that, we’re still finalizing some loose ends and last-minute details, but the Reward Survey is almost ready to send out. We’re doing some final testing to make sure it all works as expected, but things are looking good… so keep an eye on next week’s update for an exact ETA of when we’ll be sending out surveys.
2. We’re still working through REWARD DESIGNS.
We’ve made a lot of progress on reward designs and specifications this week, but – as always – there’s still more to decide and figure out.
CLOTHING BRAND & COLORS: One of the big decisions this week involves the brand and colors we’ll use for the T-SHIRT and HOODIE rewards. Based on positive feedback during our first Kickstarter, we’re planning to use the Bella+Canvas 3001U for our t-shirts and the Bella+Canvas 3739 for our zip-up hoodie, but – as you can see if you check out those links – there are still a lot of colors to choose from. We know a lot of backers have asked for at least one option that isn’t on a black background, so if you’ve got opinions on which available color you think we should use for each shirt design, let us know!
CHALLENGE COINS: We’ve also made a lot of progress on the designs for the CHALLENGE COIN rewards. Over the last week, we read all of your feedback on the different metals available for the coins, and – like a lot of you – we’re leaning toward the more antique, textured options. If all goes well, we’ll have a preview of the coin designs next week, so stay tuned.
3. We’ve got a final image of the MUSICAL SNOWGLOBE!
After months of back-and-forth revisions, we finally have a look at the finished version of the MUSICAL SNOWGLOBE reward, and we’re pretty thrilled with how it came out:
As you can see, the actual globe, water and floating particles really pull the whole thing together, and make the model look a lot larger than it did on its own. We can’t wait to get these into your hands.
And like we said: if you didn’t pledge to get one during the Kickstarter, we did order a few hundred extras, which will be up for grabs as Add-On Rewards in your reward surveys.
4. We’re starting to plan the VIRTUAL SET VISIT reward!
Finally, an update on the VIRTUAL SET VISIT reward: We’re starting to plan the first part of that experience, which will take you inside the MST3K WRITING PROCESS. You’ll get to spend an hour or two watching our writers write riffs for a new short, followed by a Zoom Q&A session with our writing leads – Jonah Ray and Tim Ryder – as well as a few Season 13 writers.
As of now, we’re planning to schedule the VIRTUAL WRITERS’ ROOM VISIT for late August / early September, but if you got that reward – or if you decide to grab it as an Add-On Reward – don’t worry: we’ll send you more details in a few weeks.
EVENT NEWS: SUMMER FILM SERIES!
As we announced in the last update, our first-ever “MST3K Summer Film Series” has arrived… and now, we’re pleased to reveal the full schedule of movies for the next five weeks:
And just so we don't bury the headline:
The first MINDLESS SUMMER FILM SCREENING starts TONIGHT AT 5PM PT / 8PM ET, with The Horror of Party Beach!
Join Matt McGinnis, along with special guests Tim Ryder, Nate Begle and Beez McKeever, for a livestream screening of this classic Mike-era riff, as a radioactive spill creates a murderous fish monster bent on terrorizing partying teens on a nearby beach!
You can join the screening live tonight on YouTube and Twitch – or, if you can’t make it during tonight’s livestream, we’ll leave the entire thing up on YouTube for the next week.
(Also, since a lot of you have asked how you can get copies of Mike Norton’s amazing “MST3K: The Mindless Summer” artwork, we’re working on some options for next week. Stay tuned!)
COMMUNITY NEWS
Have you still not made it over to the new forums beta test yet? As a reminder, your exclusive backer invitation is waiting. Here are a few threads of interest from this week:
Also! This week we launched a new project on the forums: The Gizmoplex Data Team! In preparation for the launch of the Gizmoplex Video Store, we’re collecting screenshots (and favorite riffs) from each episode of the entire series run, starting with the first season. Because this is a huge undertaking, we thought crowdsourcing the effort might make the whole thing more fun. You can find all the details on how to participate here.
MEET THE TEAM
Each week, we’re introducing you to another member of the MST3K production team. This week, it's...
MELODY ORELLANA, Production Assistant
In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K? As a Production Assistant at MST3K, I assist in preparing documents and rooms for the writers, tracking and organizing art vendors and budget tracking.
What do you love most about your job? I love being involved with the writing process and the art vendors. MST3K has a great team and everyone is a joy to work with.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself! I love to cook homemade pasta and bread as well as enjoying the glory days of the 20’s and 50’s era music and clothes.
Thanks for reading, folks! As always, please do join us on the dedicated forum thread to discuss this update, or leave your comments below. Have a sumptuous weekend, all!
Your Correspondents,
Ivan & Lesley
MST3K Weekly Update: July 26-30, 2021
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Aug 01, 2021 at 05:23:17 AM
In This Update
Production News: Robot production photos! New offices!
Kickstarter News: Surveys haven't gone out yet! ETA: Next 2-3 weeks!
RewardNews: Work is starting on challenge coin designs.
Gizmoplex News: Blueprints drawn! Limited features in OTT apps.
NEW EVENT: The MST3K Summer Film Series starts next Friday!
Meet the Team: Clinton Trucks, Producer
Plus: Updates on the discussions forums + MST3K Live tickets!
Guten Tag, Freunds!
Lesley and Ivan again, back with your end-of-week update for July 26-30, complete with some photos from behind-the-scenes of production. Let’s begin!
PRODUCTION NEWS
Episode Writing Continues! As of today, we’ve reached the 1/3 point for writing Season 13… and with all of our movies locked, we’ve also confirmed the order in which the remaining episodes will be written, which host will be subjected to each movie, and — we think — the order in which we’re planning to premiere them.
Bot Fabrication Continues! We’ve teamed with the incredible pros at Monkey Boys for bot building and other prop fabrication and they’re making fantastic progress. We’ve now got a dedicated pro named Dylan, who is focused on MST3K 24/7. (You’ll meet him in a future update.) As of now, we’re just about done making our new round of Servos — complete with a new control mechanism for the mouth — and since we’re still waiting for some parts that we need to start fabricating Crow, we’ve skipped ahead to start working on some new GPCs.
We stopped into the workshop to get a few photos for you:
Off with their heads! Which haven’t gone on yet.
See? Plenty of heads. Everything is fine.
New GPCs in progress, for both the series and the live tour.
We’re Moving! Offices, anyway. As we get into production, we wanted to find a location with a lot more space, and also one that’s closer to the workshop where most of our props and robots are being fabricated. So, we’ve signed a lease to move to a new office starting in September — and it has enough space that we are planning to do most of our model and miniature filming right in the office. There’s nothing to see inside for now, but we do have this uninformative picture of the Alternaversal crew outside the front door!
Joel, Sharyl and Matt pose with the sign that almost definitely WON’T stay on the door.
KICKSTARTER NEWS
1. The REWARD SURVEY has not been sent out yet, but we’re getting closer!
This week, we made a lot of progress toward launching the reward survey, and have finished migrating “late pledges” from CrowdOx into BackerKit. If you’ve got friends (or enemies) who wanted to pledge and haven’t gotten the chance, they’ve still got a little more time to make a late pledge through our BackerKit store.
The survey itself isn’t 100% finalized, but it’s very close, so we’re hoping we’ll be able to get them sent out to you within the next 2-3 weeks at most. Stay tuned to these updates for more info about that.
2. We’re making progress on more REWARD DESIGNS.
At this point, the main obstacle to launch is finalizing the design (and pricing) for more of the new rewards, because we want you to have at least a basic idea of what you’ll get, while there’s still time to adjust your pledge and select more Add-Ons.
(Our aspirational slogan is: #MakeMoreMST3K! Now with 85% Less FOMO!)
We don’t have any images of reward progress we can show this week, but we can share this diagram of all of the possible metals available for our FOUR CHALLENGE COINS.
We think we know which ones we’re going to use, but take a look and let us know what metal(s) you’d be most excited to see. And while you’re at it, if you’ve got last-minute suggestions for what you think would look coolest on each coin, let us know your thoughts!
Also, while our original plan was to design the coins without additional color on them, we’ve received some beautiful examples of coins that use color in really elegant, unexpected ways, so we’re re-considering that plan now.
GIZMOPLEX NEWS
1. We’ve been working on the (literal) blueprints.
As strange as it might sound, one critical step toward launching the Gizmoplex is designing literal blueprints and floor plans showing how the entire theater is laid out in physical space. This is more complicated than you might think, because we want to make sure the Gizmoplex works both as a functional interactive experience — i.e. has clear, intuitive navigation that doesn’t require an instruction manual to use — and as a location that will appear within Season 13. Basically: In order to start working on the final illustrations and/or physical models, we need to know exactly how the entire space is laid out, and how you’ll navigate around when visiting.
We made a lot of progress on that planning this week — enough that we’re hoping to start visualizing the “final version” of each room and space within the Gizmoplex next week, and to be able to start developing the underlying interactions that will make it all work online.
2. An update on the OTT APPS for phones, tablets and TVs.
As we said during the Kickstarter, our goal for the Gizmoplex was to accomplish it with the smallest (initial) budget possible, so that most of what we raised could be used to make new episodes of MST3K.
So, while we’ve seen in the forum conversations that there are a lot of ambitious ideas and hopes about what the Gizmoplex apps will include – at least in their first incarnation – we want to manage everyone’s expectations a bit, so that you won’t be disappointed by our actual plans.
While we have a lot of ambitious, interactive plans for the web-based version of the Gizmoplex, including a virtual space that you can explore, watch parties, and more, our current budget will not make it possible to put a lot of that advanced functionality into the Apple, Android, Roku and Amazon apps that we’re developing.
Those device-specific apps are being developed through a partnership with Vimeo OTT (the same platform that we’re building the Gizmoplex site on top of), but there are definite limits to how much we can customize the interface or content of those apps.
Right now, our top priorities are to make sure that the apps are able to:
Stream any episodes you’ve bought from the Gizmoplex Video Store.
Stream any episodes you’ve gotten as Kickstarter rewards.
Browse, rent/buy and stream more content from the Video Store.
Download those episodes on phones/tablets for offline viewing.
Stream the livestream events and premieres we host each month.
Stream the monthly Gizmoplex Pass “featured selection” episodes.
In order to add more advanced features to the MOBILE AND TV APPS — like watch parties, navigation around a virtual theater, chat and message boards, etc — we’d have to dedicate a much larger budget to developing and maintaining completely custom apps. Again: we're still aiming to launch those features in the web-based version, but as of now, have no way to include them in the stand-alone apps.
While we’re definitely interested in exploring all of those features — and more! — in the future, our immediate goal is to make sure that we deliver what we promised during the Kickstarter: the ability to access all of your Gizmoplex content on device-specific apps.
If you've got more questions about this, please join the discussion on the MST3K forums – Ivan will do his best to read and answer as many questions as he can!
NEW EVENT: MST3K SUMMER FILM SERIES!
Last week, we mentioned that we’ve been working on something to make the rest of the summer a little bit more fun, and today we’re ready to tell you more.
During the Kickstarter campaign, a lot of you joined in for our series of LIVESTREAM RIFF-ALONGS, where a group of MST3K cast and special guests watched classic episodes together, made some new observations, and generally enjoyed themselves. When the campaign ended, a lot of you told us that you’d miss those regular livestreams, and as it turned out, we missed them too!
So, while we’re hard at work building the Gizmoplex to enable even bigger livestream experiences in the future, we thought it would be fun to get the cast back together for a SUMMER FILM SERIES, and watch some summer-appropriate classic MST3K episodes, and this time, we won’t even need to interrupt to ask for donations!
If you want to join in, here are the details:
Bonus points if you recognize the poster reference.
Next week, we’ll share the program of movies we’ve got planned, but for now, we hope you’ll save some time to join us for the next FIVE FRIDAY NIGHTS — from August 6 to September 3 — for our first-ever summer film screenings! Each screening will start at 5pm PT / 8pm ET.
And since we don’t want anyone to miss out, don’t worry: if you can’t participate live, you’ll be able to rewatch the livestream for 24 hours after it ends.
So order some beach snacks, grab your towel, and we’ll see you next Friday night!
Just a reminder that tickets to #MST3KLive’s Time Bubble Tour are currently on sale at MST3Klive.com. We’re still waiting on onsale dates for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Chicago; that timing depends on the theater, so if you’re waiting on one of these dates, we encourage you to (politely) call your local venue — you can find this info at MST3KLive.com — and ask them when they expect tickets to become available (and yes, backers will still get a 48-hour presale head start).
More dates will be coming in August, too!
NEW: MEET THE TEAM!
A few weeks ago, we asked for your suggestions about what to cover in these updates, and based on the responses, it seems like a lot of you are interested in learning more about the different people — and roles — that are working to #MakeMoreMST3K for you.
So, moving forward, we’ll be including mini-profiles and interviews with a huge range of people involved in all aspects of bringing MST3K to life… starting now!
CLINTON TRUCKS, Producer
In a sentence or two, what do you do on MST3K? My credit is simply Producer. But more specifically, I am the physical / line producer. This means that I take all the creative content that comes from Joel and the other writers and I decide how to spend our available resources to accomplish it. These resources are usually budgetary, but just as frequently cover our personnel and general morale.
What do you love most about your job? What I love most about my job is watching an idea or a joke turn into a real world thing that we can share and enjoy and exists forever.
Tell us a fun fact about you. I am most passionate about sandwiches and tabletop roleplaying games. The rpgs you can see on my actual-play Twitch channel, Stream of Blood. The sandwiches I enjoy without an audience.
That’s all for this week! You can join the discussion about today’s update over on the dedicated forum thread, or in comments below. Have a spectacular weekend, friends!
Your Correspondents,
Lesley & Ivan
MakeMoreMST3K Weekly Update: July 19-23, 2021
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 01:51:51 AM
In This Update
Production News: All movies locked! Five scripts written! COVID guidelines!
Kickstarter News: Surveys haven't gone out yet! Reward designs in progress.
Reward Previews: The Musical Snowglobe + Todd Nauck's poster artwork!
Community News: Come join in on the new MST3K forums!
Tour News: More dates and locations still to be announced in August!
Greetings, friends!
Welcome to your Friday update for July 19-23, 2021. Lesley and Ivan here, and we’ve got some exciting new details and sneak peeks for you in this week’s roundup, so... let’s hop to it!
PRODUCTION NEWS
Film Licensing: It’s official, friends. We've now selected and locked in all 13 movies + 12 shorts for season 13, including the movie for our next holiday special.
EpisodeWriting: Writing is now in progress for Movie 6, and finishing up today for Movie 5. (Again, the order we release the episodes will not necessarily be the order in which we’ve written them, but we are nearing the halfway point for the writing process.) Lesley has been in the writers room for Movie 5 for the past two weeks, and can report that we have some amazing writers working hard at baking hot fresh riffs for you. But you’ll hear more — much more — about the writing process in updates to come.
Robots & Costumes: In bot news, we're currently working on building a new set of Waverlys and Growlers – we only had one of each, until now. We are almost done building all of the Servos for the new season and will be moving on to Crows soon. We are also shipping Beez McKeever a heap of existing robot costumes from storage in LA to her workshop in Minneapolis so she can continue developing costumes for the new season.
Pre-Production: We are also dealing with changing-by-the-day guidelines on how to handle COVID on set, and what's required for vaccinations, and other questions. We have to plan ahead to make production happen, but the uncertainty created by variants is making that more complicated than we’d like it to be.
KICKSTARTER NEWS
1. The REWARD SURVEY has not been sent out yet.
We’re still getting closer each day, but it’s not ready to go quite yet. But remember, as soon as it goes out, we’ll send a special Backer Update to let you know… so until then, please don’t worry. You (still) haven’t missed anything!
2. We’re still finalizing as many REWARD DESIGNS as possible.
While we won’t have all of the reward designs finalized before you receive your reward survey, we’d like to show you near-final designs of as many rewards as we can, so that you can make informed choices in your reward survey. And, as we’ve mentioned before, that also takes time to finalize.
A few specific updates on the rewards in progress:
We're getting close to finalizing the CONCESSION KIT, and choosing our popcorn bucket and drink cup. We’re grateful that so many of you have shared your thoughts and feedback for that on the new MST3K forums, and want you to know that we are doing our best to factor that into our final decisions.
Since we know a lot of you are wondering, the CLASSIC EPISODE DOWNLOADSwill be available before the official launch of the Gizmoplex. We don’t have a definitive date for the downloads yet, because there’s still a lot of work involved to prep the files, but we’re doing our best!
Over the next week, we’re working to lock down the design of the #MakeMoreMST3K HOODIE, which will be available both as an upgrade to the T-SHIRT reward and as a stand-alone Add-On in the reward survey. As with the hoodie from our first Kickstarter, we’re aiming to include elements from one of the shirt designs, but with some adjustments to make it “work” as a hoodie.
Last week, we showed you some of the possible samples for the KINGAVISION 3-D GLASSES, and heard two things loud and clear: (1) A lot of you do want us to offer an option to upgrade to a more premium pair with a plastic frame, and (2) a lot of you have expressed concern about how the 3D glasses will work if you already wear corrective lenses. Based on your feedback, we are going to make sure you can upgrade to premium frames, and we’ve addressed the concerns about glasses on the forums. (TLDR: A lot of us wear glasses too, and can confirm that both the cardboard and plastic options we’re evaluating fit comfortably on top of most regular lenses.)
So, those are some of the things we’re working on. But – as promised in last week’s update – we also have a few new preview images to share this week.
3. Reward Preview: The MST3K MUSICAL SNOWGLOBE!
First, we’re happy to announce that the design, paint and music of the Musical Snowglobe are now completely locked, and the finished globes are in production. If you want to know what it’ll look and sound like, keep reading — but if you want to be surprised, maybe skip this next part.
First, as you might recall, we’ve learned a lot more about the musical limitations of music boxes than we ever anticipated, and have had to do some substantial revision to the MST3K “music box” theme that Paul Sabourin composed during our original Kickstarter.
In the end, we all agreed that the best option was to focus on an abridged segment of the theme, which will loop several times. If you can tune out the background noise in the factory, you can hear how it turned out:
While we still wish we could have gotten Paul’s entire rendition into the music box, the whole team feels this was the best available option. And, since that original music box rendition is too good not to use, we’ll also make sure that everyone receiving the musical snow globe also gets an MP3 of the full original version.
But wait, there’s more! We’ve also finished the paint design for the globe, which involved over 20 rounds of back-and-forth revisions with our partners overseas to get just right… and we’re honestly thrilled with how it came out.
See for yourself:
Fun detail: the Gizmonic “G” and checkerboard pattern on the side of the Backjack were too small to hand-paint, so we designed a special decal that will be put on each one by hand… and it’s just 2 mm x 6 mm in size.
We’re waiting to receive an actual physical sample now, but we’re really excited about how this came out, and proud of all of the work that went into it, so we hope that everyone receiving the snowglobe will be thrilled with the result. And, before you ask: yes, we ordered a few hundred extra, so if you didn’t get one during the Kickstarter campaign, you’ll still have a chance to get it when the reward survey comes out.
4. Reward Preview: TODD NAUCK’S POSTER
Last month, we also shared a look at the progress on Todd Nauck’s amazing poster artwork, which was unlocked as a free “bonus reward” for everyone getting the OFFICIAL POSTER reward, and based on the response, it sounded like you all liked it as much as we do.
Well, Todd has finished up some revisions and done a beautiful job of colorizing it, so we’re now able to show you the final design:
(Apologies for the watermark text. It won't be there on the actual poster!)
Also, we had Todd make an addition to the artwork which we want to point out. Since this image serves as a kind of “history” of Mystery Science Theater, we realized there was one important element missing: all of you!
And while we didn’t have room for 35,000 more people on the poster, we did want it to acknowledge everything you’ve done – both to #BringBackMST3K and to #MakeMoreMST3K… which is why you’ll now see two of our favorite Kickstarter rewards (the tiki mug and the musical snowglobe) in the scene, with the mug carefully positioned to announce “#WeBroughtBackMST3K.”
So, there’s the second poster. We’re thrilled with it, and we can’t thank Todd enough for volunteering his talent and time to bring this one to life.
COMMUNITY NEWS
The forums beta test continues, and we continue to welcome your feedback!
If you missed the invite link from Tuesday’s update, here it is again.
And here’s a small selection of this week’s active discussions:
Tickets to most of the second wave of dates for MST3K Live’s TIME BUBBLE TOUR go on sale to the general public TODAY at noon ET, so tell ALL your friends.
As always, all of the latest tour info is available on MST3KLive.com.
YES, more tour dates are coming soon. In August, to be more precise. Also, we will share the presale info for the few dates that haven’t gone on sale yet as soon as we can. (Looking at you, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Chicago. Thanks for your patience!)
ALSO! We are working on an announcement for next week – not related to the live tour! – that we hope will make the rest of the summer a little more fun while you're waiting for Season 13.
