GC Merchandise

[nikita]

Created to prevent further off-topic posts in "Questions to Tom".

[nikita]

So, as I mentioned already, I could imagine something like this as merch:


I think selling stuff like that would be an interesting option. On the one hand fan's will immediately recognise it, on the other hand, normal people who don't know the comic will not think you're weird when they see it.

Also, I think those could be produced at home and at relatively low costs.

[imaginaryfriend]

Hmmm... I'm not sure what's required for decorating coffee mugs. I don't think that's the sort of thing you can just paint on, not with normal paint anyway. I guess it'd be some sort of transfer print; if it's high temperature then it may be expensive to get started.

Some of my friends do T-shirts at home and get really good results. I think a decent screen-printing starter set runs maybe $160-200US and can be found at most large craft stores. The general consensus is that newbies to the process can expect to screw up their first few but afterward can run off medium-sized lots pretty fast.

I'll throw out some other ideas here though they're all just shots in the dark. Not knowing Tom's situation, the unrequested advice I can give is very limited. I assume he is crunched for money and time like most people. It may be difficult for him to make things at home, too. (note/) I'm not asking for details about that. I don't expect him to post anything about that and would discourage him from it for obvious reasons, but I do hope that some of this dialog helps in some small way. (/note)

The big ones we haven't mentioned in previous posts are posters and collectible patches. Posters are cheap to produce (pennies each in quantity) though difficult to ship. I did do a small lot of embroidered iron-on patches a while ago that ran me about $340 for 100 in three color; an additional 100 would have run me another fifty bucks and there are increasingly steep price breaks after that. That might be something to think about because they were really cheap to mail and can go in the regular post or airmail in normal envelopes. Yes, these things require a lot of money up front but the profit margin's high per unit. I eBay'd the patches for an average of $11 each not counting s/h.

I'm also doodling a list of less-common things that might go well with GC and will post it when I've got a bunch.

[tonie]

Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't by far the easiest way to create merchandise be to use a service like this: www.cafepress.com/? They let you use your own design to create t-shirts, mugs, cards etc (just click on "make your own stuff"). And you can then sell it on the site.

[spritznar]

iron on patches are a cool idea. another option along those lines is buttons, and they might be cheaper/easier to make than patches

and i agree with tonie, working through a service sounds more practical than making stuff from home in this case.

one problem with all this that hasn't really been discussed is marketing. how would tom get people to buy the stuff? i mean most of the fans from here would know about it and love it if tom sold stuff; but on a larger scale, how would less obsessive fans (or even non-fans) learn about this cool stuff he's theoretically selling?


EDIT: also that makes an awesome coffee mug. i only use mugs once in a blue moon but i would still buy one cause it's just that awesome

[rc5]

I definitely agree that something like cafepress would be great. Granted, I don't know how much you get per item sold...

[nikita]

tonie said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't by far the easiest way to create merchandise be to use a service like this: www.cafepress.com/?

Looks like a good place to start merchandising stuff. The prices look reasonable too, considering that they do the whole payment/shipping/hosting for you. Most importantly, it's a huuuuge time saver.


rc5 www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/intro_money
You can set the retail price as high as you want.

[imaginaryfriend]

rc5 said:

I definitely agree that something like cafepress would be great. Granted, I don't know how much you get per item sold...

There is a tradeoff with those places. It's easy, fast, and Tom wouldn't have to give them any money. All you need to do is set up the account and upload the images. The downside is that Tom wouldn't make much money off the stuff sold and the sorts of things that can be made are limited.

Part of the reason those places are expensive is that these things are made one at a time as people order them. A middle road might be for Tom to get the stuff made by the batch elsewhere that's cheaper and handle the orders and shipping himself. It'd be more hassle but he'd make a lot more money per item, but there's a downside... he'd need to pay for the stuff up front.

And yeah, I'd forgotten about buttons. They're pretty cheap too and lots of places can do them.

[imaginaryfriend]

spritznar said:

one problem with all this that hasn't really been discussed is marketing. how would tom get people to buy the stuff? i mean most of the fans from here would know about it and love it if tom sold stuff; but on a larger scale, how would less obsessive fans (or even non-fans) learn about this cool stuff he's theoretically selling?

The best marketing of all is to offer stuff that people really want to buy. If you do they'll look for you. Even better is stuff that people will love and wear/use around other people who might then become interested in GC (this is called viral marketing).

I suspect that GC already has a fanbase big enough to support a small run of medium-priced swag once per year; the sales of the GC1.1 book should prove that. In addition there seem to be a lot of younger female readers who might want to support the comic but can't afford T-shirts or similar things. Buttons and patches might be able to reach them, and in addition I think Tom could offer blinker stones or Annie's blue hair berets (from the early chapters). That stuff could retail for $3-5 or possibly a bit less, which about anyone could afford.

Yes, if Tom wants to offer high-end swag or more varieties then he may have to increase the fan base more than it would naturally just by word of mouth and book sales. I'm not sure that's what he wants to do, he may just want ideas for marketing to people he already has.

One way to gather new people to GC would be ads on sites of similar theme. There are banner sharing plans where you give ad space on your website in return for ad space on someone else's site and some are free. Another way is realspace marketing, like handing out fliers for GC at a local pub or coffee house where college-age people or artistic people would gather. The fliers would have some art, some info about the comic, and most importantly the addy for the comic. Many places will let you do that for free if you ask nicely. Another and more direct way would be for Tom to get a booth at the next comic con in his area and sell books there; he can hand out fliers or cards while he's at it, or even sell merchandise.

That gets new readers to the site. Most likely they won't want to buy things for quite a while but some will after they get into it. From the site, of course, the most common thing is a banner or button link from the main comic page to a store page (or to a GC cafepress store front or whatever) where they can actually buy.

[Mezzaphor]

There's already a "Support the Comic" button on the front page. Currently, it links to the page where we can donate money or order an original drawing; it also had a link to the page where you could order the Lulu book, back when those were still for sale. (If I remember right, back before Tom started doing drawings, that button read "The Book" and went straight to the Lulu page.)

[rc5]

imaginaryfriend said:

A middle road might be for Tom to get the stuff made by the batch elsewhere that's cheaper and handle the orders and shipping himself. It'd be more hassle but he'd make a lot more money per item, but there's a downside... he'd need to pay for the stuff up front.

Well, when you put it that way, the 'middle road' makes a lot more sense. I know nothing of merchandising in any case, so... yeah.

Button packs sound cool. I dunno what I'd do with them personally, but I'd find something eventually. =P I totally want that Mort design on a shirt still though. Like, I want it really bad.

[imaginaryfriend]

It's a funny thing, with donations... Some people will never ever donate money but will support via buying something small for much-higher-than-retail prices instead. It's a problem that not-for-profits run into on a regular basis. That's why PBS always gives "gifts" at all the levels of support, the more you give the nicer the thank-you gift is.

Some people have suggested that the reason behind that is rooted in the desire to have something concrete to hang on to after the charitable gift.

Don't worry about not knowing marketing and advertising; the truth is that you're an expert but you don't know it. Everyone from a market or quasi-market economy is. We've been surrounded by the stuff since we were born. As soon as you start paying attention to it you'll start to figure out how much you already know. Even without thinking about it most people can look at a commercial or advert and pull out the information that's interesting or useful to them and ignore the rest without effort.

Every human is also studied in the art of persuasion. Training begain in childhood; all of us started out with no way to get what we need or want on our own, we had to get our parental units to do/get things for us.

Just take the skill in the one area and add it to the other. All the rest is common sense.

[imaginaryfriend]

Actually, forget what I said about me listing possible GC merchandise. There’s way too many possibilities, most of which are long-shots or high-end stuff that wouldn’t be sensible before book #3. Here’s a short list of things that I think would be most practical and the reasoning behind them. I’ve included a guess about how much they could retail for; apologies for giving the prices in USD but I don’t know how much things cost in the UK.

Icons and Banners (free) A good way to promote GC would be to help the readers do it. Likenesses of characters could be clipped from existing strips for the icons with minimal effort (as many already know) to be used as icons for chats, blogs, or whatever. Also if a selection of GC banners was available I’m sure many readers would be happy to support GC by placing them on their websites and link them back to the comic.

Quizzes (free) Fans want to get involved in the things they‘re fanatical about. Enjoying media like web comics is at heart a passive activity. Making comments and posting to the forums are transformative things that allow fans to become active participants. Online quizzes are popular and I think they’d be a great way to get people involved. An additional advantage of these would be that on completion the respondent could get hypertext to the result so that they could post it on their websites and serve the same purpose as banners. Also, these quizzes are lots of fun. “Which Gillitie Wood Creature are you? You are a Suicide Fairy- seek professional help immediately.” The real cost of these would be the time setting them up and hosting them, but once they’re up they can stay up forever, you can just add new ones as the mood strikes you.

Small 8x10 Prints or flat folded 11x14 Small Posters (free with donation) Like I said in an earlier post there are many people who’d like to support things but won’t unless they can have something tangible in return, however small. It’s inexpensive to run off high-quality copies in small sizes; if individually signed and dated (and numbered with the run number, for example 1/100 means #1 from a limited edition of 100) these copies become collectables. If you change the donation gift a few times per year you’ll probably get some repeat customers as well. There won’t be a lot of “profit” per copy after the cost of shipping and the envelope, but there will be some. Maybe best of all, they can be pre-loaded into envelopes in advance and then addressed and postage affixed when ready to be sent out, so there’s not too much effort involved. These small donations can add up!

Blinker Stones ($5ish plus shipping) I’d like there to be something sparkly and pretty and inexpensive that the younger readers could take to school and show off to their friends. The more I think about blinker stones the more I like them as low-priced GC collectables. There are many craft stores that have tumbled glass stones for potting, some stores allow you to root through the bins and select only the ones you want. They charge by weight, usually. The stones might need further polishing in a rock tumbler, depending on what a blinker stone actually looks like in real life (only Tom knows for sure). It might also be fun to put Antimony’s symbol on them with acid (available from well-stocked craft stores for etching glass). Wash with plenty of running water and dry thoroughly before packing and shipping. The downside of this would be that you’d have to construct some packaging for them to make sure they look and promote GC, because some would probably become gifts to people who aren’t familiar with the comic. I think they’d need little poly bags and cardstock for the back. The cardstock backings would be something you could have done at the local copy shop and the bags are available from many places. Yes, this idea would be a bit messy and require some time but it won’t cost much and I think it’d be a really nice Christmas gift for young GC fans. Two warnings: First, make sure they’re bigger than one inch so they’re not choking hazards. A “not for children under seven” caution on the package is a good idea. Second, don’t tell anyone where you got these, it’ll ruin the magic. If any child asks, tell them elves bring them in baskets from under the hillsides or something.

T-shirts (mid-range in price, maybe $25ish plus shipping) I like the idea of T-shirts for the mid-range collectable. They appeal to fans who like to display their fanhood in public, and fans sort of expect T-shirts to be available as a sign that a web comic has arrived… I suppose it’s like a status symbol and a conversation starter. Ideally it’d have the name of the comic written somewhere in the distinctive font, perhaps somewhere subtle that wouldn’t interfere with the design, if cost permits. More importantly it should use the distinctive color scheme from the strips to reinforce the basic idea. Now, depending on how these get made Tom could make $10 from each shirt (if he fronts the money for them or makes them himself, and packs/ships them himself) or as little as a couple dollars (if he goes through someplace that will do such things for him).

Other made-on-demand things are fine; from reading posts I’m thinking that many fans would like some merchandise that commemorates their favorite character or symbol from the GC world. I’m not sure there’d be more than a handful (meaning five or less) sold of each, but if they bomb you’re not really out anything except the account set-up time and uploading the images. If you set up an account somewhere reputable you can offer random things whenever you like, I’m pretty sure there is no charge for keeping things up that aren’t selling but if so you can drop them when sales slack off.

There’s a lot of potential for high-end GC merchandise but I won’t go into it here. It’s interesting to think about but I don’t really see it happening until somewhere around book #3, if things keep going as they’re going. We can always brainstorm about it then.

[nikita]

Although some of these ideas are too much marketing in my opinion, some of them are still good.

I think one thing that would actually be doable would be shirts with different drawings of characters from the comic on them.
- people can buy a shirt with their favourite character
- you can collect them
- can be done in a reasonable amount of time (cafepress, spreadshirt, ...)

[imaginaryfriend]

Let me add that the list of things for GC merchandise I put together can be phased in piecemeal over years and isn't an aggressive marketing/promotion campaign. It focuses on just two things for promotion and makes money while doing them. First, it enables fans who want to help and gives them some common fandom tools. Second, it tries to retain younger fans who find GC and love the story but lose interest because they're too impatient with the pace of updates.

I mean no criticism for Tom in that, it goes with the territory when you've got a webcomic that tells a complex story. Younger people just have trouble with waiting and they're prone to wandering off. I believe if the wee 'uns can have icons and banners it will get them talking more about GC with their friends online. The blinker stones (or buttons, if the faboo blinker stones aren't possible) will do the same thing in realspace. That should give them some venues to connect with friends and engage in wild speculation that they might feel nervous about in an all-age forum... or better to say, enables them to bring GC to the venues they already have.

[imaginaryfriend]

(image deleted due to loss of hosting)

What about something like this?

The text is blocked out for sake of the mockup but it should give you an idea what the end result would look like.

[elycium]

imaginaryfriend said:

Blinker Stones ($5ish plus shipping) I’d like there to be something sparkly and pretty and inexpensive that the younger readers could take to school and show off to their friends. The more I think about blinker stones the more I like them as low-priced GC collectables. There are many craft stores that have tumbled glass stones for potting, some stores allow you to root through the bins and select only the ones you want. They charge by weight, usually. The stones might need further polishing in a rock tumbler, depending on what a blinker stone actually looks like in real life (only Tom knows for sure). It might also be fun to put Antimony’s symbol on them with acid (available from well-stocked craft stores for etching glass). Wash with plenty of running water and dry thoroughly before packing and shipping. The downside of this would be that you’d have to construct some packaging for them to make sure they look and promote GC, because some would probably become gifts to people who aren’t familiar with the comic. I think they’d need little poly bags and cardstock for the back. The cardstock backings would be something you could have done at the local copy shop and the bags are available from many places. Yes, this idea would be a bit messy and require some time but it won’t cost much and I think it’d be a really nice Christmas gift for young GC fans. Two warnings: First, make sure they’re bigger than one inch so they’re not choking hazards. A “not for children under seven” caution on the package is a good idea. Second, don’t tell anyone where you got these, it’ll ruin the magic. If any child asks, tell them elves bring them in baskets from under the hillsides or something.

An easier way to make a blinker stone, and to get them all to be similar to one another, would be to make them out of resin. Resin can be bought at most craft stores and is relatively inexpensive. I think a can of it is like $11 and you could probably get well around 30-40 stones out of it. They have molds for the resin as well, which are about $4. I think the catalyst required for some resins is another $4, so for about $20 you could make blinker stones that have the sort of gem like look like it did in the comic, and they'd all look like that. Resin is easy to colour, too. And they could be sold for little, so anyone could afford them. Just tossing that idea out there too. Blinker stones would be fun to have.

[imaginaryfriend]

elycium said:

An easier way to make a blinker stone, and to get them all to be similar to one another, would be to make them out of resin. Resin can be bought at most craft stores and is relatively inexpensive.

I thought about resin casting for Blinker Stones but I've got some concerns. I'm not sure that acrylic resin (the common clear sort) would make a good gemstone for handling by children. They tend to put things in their mouths. Also if the catalyst isn't mixed right it can stay soft and tacky for a long time.

Clear polyester resin might work better but it's more expensive; I think a quart plus mkep and dye would probably run $40-50. I've done silicon molds for small things with that process and gotten some decent results, but for making bigger and multi-stone molds that last it probably should be of mold-resin lubed with proper mold-release.

btw: I think there'd be a need for multiple molds because mixing that small an amount of resin one stone at a time would be a mighty pain in the rear.

I've heard there are places where you can order special resins that are child and food friendly but I don't have any experience with those. I doubt that anyone can order that stuff by the pint or quart but maybe it could be eBay'd or or maybe someone has connections. Anyone know? If we can find an economical way around these issues then resin casting would be the way to go.

Here's hoping this works out! I'd love to be able to order one for my little cousin; I'm just now introducing her to GC.

[Mezzaphor]

Regarding t-shirts, I personally prefer simpler, more iconic designs. Like, any of these designs (#3 being my favorite).

[imaginaryfriend]

I like them too, Coyote being my fave followed by Mort and the Court one. There's something about the Forest one that just doesn't blow my kilt up. Maybe it'd be better in another color.

I have to echo what Aspen d'Grey wrote in the shirts thread though... Without the GC name somewhere they're not much good for promoting GC. Promotion should be one of the primary purposes of making shirts, along with making Tom some money to offset some of the time/effort he sinks into GC.

PS: About mugs, did you know that for $3 more on cafepress a mug can be upgraded to a stein? Mort might look cooler on a stein.

[fr4tbrn]

I don't know how this would happen, but I'd be the happiest person ever if GC and Kidrobot somehow collaborated. Just throwing this out there.

[nikita]

imaginaryfriend said:

I have to echo what Aspen d'Grey wrote in the shirts thread though... Without the GC name somewhere they're not much good for promoting GC.

Agree, I wouldn't mind having the url printed on the back somewhere. Unless Tom feels the extra cost for this is too high.

[imaginaryfriend]

Bear with me on the math here...

Assuming the standard T instead of the cheapo thin-fabric one, cafepress would charge $15.99 for a light shirt plus $3 for back printing. Not counting Tom's cut or shipping that'd be $18.99 each. (For comparison, the budget one costs $8.99.)

Since something like the Mort shirt would be only a single color in two locations it could almost certainly be made cheaper elsewhere. For example, customtshirtmakers.com charges a setup fee of $31.25 per color per location; the base cost for a color T is $4.58, min q of 24. So using a black T and white print on front and back it'd cost $7.19 each for 24 shirts, again not counting shipping or Tom's cut. The more shirts that are made the lower the unit cost to make (because the setup is divided more ways). There's additional price breaks at 72 and 144.

So, if the sale price is $20/shirt then Tom (on 24 shirts) would make $1.01 each at cafepress as opposed to $12.81 each if he went with customtshirtmakers.com, less initial shipping to his residence. The main downsides are that he'd have to cough up the money up front (unless he took pre-orders), and he'd be responsible for taking/sending orders himself. The more shirts that are made at once, the more he'd make per shirt.

This is why I've been lobbying in favor of a batch being made at once instead of on-demand. It's also a good reason for us fans to desire GC promotion. The wider the fan base the cheaper things can be made and the more money Tom makes so it's a win/win. Also, if Tom wanted to get a booth at a comic convention and sell shirts there, he'd have a box ready on hand. You can't easily take print-on-demand to a con.

For full color customshirtmakers.com doesn't have an online quote but I assume it'd be 4 color, so doing full color would cost less elsewhere. Staples would be one of the first places I'd go to if it were me (as I live in the USA) but they don't have an online quote either. Likely there's a local T-shirt place where Tom lives that could do an excellent job.

[imaginaryfriend]

I bet someone already makes something exactly like a blinker stone. I've checked a few places and found octagon jewels in glass and acrylic that are similar but too small. Anyone know a jewelry or prop supply place that would have gems bigger than one inch or 3cm (for scale and to prevent choking)?

(edit/) I found some pendants that are sorta like a blinker stone but they're rectangular cut instead of emerald cut. They come in a range of colors and prices. This particular one's a 28x40mm coral quartz. Right size, almost right color, shape not right. Looks a bit like the blinker stone with the string around it though.

(images deleted due to loss of hosting)

This one's a bit too big at 8cm. It's sold some places as a lucky wishing feng shui stone, other places as a lead glass paperweight.

(images deleted due to loss of hosting)

Here's the blinker stone for comparison.

(images deleted due to loss of hosting)

It's easy to find the right shape and color in stones that are too small but I still figure there's actual blinker stones out there somewhere. (/edit)

[imaginaryfriend]

I looked around and couldn't find anything that anyone was already making that looks enough like a blinker stone to be worth it but I still suspect there's one out there somewhere.

Meanwhile, to prove I'm not talking through my hat about how easy they'd be to make I whipped up a latex mold and cast one. To avoid the question of resin toxicity I just used candy. It took about one weekend to make the mold and another weekend to get the candy formula looking exactly right.

I've posted a photo of it under the fan art thread. gunnerkrigg.proboards75.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=21&page=24

[imaginaryfriend]

Replying to things said in the fanart thread:

May 2, 2008 17:42:44 GMT nikita said:

Indeed! Because choking to death on candy is much better than to choke on plastic! ;D

Forgive me for taking your joke seriously but that is actually a serious point. Very young children should be monitored while eating hard candy. It can erode into sharp fragments or shapes that can plug throats. The advantage candy has over plastic is that a dangerous piece will dissolve somewhat quickly. The advantage of a plastic blinker stone is that it won't dissolve and can be made into shapes that are too big for a young child to swallow.

Most people already know this or can figure it out but there will always be some who won't or can't. On the other hand, if someone did somehow get injured on a blinker stone Big Business could be counted on to file a brief in GC's defense. Very young children should always be monitored anyway. If we got rid of every food that could cause injury through improper eating we'd all have no choices except baby food and mush.

May 2, 2008 11:16:40 GMT silvercat said:

I agree : that blinker stone's utterly amazing!
It reminds me of a chocolate ladybug I got when I was a kid, though : I couldn't bring myself to actually *eat* it so I saved it for months and months until it was moldy, white and a bit soft... finally I threw it out.

Wouldn't that come into play with the blinker stone? I guess if you have a box of them / know how to make more, it'd be less of an issue...

It might but that's not a bad lesson for a young child, really. The chocolate ladybug is pretty but won't last forever even if you take very good care of it.

The ones I made have natural stabilizers but no preservatives. Now that I think on it, it was a bit refreshing to eat candy without preservatives. I assume blinker stones made for sale would have preservatives to keep them stable when shipped. Also, if blinker stones were made commercially I assume they'd be wrapped in plastic and as a hard candy they probably won't decay unless opened and exposed to moisture.

My main concern about the practicality of selling candy blinker stones is that they're big, chunky, stickless lollipops that are perfect for getting small children sticky and dyed red. As an adult I had a bit of trouble eating one until it was small enough to handle comfortably. That sort of thing can annoy parents after it happens a few times and that may lead to fewer repeat sales.

[silvercat]

Seems like the chocolate lady bug and the candy blinkerstone raised some sensitive topics about child rearing... which reminded me of Antimony's experience.

Giving a child a toy that's candy in order to test her or his philosophical detachment from material possessions...well that can also backfire, can't it? Instead of a thorough appreciation for the present moment, it could lead to deepseated consumerism : since nothing lasts, you might as well use and discard before it leaves you.

Antimony appears to have had a similar reaction towards the guides. She's very angry with them, either for taking her mother, or for misleading her innocent self into crossing over the dying...
Still, Anitmony's so wonderful that she can still behave properly.

Anyway : a bit more *ontopic*
I feel that blinker stones made from candy would ignore the basic nature of the blinker stones (as far as we know it) : it's a *stone* which does many things. It unfolds its secrets. Licking candy just reduces it.

[imaginaryfriend]

May 3, 2008 7:12:30 GMT silvercat said:

Giving a child a toy that's candy in order to test her or his philosophical detachment from material possessions...well that can also backfire, can't it? Instead of a thorough appreciation for the present moment, it could lead to deepseated consumerism : since nothing lasts, you might as well use and discard before it leaves you.

Antimony appears to have had a similar reaction towards the guides. She's very angry with them, either for taking her mother, or for misleading her innocent self into crossing over the dying...
Still, Anitmony's so wonderful that she can still behave properly.

There does seem to be some similarity between the broken glass metaphor and the chocolate ladybug.

There are a thousand tiny tragedies of childhood. Toys break, candy is eaten or stolen by siblings, and beloved relatives come for visits and suddenly disappear. Most of these sad events are forgotten by young children. Some stick with us as symbols for greater truths and patterns that we see in our lives. If these truths and patterns are too traumatic for a child to handle at a given age then the symbol will be a tragic one and a particularly uncomfortable memory.

I expect the reason the broken glass stands out in the character Antimony's mind is that it makes a good symbol for the pattern her life seemed to be taking (doubly so as she fell from the bridge). Shielding Antimony or any other child from what becomes the symbol doesn't deal with the underlying problems. It just makes them harder to talk about. In other words, if Antimony had never broken the glass she would still feel betrayed by the psychopomps/guides, abandoned by her father, confused and a little scared by Gunnerkrigg Court in general, and mourn her mother. She just wouldn't think about a water glass as she falls.

Please understand, I'm not suggesting that candy blinker stones should be given to young children to hammer home a philosophical lesson or to test for psychological issues. I'm just saying that candy toys can be fun for children old enough for them. Children not old enough to handle the loss of the candy because they ate it are probably not old enough to eat an over-sized hard candy anyway.

May 3, 2008 7:12:30 GMT silvercat said:

I feel that blinker stones made from candy would ignore the basic nature of the blinker stones (as far as we know it) : it's a *stone* which does many things. It unfolds its secrets. Licking candy just reduces it.

We don't really know that much about blinker stones at this point other than Mort gave one to Annie via Muut as a thank-you present for helping him do his job, and that Mrs. Donlan had one in the past but doesn't now. If the beings of the etherium make blinker stones (which is reasonable to assume at this point until we learn more) then the uses that we've seen humans put them to may be incidental to the purposes they were made for. Blinker stones seem to be able to make lights and energies (signs and fire) from thought, which strongly resembles Mort's abilities. If that's the case we may discover someday that it can be used to make illusions also. I don't think we've ever seen a blinker stone reveal secrets exactly, but it might make a handy Mort detector if nothing else.

Further, if blinker stones are made by beings of the etherium they may not be matter as humans would understand it. They may have odd properties, especially if eaten by the person they were made for. We can't yet rule out the possibility that it if Antimony eats her blinker stone she may gain those Mort-like abilities permanently, as perhaps Mrs. Donlan did in the past. That would explain her magical powers. Mort may be wondering why Antimony *hasn't* eaten the blinker stone yet.

Who knows? It might even be a quasi-lifeform.

(note/) That train of thought should give Mr. Siddell a nice headache... People on his board are wondering if Mrs. Donlan's powers come from eating her old blinker stone... (/note)

[silvercat]

May 3, 2008 11:35:27 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

(note/) That train of thought should give Mr. Siddell a nice headache... People on his board are wondering if Mrs. Donlan's powers come from eating her old blinker stone... (/note)

Eep! *blushes*
I'm turning into a grown-up adult! I only see what's in front of my eyes. Blech, it's a weird feeling. Reminds me of the thread 'bout the Valentine's letters : those children made some spectacular remarks, didn't they? I wonder what they'd like as Gunnerkrigg Court merchandise...if they want to fight Reynardine and the white lady, dolls might not be the best idea hehehe.

[imaginaryfriend]

May 5, 2008 1:27:44 GMT silvercat said:

Reminds me of the thread 'bout the Valentine's letters : those children made some spectacular remarks, didn't they? I wonder what they'd like as Gunnerkrigg Court merchandise...

Not a bad idea, lots of people love those and might like a life-sized copy as a thank-you gift for a donation to support GC. Sadly the idea is probably dead on arrival for legal reasons. Since the authors are kids they can't sign a release for Tom to use their work; it would be a big headache to explain to their parents or guardians and get them to sign off on it.

Let me modify your idea and reflect it back to you for comment: How about replicas of Kat's letters to Antimony from her vacation instead? Those would also be dirt-cheap to produce in large numbers, and folding-flat for mailing would make them more realistic.

May 5, 2008 1:27:44 GMT silvercat said:

if they want to fight Reynardine and the white lady, dolls might not be the best idea hehehe.

In that case, maybe action figures would be better than dolls. They can withstand more fighting. Plushies might be popular and I've seen them withstand some abuse as well.

I have a friend who has "plushie battles" with her little sister. The battle mainly consists of both of them taking a few handfuls of plushies; someone places one in the center of the bed (or floor or whatever gladiatorial arena they've chosen) as an opening move, and then they wing plushies as hard as they can at opposing plushies. The unspoken rules of the game seem to be similar to playing marbles, the main object appears to knock enemy plushies as far away as possible. Only they know exactly where the circle is that marks when a plushie is "out." There appears to be a rule against grabbing and throwing enemy plushies in the beginning but it always breaks down at the end. Or, maybe whoever's losing starts cheating. The game always degenerates into them throwing plushies at each other which is lots of fun to watch.

For myself, I think the GC characters would make excellent lead miniatures. I free-associated the idea early on and it's been growing on me. That's not something that would be profitable for Tom to do for a long time, even if he did everything himself, but it would be an excellent collectible.