Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Arkham Sanitarium Update

I just wanted to give a quick update on the status of the Arkham Sanitarium Prop Package.

The pledge period ended successfully on Monday night. Processing the payments through Kickstarter and Amazon will take, by their estimate, approximately 14 days. That means I'll be receiving the funds around September 6th.

The production files for the already announced items (the embroidered patch, lapel pin, postcards, and notebook) are ready to be sent to their respective manufacturers as soon as the payment arrives. The only item I'm considering fiddling with is the notebook design, but that should be taken care of next week. I'm optimistically assuming a two week production time, so I should have everything in my hands the week of September 20th.

I have a couple of ideas for additional items I'd like to include and would appreciate your feedback on what you would like the most.

- A custom printed patient file folder. File folders are difficult to produce at home without a straight-line, large format printer. Since I'm a teenaged geek at heart I get all giggly at the idea of assembling complete patient files for Lovecraft's protagonists.

- Staff ID card. This would be a period accurate card (no lamination) with space for a photograph to be stapled or glued to it. Having this done by a professional printer would avoid the issues encountered trying to do accurate two-sided printing on a DIY basis.

Please chime in if there's anything else you would like.

6 comments:

M. le Comte de Rigueur said...

How about a Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases Inspector's ID card?

Also, have you decided if you're making the M.U. pins available on your site in both brass and cloisonné? [I keep losing the eBay auctions to get the brass one!]

Anonymous said...

The patient file folder is a great idea, but as I have a number of Lovecraft characters plus a few distant family members that I'd like to have Arkham Sanitarium open a file on, I was wondering if you might allow for the purchase of multiple folders.

Thanks,
-Tim Lonegan-

Propnomicon said...

@ M. le Comte de Rigueur

An excellent idea, since the prop comes with a built in story hook.

I should have the new MU pins next month. I have a few of the brass finish pins that I can parcel out, but there's sufficient demand to justify switching all the lapel pins over to full color cloissone.

@ Anonymous

I'm sure we can work something out for additional folders. The vendor I'm using does them in lots of 100, so I should have at least 20 extras.

Raven said...

Ambitious? Large-scale name-and-logo decals to apply to the white 1920s-style ambulance/paddywagon of your choice... or, well, the family car, if needs must.

Costuming w/ patches: If good sources are found for lab coats and nursing/orderly uniforms to sew the patches on -- definitely post these here, so we can have some commonality in appearance if there are get-togethers. Also discuss where patches are sewn (which arm, how many inches from shoulder seam, etc.), whether names are embroidered and in what fonts -- same reasoning. We're independent, but we can still choose to try to coordinate. (Cf. Dr. Steel's "Toy Soldiers".)

However, no hint of imposing any Forced System From Above, since (1) pffft, nobody cares what "orders" Ve Haff Giffen, (2) they can say Yessir and do something else anyway [how are we going to know?], (3) we Commanded them to use a type 3 lab coat and there were none to be found in their area or with their budget, so they went ahead with a type 2....

Anonymous said...

I too think that this is a great idea!! I may also buy at least one extra file.

Propnomicon said...

@ Raven

Wouldn't a vintage ambulance just kill? What's the Powerball jackpot up to? Heh.

There have been some rumblings that Zazzle might be broadening their offerings to include surgical scrubs and lab coats. If that happens I'm definitely on board.

Beyond that, if anyone wants to use the sanitarium logo for a costume I can provide high resolution files.

@ Anonymous

Based on the feedback I'll see about ordering some extras.