A More Sustainable Approach to Pre-Orders In the past, we’ve offered pre-orders as a way for customers to plan ahead—but this often came at a cost. Locking ourselves into rigid deadlines introduced stress for our development team and, as many of you know, rushing to meet deadlines rarely produces the best results. We’ve seen it across industries—and we’ve felt it ourselves. To maintain quality and protect our team’s well-being, we paused the model in favor of flexibility and sustainability. That said, after refining our internal workflows over the past few months—including handling more painting in-house—we’re now able to reintroduce pre-orders, but in a more mindful and sustainable way. Why This Matters Previously, we produced small batches of products in advance, hoping they’d find homes. But this led to over 2,000 painted heads sitting in our studio at any given time—a situation that’s no longer viable as we evolve. By shifting to made-to-order production for certain releases, we reduce waste, free up resources, and ensure each product exists because someone wants it—not just because we hoped someone would. Going forward, some Smart Dolls will only be available through short pre-order windows. We’ll create a final unit for photography, and only begin production after the pre-order window closes, based on actual demand. This change allows us to focus our resources more intentionally—whether that’s developing new projects, supporting existing products, or shipping your order with care. How It Works Final Product Photos Only We only accept pre-orders based on finalized product photos—not prototypes. This helps ensure that what you see is truly what you’ll get. Short Pre-Order Windows Pre-order windows will be brief—often just a few days—or until the available slots run out. Unlike traditional pre-order models that aim to collect as many orders as possible, our focus is on quality and a healthy workload. Limited Quantities Pre-order availability is capped and dynamically managed by our system, based on predicted production capacity. Even though it’s a pre-order, we still limit numbers just as we do with in-stock products. Countdown Timers Each product page will display a countdown that ends when the timer runs out or when all slots are filled. If You Miss It If a pre-order sells out, we may consider offering another round—but only if we received enough orders to make a future release viable. That said, a second chance isn’t guaranteed and may take time to materialize, if at all. Shipping and Order Merging Once the pre-order window closes, production begins. Shipping may take slightly longer than our usual turnaround, but will not exceed the standard 15-day window we outline during checkout. As with all orders—pre-order or otherwise—sales are final. If your pre-order is combined with other items, all products will ship together once the pre-order item is ready. If you place a second order after your pre-order and it can fit into the same box, we’ll merge the shipments and refund any excess shipping fees—as we’ve always done. However, if your pre-order has already moved into the staging area for packing, we will no longer be able to combine it with subsequent orders. Pre-orders may not ship at the same time, as we produce components in small batches to maintain quality. So even if you and your best friend (or worst enemy) place orders at the same time, they may ship at different times. At times, if we anticipate that a pre-order will reach a certain level of support, we may produce a small portion of the batch ahead of the pre-order closing. This helps ease the production load that would otherwise arrive all at once after the window ends. In those situations, some orders may begin shipping earlier than expected. This doesn’t conflict with our made-to-order approach—it simply helps us balance the workflow while keeping quality consistent and avoiding unnecessary strain on the team.
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