As a long time collector of designer vinyl toys, last summer I came up with the idea of tokenizing physical collectibles. I approached my friends at KnownOrigin/ Blockrocket and we worked together on the concept until we’d developed something that was functional and that we all liked, and so CryptoKaiju was born.

At this point, we had no idea if anyone would be interested in the project, but took the plunge and began the long process of producing a small run of vinyl toys, opting for 120 monsters based on a character that we’d produced for a CoinJournal print which we’d also turned into an NFT.

Generation 1

Having seen endless amounts of failed promises in the crypto space over the years, we were reluctant to offer pre-orders, or even really announce too much about the project until we had the physical items in hand. At the end of November, after a few minor delays from the factory (Never try to launch a toy in the peak Christmas rush) our items arrived and we were ready to launch Genesis.

Thanks to the incredibly talented team at Wachsman PR who we can’t recommend highly enough, we launched with a good amount of coverage and Genesis was covered by the likes of Forbes, Bitcoin Magazine and Creative Crypto Magazine. Combining this with other marketing activity and some pre-launch buzz courtesy of Product Hunt meant that we sold 50% of our stock in the first week and were listed in the top 5 products on ProductHunt on the day of launch.

Then began the process of minting: To make our first collectible special, the descriptions for each of the characters were written by hand, many of which contain references to pop-culture, tech, and cryptocurrency. To anyone who purchased a Genesis figure, check over your NFT and see if you can spot any references. We love it when people send us emails or Tweet about these.

Just over a month after launch, we completely sold out of Genesis and with the exception of a few final pieces, all have been shipped to their new homes. Details of every Kaiju in existence can be seen on our DAPP, on Opensea, or within our contract.

We’ve received a lot of emails from people still looking to get their hands on a Genesis. Sorry, but we want to make the item special and will not be re-issuing the toy, though may look to release a similar looking figure in different colours in the future (Though this will not be classed as a Genesis figure) Alternatively, wait to see if someone wants to trade or sell theirs in the future.

Following our successful launch, we began the process of getting the token and DApp listed on popular wallets. We are pleased to see that Kaiju now show up on Opensea, Trust Wallet and Coinbase Wallet.

You can also use OpenSea and our own Dapp to see how unique your Kaiju is based on its traits:

I’m extremely pleased with the success of the project so far, thanks to our amazing team for pulling it off, and to everyone who’s supported our project and helped us add even more fun to non-fungible tokens.

Going Foward

So, after the success of our first release, what’s next for CryptoKaiju? Well, we haven’t sat still while working on Genesis and before launch, we’d already begun initial work on our 2nd collectible.

We will be releasing our currently unnamed 2nd generation figures in March. As was the case with Genesis, there will be 2 styles within the batch.

Originally we had planned to release a new Kaiju every month, but after feedback and tweaking designs we weren’t comfortable that we’d be able to uphold quality levels while rushing projects. Additionally, we’ve been met with some delays due to holidays in Asia, meaning we won’t get our delivery of chips until later than expected.

With us pushing back our generation 2 release, we’ve also decided to discontinue 12-month subscriptions. Realistically, though we expect to improve the frequency of releases and have already begun to work on generation 3, it’s unlikely that we’ll release 12 different designs this year. We sincerely apologise to anyone who purchased a 12-month subscription and have already begun to reach out to customers who purchased these, offering to change them to a 6-month subscription (With a refund for the difference, while honouring 1/2 the 12-month price), or doubling up their Kaiju orders for the next 6 months.

When we released Genesis, we did not allow pre-orders, however, considering the demand, and to make the minting and shipping process smoother for Generation 2, we will be opening pre-orders at the end of February/ beginning of March. To thank early adopters who supported the project, those who purchased Genesis will be given special access, allowing them to pre-order the new items one day before we open the sale up to everyone else.

As well as production, we have a lot of other exciting plans in the pipeline: We are continuing to make improvements to our DApp, have begun having initial discussions regarding collaborations: As we are fully ERC-721 compliant we are actively pursuing partnerships with other platforms and are also discussing collaborations with artists and events. We hope to have more information on these plans in the coming months, but if you have some ideas for the project, or wish to collaborate, then reach out as we’d love to hear your ideas!

With Genesis, we released slap packs which were very popular. We will be continuing this with future releases as well as releasing posters and some NFT artwork.

We have also been invited to speak at NFT.NYC next month, where I will be giving a presentation on the project and explaining the process of how we tokenize physical collectibles. I’m looking forward to meeting likeminded people and learning more about developments in the space.

For those closer to home, this week I will also be giving a talk on the project at this month’s Blockchain Manchester meetup.

Thanks again to everyone who’s supported the project, I am looking forward to sharing more developments in the coming weeks and please keep sending in pictures. We absolutely love seeing pictures of fans enjoying their Kaiju!