Friday, 30 June 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – July 2017

Greetings!

Let’s start this month off with the bit of bad news before we get into all the fun stuff. If you visited our site in the last three weeks, you probably noticed the message that our PayPal account was terminated. There’s not much else I can say about this because we, too, know very little about the reason why. All we know is that our funds were frozen, PayPal stated they would never work with us again, and we were given no chance at appeal. Fantastic! In order to return to processing orders as quickly as possible, we implemented a temporary payment method with the folks over at Stripe. However, since Stripe’s policy includes a blanket ban of all adult goods, we made the decision to hide the R-18 products from our website.

We are still working hard to find some solution to the payment method crisis though. There’s no need for me to bore you all with the details, but the short of it is that any store that sells adult products is considered to be “high-risk” by the financial world. Thus, essentially all of the common payment processors include blanket bans of merchants who sell these kinds of products. While there are several payment processors that accept adult goods, they (a) typically have a long-ish approval process and (b) have subtantially higher processing fees than the normal guys. Unfortunately, this means that if and when we find a new payment processor, there is a non-trivial chance that we will need to increase the prices of our products marginally (~$5) in order to make up for the increase in our fees. We want to appologize ahead of time if we have to do this, and hope you understand.

Onto the good news…

This month we are updating our website with the following 7 designs:

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

You can purchase these and all of our past designs from our storefront here!

This month, we’ve also decided to begin offering an easy and convenient way to order our designs in either a 160cm or 150cm flavor. Just select your desired length when adding the product to your cart. This option is not available for all covers, most covers after Saber Nero, and a select few preceding it, were drawn in such a way that allows us to crop them to 150cm without losing a substantial amount of the top and bottom. However, all future products should have no problem going between 160cm and 150cm.

Additionally, the premium P80 2-Way Roika versions of most of our new character designs from this month, including our old Hanekawa Tsubasa and Mystia Lorelei designs, will be available for pre-order on Sakura-Palace. As an added bonus, we’ve heard your request for P80 All Ages covers and beginning in this month we are running a trial of offering both the All Ages variant and R-18 variant for select covers (Elf, Shimakaze & Amatsukaze, and Tsukihi Araragi). Depending on how well these All Ages variants sell over there, we may expand or contract our All Ages offerings on Sakura-Palace.

As per usual, we have a lot of projects upcoming that we hope you’ll enjoy. Currently, we can announce the following artists are working on these projects:

Additionally, we have a few unannounced projects as well we’re hoping you will enjoy.

Oh, and while it may not impact many of you here, Cuddly Octopus will have a presence at a few anime conventions in Taiwan and Hong Kong over the next few months where we’ll be selling a few of our covers and some tapestries of select designs. If you’re planning on attending any of these, be on the lookout for our partners manning the Cuddly Octopus booth!

As always, thanks for your continued support of Cuddly Octopus.

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Thursday, 01 June 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – June 2017

Greetings!

This month we are updating the website with the following 11 designs:

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

You can purchase these and all of our past designs from our storefront here!

Additionally, the premium P80 2-Way Roika versions of all of our new character designs from this month, including Kiyoshimo, will be available for pre-order on Sakura Palace.

As per usual, we have a lot of projects upcoming that we hope you’ll enjoy. Currently, the following artists are working on these projects:

As always, thanks for your continued support of Cuddly Octopus.

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Monday, 01 May 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – May 2017

Greetings!

This month we are updating the store with the following twelve desgins:

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

You can purchase our designs from our storefront here.

Additionally, the P80 2-Way Roika versions of all of our new designs from this month, with the exception of Makoto and Kate and including Tionishia, will be available for pre-order on Sakura Palace.

Upcoming, we have the following artists working on these projects:

As always, thanks for your continued support of Cuddly Octopus.

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Saturday, 01 April 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – April 2017

Greetings!

Wow, can you believe it’s been a whole year now since we first started Cuddly Octopus? When we started this project a year ago, we had no idea how it would turn out. Western dakimakura circles weren’t much of a thing and it was impossible for us to even say if we’d be alive a year later. However, thanks to all of your amazing support we’ve been growing steadily each month. It really comes down to all of you guys that we’re able to continually bring you new covers, so we honestly mean it when we say thank you!

So! For our one-year anniversary we have a number of new announcements. If you visited our web site in the past week, you may have noticed that it received a rather large overhaul! We added some new features and made numerous design changes to the site to highlight our products more beautifully.

Briefly, our biggest new feature is the ability to hide adult (R-18) products from the store if desired. On your first visit to the site, you’ll be asked if you would prefer to see adult products or hide them entirely. We’ll keep track of your decision and you can switch between viewing and hiding adult products by clicking the button in the top right hand corner. You can also now link to the all ages version of the site by appending ?sfw=1 to any Cuddly Octopus URL. While this change probably won’t impact many of you here, we are hoping it helps people who might not want to, or can’t legally, look at our adult products.

Otherwise, check out the website for the design changes! We’re not 100% done with the redesign and we expect there will be further changes in the coming months, but we’d love to hear all your feedback, suggestions, and/or bug reports!

Now, without further ado, let’s discuss this month’s updates!

When we started Cuddly Octopus, our first month’s update had two designs. Our next couple of months averaged about four designs. This month, for our first year anniversary, we are now updating the store with ten new designs!

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

As usual, you can purchase all of our designs from our storefront.

Additionally, we have many upcoming projects. Here’s a short taste of what to expect in the coming months…

As in the past, most of our new designs, along with our original Syrene 2016 design, will also be available for purchase at Sakura-Palace printed on premium P80 2-Way Roika material.

Well that wraps up our first anniversary update. Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available!

Thanks again for all your support this past year, and hopefully your support for many more years to come.

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Friday, 31 March 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – March 2017

Greetings!

This month we are updating the store with the following five designs:

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

You can purchase our designs from our storefront here.

Holy Octopus, did I just read Camilla!? Yes everyone, that’s right! Camilla is FINALLY done after 10 months since her announcement. Whew! I hope you all enjoy her as much as you had to wait…

We have a lot of upcoming projects, so here’s a taste of what to expect from the coming months…

Additionally, the P80 versions of all of our new designs from this month, along with Holo and Wilbell, will be available for pre-order on Sakura Palace.

For a bit of bad news, due to the increased logistical issues with regards to printing custom covers, we are going to be raising the price of custom prints by $5, bringing the total for a custom print to $60. The change will be in effect starting March 21st. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.

That wraps up this month’s update. Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Wednesday, 01 February 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – February 2017

Greetings!

This month the following designs have been added to the store:

Additionally, we are partnering with /u/mil1o of Monjashop to offer the following 3 designs!

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

Continuing from last month, we will be offering the R-18 versions of Rin/Ishtar, Cerberus & Fenrir, Miia, Yunyun, and Edna through our partners at Sakura Palace. These covers are printed on premium P80 2-Way Roika in Japan and are only offered for a limited time.

Upcoming, KyuriTizu has started on Chiya (Urara Meirochou) – Sketch, Natsume Rin (Little Busters!), and Kanna (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon). Additionally, Bean Sprout is working on Uni (Hyperdimension Neptunia). Kuromomo is working on Miyu Edelfelt (Fate Series) – Sketch and, finally, butter is still working on Camillia – Sketch & First Side. It should actually finally finish in the coming month… we hope…

We also have some other projects running drawn by other artists not listed here, but to prevent a repeat of our situation with butter, we won’t be mentioning them or their projects until they are closer to completion.

Additionally, while it’s not particularly related to dakimakuras, we wanted to share some cute plushies we commissioned of our very own original octopusgirl Syrene! Syrene (Swimsuit Ver.) – Syrene (Kimono Ver.). The commission was done by Flowery-tan and you can visit her DeviantArt here.

Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available.

As always, thank you for continued support of Cuddly Octopus!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Sunday, 01 January 2017 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – January 2017

Greetings!

This month we have quite a few new designs! Starting today, we are updating the store with the following 6 designs (and no, Camilla is still not finished…):

Additionally, we are partnering with the artist Ninamo to sell two of her designs (and possibly more in the future!):

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

Upcoming, KyuriTizu has started on Tohsaka Rin/Ishtar (Fate Series) – Sketch, Cerberus & Fenrir (Granblue Fantasy), and Miia (Monster Musume). Additionally, Bean Sprout is working on Uni (Hyperdimension Neptunia). Kuromomo is working on Miyu Edelfelt (Fate Series) – Sketch and, finally, butter is still working on Camillia – Sketch & First Side.

The new designs from Kyuri and Bean Sprout, as well as Kyuri’s old designs for Caster and Elizabeth, will be available in a Japanese P80 variant for ordering on Sakura Palace starting tomorrow.

Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available.

As always, thank you for continued support of Cuddly Octopus and we hope you have a fantastic New Years! We look forward to continuing providing you with your cuddly covers in 2017!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Saturday, 31 December 2016 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – December 2016

Greetings!

This month we are updating the store with the following 4 designs:

During November, Kyuri also permitted us to add one of her older designs to our store due to interest. So this cover is now also available for purchasing through us:

Disclaimer: The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the printed cover.

Upcoming, KyuriTizu will work on Cirno & Daiyousei (Touhou Project), Illyasviel von Einzbern (Fate Series), and Shielder (Fate Series). Additionally, Bean Sprout is working on Chloe von Einzbern (Fate Series), Kuromomo is working on Miyu Edelfelt (Fate Series), Nyatrix is working on Beatrice (Re:Zero), and, finally, butter is still working on Camillia – Sketch & First Side.

As some bonus good news, Sakura Palace finally secured a contract that enables them to print with P80. This is great news for us because it means we can finally begin our Japanese-print operations (for real this time!) as P80 doesn’t have a minimum order requirement for us to reach for each cover. To start, Kyuri’s three new R-18 December designs will be available for purchase on Sakura Palace along with Remilia and Flandre from last month.

Link to Sakura Palace Storefront

Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available.

As always, thank you for continued support of Cuddly Octopus!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

 

Wednesday, 02 November 2016 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – November 2016

Greetings!

This month we are updating the store with the following 5 designs:

The lines and octopodes on the sample images are a watermark and won’t be on the actual cover.

Upcoming, KyuriTizu will work on Snow Miku 2017 (VOCALOID), Nishikino Maki (Love Live!!) and Saber (Fate/Extra CCC).

butter is still working on Camillia – Sketch & First Side.

Due to somewhat disappointing sales of our covers printed through our Japanese printer, we will be postponing sales of those until we have a better solution, as we do not wish to deal with too much excess stock.

We’ve also added a Order Status page to help keep track of where we are in our monthly printing cycles. We ask that you please take a look at this page first, then contact us if you have further questions.

Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available.

As always, thank you for continued support of Cuddly Octopus!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team

Saturday, 01 October 2016 / Published in Product Updates

Cuddly Octopus Update – October 2016

Greetings!

October is a big month for us over here at Cuddly Octopus. First, we’re introducing six new designs to the store! The following covers are the new designs we’re introducing:

The lines and octopuses on the sample images won’t be on the actual cover and are added for protection of the image.

Upcoming, KyuriTizu has started on Remilia & Flandre (Touhou Project) – Sketch. After that she will be working on Lancer (Fate/Series) and a duo cover from either Kantai Collection or Touhou.

butter is still working on Camillia – Sketch. The first side is completed and hopefully he will be able to complete the other side this month. Additionally, we have a new artist, Kimoshi, who is currently working on the lineart and coloring for Megurine Luka (Vocaloid) – Sketch.

The other big news is that starting sometime this month, we will begin mail order sales for select covers of ours printed in Japan. With this, we are partnering with a new company called Sakura Palace that will handle some of our sales and logistics in Japan. Covers through this service will be printed by Fules on their Aqua Premier (Aqua Lycra) material, which is a premium 2-Way Tricot material. Because of this, these covers will be offered at a premium price-point and will have limited reservation periods, after which we will be unlikely to print more.

Of course, our cheaper, perpetually available covers will not be going anywhere; this service is offering a premium option to those who desire the highest quality prints. During this first month, only the R-18 versions of Shinobu, Felix (Male Ver.), and Momiji & Aya will be available for reservation. We will update this thread once we have further information about our Japanese distribution.

Don’t forget to occasionally check the “News” section on our site as we will be updating it with new sketches as they become available.

As always, thank you for continued support of Cuddly Octopus!

– The Cuddly Octopus Team