Small Grants: Nouns Mascot Costume

TL;DR I will be creating a custom Nouns mascot costume for proliferating at IRL events , namely ETH Denver, a large 2 week long convention geared around everything Web3.

Why??
Creating a mascot costume is a great way to gain alot of traction at IRL events. Mascots are always a stopping point for people to take pictures with and people love to focus on getting them in their video reels! This will be the perfect oppurtunity to really make some waves at upcoming Web3 events when it comes to IRL Nouns proliferation! I am hoping to have the mascot completed by Art Basel this year starting Dec 1st.

How?
I will work with a custom mascot manufacturer that specializes in animatronics. this will allow for the option of moving part of the costume to really bring it to life, but this is all still tbd. I will be designing the mascot costume based off of a popular, well received noun design such as the Shark or the Wizard, just to name a few.

Funding Breakdown

Total Ask 8 Eth

1 eth - Customized design of mascot costume (possibly animatronic head)
5.5 eth - Manufacturing of the mascot costume
.5- Project management
1 Eth - Travel cases

Very cool! I think it would be great to have your manufacturer give a mock up of what you’d like to do. I know the Rose Bowl parade is making some heads as well. Maybe @Aubtoshi could fill us in on the status of those and what will happen with them when they’re done. Would be cool to see them get new life at other events. Also, it would be sick if we could make something that mimics the nounish minifigs that will hopefully be made soon by @BigshotKlim.

Last ping of the post. @noun22, just want to make sure you see this!

Best of luck, friend. You are the real deal!

Thanks for the comment Andrew! I have been keeping up with the creation of the Nouns for the Rosebowl parade and while they are amazing non the less, they are a bit different then what I would like to do as they seem to be crafted out of foam. What I am wanting to do is a bit more technical with the animatronics. That’s a great idea to maybe mimic one the characters that Bigshot is making as I was already thinking about the wizard noun as a potential candidate for the mascot! I would be happy to get a mock up from the manufacturer but that will require a bit of funding. I will work on trying to make this mock up happen whether I can get the small bit of funding to start a design or not. Appreciate it !

Walk around mascot costumes are always a great engagement point, I have worked on a few in my day and I would say that depending on your plans you are not asking for enough funding, especially if you plan on animatronics and something that will be shipped around the country, may need a separate added budget for a performer, on site wrangler and RC operator for any moving parts. Before you go into samples I would suggest doing some designs that showcase which noun, the scale proportions and how you will incorporate animatronics and animation. This way It would be a great opportunity to get accurate pricing from your fabricator, estimate any kind of cases you would need to ship and store the costumes and also gather any feedback before you start building. Wizard hat would make a great walk around. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

And this is why we tag people like Bigshot.

Thanks for the feedback! @BigshotKlim I will include a separate budget for a performer, and myself to do the performing on occasion as well. The R/C will be operated from within the costume with a remote for the specific design. I will price out shipping cases and get that added into the ask as I did overlook that detail in my original quote. I have been drawing up some ideas for the moving parts of the costume such as the horn and the unicorn moving up and down. The original ask was in the general ball park, but 7.5 Eth would be a more reasonable ask, counting in performance and shipping cases. I would like to get this approved and created soon as to be able to attend the Rosebowl parade potentially!

I have received a message back from my manufactuer. The animatronics department is goiing through an overhaul this year and will not be offering animatronics until next year when overhaul is completed. I have counted in travel cases and a performer budget and it came out to 7.25 eth. With the animatronics it would have been an additional 1.5 eth to cover those features. Lead time on costume is 8 weeks, will be able to get it just in time for the RoseBowl Parade if we act soon!
Updated total ask : 7.25 eth
@noun22 @BigshotKlim @AndrewLaddusaw

Any mockups yet? That would be helpful if we needed to submit this as a prop. For the smaller amount though, NSFW would probably be the better route.

This is great, thanks for the update.

One of the things I would consider is the fact that the Stoopid Buddy crew will have 6 full sized characters and a special float at the parade. they are professional costume builders that have been developing a story and designs for their build for months. I would think about your pitch since no matter what you do with your character, theirs will be the focus on the parade coverage for nouns, and yours may fall to the background. Perhaps you can target something else an event like a music festival where yours will be the only NOUN to get the most out of your efforts? Maybe find a festival that travels to partner with? Jusst an idea

That’s a very good point! Not looking to come in and steal the shine from anybody, was more just a thought ! I’m seeing the big value from this grant coming from this mascot being at different conferences, such as ETH Denver coming up in February. Also the continued on the ground efforts from myself. I will make sure to schedule regular Web3 conference appearances throughout the year with this mascot! Would be awesome to have some of your toy figures alongside these activations as this mascot will be designed after one of the designs!

I just talked to the manufacturer and mock ups are currently in the works.

If you are using one of my toys as inspiration, let me know and lets talk. I can share the 3D asset with your fabricator so that they can get the shapes perfect maybe that will help to work outany visibility issues and reduce your costs as well

Your the man @BigshotKlim ! I would love that! I thought it was a great idea from Andrew to mimic one of your toy designs, I was thinking either the wizard or the unicorn. Let’s chat over email that way you can send over the 3D assets so that I can get them to the manufacturer. I’m sure this will speed things up and make the final product come out immaculate! Thanks again my email is metacoyneeth@gmail.com if you’d like to shoot me a message.

I would look at what Stoopid buddy is doing and use a character that is NOT in their line up. If you create something fresh you may have a better chance at capturing more attention and avoid unnecessary friction of comparison. Our files are made for toy production so I would need to know what formates they would need and prep from that , Wizard hat is a pretty fun build and would look great I think DM me your info when you are ready

Just sent over a DM on Discord ! Thank you @BigshotKlim

will do my best to help. My Toy prop is on chain and is about to go to vote so I am slammed with getting all of the information out there. You can send your supplier this image as inspiration

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Thank you much appreciated. Good luck with the prop!

Hey! about 2 weeks ago I had my nouns head finished to submit a prop house and go to IRL events. (here is my past proposal: Prop House ) I didnt get sponsored yet but I will be reapplying, my nouns head is finished. Those costume don’t fly very well. So I think it makes sense to have some in North America, some in Europe. While building mine, I also understood quite a lot about costume building, I have a lot of ideas about a V2. Would love to chat with you to somehow join our proposals (this is me on discord: ! Victor / Clubnotaro.⌐◨-◨#4025 ). I just need to put the last touch of spray on my head to make it waterproof and I will share with you.

I have just received the detailed quote back from the manufacturer. Design is 1 eth for the design to be transfers into a full mascot design. 5.5 Eth will be the cost of the manufacturing of the suit and head of the mascot. 1 Eth will be for the remaining costs of travel cases. I would ask for an additional .5 Eth for any additional unexpected project costs.

Total revised ask: 8 Eth

What do you think? @noun22

This is an interesting take. One of the DAOs I’m a part of is Meebits DAO and we did created our own mascot to be showcase during NFT NYC. Let me know if I can help you with anything or connect with a manufacturer. Will ask for contact from our former general manager who is now the brands lead for meebits in Yuga labs lol. amazing guy and the company who he connected with did an amazing work on the mascot. I’m not able to scroll and see the final product but here are some WIPs that I was able to find from old chats

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This is small potatoes, but it may be cool to have some pockets for small merch/photo opportunities. You could have few small pockets:

• 1 could house stickers
• 1 could house some noggles so people can put them on for photos
• 1 could be for misc merch.

Does NSFW have interest in funding this project? Have been in contact with manufacturer and ready to pull the trigger if there is interest!