Toothless Hoodie

After a fun week of uploading current product to new sites and sorting out the shop here on my main site and facebook, I thought it was time to sit back and honor one of my favourite new additions to the zen-oh-tee range.

Night Fury Toothless hoodie :) Inspired by the cat like black dragon from How to train your dragon, this one has been unbelievably popular on ebay and was also a hit on Etsy for the few days it got to run. Available in adults and kids, this Toothless hoodie can be found in the shop here, just pop toothless in the search box, click one of the links, or you can just click the image below to be linked directly to the adults one in the zen-oh-tee shop. 

Printed in black vinyl onto a black hooded sweatshirt, and of course Toothless's gorgeous bright green eyes. A few scales printed on the sleeves too. I've had requests for this as T-shirts and vest tops, so once I get some sample stock in I'll get them printed, photo'd and uploaded to the shop too. 

Don't forget these are made to order, so if you want something a bit special (maybe a child's name on the back) I can put that on for you no problem :)

Oh Etsy. Oh Valve. Why?

I think I pretty much jinxed it when I had my little rant about items being banned from Etsy because of complaints from Fox broadcasting and Microsoft about my Futurama T-shirts and Mincraft T-shirt .

Valve software complained to Etsy about one of my items, my Good Game T-shirt to be exact. And it was banned for copyright infringement. And shortly after it was banned, my whole shop was taken down, as I had ventured into the realm of the repeat offender.

I'm a little sad about it, I loved my Etsy shop and all of my customers. This is the item that was banned and lead to my Etsy shops uncompromising death.

I'm really shocked that they pulled this one up to be honest. Lets face it, its only text. Its not even full words! There is no reference to any of Valve's products here at all! 

My mistake was in using DOTA as a search reference for the item. I asked Etsy if I could get my shop reopened as this particular offence seems a bit unfair, and I have always done as they ask on these matters. But no, Etsy wont budge, shop closed and my request for my product data ignored. 

Either way Valve, I can't believe this is how low you stooped sending out your minions to deal with copyright infringement. Thanks for sniping the little guy. 

All is not lost though, there are plenty of other ways to get my creations out into the world. But it involves a lot of work (which I should have done a long time ago) So there will be a lot of fiddling with the blog and Facebook page in the next few days while I set things straight. 

Expect more frequent but much shorter posts on here relating to items. Mostly new product and maybe revisits on a few best sellers I haven't touched on yet. :)

Anyways on with plan Z

The ones that couldn't make it to Etsy

I thought I'd take a little time to shine some light on a few items I love but can't sell on Etsy since the owners of the characters shouted at me to take them down. These are now available on the mini shop I have here on the blog site, hopefully the big meanies at FOX won't hunt me down with pitchforks.

(I can't help but hear this Marge squirrel voice in my head)

I do think its a real shame that companies such as FOX broadcasting actually hire people to seek out fan made items and threaten legal action against the creator. Makes me think of a story I heard when I worked for my supplier, they had a brand that produced a black T-shirt with two white stripes down the arms, Adidas came along and sued them for millions as they didn't like how close it was to their three stripe design. I wonder if they realise how many people may have lost their jobs because of something so stupid and greedy.

Anyways...

First up, one of my favourites from when I first started out. Popular in both T-shirt and hoodie. This meme may be a little dead these days but even so Futurama is still amazing and one of my favourite animated series,. even if the nasty people at FOX did tell me off. If they come after me with a legal team I'll just attempt my best Zoidberg impression. WHOOOP WHOOOOP WHOOOP WHOOOP WHOOOP!  (I actually can't do it very well at all, good job really I wouldn't want them to sue me for that too) Why not Zoidberg Hoodie and why not zoidberg t-shirt

 

 Need a new T-shirt? Why not Zoidberg?

My other Futurama design that I had to take down from Etsy. Only simple but still good for the Futurama fans. I can almost hear the dragons at FOX taking flight to come seek me out and burn me down. Planet Express T-shirt and planet express hoodie

And the Minecraft creeper T-shirt, even though I'm not a huge fan of Minecraft I have a lot of love for this T-shirt. I didn't have much money at all when I first started out, and this one sold so well that it gave me the money I needed to be able to move back home when a relationship ended. It was a real life saver. However I don't think the owners of Minecraft would understand the sentimental value that comes from selling something I made for their fans. Oh yeah, I made a minecraft creeper hoodie version too.

Lego also shouted at me, but to be honest they still let me sell my design, they just wanted me to change how I use the name lego in my listings. So erm, small change - LEGO also shouted at me* - for not using their brand name correctly, but that's all fixed now. :)  So for the extreme LEGO enthusiasts we have the LEGO creator T-shirt

Lucky me hasn't had much trouble really, but when a message does come through telling me to take down a design it really does suck. I don't think I'm damaging anyone really, and the reason I have created these designs is usually because they are based on something I love, or a friend or family member loves, its a shame I can't share that with others. I thought I'd put the designs here so that Etsy isn't troubled by legal notices (and so they don't close my shop :( ) but if they send me legal notices directly these designs are going to be taken down for good, so get them while you can :)

League of Legendary let downs

Lately it seems that League of Legends - one of my favourite online games for the past 3 years - is purely here to troll and disappoint me. EU West still seems to be having issues, their latest being their loss of 3 days worth of data (well done) and of course the amount of Trolls and Flamers seems to be at an all time high. I'm still angry at my Teemo support who was drawn to every Nidalee spear and Jinx zap thrown in our direction, but managed to sidestep the blame for our bad bot lane score.  ¬_¬

Strangely though, I still find myself playing it almost every night. When things go well I actually have a lot of fun, even in the games I lose. I do find it a bit of a shame though, some of my favourite characters are just not valid choices for playing a serious game. Even if you want to take them out for a spin there is a good chance the rest of your team will do nothing but complain. Right now my poor little Lion Dance Kog'Maw is collecting dust as he has no escapes.

I do still love some of the better characters. Once my drawing skills are back to a level that I'm happy with, I'll be breaking out some character designs for T-shirts. For now though I have just a small selection to test the water.

Two aimed at those lucky (or skilled) enough to grab a Penta. The Keep Calm Pentakill T-shirt and Pentakill T-shirt

And since I've been assigned the role of ADC for our ranked team, I've taken a shine to Twitch, so I thought I'd put something together for myself in a lovely neon green. They are the plague twitch T-shirt and what doesn't kill just isn't finished yet Twitch quote T-shirt

And of course I almost forgot my original GLHF T-shirt and Brucey's favourite, good game T-shirt. 

Currently up for promotion on my solo/duo ranked, and hoping I can time it right so my matches take place when all the 5 year old players have gone to bed. Fingers crossed I get another win streak going :3

Zen-oh-tee and the Harry Potter based update

I should be a bigger Harry Potter fan.

No really. 

My Mum loves Harry Potter. My Dad (as far as I can tell) really likes Harry Potter. The films seem to be shown in this house more than any other film. Even though my parents own the movies on DVD (which replaced their VHS versions) they will watch  Harry Potter if its on TV. The books have made their way though all the family, they are a top search result for my Etsy listings, and for my birthday  Mum has booked the Harry Potter London studio tour. 

I should be a bigger Harry Potter fan. 

I think for me, my problem was the films. As usual the books were greatly let down by their big screen adaptations. Films are not enough. Where is the series? The CGI cartoon? The Anime? It could have been so much, but was squished down into so little. Oh the shame. I really hope in ten or even twenty years, they do something much better with Harry Potter. Much MUCH better. 

But anyway, I do love Harry Potter. And of course I plan to re-read the books to try and bring some life back into my love for it. My wonderful Mother has booked a Harry Potter London studio tour for our family for my birthday and considering I wasn't entirely happy with some of my Harry Potter themed items, I thought it was time I brought in some new ones and updated the others. Now I need to figure out if I should drop my Netflix series and kindle reads in exchange for Harry Potter before our trip, and also which top am I making for myself to wear on the day.

So, updated is the I solemnly swear that I am up to no good T-shirt. Really didn't like using the Harry Potter font on that one, some people might have liked it but I prefer something with much nicer lettering, so lets see how it does. Available in Men's and women's,  Marauders Map T-shirt

Mischief Managed T-shirt, with the foot prints of Messrs Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs.

Something basic, Moony Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs T-shirt printed in distressed bold lettering.

And of course the fours animal silhouettes for another Moony Wormtail Padfood and Prongs T-shirt  :)

These new Tees and also the updated Marauders Map T-shirt will be up on Etsy shortly. Plus I'm hoping that after my trip to Harry Potter world I will have a few more designs in the pipeline. 

Studio Ghibli addiction

I'm abandoning far too many LOL games in the champion select lately. There just something irritating about the type of players that seem to be popping up, I really can't be bothered with toxic or ignorant players. Anyway, in my 10 minute wait I decided to go looking for more bits to inspire some new designs. And once again I've fallen for Studio Ghibli and its gorgeous fantasy worlds. Recent design uploads include the following. :)

I always remember seeing a black cat design on a hoodie at an Archery Club that I was once a member of, and of course having loved the fact that Jiji is in indeed Troy McLure, I thought I'd settle for a simple Jiji tshirt. Although now I think about it, I'm going to have to give Jiji a pink Troy McLure style sweatshirt at some point on one of my doodles.

But also in my google image search, the Soot Balls made an appearance. Now I've been looking for a design for one of my favourite grey jumpers for a while now, and I think I have finally found it. So for the Totoro and Spirited Away fans, there's the Sootball slouch jumper.

These, along with the Kodama T-shirt, No Face T-shirt, and Studio Ghibli T-shirt designs are a nice collection for me. But I still need more. I have fallen behind on the Studio Ghibli collection, and sadly still haven't played Ni no kuni. I'm a shame to the SG fan club. I will catch up, and that's a promise to myself I have to keep.

       

Eventually when i can say I am a true Ghibli fan, I will treat myself to a trial of my Spirit of the forest design. But for now, I guess I'll just stick with my grunge style San mask for a Princess Mononoke T-shirt :)

Do Minions have eyebrows?

Ok, so working on updating my Despicable me Minion hoodie I had a bit of a random thought. I've not seen one of these little guys without their goggles. I've seen them dressed up, still with their goggles, and fan art in various costumes.

And still wearing goggles, or maybe they are converted to glasses like the Harry Potter Minion that Google images also offered me. Now that I think about it, I can't actually imagine these guys without them. It turns out, they look pretty weird. 

I now have to wonder how long the designers of the Minion characters spent pondering over whether or not to give the minions eyebrows, was it the cyclops Minions that swayed the decision? Perhaps the thought of giving a creature a mono-brow was a bit off putting. Safe to say its now made Minion fan art a bit weird for me. I still love this minion hoodie though, the original didn't have a mouth! And here's me going on about not having eyebrows....

The time has come....

After an exceptional amount of patience and insomnia enducing thought, I have decided to set up a new temporary site for Zen-oh-tee. There has been a lot of frustration with bugs and broken links with the current site, and after having put in so much work - only to find that it doesn't work - I figured it's time I made something that does work.

So to try and keep things simple and a little bit more personal, I've set up this small blog with a shop on the side that will include my top sellers and a few new additions. This site will link through to my Etsy shop, so the whole range is still available from here, but this will just give a bit of information on me, how I work and how designs have come into being. Hopefully it will also help inspire new designs too with some feedback from customers and followers :)

The old site will still be running and climbing the Google ladder, but until the bugs are fixed I can't afford any more time on the old site, especially when I have no idea how to fix it myself. Hopefully it will return to being a main site when its new makeover is complete.

So then, let the new sites testing and tweaking begin!