I Still Love Ya, Captain!

Yesterday, the team behind the Captain Canuck animated series released the fifth and final (at least for the time being) installment.  The shows are a blast and if you have yet to view them you can (and should) do so here.

It hasn't been all rosy of late though. The Canuck crew is coming under a little fire for their tardiness with the delivery of the fundraising perks.

And to be honest, I've been among those giving them a hard time.  In my defense, I had tried numerous times to reach them by e-mail, without receiving a response.  And in fairness to those that have expressed their frustration publicly, here's a recap of campaign contributors have been told since last summer.  It is important to note that the expected delivery date, set by the Captain Canuck team, was said to be June 2013.

8 months ago: Here is some news I am sure you have been waiting for.  Your Indiegogo Perks will be shipping out July 31st. Expect a 2-3 week delivery time.   

7 months ago: There has been a delay in the delivery of the following perks from the manufacturers: buttons, patches, coffee mugs and t-shirts. I have been informed I should expect these items to arrive in 2 weeks. 

 ...

8x10s and posters will be ready for shipping in September after Fan Expo comic con 

6 months ago: The delivery of the merchandise for Perks are beginning to arrive now.  We have received the mugs and tshirts. The rest should be following in the next couple weeks and we should be ready to start shipping to you there after. 

4 months ago: Shipments will be going out on Fridays starting November 22nd, 2013.   

4 months ago: The packing has begun! The only merchandise I have right now are the T shirts and coffee mugs. I have been told the patches and buttons are another 2 weeks away. 

Early January: We will have shipped all perk bundles by Thursday January 23 (Scout's Honour). 

Early February: So you should be receiving your packages later this week or early next.  

February 28th (approx): There has been a glitch in some of the fulfilment (sic) and we are working on getting out the perks that were missed. We went through a shift in administration and quite frankly, it could have been handled better. If you haven't received anything yet, please hold tight for 2 more weeks tops.

And yet, so far I've received a desktop wallpaper and...well, that's it. Oh, they did try to mail a mug out to me, but it arrived in five pieces due to a poor packaging choice.

So is this frustrating?  Absolutely.  Because of similar experiences with other fundraising campaigns, I had nearly reached the point of giving up on them altogether. But a few others were honoured late last year which restored my faith in that support method somewhat.  The Captain still has me, and many others, waiting despite several promises that the items were being shipped in a few days, however.

But...There is a clear love for the character among those involved, made all the more obvious in articles such as this one from Metro last week.  And there are plans to continue to bring the character to us in different forms, an approach I appreciate from Heroes of the North, The Red Panda and a number of others.  For example, Kalman Andrasofszky shared the first three pages of the upcoming comic book on his tumblr account.  They were revealed during the Toronto ComiCON this past weekend.  Get a load of this (blow it up in another tab).

Because the ultimate goal is to make the various aspects of this project successful, withholding my support (limited though it may be) is counter-productive despite the shoddy customer service at the crowd-funding level.  I hope others will also be tolerant of "rookie mistakes" and continue to get behind the various Captain Canuck offerings.

More importantly, I hope that lessons have been learned by the Canuck team because if they need to rely on a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign(s) again any time soon, they might find themselves struggling.  And that would be unfortunate in light of the talent, imagination and enthusiasm behind this latest version of the character.