Spectral Circuit: Short Circuit 1.3

Greetings spooky robot friends,

The hour is nearly upon us -- just one week until the start of Pintober! The time is nigh for a few more Spectral Circuit introductions and goal reveals.



At a recent convention, someone browsing my booth inquired after scalies other than Python in my collection, and I was startled to realize they were the one and only so far. With RAR, we shall begin to rectify the situation! "Komodo dragon" received four separate requests via the suggestion fill-in of the Spooky Circuit surveys: I tally those every campaign, so if you'd like to influence who joins the line up in the future, keep an eye out for that question. ;3



Last but not least for the core units of the new Line, carrying on the pattern of an "elemental" bot board per each Unit Line, is Bit. Ruby red vamp lips, wetted fangs on full display, felt like precisely the salacious energy called for by the "element" of Blood~

Speaking of the elementals: back at the end of 2024, when I was preparing for my first Short Circuit campaign, I also sampled Leaf in the pantones of the Fire and Water Lines. These were not intended for bulk production, created solely to have an example of how those colorways would look without paying additional mold fees in case I only unlocked the initial Earth designs.



I still very much enjoy how they look together, so I thought a fun addition to this year's Pintober would be officially bringing some variants into the fold! After fussing with mock-ups, Fire and Blood seemed the most solidly autumnal, while Void and Water feel late autumn/winter. Producing them will be a pair of stretch goals --



If you're so inclined, please feel free to share the campaign around! Per usual the more follows before launch, the better chance we have of unlocking all our goals and then some. c;

Also don't forget to vote on which mini pins you'd be interested in seeing, the poll is still open below!!

Good Timezone Bot Enjoyers,

Your voices have been heard, and with 53% of the vote the Scarab Bot Board shall be known as Runtime!



This will absolutely impact their function and bug, should they receive a full robot design down the line. c;

Before we dive into introducing the rest of the core Blood Line, I'd like to take an update to present the various free pins that can be earned over the course of this year's Pintober spooktacular --



When I set out to design Worm (no further pun required, as worm is a comp sci term for a destructive self-replicating program) it was with the Earth Line colorway in mind (Earth Worm, y'know? That additional layer of pun is courtesy of Discord member Ecto). However, I also wished to use them for the Pintober collaboration, wherein folks who back 3 or more campaigns receive a trick-or-treat freebie from each. The Earth colorway doesn't look particularly candy - the rainbow anodized Void works much better. And I tried them out in the Blood Line colorway, then sort of really loved it.

The solution? MORE WORM. The far left in the image above is the Gummy Worm, which will be exclusive to the Pintober freebie. The Blood Worm (middle) and Earth Worm (right) will unlockable variants down the line!



Our next collaborative freebie is a Hardware, a small sheep bot board (1.25") to match the beautiful soft(ware) sheep by CritCreations! Their Pintober project is Limbo of Dreams, a set of gorgeous pins all about sleep disorders. Back both campaigns and receive these dreamy lil guys, which can be arranged to jump around each other as shown!



Lastly, I've drawn up a couple of extra smol shinies as a gift to my dedicated Short Circuit connoisseurs: Drop and Bug, which both clock in around just half an inch. Drop will be automatically given to backers who supported any of my previous campaigns, while Bug can be earned by purchasing any 4 other pins!

I'm kind of addicted to the itty bitty teeny tiny board filler pins at the moment, so if I manage to grab time for it I'd like to design more as a stretch goal. The pre-launch page has been furnished with a fresh poll to this effect, so let me know what other lil chips would suit your fancy. :3

Have a lovely weekend y'allemaal - more soon, we're just 11 days out!!

Hello robot and autumn enthusiasts alike,

Welcome to Spectral Circuit! As Pintober draws near, I'd like to acquaint you with the latest glitchy bot boards set to join the Short Circuit lineup. Today we will take a look at our first three pins --



Backtick is the ambassador unit of Unit Line: Blood; funding them and their related stickers will be the initial goal for the campaign! Their corresponding robot design is in the works, and will be revealed soon.



Zerofill is flying close at their heels, adding to the ever-growing flock of bird-based bot boards in the Circuit 'verse.

The eagle eyed among you may have already noticed a slight shift in technique: while the Blood Line pins do feature the same opaque hard enamel "solder masks" (the red pantones) and clear soft enamel "components" (the black pantones), they also include multiple layers of metal for added depth.

The face, feet, and line art on the back wing of Zerofill are examples of what's called "second metal" - metal that is still somewhat raised, but shorter in depth than the majority of the enclosing lines. Then the base of the back wing itself will have the same fully recessed, sandblasted appearance as the areas beneath the clear fills, but bare. Backtick and Zerofill have already been sent off to sampling, so for those unfamiliar I'm hoping to show you exactly how that looks by early on in Pintober's run!



The Sun to Backtick's Moon, this Scarab Bot Board is no ordinary bug in the code: the imagery of their pose has been based on the ancient Egyptian depiction of scarabs rolling our day star up into the sky. Every Short Circuit board is some flavor of pun or another, and their potential names are no exception--

Boot: Sunrise as "booting up" the day.
Load: Sunrise as "loading" a new day.
Boolean: The true/false dichotomy of day/night.
Runtime: The mental image of the little guy running along, dutifully pushing the sun.

Vote for your favorite via the attached poll, and whichever name prevails shall become theirs forever more.

Thank you as ever for being here, I appreciate your support immensely. More bot boards will be introduced as the week progresses!