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CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS Preorders

Created by KEN'S PIN HUSTLE

CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS closed funding with over 70 1.5" pin designs unlocked. You can still cash in on these classy coin pins at campaign prices! The $9 price point is only for Backerkit- retail pins will go up to $10 each.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Eight days left - AFRICAN ANIMALS UNLOCKED + NEW STRETCH ARTWORKS
25 days ago – Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 06:29:07 PM

Good evening, gang!

I've been out of work with some seasonal crap the past two days, and chipping away at stretch goal artwork between sleeping and chugging electrolyte drinks. I figured I'd toss you guys an update while I get everything else set on the back end.

Not much new to report, but...

The UNDERRATED AFRICA tier is unlocked!


The Secretarybird, Meerkat, African Wild Dog, and Shoebill 1.5" coins have joined the roster. Not bad, for our first brand new stretch goal!

Our next stretch goal, at $12.3k, is BACKYARD TRESPASSERS: these have been some of my favorite pins to work on so far.

This is the Cottontail Rabbit, Northern Cardinal, Whitetail Deer, and Gray Squirrel. As it stands, we're about $350 away here, so, let's see if we can get these four set!


After that is the ASCENDED TRASH MEN tier, who are here because they now have art. This tier brings the popular Bearded Vulture, Brown Rat, and Wolverine.


I'm still getting our other new stretch goals cleaned up, but if you'd like more details on what's to come there, they have horrible pathetic sketches on the main story page.

I'll check in tomorrow for our one-week left update. Thanks for being here!

10 days left. NEW STRETCH GOALS TILL $20k + all sponsors cleaned up!
28 days ago – Sun, Feb 01, 2026 at 07:57:57 PM

Good evening, gang! I hope to god you're actually reading this Monday morning.

First up... we have final artwork for all of our SPONSOR PINS.  


Hopefully it's a little easier to see what these guys have going on, without all the stray lines! Barring a couple final touch-ups for manufacturing, they're cleaned up and ready to go.

Remember: sponsors are for everyone! Our production costs are covered by the backer, so everyone can enjoy their favorite critter.

So... second off, we're got 10 days left.

We're not doing awful, but, I do want to turn up the heat a little: our $20k vote poll got a lot of attention, and so did several designs in that vote tier. I think, maybe, just maybe, we can make it there... so, I paved the road to $20k with some new stuff.

We have new stretch goals. 

...Pardon the dust. I'm tired.


The UNDERRATED AFRICA tier is the African Wild Dog, Secretary Bird, Shoebill, and Meerkat coin pins. This'll unlock at $11.75k... wow, we're already close!


The BACKYARD TRESPASSERS tier is the Whitetail Deer, Gray Squirrel, Cottontail Rabbit, and Northern Cardinal coin pins. They'll be available at $12.3k.


The ASCENDED TRASH MEN tier brings the Wolverine, Brown Rat, and Bearded Vulture pins. These filthy animals will unlock at $13.5k.


The POINTY BIRDS 2 tier features some silent birds of prey. Catch the Screech Owl, Barn Owl, and Snowy Owl coin pins at $14k.

"Why is the screechie weirdly clean?" Well, he was originally in the first POINTY BIRDS tier, but was pushed out for the Great Horned Owl to fund things earlier. Can you help him reclaim his spot?

$15k is another COLOR ALTS TIER. This has some special pin variants for the mythical creatures, horses, and a couple more dogs. It's also the first time a whiteface cockatiel will be made in any KEN'S PIN HUSTLE project - let's get there, I want my boy and I know you guys do too!


Our $16k tier is GIANT PINS. There's already one of these - the HYENA FAMILY cross-collab and its normal antique variant - but, let's add a little more. You guys seem to like that one already, so I figure, let's do a few more! This tier adds the Lemur Family GIANT pin, the Big Cat GIANT pin, the Parrot GIANT pin, and the Trash Critters GIANT pin.

These pins are all 1.75", so they stand out a bit more and feature slightly more detailed artwork. One of these'd be a great gift for a wildlife vet, a zoo department specialist, or a biologist with a favorite family!

As promised, our $20k stretch goal will be the MONSTERS TIER. This'll be the Werewolf, Chupacabra, Jackalope, and Jersey Devil 1.5" pins.

...plus, frankly, one more, if we get close. I've had requests for a certain Appalachian infrastructure reporter, and I can't see why not to give the cryptids one more buddy.

I'll spend tomorrow evening cleaning up stretch goals and getting them on the page for real.

Other than that, however far we get: thank you for being here for the ride.

Let's see how many of these jerks we can unlock!

ALL STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED, with 2 weeks to go...
about 1 month ago – Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 01:14:00 PM

Good afternoon, gang!

So, we hit $10.5k early today, meaning...

With close to 300 backers, all of the current, planned, CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS roster is unlocked.

All stretch goals, plus our alternate color options, are set. That's 52 1.5" pin options, and our one 1.75". Wow.

Before moving forward, I want to thank you guys for getting us this far. $10k is more than a lot of Pintopia projects could ever dream of reaching, especially in this economy, and with so many artists to choose from. Thanks for picking me, my pins, and my stunningly terrible sense of humor and atrocious customer service.

Please enjoy this lineup before I absolutely trash it and change the aspect ratio, because I have some more plans.

First up, sponsors! We have a single sponsor tier left, and I promised I'd show you what these guys picked...


I haven't had time to clean them up yet, but our new sponsor round includes:
  • American Crocodile (sponored by InternetMegafelon)
  • Red Panda (sponsored by TwinkTheSatellite)
  • Foo dog (sponsored by Durmad)
  • Owlbear (sponsored by quick6t)
  • Horse (and Horse, and Horse) (sponsored by Oboe)

See, Oboe actually only bought one, but we couldn't decide exactly WHAT horse to make. So, you guys are getting a variety. They're a damn good regular, so I don't mind. I know more than just Oboe will appreciate some equine diversity.

These are sponsor pins, and are available immediately: you don't need to reach any more stretch goals for them.

On stretch goals, though... while I want to stay modest, I do want to spur you guys into funding further. This is a BackerKit project, after all, so, we are going to have some more stretch goals after this. I need a chance to sit down, breathe, and draw 'em out, but we have 5 additional goals I want to hit.

The next tiers will be UNDERRATED AFRICA, BACKYARD TRESPASSERS, ASCENDED TRASH MEN, POINTY BIRDS 2, and GIANT PINS. Speculate as you please.

Depending on how things are looking, I might add some of the 20k poll runner ups in there, too. Cats and backyard birds got some good hype. But, we'll definitely be making the monsters themselves.

I'll let this cook for a bit. Today's strike day, and kudos if you're participating - please don't feel pressured to upgrade, add on, or spend anything today. Nothing's going anywhere.

Thank you for being here. We'll check in tomorrow.

OCS TIER + vinyl sticker options
about 1 month ago – Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 12:55:58 PM

Good afternoon, gang! I'm off to go clean four inches of snow off my car and close up, but, I got a few minutes.

Original Species tier has been unlocked!


Our Protogen, Kobold, and Sergal coin pins are options for everyone. Not a bad turnaround!

At this point, we're $370 away from our next stretch goal, Disney Dogs. While our Corgi's been unlocked early by a sponsor, we'll need to hit $10k for the German Shepherd, Husky, Dalmatian, and Labrador Retriever coins.


Sponsor pins have been going pretty steadily in the past few days, so I went ahead and tossed a couple more sponsor slots on there. If you're interested in adding something special to the campaign, go check those out. I'll have sketches to show off to you guys tomorrow.

If you wanna help boost up that number without spending a whole car payment... we have sticker addons now!


Grab a 2" vinyl sticker of any unlocked C3 coin for $2 a pop. These are the usual suspects, weatherproof, waterproof, damn near nukeproof vinyl - good for water bottles, cars, and almost any other application under the sun.

I'm off to work. I'd like to have some stuff to show you guys late tonight, but with roads how they are right now, I'm not sure I'll get home with enough time for sketches. 

Take it easy today, and if you're in the Northeast like I am, drive slow and drive safe.

Mythical tier unlocked + SNUGHOULS NIGHTMARE WERE SPONSOR!
about 1 month ago – Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 09:21:07 PM

Good evening, gang! Frankly, most of you will be reading this in the morning. Or, I hope you are. Jesus, man, go to bed.

I have some policies about custom stuff. No designer dogs, no OCs, and no recognizable characters that'll get me sued.

So, here's a fun question for everyone: what happens when the owner of fun, well designed recognizable characters comes up to you and asks you to make pins? Hmm. Tough. That's a crisis.

...real hard decision. Anyways, the Nightmare Were Snughoul pin is now available to backers!


Evan's always a breath of fresh air for custom work, since I started this Backerkit thing. So making some fun 80s sappy-sweet pins together was a no-brainer the second it hit my inbox. Thank you, as always, for being quick, transparent, and most importantly: letting me ask real annoying questions about pantones and legal shit.

If you're not familiar with Evan's Snughouls, and you like gushy cute cartoon critters, go fix that. If you're here from his stuff, let's clear up a couple details for peace of mind!
  • Even though Nightmare Were is a Snughouls character, he's available for unlimited backing/preordering thru CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS.
  • The Snughouls pin can be purchased as a 1.5" option on any tier.
  • Any Snughouls left over after the campain will be sent to Evan. If you want 'em after, that's where to find 'em!

I want to thank you guys who are here because of Snughouls real quick, too. You have very quickly turned around a week full of hair-pulling cancellations and fraud on its head. 

We seem to be back on track, as of right now, with funding momentum. We're also back on track for stretch goals.

Including...

Our Mythical Creatures $8.5k tier is unlocked and available for backers!


Our Western Dragon, Eastern Dragon, Unicorn and Gryphon coin pins are now available to all backers.

Thanks to the 'ghouls surge (and another sponsor we'll be showing off tomorrow), these popular options are up for grabs. Which one is your favorite? Honestly, the Eastern Dragon is one of my favorite designs in the campaign, and the Gryphon is a tribute to a certain other bird artist whose work I love. This is a heavy hitting tier, for sure, and I'm grateful we got here.

Less flashy: we're going to have sticker addons tomorrow. I need to do some basic artwork for 'em, and get the addons set up, but they'll be there. Every unlocked critter coin will get one.

I do need to address the fact that Pintopia is having an issue with mass, high tier cancellations This is a developing situation with several artists, and with BackerKit as a whole - as a banner leader, I want to let you guys know that it's affected several campaigns.

Please don't be surprised if a project you love has a giant dip in revenue. Some campaigns have lost stretch goals. This isn't from a lack of faith, it is from one situation we're trying to get to the bottom of. If you don't hear an update, it's good news, and it was handled privately. 

Speaking of custom tiers - you! Did you pay for one? You got an email with your name on it... let's start cooking.

I'm going to bed. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Our next stretch goal is the original species tier - the Protogen, Kobold and Sergal. You think we're gettin' there?

Remember... we have the big $20k goal down there. How's that poll looking?