Pop It Pets - Season 1 | Buffalo Games | Ages 3+ | Released Spring 2022
The Pop It you know and love now in cute and collectible characters! The developers of the original Pop It wanted to expand their line from simple fidget toys into something more captivating. I was asked to explore what 5-10 mini characters might look like, but after sharing the first batch, I was asked to make 100 more! I worked on the development of this product from the ground up: from concept to specing, writing profiles to packaging, and even marketing. Below is a showcase of how it all came together!
Pop It Pets Season 1 is packaged in a rainbow metallic bubble wrap pouch. Inside are 6 colorful bags filled filled with 17 surprises, including 5 mystery Pop It Pets ranging from dinosaurs to vehicles, cats to pizza. There’s a collector’s grid and stickers to track your collection progress and a keychain so you can take them on the go!
Each Pop It Pet was thoughtfully designed around 1-3 pops and ranged in size from tiny to teeny tiny! Season 1 features 2-tone, swirl, rainbow and dot color effects along with special effects such as glow in the dark, heat change, UV change, glitter and metallic finishes. I designed every character, chose finishes/effects with our wonderful factory partners, and ensured the pets were designed to hit our costing needs.
Pop It Pet are more than just a fidget - each pet has a unique personality for added play and connection. Trading cards showcase the pet’s name, backstory, rarity, likes, dislikes, birthday, friends and special effects. I wrote and designed all trading cards, including the backs!
The back of each trading card is a piece of the Pop It Pet World Map! If you collect the entire assortment, you can puzzle together the whole scene. You can also hop onto the Pop It Pet website to see it all and read about each town. Season 1 consists of 10 towns with mayors, town counselors and townies. Each town features a category of pets (foods, ocean creatures, mythic beasts) and each pet has a specific home on the map.
This was Buffalo Game’s first time breaking into the collectibles business so we weren’t sure what would work to promote Pop It Pets. What we did know is that these little fidgets had big personalities and our marketing efforts should focus on showcasing their individuality and emphasize their tiny size. I gave photography and videography direction, plus photographed and created my own mini stop motion gifs to bring our Season 1 cast to life. We made crafts, songs and so much more to showcase the brand and our efforts paid off - Season 1 was a huge success!
Check out the above videos showcasing the excitement around the launch of Pop It Pets, including unboxings and reviews!
To see what comes next, check out the Pop It Pets Season 2 Gallery!
