Some of you will remember those halcyon days of yesteryear, when, among the other Wild and Crazy Things that were coming out of the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory were — Tree-and-Dragon mugs, produced in support of the original publication of I Dare, in February 2002.
Thirteen years ago. Wow.
We never did another run of mugs because, boy, were they breakable — and whimsical, too. We’d ship four in a Special Mug Mailing Box; three would arrive in pristine condition, while the fourth was a little mound of cobalt blue rubble. We replaced the broken mugs, of course, so the whole experiment was. . .somewhat more stressful than was useful for anyone.
In the interest of History! Here is a picture, front and back, of one of those original mugs, still in use at the Confusion Factory as of. . .today, actually:
Well, after 13 years and many requests from mug owners, whose mugs are in similar straits, and from folks who never even got the chance to buy a mug — we’ve partnered with Offworld Designs, the same folks who brought you the Liaden Universe® tees, polos, and denims, to do a run of all new coffee mugs.
This is a mock-up of what the new mugs will look like:
NOTE: The mugs are not yet ready for prime time. You will be able to order them in time for Christmas. As soon as the ordering page is live, we’ll let y’all know.
Great, I will buy one, just broke a different one today so perfect timing. Thanks!
I would like to get two, one for my wife and one for me. I would also like to vote for big mugs, something you can get enough coffee into to make it worth while. Can’t wait…
The image looks lovely! But…trying to find mugs with big enough handles for my hands is a perennial task for me, and it seems to me the old ones had bigger handles (longer top to bottom). Any chance of a similar form for the new ones? These look rather generic in form, with small rounded handles.
Hope so, because if there are longer-handled mugs my Christmas present for Dad is sorted (not to mention at least one for me!).
Do you know how capacious the mugs are to be?
If the mugs break again, you can do what my company did when all the mugs were delivered in pieces – a contest was held to see who could rebuild the mug from the pieces and have it hold water. The thought actually brings back fond memories. 🙂
Make them supersize, please. My giant black coffee mug is chipped & I would LOVE to replace it with yours!
Looks like the mug will be between 10 and 11 oz. Best buy two. 🙂
Ten or 11 ounces.
Can I buy the breakfast, too? ;-))
Sure. Go to the grocery and get yourself some good stone-ground whole wheat bread, a chunk of brie, and some mixed fruits. Toasting, buttering, and cutting takes, like three minutes, total, and if you make the coffee the night before, you’re sitting down to eat no later than five minutes after you get up.
I am all smiles! I love mugs! Yes! in whatever size and handle type! Yes!
Hee Hee ;-)) ;-))
I remember the mugs of yore – I bought four; three arrived as rubble; the fourth was chipped but I seem to remember using it to store paint brushes (for my miniatures).
Oh no. You should’ve told us. We did replace them until we ran out. Sometimes, the second shipment got where it was going intact.
They were a Learning Experience, those mugs. After, we stuck with tshirts, books, and the occasional piece of jewelry.
That was in my early days of buying things over the interweb and anyway it never occurred to me to hold you responsible. I figured it was definitely the fault of the post office – yours, mine, ours? 🙂
Oh, and ’til I read this blog post I hadn’t realized the old mugs were so notoriously fragile. At the time I had visions of a postal truck rolling down a hillside, or bored workers playing a vigorous soccer match – something to account for the scale of destruction within the box (though given the failure of any mug to arrive unscathed I’m still inclined to believe that something traumatic occurred on-route).