Scary Godmother is a picture book series created by Jill Thompson in 1997 about a young girl named Hannah who learns not to fear monsters after befriending a playful witch and her friends. The books were later adapted into a pair of animated specials in 2003 and 2005.
In 2013, Thompson launched a Kickstarter to produce a limited edition doll based on the Scary Godmother character. The doll is sold exclusively by Thompson herself through the official Scary Godmother website.
Doll
The Scary Godmother doll stands at around 13” and has 16 ponts of articulation. She comes with a stand, three separate purse accessories, and her pet cat, The Boozle. During the original Kickstarter campaign, she was available as a reward for backers who pledged at least $50, though she currently retails for $150 on the website.
Production
(This section uses images and information taken from the official Kickstarter.)
The Scary Godmother doll Kickstarter was launched on August 13, 2013. It was successfully funded with $206,187 pledged from the original $150,000 goal. The campaign officially ended on September 12, 2013. According to the backer rewards information, the doll was projected to come out April 2014, but was not formally released until February 2018.
Design Sketches
All sketches were drawn and designed by Jill Thompson herself.
Original Body Sculpt
Kickstarter Updates
Backers received frequent updates on the doll’s production and manufacturing process. The following are specific highlights, including post dates and select images.
12/4/2014
This first update features the first version of the doll’s sculpt adjusted for mass production. The Boozle’s sculpt was also shown and was more or less finalized right off the bat.
1/29/2015
This update focused on the doll’s wax head mold; the master mold that the following vinyl manufacturing was based off of.
5/6/2015 | 7/17/2015
The body sculpt and joints continued to be tweaked, and by July, it was finalized enough to begin prototyping the clothing.
8/6/2015 | 9/1/2015 | 9/14/2015 | 10/16/2015
The next several updates focused mainly on clothing development. Alongside it, development on the hair styling began, as well as the doll stand through the decal designs.
11/13/2015
At this point, the sculpts for each individual body part were prepped for use in the injection mold; the master mold used to manufacture each piece. This update features photos of the initial injection mold prototype. Additional notes were also added for clothing prototypes.
3/2/2016
A look at the box design.
3/30/2016
An incident occurred in which the factory mistakenly interpreted the request for “white” skin as caucasian skin. Details on the body, face, clothing, and hair continued to be tweaked.
4/11/2016 | 8/10/2016
While reviewing the skin tone, it was discovered that the master head sculpt had been lost. A brand new master had to be made. Meanwhile, the clothes were fully approved, and the box construction continued to be refined.
8/30/2016 | 12/13/2016
The joints continued to be refined, including a closer coloring to the main body pieces and fixing issues with fragility. Meanwhile, after a long series of back-and-forth with the factory over polypropylene hair fibers, saran hair was finally approved.
3/5/2017 | 6/14/2017 | 7/10/2017 | 8/25/2017
The doll was 100% finalized. Manufacturing officially began. The last portion of production focused on box development, particularly in ensuring proper doll display and security for transportation. The boxes were fully approved by August 25th, and the barcode information was the final step before production finally wrapped.
Images
Official imagery
Images posted here are official promotional/stock images created for Scary Godmother!
