This article was originally included in Flarnchain #38, Published to the Flarnchain Newsletter readership on October 27, 2021.
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Zombie Squirrels and The Squirrelverse
Zombie Squirrels is an NFT project that is going to have it's official main launch on October 31, 2021, and have a soft "Deathlist" launch on October 30, 2021. The launch coincides with Halloween because of... Zombies. Here's what the art looks like:
This is an astronaut Zombie.
Each of the main Zombie Squirrel drawings has its own unique story.
When compared to the many other "PFP" projects that I've been investigating over the past couple months, this project has been the most fleshed out when it comes to the actual artistic element, and the artists themselves. First of all the actual art is super detailed and stylized. The Zombie Squirrels that I've seen so far have a sense of depth, and have little details where you can tell that the artist has put a lot of effort into perfecting every last bit of blood, every rotten tooth. Little details like rips, tears, cuts, the shading on the tail, the way the squirrel looks so furry and adorable, yet so disgusting, I am legitimately in awe.
Look at this thing! It's nasty. Look at all that gross squirrel flesh hanging off the poor thing's face...
In order to better understand why I'm so excited about this art, let's consider the history of this project. These Zombie Squirrels have an interesting backstory. First, there was a project called "Convicted Squirrels" that launched this summer (maybe early fall). The Convicted Squirrels project was a collection of something like 4,500 cute little squirrels that had all been convicted of various crimes, without due process (because apparently due process is not a concept in this squirrelverse). Even though the art was quite nice, and the developers and team were very engaging with their community, the project did not do very well with their mint, and basically only around 2,000 of the squirrels found homes in people's NFT wallets.
See these cute little squirrels?
This is my personal collection of Convicted Squirrels NFTs.
By owning 3 of these, I get to receive 1 Zombie Squirrel for free via "Airdrop"
Because of the slow sales, the developers decided to do something drastic as a way to add value to the project and the community of Squirrel buyers. For those of you unfamiliar with the economics of NFT projects like this, if a project doesn't sell out right away, the "floor price" or the price of the lowest priced item in a collection, can crash to extremely low levels. This creates a situation where thousands of people might have purchased an NFT for let's say... $200, and now the lowest price NFT in the collection is selling for let's say... $20. This is bad for the holders of a collection, because if you need to sell, the liquidity of the collection exists at the floor, or the lowest price of the items in the collection, not at the price that you paid initially. So even if you have some super mega rare item in the collection, if you need the liquidity, you will have to sell at the floor.
This Zombie Squirrel's name is "Chad", And he approves this message.
Anyways, the team for Convicted Squirrels did something drastic. They wrote up some lore about the "unminted squirrels", that they were going to be executed without due process. Then they had a several day countdown, and had an executioner squirrel kill all of the unminted squirrels.
Even the executioner is kinda cute.
This did a couple things. It decreased the size of the collection from around 4,000 squirrels to around 2,000 squirrels, and it created an opportunity for another project to emerge. Having learned their lessons from the first project, the team reinvented the massacred squirrels into the "Zombie Squirrels". They drastically leveled up their art skills, and put a ton of effort into writing a bunch of lore and back stories for all of these squirrels who have come back from the dead to get their revenge on Halloween.
This should give you a sense of the increase in quality of the art.
On the left, you have generation 1 - Convicted Squirrels
On the right, you have generation 2 - Zombie Squirrels
Anyways... I've been following this project for a while, and I'm really excited to grab a Squirrel on October 30, 2021 (since I am a member of the project's "Deathlist", I get to mint 1 day early). If you would like to join the Deathlist, and grab a "Zombie Squirrel" which will live on the Immutable X (IMX) blockchain, let me know! I'd be happy to share more information with you about the project.
To learn more, check out the IMX Zombie Squirrels Discord here.
To check out the website, go the IMX Zombie Squirrels Website here.
As always, thanks for reading folks.
Until next time.
Cheers!
-Flarnrules
Flarn Card 26
Rarity: Dark
Size: Regular
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