Ultra Rare — a year in review

A year ago today, we released our first collection, The Horrors, on WAX. If you’d have told us back in October 2020 that we’d have created the first fully licensed Texas Chainsaw Massacre NFT drop, we’d have told you you were crazy. But here we are. What a year it’s been!

As January is a time for reflection, we thought it would be the perfect time to take a look at all the things we’ve done in a little over 12 months. And it’s kind of mind-blowing. So, back to the beginning…

In November 2020, we released our first promo. The iconic Creepo the Clown.

Not only did that mark a series of promo drops, but a number of collaborations, which have come to be something of an Ultra Rare speciality.

Our first collabs included work with Nifty Cards, The Nifty Box, Any Observation, Starcards, Dust and Alien Worlds.

January 2021: The Horrors

On January 10th —our first collectible series, The Horrors was unleashed. We brought a dark, bold and violent art style and adult themes a space that had been populated by cartoons and parody.

The 60k card series sold out in 2 hours. And with over 90% of packs opened, it was clearly loved by the wax community. It was the first time the hybrid pack opening system was experimented with, with 50% of packs mint-on-demand and 50% preminted. It was a bold move and a roaring success, with many aspects of the series emulated by multiple projects subsequently.

An unprecedented 140 collectors reward cards were distributed and one of the highly prized 1/1 Artist cards sold for $10k.

1 master set was complete — and our King of Horrors was found.

March 2021: Cryptids

During March, we dropped our first free set — Cryptids. Combining monster mythology with a crypto twist, Cryptids was a complete 48 card set consisting of 24 base cards and 24 rare cards, every single one of which we gave away for free, for people who mined on Ultra Rare land in Alien Worlds.

At the time, no one had given away a complete collectible set and certainly not on this scale (12k NFTs), but we wanted to make Ultra Rare open and accessible to all. So that’s what we did!

March 2021: Horrors of the Splinterlands

The Horrors of the Splinterlands was a collaboration with popular blockchain game, Splinterlands — a super limited set which sold out in under a second!

April 2021: Alien Horrors

In April 2021, we launched Alien Horrors. Our second release was an instant sell-out and a huge success. Not only did we deliver one of the best sets on wax, we also pushed the hybrid minting system forward. Now, every single card had the chance of being mint-on-demand or premint.

Incredibly, 3 master-sets were completed this time out! The Horrors family was growing…

Collaborations: phase 2

Following the release of The Horrors, we have continued to collaborate with projects from across the Wax space, working with teams such as Atomikings, Cryptowriter, Wax Arena, Nefty Blocks, Battle Miners, Immersys, Chain Creatures and Fightlands.

May 2021: Crypto Horrors

Building on the success of Cryptids, Crypto Horrors presented iconic Horrors characters with a fun, fresh crypto twist!

A complete 100 card set, every single one of which was yet again given away for free for people who mined on Ultra Rare land in Alien Worlds. We pushed the limits on this one, outdoing our original mining set and giving away a whopping 30k NFTs!

May 2021: The Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen was our first Premiere Collection: an 8 card set, boasting some of the best graphics work seen on the WAX blockchain to date.

Another instant sell-out, it took The Horrors series secondary sales to well over the $1 million mark. Not bad for a couple of lads from the North of England!

July 2021: The Horrors II

The Horrors II — the sequel to our origional Horrors series — was an epic 100 card set, boasting some of the most varied, exciting and high quality art and visual effects seen on WAX. With over 8 variants including newly envisioned Glass, Cosmic, Bloodsoaked and Cursed, the set easily surpassed 1300 unique cards, including well over 300 unique 1/1s.

This time around, we decided to try something a little different. Instead of deciding how many cards to produce ourselves, we let the community decide for us.

We held a 13 minute open sale that allowed our collectors to grab enough packs to begin building this epic set. Horrors packs are one of the best experiences you’ll have on wax. We wanted people to crack a tonne, have fun and trade freely with friends.

And that’s what happened. Collecting The Horrors II was a great experience for everyone involved. Sets were completed in their hundreds and Ultra Rare welcomed a tonne of new collectors into our horror horde.

August 2021: 16 Bit Squad

16 Bit Squad was our third mining set, bringing favourite video game characters remixed for the crypto heads in that unmistakeable Ultra Rare way.

The event ran through August until the end of September, where we gave away 50 NFTs an hour — an incredible 60k NFTs overall.

August 2021: Ultra Comix — Beasts and Butchers

Illustrated by legendary comicbook artist, Kev Hopgood — creator of Marvel’s War Machine — Beasts and Butchers was our first NFT comic release, a completely unique innovation that connected the worlds of collectibles and comics in a bold and exciting way.

Comic panels were sold in packs. Panels came in a variety of rarities, with varying levels of scarcity. Once you had comic panels in your wallet, you could login here at our Ultra Comix website using the “sign in” link in the top right, where you can not only read the comic, but switch out panels, customising and exporting your comic, so the viewing experience is exactly to your taste!

October 2021: El Cuco

El Cuco was our second comic to hit our Ultra Comix platform, and incredibly, we gave it away completely free to collectors and pack crackers!

This was a big thank you to our Beasts and Butchers collectors, who backed us on a brand new project on a brand new platform. We appreciated their support and wanted them to know we wouldn’t be able to create and innovate in the way we have without them.

Thanks guys — you are without a doubt the best.

November 2021: Leatherfaces

In September, we teamed up with iconic horror franchise, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to bring Leatherfaces to the blockchain!

It’s pretty obvious horror is our thing, so getting our hands on this amazing IP and turning it into an NFT collection was a dream come true for us. Our adaptation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was something quite different: a darkly twisted and crazy PFP project on the Ethereum blockchain.

Illustrated by maverick horror artist, Skinner, and drawing on the many incarnations of Leatherface we’ve seen across 45 years and eight movies, Leatherfaces brought a mix of horror and comedy, capturing the tone of the series perfectly.

When you scroll back up and see the projects we’ve put out in a little over twelve months, it’s pretty mind-blowing. And it doesn’t stop there…

The Horrors: Guest Set is on its way soon and it’s an absolute banger.

We wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without our team, which has grown from strength to strength. From our artists, Macauley, JP, Kev, Ben, Puma and Bacca to our newly formed dev team. From our influencer, the force of nature that is Burst of Energy, to our community manager, the ever-dependable Lav Basmati, to our social manager, the multi-talented Fang and our team of mods: Hollo, Bogan, Sherri, Dann, Book, Nathan, Lilly, Tate, Dave and Big Tezza, who helped us out a lot in those early days.

But all of this would be for nought without you, our community, who really are the greatest on the blockchain.

Let’s make 2022 the best one yet.