Gorb Zine

Zine
Title:	gorb zine
Publisher:
Editor(s):
Type:	Fanart, Fanfiction
Date(s):	2021-2022
Medium:	PDF
Fandom:	Persona 5
Language:	English
External Links:	Twitter carrdarchived
Zine Social Media Banner
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gorb zine is a charity zine project centered around the character Goro Akechi from Persona 5 as a spherical shaped stuffed toy.

About

The Origins of "Gorb"

The term "gorb" was fandom term coined after the round shape of an Akechi Goro-themed Cocorot plush toy. The toy line gained a relative memetic status among fans, partly due to their comedic appearance and the difficulty of buying them at a reasonable price.

Due to the popularity of the character, the plush toy version of Goro Akechi was often resold online for exorbitantly high prices. Accounts reported that the toy could be sold as high as $200 USD.

The Akechi Goro Cocorot plush toy, also known as "gorb"

Pre-Production

On February 10, 2021, Twitter user k (3muske_tears) posted a poll asking if there was any interest in a "gorb"-themed zine project , with the majority of voters wanting to contribute as artists. A second interest poll was posted on March 30, 2021, to which the majority of voters expressed disbelief .

The first interest poll for gorb zine

On June 26, 2021, the project announced that the their mods Grass and Space had chosen to leave the project and that a round of mod applications for an art mod, finance mod, and formatting mod would be run. The mod team explained that these mods' departure was decided in response to their involvement in the Jazz Jin Secret Menu project. The new mod team was announced on July 11, 2021.

Pre-Orders

Preorders opened on November 20, 2021 with the following pricing tiers:

• Pleasant Gorb ($15 USD) - Digital Zine
• Pancake-Loving Gorb ($27 USD) - Double-Sided Charm, Prints, Sticker Sheets, Stickers
• Extra Glitzy Gorbundle ($35 USD) - Digital Zine, Double-Sided Charm, Prints, Sticker Sheets, Sticker

Full bundle orders were eligible for a giveaway of a full set of Persona 5 Cocorot plus toys, with an emphasis on the inclusion of Akechi Goro's Cocorot toy.

Stretch goals included a shaker charm designed by jeqrow at 25 orders and a Black Mask-themed manjuu toy designed by smultronte at 50 orders . For reaching 100 orders, the project then announced that all physical orders would receive a glitter button pin designed by bey0ndplusultra. On reaching 150 orders, the project also added a set of mini buttons by jeqrow for all physical orders as thanks.

A giveaway was run in collaboration with ANTITHESIS and ran from December 19, 2021 to December 20, 2021 . The chosen winner would receive a full bundle of both zines. The winner was declared to be Twitter user BurnMyBren on the gorb zine's social media account.

A second giveaway was run in collaboration with Celestial from January 7 to January 15, 2022. The winner would receive a full bundle of both zines .

Preorders ended on December 20, 2021. The project reported that a total of 197 preorders were made.

Shipping & Aftersales

The project's social media account announced on February 10, 2022 that shipping of physical orders had begun. The zine would be sent out on February 14, 2022.

Leftover sales ran from March 26, 2022 and ended on April 9, 2022 . On March 12, 2022, the project announced that they raised $3,070 for The Trevor Project. Attached to the last announcement was a link to a Google Sheets document documenting a breakdown of the project's finances.

Project Schedule

	Start	End
Interest Check	May 1, 2021	May 14, 2021
Contributor Applications	May 14, 2021	June 14, 2021
Mod Applications	June 26, 2021	July 10, 2021
Preorders	November 20, 2021	December 20, 2021
Shipping	February 10, 2022	February 15, 2022
Leftover Sales	March 26, 2022	April 9, 2022

Contributors

The following names were taken from the project's social media account .

Page Artists

• Mango (bey0ndplusultra)
• Min (Minlover646)
• Jordie (ceramic_avocado)
• Astora (v_of_astora)
• Leo (sugarsomg)
• Saphira (Saphira14922083)
• Erachiiii
• m0fie
• Evan (evandered)
• Yusuke (vanitasnation)
• Choccokapi (chocceler)
• Cait (dreaming.cait)
• Scrafty (crafty__scrafty)
• Nat (babelfell)
• Julian (latteatnight)
• Chris (choccokapi)
• Milky (mmmiillkkyyyy)
• Kat (nyacleicacid)
• Ecokitti (ecokitti)

Merch Artists

• akittyk
• Alex (smultronte)
• Kayt (repilkayt)
• Pietmeon
• Katie (AWKittie)
• Qrow (jeqrow)
• Astra (v_of_astora)
• Zoe (zubatzo)

Writers

• Anita (The_Pen_Dragon)
• Collapse (collapsingstars)
• Atom (atomjenkins)
• Maya (insertusernamehereok)
• Lala (papersandals)
• Sevv (seventhTense)

Mods

• k (3muske_tears)
• Crown (Zeiskyte)
• Nat (babelfell)
• Lia4040 (lia_404)
• Mango (bey0ndplusultra)

Former Contributors

• Grass (daisydogox) - Mod
• Space (spaceteacake) - Mod

Gallery

• 

  Social Media Banner

• 

  Full Bundle Listing

• 

  Stretch Goals Listing

• 

  Physical picture of charms and extra stretch goals

Fan Reception

The following posts are a sample of posts retweeted by the project's social media account about the zine.

atom wrote on Twitter

my @gorbzine merch goodies have arrived and LOOK at all these good good round bois!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭🥞 everyone did such a good job aaahh - and the packaging too?? so cute ;w; 💖💖💖

Black Lagoon wrote on Twitter

Just got my collaborator share of the @gorbzine merch and I love it 😭😭 The packaging was so cute I felt like crying when opening it , but def worth it cause everything is so cute 🫂💖

bren wrote on Twitter

GORB ZINE TIME!!! (a thread) I am the proud owner of the gorb zine as of today!! 😭🥺 for those who don't remember, back in december i won the antithesis/gorb zine giveaway! it was such a tiring month for me, so being able to hear that news was the highlight of my month! cont. ▶️

as of right now, the gorb zine has officially finished and the antithesis zine is in merch production! im so incredibly in love with this zine. the PDF. should be sent soon which makes me so HYPED. for now i get to gush about the merch

all of it is so fucking cute oh my GOD. but by FAR my favorite is the black mask plushie keychain! im always super picky with my black mask merch, but the BM merch that the zine had is just PERFECT. im so excited to install this in my itabag 😭

im also such a big fan of the prints. i personally love the kitchen piece, it's so simplistic but so much to look at at the same time!

once again, thank you so much to the gorb and antithesis zine mods for hosting this giveaway! im so grateful to had won this 😭

one down! one more to go! the hype for antithesis only grows from here!!

jay wrote on Twitter

I am now a proud owner of black mask gorb, courtesy of @gorbzine

(the rest of the merch and zine is also adorable but I'm going feral at this boy)

bunny wrote on Twitter

!!! my @gorbzine arrived this morning >w<

theyre all rlly round and cute and everyone who worked on this is so talented aaaaaaa

the *presentation* as well? its so clean and cute and im crying

im v excited about this mwehehe

Heater wrote on Twitter

@gorbzine My Gorb Zine came in today and I'm crying. I love everything in it it's so cute, and my boy is one of the most adorable orbs I've ever seen.

umberrrrr wrote on Twitter

gorb? GORB!! Gorb borb orb gorb orb—gorb orb! Borb gorb @gorbzine orb gorb orb gorb!!