Thurso illustrator uses ‘eejits’ to launch his new card game
A THURSO illustrator has created a new card game featuring his own cartoon characters which he hopes will come up trumps with kids.
Bahoochie is the brainchild of George Mackay who has used his eejits cartoon characters to create a top trumps-style game.
Thanks to raising money through a kickstarter campaign, he has been able to have the cards manufactured. As well as selling online at eejits-online.co.uk he’s also secured deals to have the game stocked at outlets in Caithness.
The 40-year-old created eejits 12 years ago and has drawn hundreds of characters. He was looking for ways to promote his work when he came up with the game.
“The idea came mainly from my huge catalogue of cartoon creatures that I have created over the years,” he said.
“I had all these weird and wonderful eejit characters but wasn’t doing much with them.
“So I thought about putting them in a card game as it seemed like the perfect fit.
“It organically grew from there, plus I enjoy beating my kids at games.”
The game is played like top trumps where each character is rated on attributes such as glaikitness; beeg and brawny; haiverin bampot and foosum factor.
To launch the venture, Mr Mackay secured more than £2800 thanks to a Kickstarter campaign which attracted donations from across the world.
He said: “I couldn’t have launched the project without the help of the people who pledged and supported me.
“There are some avid gamers out there and 48 per cent of the pledges came from people who had never heard of eejits or Bahoochie before.
“It also allowed me to launch in heaps of countries: all over the USA, Europe, Australia, even places like Singapore and Israel.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own.”
Mr Mackay said he has received great feedback so far from customers who have purchased Bahoochie.
He hopes interest in the game will continue and is aiming to secure a deal with a national retailer.
He said: “I’m hoping to go further afield in the near future. I’d love to get the game into a big chain.
“The feedback has been absolutely brilliant. I have been getting comments from all over the world from people who are loving the game.
“They’re impressed with the quality of the pack, the Scottish humour and the art.”
Mr Mackay also hopes to launch a children’s book with his eejits characters and has visited primary schools showing pupils how to draw cartoon characters.
He hopes Bahoochie will be successful enough to help him grow his eejits brand.
“I’d love to create more products, more games and kids book finished,” he said.
“One day, I will do this full time, hopefully split my work between my own creations, products and client work, designing mascots and characters for companies.”
