before i post my proper review of the collectible world of caddicarus, i thought i would do a post about the channel’s history with merchandise!

like most youtubers of his genre, caddicarus has put out plenty of merchandise. and before 2020, it was all pretty standard stuff; we had all kinds of t-shirts, with a poster and a phone case thrown in there for measure. caddicarus merchandise has gone from being offered on rodeo arcade, to the yetee, and finally to the pixel empire.

the very first piece of caddicarus merch dropped on november 17th, 2013 - the hideo freaking kojima shirt! the “cyoar!” t-shirt and gums unleashed poster were released in early 2014, and the lorne lanning and 2nd edition hideo kojima shirts were released that june.

from november 2013 to march 2018, all the t-shirts, as well as the gums unleashed poster, were designed by nico vliek/whaddupnico. the partnership suddenly ended in early 2018 - these days nico is mostly known for designing the scott the woz branding and being rosie caddick’s boyfriend. nico’s connection with the caddicks runs deep!

with the sudden ending of this partnership, and after the release of a bandicoot month shirt designed by cerys, caddicarus merchandise as a whole came to a grinding halt. there used to be t-shirts that would release regularly, but throughout the rest of 2018 and all of 2019, no merch of any kind was released.

…well, except for that mysterious “cyoar!” t-shirt. not the first one from 2014, but the second one released at the near end of the old caddicarus era. i don’t remember exactly when this t-shirt dropped; i don’t recall him advertising it. it possibly dropped sometime in late 2018 or early 2019, around the time i initially left. since this was after his and nico’s contract ended, i assume cerys designed this shirt or someone else. maybe dylan west or some other PE designer.

he tried to find new designers to work with in 2019, but it seemed like this didn’t go anywhere.

after the channel’s rebirth, however, we had our adorable youtooz figure come along! unfortunately, i was absent for this one - i hugely regret not watching the 2020 videos as they released as i’m sure i would’ve been roped back in and i would’ve bought this figure. but hey, at least i can listen to this catchy song about it.

in celebration of the channel’s branding refresh in 2021 - the first branding truly unique to the 2020’s era of caddicarus - we got a displate of the new title card. and fun fact: you can still get it! before the merch box was announced, i was actually gonna ask for the displate for christmas.

then of course, we had the most ambitious and unexpected piece of caddicarus merchandise yet - the collectible world of caddicarus! as far as i can tell, this was unprecedented for this general community of game reviewers; other reviewers have definitely released blu-rays before, but this is the first time a reviewer has released a blu-ray packed with completely new and exclusive content inside a box set with many other goodies. along with the blu ray we had adorable stickers, pins, and a poster.

 

rejected merch

it’s interesting to see what could’ve been. the three pieces on top, as well as the “but with shaaahks!!” are discussed on nico’s behance post of the 2015 merch drop, and the hideo freaking kojima shirt redo and the cyoar shirt are discussed on the 2017 merch drop post.

the poster on the bottom left is such a wonderful buzzcut-era poster. i would’ve loved to have owned this poster as it’s emblematic of the era i started watching, and i was very proud of my buzzcut/flat-era roots. also the haircuts poster is so funny because if it was designed today, it would have to be like a 3-part series.

this beta design of the slaughter or salvage shirt is nice, but overall i’m much more of a fan of the shirt we ended up getting. it looked so badass and i love how it accidentally predicted the brick wall motif the show would go on to have in the far future.

to be honest, between the two cyoar shirts we’ve gotten, i actually think this one is the best and it never even got released. i definitely would’ve gotten this one back in the day, even though current quickies wasn’t one of my favorite shows (i and lots of others really only cared about it for quick J. and the “cyoar” catchphrase lol).

and the fact we didn’t end up getting a “but with shaaahks!!” t-shirt is absolutely criminal.

 

my experience with caddicarus merch

you can bet your bottom dollar i wanted a ton of these shirts back in the day. unfortunately, i was but a young teen at the time, and my parents couldn’t find out my major special interest was a sweary, raunchy youtube channel. so you can probably assume that did wonders on my mental health!

and it’s a shame, because i really, REALLY wanted the slaughter or salvage shirt very badly when i was 13. that shirt, along with the 2.5D shirt, was the first merch drop that happened while i was a fan. i remember visiting family in missouri for thanksgiving on the day this dropped, and seeing the notification for the announcement video pop up on my phone - funnily enough, it was exactly 7 years before the blu ray set came out.

it was the only caddicarus merch that dropped on the yetee. and honestly, my parents probably wouldn’t have even gotten it for me regardless of the show’s sweariness, because they used to not trust any website that wasn’t amazon. now my mom gets disney-themed candles from small businesses on instagram.

by the time his merch moved to pixel empire in 2016, i wanted a shirt of the new-at-the-time logo. then in 2017, we had a multitude of t-shirts that i clamored to own - a got miluk? shirt, a donk! t-shirt based on a bit from the wipeout 2097 video, an adorable pappy rappy shirt, a stanley shirt, and a bubsy 3D holiday sweater. heck, i absolutely HATED the miluk joke back in the day, but i still wanted that shirt because it looked so damn cool.

fun fact - the stanley and bubsy 3D shirts dropped together in late 2017 and i posted about it on my snapchat. someone in my biology class who followed me saw it, and he told me he was a fellow fan. he was the only caddicarus fan i ever found in the wild at my high school! and you gotta think - that was a HUGE deal back then, especially during the stagnation period. caddicarus fans are much easier to find in the wild these days, but it wasn’t always that easy.

the one phone case we’ve had dropped in 2018, and it was just the thumbnail art of the time. if i was able to get it, the thing that would’ve turned me off is that i used popsockets back then, and if i put the popsocket on that case, then it would’ve gone right near his…yeah.

 

as i said before, i was absent for the youtooz and displate releases. however, the collectible world of caddicarus released two months after i became a fan again, and i could NOT pass it up. now that i was 20, and my parents have chilled out about stuff like this, i could finally have caddicarus merch!

i recieved the box in march 2023, and i stayed in that living room from 8PM to 2AM, taking in absolutely everything this disc had to offer. i was exhausted by the time it was over, but it was worth every minute. it was quite possibly the most important and symbolic night i’ve had as a caddicarus fan, considering my past struggles. needless to say, i slept like a rock that night. it was as if 10 million weights were lifted off my shoulders. it was the first merch from any youtuber i’ve owned, and now caddicarus finally gets to officially sit upon my shelves and my walls with the other special interests i’ve had. it’s like i found the missing piece to the puzzle.

but of course, i can’t discuss the collectible world of caddicarus in detail without this post becoming too long. the next BPJ will be an in-depth review of the box set!

 

taking a broad look at the evolution of caddicarus merch shows us just how much the channel has evolved in just the past few years. no caddicarus fan in the pre-2020 days would’ve ever even dreamed of having a blu-ray set, simply because it wouldn’t have been possible. it’s even crazier when you realize the channel wasn’t even supposed to exist after 2019, but through sheer luck and will, the show is still being made today and it’s the best it’s ever been!