New animals, round 1: pick one direction each

My picks, beside the starters

What I need from you

One direction per animal (A, B or C). My pick has the green border.
Three picks are yellow: duck A, horse A and bunny A. They blur together at phone size. My call: the duck keeps lemon, the bunny goes vanilla white, the horse goes warm chestnut. Colors are cheap to change, shapes are not, so pick on shape.

Penguin	B: Fluff	best face read at the board camera (eyes on cream inside a deeper hood), a silhouette no starter has (earmuffs plus tuft), and the tuft gives the ear chain real follow-through
Dragon	A: Mint Mochi	Reads as a dragon at 75 pt from the board camera without the Bankrupt prop's look: horns, wings and the front-wrapped spade tail all show from the far seat, and it is the cutest silhouette next to the starters
Koala	A: Gum Puff	Reads as a koala first at 75 pt (huge fluffy ears plus tall nose block), uses the recipe hue the cast lacks, and the sprig is an accessory no other seat has; c is the runner-up if Kyle wants the cutest silhouette.
Capybara	B: Big Snoot	The long box snout and wide dark nose read as capybara, not bear, at the 52 degree board camera and in 3/4, and mocha is the one hue clearly apart from the dog's caramel at 75 pt.
Frog	A: Pond Prince	Grey-sage separates best from the yellow-green grass and from the shark's aqua, the eye-bump-and-smile read is instant at 75 pt, and the crown stays readable from the board camera without hiding the bumps.
Cat	A: Silver Tabby	Tabby stripes and the bell collar say cat from the board camera, and cool silver-blue is unlike every starter; c is a close second
Bunny	A: Butter Bun	Upright ears are the instant bunny read at 75 pt and lemon-butter is a hue no starter or planned animal uses
Horse	A: Butter Pony	The blaze, oval muzzle and hooves make it read as a pony at the table crop, its butter hue is new to the cast, and nothing on it touches the hat landing
Duck	A: Pip	the clearest duck at 75 pt (lemon plus orange bill), the most toy-like and cute, and lemon is a hue no starter has
Bear	A: Cocoa Teddy	The cocoa value step is the strongest separator from the caramel dog at 75 pt (round top ears plus a darker body), and the sailor collar is original with no known-bear cues.

Penguin

A, B and C beside the starters — Raccoon, shark, dog, pig, then A, B, C

Snowball

round sky-blue penguin with a big cream heart-shaped face and a coral knit cap with a pompom: the tallest, coziest silhouette

table shot at phone size — Board shot at real phone size (390 pt wide)

its seat at real size — Its seat at real phone size

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.392, footprint 0.479, tris 10468

Fluff

My pick

an ice-periwinkle chick: deeper hood around a round cream face, a three-strand fuzz tuft and peach earmuffs that widen the head

best face read at the board camera (eyes on cream inside a deeper hood), a silhouette no starter has (earmuffs plus tuft), and the tuft gives the ear chain real follow-through

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.341, footprint 0.529, tris 12052

Tux

the classic two-tone: a clean round cornflower head, cream tux bib and belly, a coral knit scarf with tails; the lowest, simplest shape

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.23, footprint 0.454, tris 10608

Build risks

Grip: the blockout mitten is a thick rounded tip on a loft; the final cage needs a real curled mitten with edge loops from socket cup to wrist (raccoon #112 crease rule) so the paddle handle still passes through the closed tip
Reach: a 0.15 flipper only reaches chin height; the paddle clears the big head only when raised out to the side-front, so check the bid and gavel clips at the game cameras for props hidden behind the cheek
Socket shoulders are not modeled yet (flipper is a rigid part sunk into the bean); final needs the socket cup, closure-penguin-shoulders split and the rest ray sweep
Budget: 10.5k to 12.1k tris against 9,800 (head 3k and bean 1.7k at blockout subdivision, earmuffs 1.9k in b); final topology has to trim
b: the earmuff band and the tuft sit on the crown, so the hat socket moved just behind the tuft; hat skins need the outfit hidden and must seat behind the tuft. Earmuff pads set the footprint at 0.529 (limit 0.58)
a: cap and pompom bring height to 1.392 (cap 1.40) and cover the blue crown at the board camera, which weakens the penguin read from above
c: eyes sit on cornflower rather than cream, so face contrast and blush are weaker than a and b at 75 pt
Mouth on the small beak is tight: the kawaii w fills the beak's lower half, so the beak front must stay near vertical or the decal fade eats it (it was clipped on the first pass)

Dragon

Mint Mochi

My pick

Classic baby dragon: curved-back cream horns, little fin ears, lilac bat wings peeking past the shoulders, a thick tail that wraps round to the front with a spade tip, gold coin pendant (a hoard dragon)

Reads as a dragon at 75 pt from the board camera without the Bankrupt prop's look: horns, wings and the front-wrapped spade tail all show from the far seat, and it is the cutest silhouette next to the starters

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.298, footprint 0.503, tris 9724

Cloud Puff

Dreamy periwinkle: scalloped side frills instead of ears, butter nub horns, cream cloud-scallop wings, a cloud-puff tail tip on the right, butter star clip

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.275, footprint 0.526, tris 9944

Lucky Ember

Festival dragon: gold two-prong antlers, cream cheek puffs on the ear chain, chunkier pear body, coral leaf wings, cinnamon-roll tail with a cream flame tuft, gold bell collar

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.311, footprint 0.502, tris 10260

Build risks

Hue: mint (a) sits near the Bankrupt dragon prop (#8fdcb2). Kept distinct with lilac wings, cream horns, no back spikes, no lemon belly plates and the coin. If Kyle wants more distance, shift a toward pistachio or take b/c colors
Hat landing: horns root at x 0.13-0.17 and rise to 1.27-1.33. Check the straw boater brim against them; the landing between them is flat but narrow
Tail (a): the wrap ends in front of the left foot (tip at x 0.27, z -0.12 game). Footprint is fine (0.50) but prop-l held props, the fold sit and foot clips need a clearance check; tailResponse about 0.6 per the recipe
Wings (b, c) are mostly hidden behind the head at the 52 degree board camera; only a shows wing tips at the table
Snout plus horns can read calf or goat at a glance (b most, with its frills). Keep the snout small and the horns curved back
c cheek puffs read as earmuffs in profile; the ear chain wobble on them needs a low earResponse
Collar band (a, c) shows as a thin hoop in side view; the final build should seat it into the neck crease like the dog scarf
Grip: paw-to-wing clearance 0.14-0.15 m and paw-to-tail 0.17-0.25 m with the right arm raised: clear
Tris run 9.7k-10.3k against the 9.8k ceiling; the final build trims the bean and feet (hidden under the head)

Koala

Gum Puff

My pick

Classic grey koala: warm grey-lilac, giant round ears set wide with white fluff pads, a tall plum nose block, white chin, a eucalyptus sprig by the left ear.

Reads as a koala first at 75 pt (huge fluffy ears plus tall nose block), uses the recipe hue the cast lacks, and the sprig is an accessory no other seat has; c is the runner-up if Kyle wants the cutest silhouette.

height 1.272, footprint 0.53, tris 9846

Cloud Pom

Cooler and rounder: light blue-grey, smooth pom-pom ears high on the crown with a cloud-scalloped fluff pad, a wide bean nose, a butter-yellow knit scarf with a pom.

height 1.351, footprint 0.492, tris 10756

Snow Tuft

Lightest seat in the cast: snow-white body, charcoal-lilac ear backs tipped outward with white tufts spilling past the rim, a wide cheeky head, the biggest nose, a coral ear bow.

height 1.245, footprint 0.562, tris 9658

Build risks

Ear discs drive the footprint (a 0.530, c 0.562 of 0.58): the full build needs earResponse about 0.3 and a check that the 90 degree ear-overshoot stress pose does not swing a disc through the head or into the neighbor seat.
The mouth sits just under a forward nose block; from the 52 degree board camera it clears by only a few pixels. The final layout needs a measured mouth gap and the close-up check so the mouth never hides under the nose.
Blockout fluff pads are separate intersecting shells; the final ear should be one cage with the fluff modeled into it (or painted) to pass the crease scan and keep-plain mask rules.
Sprig (a) sits near the crown on the left; confirm the straw boater on the hat socket clears it.
b blue-grey sits near the penguin lane (sky/ice blue) and c white may collide with penguin or bunny whites; pick after the other lanes report.
Blockout tris 9.7k-10.8k with a 3k head; the full build must land at or under 9.8k including closures.

Capybara

Yuzu Bath

Balanced rounded-loaf head, medium block snout with a big cocoa nose, tiny side ears, ginger-honey fur, a yuzu resting on the crown (the onsen capybara cue).

height 1.393, footprint 0.469, tris 9540

Big Snoot

My pick

Rounded-brick head with a long tall box snout as wide as the face, broad dark nose, eyes high, pinhead ears far back, barrel body, mocha-latte fur, folded onsen towel on top.

The long box snout and wide dark nose read as capybara, not bear, at the 52 degree board camera and in 3/4, and mocha is the one hue clearly apart from the dog's caramel at 75 pt.

height 1.28, footprint 0.495, tris 9348

Mochi Perch

Softest read: round wide mochi head, soft oval snout pad, chubby wide body, butter-wheat fur, a little bluebird napping on the crown.

height 1.388, footprint 0.473, tris 10548

Build risks

Dead-on front view still edges toward teddy bear on all three; the snout depth carries the read, so the full build must keep the snout long and the ears tiny and low on the sides.
Snout is a separate intersecting shell in the blockout; the final must model it into the head cage like the dog's button snout, with a dense face-decal grid over it so the w mouth under the big nose stays visible from 52 and 40 degrees.
Eyes sit 0.07-0.10 higher than the starters' (above the snout top); the face layout needs that height to keep the clear zone off the snout.
Head share is 63.8-64.5%, at the top of the 58-64% band; c is just over.
a's yuzu puts it at 1.393, right under the 1.40 cap, and it sits on the hat landing (like the raccoon's cap); hats must replace it.
c's bluebird is a second character on the hat landing and pushes c to 1.388 and 10.5k tris (over the 9.8k budget); it also needs its own small follow-through or it reads glued on in cartoon motion.
b's towel stripes are vertex-resolution paint here; they need a real atlas paint pass to read crisply.
a (ginger-honey) and c (butter) sit nearer the dog's caramel cream than b does; check seat contrast if Kyle picks either.

Frog

Pond Prince

My pick

Classic read: wide soft head, round eye bumps on the front of the crown, cream jaw under a wide smile, grey-sage fur with deeper back spots, a tiny gold crown.

Grey-sage separates best from the yellow-green grass and from the shark's aqua, the eye-bump-and-smile read is instant at 75 pt, and the crown stays readable from the board camera without hiding the bumps.

height 1.314, footprint 0.466, tris 9570

Lily Bun

Squat bun: extra-wide low head nearly as wide as the chubby body, big eye bumps set wide, matcha fur with a peach jaw and belly, a lily-pad beret with a pink lotus.

height 1.276, footprint 0.489, tris 9982

Rain Hopper

Tree frog: rounder head, big bumps high on the top sides, round toe pads on hands and feet, slimmer bean body, light celery fur, a yellow sou'wester rain hat.

height 1.318, footprint 0.443, tris 10442

Build risks

Green on green: the table sits on yellow-green grass, so every frog has less seat contrast than the starters; keep the fur cool and light (a's grey-sage), and lean on the cream jaw and AO.
Eyes sit on the bump fronts about 0.2 above the starters' eye height; face.js extras placed relative to the eyes (brows, tears, sweat, spirals) need checking on the bumps and the head under them.
Rig proposal (recipe section 9, kept): ear-l/ear-r at the bump roots, ear-*-tip at the bump tops; bumps take at most a 30% share to ear-* (the rest head), and the face decal over each bump takes the same share so the painted eyes ride with the bump. Set earResponse low, about 0.15, or the clips' ear-flop channel will slide the bumps off the face. Tail chain stays empty.
No nose: the kawaii w mouth needs layout.mouthSwap like the shark (w to smile, wSmile to smileBig); the blockout paints a wider smile.
b's head half-height is 0.367, below the 0.39-0.42 band (a deliberate squat bun); the other two sit at 0.384-0.387, just under the band floor because of the flattened crown.
All three accessories sit on the hat landing (like the raccoon's cap), so hat skins must replace them; the landing sits between and behind the bumps.
c is 10.4k tris (over the 9.8k budget) from the separate toe-pad shells; the final should model the pads into the paw and foot cages.
Back spots are vertex-resolution paint and look smudgy; they need atlas paint, and spots must stay off the bump fronts (eye clear zone).

Cat

Silver Tabby

My pick

Cool silver-blue with three forehead stripes and cheek stripes, ringed plush S-tail standing up beside the left hip, raccoon-style upright ears, coral collar with a gold bell

Tabby stripes and the bell collar say cat from the board camera, and cool silver-blue is unlike every starter; c is a close second

height 1.316, footprint 0.465, tris 18962

Calico Mochi

Round kitten head with big ears tilted out, vanilla with apricot and cocoa patches, slim question-mark tail hooking out beside the right cheek, blue fish clip

height 1.36, footprint 0.488, tris 17960

Cocoa Point Puff

Long-hair cream with cocoa points on ears, paws, feet and tail, cheek tufts and a scalloped chest ruff, huge plume tail, periwinkle ribbon bow

height 1.297, footprint 0.48, tris 22646

Build risks

a's S-tail stands behind the left hip and is hidden from the board camera; c's plume shows there. If the tail must read in the board shot, push a's mid-curve further out (footprint has room: 0.465)
b is a white cat with a clip by one ear, close to Hello Kitty despite the patches and mouth; move the clip or drop b
Silver-blue (a) could sit near the penguin if it goes ice blue; pick the two together
Tails must stay inside the 0.58 footprint through 90 degree whips (tailResponse 0.7); c's plume is the biggest (radius 0.088)
Painted forehead and cheek stripes stay more than one eye width from the eyes; keep that in the keep-plain mask
Mouth rides on whisker pads to stay clear of the decal fade; the full build must keep them
Blockouts are 18-23k triangles against the 9.8k budget (c's ruff and plume are the heaviest)

Bunny

Butter Bun

My pick

Tall upright spoon ears with a soft back sweep (ear-mid bend), lemon-butter body, periwinkle bow at the left ear root

Upright ears are the instant bunny read at 75 pt and lemon-butter is a hue no starter or planned animal uses

Hat on the hat socket

height 1.437, footprint 0.444, tris 16106

Vanilla Lop

Full lop ears hanging beside the cheeks with the pink cup turned forward, vanilla white with oat ears, carrot hair clip, no height cost

Hat on the hat socket

height 1.229, footprint 0.542, tris 16168

Bluebell Flop

Semi-lop: left ear up, right ear folded out and down at the middle, periwinkle body, striped butter scarf

Hat on the hat socket

height 1.407, footprint 0.474, tris 17622

Build risks

Height: a 1.437 and c 1.407 with ears, tallest in the cast; close-up framing and FX boxes need the section 10 check. b is 1.229, the safe fallback
Hat landing: the boater brim clears the upright ears by 0.020 (a) and 0.022 (c) at rest; ear flops toward the crown can touch it, so keep earResponse about 0.6 and test the hat in the ear clips
Ear length: a 0.327 centerline (1.6x the pig's 0.20) is inside the cap; c's folded ear is 0.445 and b's lop is 0.47 (2.2-2.4x the pig's), over the 2x rule. Shortening them makes b read as a puppy, so this needs Kyle's call
Lop (b) footprint 0.542 is near the 0.58 cap, and the head tilt swings the hanging ears outward
Mouth sits on soft whisker pads so it stays clear of the decal fade; the full build needs those pads in the cage, or the mouth fades from the board camera
ear-*-mid is parented under ear-*-tip, which keeps ear-*-tip's contract parent; the recipe should confirm that order
Blockouts are 16-18k triangles against the 9.8k budget; the full build has to rebuild the ear and head cages
c's periwinkle sits between the raccoon's lavender and a possible ice-blue penguin at 75 pt

Horse

Butter Pony

My pick

Palomino pony: butter body with a cream blaze and oval muzzle, cream forelock curl and back mane shell (head-skinned), plume tail, cocoa hooves, blue prize rosette

The blaze, oval muzzle and hooves make it read as a pony at the table crop, its butter hue is new to the cast, and nothing on it touches the hat landing

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.315, footprint 0.495, tris 10272

Dapple Sky

Silver-blue dapple: white dapples on the bean, a long periwinkle side-swept lock on the optional mane joint with a pink bow, long wavy tail

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.315, footprint 0.494, tris 11504

Peach Brush

Punk peach pony: rose three-spike forelock and brush mane on the mane joint, short upright brush tail, gold lucky horseshoe on a lilac ribbon

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.322, footprint 0.523, tris 10496

Build risks

Read: on the round mochi head the horse comes from the muzzle, blaze and mane. Leaf ears with inner color can still read cat or deer; keep them narrow and upright
Muzzle is 1.2x the dog snout wide, 1.18x tall, 1.13x long: inside the 1.3x cap, mouth on its lower half
Hat landing: b's swoop and bow start at the front-left of the crown; c's forelock spikes sit at the front hairline. Both need a boater check. a keeps its mane behind the crown
Hue: a butter (#ffe5a6) is the closest to the dog caramel; b silver-blue is near the penguin ice blue and dragon b periwinkle
Grip: hoof tips close around the paddle handle like the pig trotters. Paw-to-tail 0.25 m with the arm raised: clear
Manes are flat ribbons on the head surface; the final build needs them skinned to head or mane with follow-through, and the b swoop must not slide over the left eye in head squash
Tris run 10.3k-11.5k against the 9.8k ceiling (mane ribbons, feet, bean); the final build trims hidden geometry

Duck

Pip

My pick

the lemon duckling: round head, a forward curl tuft, a wide peach button bill, a sky-blue ribbon bow on the crown

the clearest duck at 75 pt (lemon plus orange bill), the most toy-like and cute, and lemon is a hue no starter has

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.36, footprint 0.475, tris 11636

Puddle

a cream-white duck with a taller egg head, a longer orange bill and a lemon bucket hat whose brim slopes down all round

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.31, footprint 0.513, tris 11440

Mallard

two-tone: pistachio hood over a cream collar ring, oat body, periwinkle wing stripe, a drake tail curl and a coral satchel

Holding the bid paddle

height 1.232, footprint 0.464, tris 11748

Build risks

Nostrils: face.js has no two-dot nostril feature and per-animal face changes are limited to existing layout keys, so the final should paint the nostril dots on the bill atlas; the mouth uses the existing mouthSwap (w to smile)
Wing tips: the three scallops are separate bumps in the blockout; the final needs one closed mitten with scallops in the cage, weighted to paw, with the handle through the middle scallop
The wide bill (about 0.26) sits just inside the blush ovals; keep the blush x at eye x + 0.075 or wider
Budget: 11.4k to 11.7k tris against 9,800; final topology has to trim
a: the curl tuft is anatomy on ear-l at the crown front, so the hat socket moved behind it (y +0.07); hat skins must seat behind the curl. Lemon sits near the honey planned for capybara and bear: keep it clearly lemon
b: the bucket hat covers the whole hat landing and dominates the head from the board camera; brim sets footprint 0.513 and depth 1.03
c: pistachio is close to the frog's sage and the dragon's mint; the satchel strap crosses the chest/body weight blend and needs cloth skinning across it; the collar ring only shows from the front, not from the board camera
Socket shoulders are not modeled yet (wing is a rigid part sunk into the bean); same final-build steps as the penguin

Bear

Cocoa Teddy

My pick

Classic teddy at the cast's deepest value: milk-cocoa body, small cupped ears high on the crown, a cream muzzle oval, a periwinkle sailor collar with a butter-yellow knot.

The cocoa value step is the strongest separator from the caramel dog at 75 pt (round top ears plus a darker body), and the sailor collar is original with no known-bear cues.

height 1.271, footprint 0.429, tris 11276

Honey Cub

Golden cub: honey body, bigger cub ears set wider, a smaller button muzzle, a sky-blue bow on the left ear.

height 1.242, footprint 0.46, tris 10220

Cinnamon Bun

Chubby loaf: cinnamon-rose body, wide head with tiny ears close on top, the broadest muzzle, a rounder pear body, a mint knit scarf with a pom.

height 1.268, footprint 0.464, tris 11082

Build risks

Muzzle is a separate oval stuck onto the head in the blockout; the full build should model it into the head cage like the dog's button snout so the decal mouth sits on a near-vertical front and never wraps under.
Round ears sit 33-50 degrees off vertical; the hat socket landing between them must be checked with the boater (c has the closest ears).
Sailor collar (a) droops over the shoulders; it must clear the socket arms when Heating Up and the bid clip raise them.
b honey stays in the dog's warm family at 1x and a golden bear edges toward Winnie the Pooh; c cinnamon sits between the dog and the pig. Both are weaker separators than a.
Capybara lane may also want honey or brown; coordinate so the bear and capybara seats never match.
Darker cocoa fur changes how AO and skins read; eye contrast is fine at the board shot but check the close-up and the ac face style.
Blockout tris 10.2k-11.3k; the full build must trim to 9.8k (head and ear cages are the easy savings).