I wrote about these and a dozen other projects in April. Three of them, Blvck Genesis, L.O., and NFT Worlds Avatars, have actually been postponed and will most likely drop in early May instead. With these and the three projects below, the coming month may actually be a pretty good one after all!

As always, you shouldn’t read this as investment advice. I’m just highlighting some of the most interesting and popular projects in the NFT space. While I might buy into some of them myself, you should always do your own research before buying any NFT and never spend more than you can afford to lose.

Tripsters

Tripsters is a psychedelic-theme collection of 9,000 humanoid mushrooms and 1,000 toads. They’re created in 3D and bright neon colors. While it’s by no means the first NFT project with this theme, I do think the art is distinct and eye-catching enough to stand out.

It’s not the art that I’m really excited about though. 72 hours after launch, every Tripster holder will receive a digital ‘Baggie’ of mushrooms or toad serum. This will come in the form of a new NFT.

Now, if you own a Bored Ape, you can use the psychedelics NFT to create a completely new Trippy Ape. If you don’t, you can simply resell it to someone who does. Every Bored Ape can be “tripped” up to three times, getting crazier and rarer each time. There could easily be a demand for these psychedelics.

To make it even more interesting, Tripsters will also airdrop psychedelics to other NFT collections and let their holders create tripped-out versions of their avatars. They recently announced that Azuki is next on the list while the Mutant Ape Yacht Club is also featured on their roadmap.

Two sneak peeks of what a tripped Bored Ape can look like

The roadmap also mentions a play-to-earn game further down the line and I know the team has big plans for Tripsters. The founders have personally put millions of dollars into it and stated that they want to build the biggest brand in the metaverse. A lofty goal but I like the ambition!

So, who is on this team? Tripsters is founded by three Bored Ape Yacht Club holders. Hence the strong tie to that project. I don’t know too much about them but they’ve clearly hit on something with Tripsters.

You can find Tripsters’ roadmap on their website

Tripsters has built a community of 160,000 on Twitter and 40,000 on Discord. The latter isn’t actually that impressive in and of itself, but the engagement is. With more than 2,000 reactions on each Discord announcement, Tripsters is right up there with the most popular projects in the space.

If the engagement translates to actual demand, Tripsters will have no trouble selling out. 5,500 of the NFTs will be sold to Bored Ape holders and early supporters in three stages with prices between 0.15 and 0.25 ETH.

The remaining 4,500 NFTs will be sold in a public Dutch auction. The auction starts at 70% of the lowest listing price on the secondary market after the first two stages of the launch. It will then drop 0.1 ETH every 10 minutes and go on for two hours or until it sells out. I expect it to sell out fast.

• When? May 1, 9 pm UTC
• How many? 10,000
• How much? Dutch auction starting at 70% of the floor price
• Discord: 40,000 members
• Twitter: 160,000 followers

Shamanzs

Shamanzs is a collection of 9,898 colorful hand-drawn shamans created by the award-winning design studio Brosmind. The studio is led by two brothers, Juan and Alejandro, and has previously worked for huge brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Google, Rayban, Facebook, and more.

Thus it’s no surprise that the artwork is top-notch. The shaman theme itself makes the project stand out, and the style and quality make it even better. I know the creators have prioritized quality over a speedy launch. They want to build a long-lasting brand around the Shamanzs.

The Shamanzs brand is all about great art and creating a “Good Vibes Only” movement. NFT holders can expect future airdrops, branded merchandise, access passes to new artwork, as well as events in both the physical and the digital world.

To realize these plans, the artist duo has teamed up with two additional co-founders as well as three other team members. They’re somewhat anonymous but have at least shared some photos of themselves on Twitter. With the artists being as public as they are, I don’t see this as an issue though.

The Shamanzs creators have shared some amazing illustrations along with the avatar sneak peeks

As mentioned, the Shamanzs team has been working on the project for a while and built up a large community along the way. They’ve currently got more than 137,000 Twitter followers and 48,000 Discord members. The engagement is high as well!

Shamanzs’ launch mechanics resemble those of Tripsters with a multi-stage private sale and a public Dutch auction. There will only be 1,860 NFTs available for the public though, so it might be hard to get one.

The Dutch auction begins at midnight (UTC) between May 3 and 4. The starting price will be 0.5 ETH and drop 0.05 ETH every 15 minutes until it reaches 0.15 ETH. I expect it to sell out before that though.

• When? May 4, 12 am UTC
• How many? 9,898
• How much? 0.5 to 0.15 ETH (fair Dutch auction)
• Discord: 48,000 members
• Twitter: 137,000 followers

If you want to find drops like these early, check out this guide I wrote👇

How To Find the Best Upcoming NFT Launches Early

Kahiru

Last but not least, we’ve got Kahiru. Kahiru is a collection of 7,222 3D anime-style avatars. The artwork is extremely detailed and incorporates some very unique traits and ideas.

Kahiru comes with elaborate lore centered around the planet Ruy. The avatars are known as the Heroes of Ruy and will be divided into five different factions: Ash, Soulbound, Voidwalkers, Blood, and Vipers.

The launch of these heroes is only the first step though. Next is a manuscript that Kahiru holders will be able to claim 30 days after launch. You’ll also be able to claim Stone Particles every week, spend them on whitelist spots or exclusive artworks, or use them in faction battles.

Longer-term, owning a Kahiru avatar and a manuscript will entitle you to the physical Kahiru comic book. It won’t be available for sale but rather be an exclusive collector’s item. After that, the community can help decide the direction of Kahiru. Toys, figurines, games, or an animated show perhaps?

Kahiru’s website gives some great insights into the lore and how it will unfold

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information about the Kahiru team. We know that the artist is named Hodei Piquer and we’ve also seen some photos of the five team members on Twitter. For all I know, these could just as well be stock photos though. But it sounds like we’ll get some more information soon!

Kahiru has a massive Twitter following of 268,000, so people seem to be liking the project. Their Discord is invite-only but has almost 30,000 members. The engagement on both platforms is impressive.

Approximately half of the NFTs will be minted in a presale for 0.12 ETH. This will kick off on May 4 at 4 pm UTC and run for four hours prior to the public sale. The public sale price is only slightly higher at 0.14 ETH. This is a bit more than most other avatar projects, but the demand seems to be there!

• When? May 4, 8 pm UTC
• How many? 7,222
• How much? 0.14 ETH
• Discord: 30,000 members
• Twitter: 268,000 followers

Project recaps

Tripsters is bringing some really fun and innovative ideas to the NFT space. I’m excited to see the trippy Bored Apes and Azuki avatars that will come out of it. I’m also curious to see what other collections will be enabled to do it next as the project is clearly more interesting if you can use this feature.

I love NFT projects that are created and led by well-established artists with a distinct visual style. Shamanzs is clearly one of these, bringing amazing art and an admirable mission to the NFT space. With the “Good Vibes Only” tagline, how can you not support the project?

Kahiru is playing directly into the anime NFT trend and could very well be the next project to take off. The team seems to have crafted a narrative and a set of 3D characters that the community really likes. I just hope we learn about who the team actually is before they launch.