The Deep Shelf, which is one step away from total cancellation / abandonment, now awaits The Slushy Show, a Dromedeverse-related pending project that would reinterpret Slushy the Bullfrog, Cone the Other Bullfrog, Vegetable, Jackalslapnasty, Sphere, the Toad, Maldo, and more, in a story set in the Philippines reminicient of Disney's Lilo and Stitch.
Slushy has been a staple of Dozerfleet lore since 1996, due to a frog voice effect that the founder was able to create via voice acting at that age. Given a limited number of Slushy voice imitators in the world, and that the creator of Slushy is becoming too old to perform the voice himself, Slushy and his entire supporting cast may finally see the sunset before their next big project ever sees a novel, let alone a cinema outing.
In 2019 even, he was proposed to the entire internet as a free alternative to using Pepe the Frog for making Honkler and other, similar memes, so as to negate fears and concerns that Pepe fans might get in legal trouble from Pepe's original creator. Alas, Pepe's popularity continued to grow in spite of threats; while Slushy proved largely unsuccessful at being chosen as a safe alternative to Pepe.
Slushy's reign of 27 years appears to have come to an end, however. But he and his supporting cast are not the only Dozerfleet characters preparing to ride off into the sunset.
In August of 2023, the original model for Officer Hornet parted ways with the cast to The Mutt Mackley Show. Continued appearances of Officer Hornet would require a new character model, preferably from a bee-shaped Beanie Baby, for the sake of visual continuity (and to avoid legal issues with Mattel.) Ever since Kings in the Corner back in 2003, Officer Hornet has been portrayed by a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Buzz-Off figurine. Buzz-Off is no longer in Dozerfleet inventory, leaving a vacancy for the role of Officer Hornet.
Another character that is about to leave for good is Puck-Man, from the Holy Trinity of Burlingame in Wyoming, Michigan's 5th grade class of 1994's The Cool Adventures of Puck-Man. The comic strips of this character and run are lost to the ages. The character, a class knock-off of Pac-Man, was a cracked orange vinyl Shield No-Bounce Hockey Hotball with a face painted on using a Sharpie. The Dozerfleet model, which is the second such cracked hockeyball of its type out of two that were considered to be of interest to the class of that day, has far outlived its original purpose, becoming one of the oldest relics of early Dozerfleet lore.
It is of interesting trivia note that the original Pac-Man upon which Puck-Man is based would have been called Puck-Man himself, but his name was changed to ward off vandalism.
The early Dozerfleet version may not be notable for much; but his short tenure in comics led to the debut of his archnemesis, the Cole Slaw Creature, as well as a short-lived spin-off about a humanoid golf ball named Golf-Man, whose comics involved experiments in texturized comic book rendering. Golf-Man's body texture, notably, was achieved with experiments in using gel-based school glue with isolated pores, generating a golf ball-esque texture on the page through tactile illusion.
Puck-Man and Slushy are the most die-hard Dozerfleet brand holdouts left over from the 1990s, but their retirement is inevitable.
