It seems likely that Phil's video is being held up by the logistics of other stuff being ready (this time the merch, last time the arrival of everything he ordered online) rather than the filming/editing itself. He's been super quiet though!
On the copyright/take-down orders, the idea that they wanted stuff taken down before speaking with journalists about TABINOF/TATINOF does sound familiar and obviously I know Phil continues to have the vday video taken down, but it's interesting the difference between 'knowing' and seeing for yourself. For anyone else interested in that potentially uncomfortable experience, a few of Phil's earlier (2013-2015) copyright infringement notices include statements from him.
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/968209
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1556122
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/10910709
Dan:
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1556121
He twice refers to the video(s) he's claiming as 'private' which is interesting as it doesn't seem like something that would relate to/strengthen a copyright infringement notice.
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/677456
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1548426
While Phil has filed take-down notices somewhat continuously over the years (and it seems only certain parts of Google and Vimeo choose to archive their take down notices publicly on the Lumen database as I don't see any from YouTube etc.) Dan has only filed once, at the same time that Phil filed the one asking for the timeline to be taken down, which somewhat lends itself to the idea that it was a joint business decision.
It's interesting how different their communicating with an audience strategies are. Considering how close they are as people and how often they seem to adopt each others opinions, they have had very different ways of trying to control their content. At least early in their careers, Dan attempted (but didn't entirely manage) to persuade the audience to behave directly, while Phil generally hasn't spoken against fan behaviors but uses the laws that apply to him instead. (That could be a false comparison because Phil has copyright over the vday video, of course, but many of his take-down notices do appear to include different videos.) For as much as people hype communication, the more behind the scenes way works better, just in the opinion of another non-confrontational person. It's interesting that they both consider themselves to be people who avoid confrontation, though.
In other 'random stuff I found from years ago' news, I didn't know that
danielhowell.com in 2011 was up (though empty) and had sections for 'About me,' 'Pets,' and 'Travels.' It would be fun to hear from Dan about places he traveled with his family when he was young, as that seems to have been a significant part of his childhood he might not have hated as much as the other parts.
I really shouldn't have to pay £6.99 in shipping to Canada for a £1 sticker set. Like. I'm sorry, you want people to pay £7 to ship...paper? And...idk. I understand having worldwide shops to remedy some of that but even ordering from the US shop to Canada the shipping isn't any better. And plus, I will give them more money if they had a joint cart. They did it once, they can do it again. All IRL shops, really, should have a joined cart. I know I'm not the only one who wants to buy one item from one store and one from other but ends up maybe not even getting either of them because I don't want to be charged twice for shipping, or even pay between £7 and £11 pounds flat for it.
seems like a very important board game character