Okay – new manufacturer update. I took the dice risk!
Dice are officially back in stock! This is a bit of a longer entry so click “Continue reading” to view it!
So if you’ve been following my shop then you’ll know that for years I’ve been trying to improve my Think Twice Dice with the goal of having to spend less time quality checking, etc. For the longest time, I used to have to fix and paint the black pips myself (Oh the torture and hours spent…. I’ll never get those hours back π). My last manufacturer created some really nice dice with pretty, large cone-shaped pips, a high gloss, and very defined edges. However, every batch was unpredictable and came with so many different flaws, and for most of those batches (except for one) I was fixing the pips by hand-painting. Despite communicating with the manufacturer, it was always a “fix one problem, introduce 2 new problems” situation.
I’ve recently been dealing with a new manufacturer, Manufacturer E, and despite a few hiccups, I think this will be a good middle-ground for now. It cost me a lot of money to switch, since it included a brand new mould and a high MOQ (minimum), so it will be a while before I break even from this. But probably worth it? (There is news to this. See update below!)
Samples 2: I was actually a bit disappointed with these. Everything seemed off: the size was a bit smaller, there was very little gloss, the pips were small and the sides didn’t feel very flat. I thought I might have to give up on the manufacturer, but they insisted they can create a better sample, and that the samples were polished with other dice in the batch which caused some imperfections etc.
Samples 3: They improved all my concerns. Of course, the over all shape, gloss, and pip size isn’t as good as my last manufacturer, but it was acceptable!
Batch 1: As usual, I knew that the mass production wouldn’t be as good as the samples. It never is, from any manufacturer. It turns out in the mass batch, the pips did turn out a tiny bit smaller. But overall it looks like there will be fewer flaws to worry about.
Edit: Update February 25th 2025: After checking & packing these for the last few weeks, I started noticing that sometimes flakes of the pip ink would come off as I’d be handling the dice. This wasn’t a problem I noticed when I first received the dice, because I’ve never had this type of issue where the ink flakes off over time from handling – the issue has usually been that the ink isn’t painted nicely to begin with – so it wasn’t something I was testing for upon arrival. But it turns out it will sometimes flake off from rolling the dice, which is extremely frustrating in my opinion and not up to my standards after all.
From now on I’m going to be referring to this batch as the “flaky batch”. I’ve pointed this out to the manufacturer and I’m still communicating with them regarding our future business relationship and future dice orders, however, they did for some reason have an extra, really small batch that they separately made right after this new batch, and they shipped it over to me for free, and it doesn’t have this flaky ink problem and seems quite great to be honest.
If you purchased a pack of dice from January 2025 up until February 25th 2025, and your dice ink is flaking off a little, I will send you a free replacement from this new improved batch! Alternatively, you can also “save” the dice set by getting some black acrylic ink and a very fine-tip paint brush and touching up the pips yourself – or even getting creative and painting them an entirely different colour.
As for me, currently I’m now shipping out the new improved batch (you will see a new blog entry for it) and the “flaky batch” is on hold – I may perhaps sell those at a “flawed discount” in the future. I’m still deciding whether or not to trust this new manufacturer for another batch (this new small one really is quite good) but I do also have a new connection to help source manufacturers, and they have found an affordable manufacturer alternative to try, in the case that I end up having to switch (again).
I’m not sure why making “good enough” dice seems to be such a challenge, but thanks for being on this journey with me!