New dice batch update.

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 😭). 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?

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.