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Where to get quality Heat-Transfer printed dice?

9 replies [Last post]
Thu, 04/06/2017 - 01:55
vitogesualdi
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Hey guys, I'm trying to find a place that prints dice at least somewhat close in quality of the dice seen in Star Wars Destiny (Fantasy Flight) and Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia (Cool Mini or Not).

I believe that the process being used is heat-transfer. I had Panda Games send me a sample of their heat-transfer dice, but they were frankly of a pretty abysmal quality.

Anyhow, my game very much revolves around the idea of dice with pictures on them, and if I can't find a good supplier I may have to scrap the whole project. Let me know if you guys have any leads!

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Thu, 04/06/2017 - 03:27
#1
BHFuturist
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Top three

Here are the top three search results for your post's subject line.

https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/heat-transfer-dice.html

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/763236/having-dice-printed-chinaconcerns

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1078188/dice-manufacturing

I will add to that some links I found that might help:

https://dicecreator.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/open-source-dice-making/

http://www.wingogames.com/product/custom-screen-printing-dice.html

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/more/contact/

If I were you I would ask the companies who have dice like that you want where they are having them made.

@BHfuturist

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Thu, 04/06/2017 - 19:04
#2
vitogesualdi
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I've asked but the designers

I've asked but the designers claim to not be involved in the manufacturing side of things. Still, hoping someone here has a lead, Google has not been helpful.

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Thu, 04/06/2017 - 19:34
#3
I Will Never Gr...
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I am not sure they use Heat

I am not sure they use Heat Transfer. I have a feeling the Star Wars Destiny dice are silk screened.

My manufacturer sent me pics of SW Destiny Dice as a "sample" of the kind of work they can do for silk screened dice. I don't, for a moment, think they actually did those dice, but that is what leads me to believe that it is silk screening.

I have a batch of some 5000 dice coming in in the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how my manufacturer did with the job (though it's simple and only one color, but at least it should give an indication of quality).

What gets me concerned is that Panda sent you abysmal quality. Panda GM is considered the "gold standard" in the games manufacturing industry (they don't do the manufacturing themselves, but they have the contacts to do so and act as an intermediary).

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Thu, 04/06/2017 - 19:35
#4
I Will Never Gr...
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vitogesualdi wrote:I've asked

vitogesualdi wrote:
I've asked but the designers claim to not be involved in the manufacturing side of things. Still, hoping someone here has a lead, Google has not been helpful.

Generally speaking, the designers role ends at designing and promoting the game. The publisher is the one that deals with manufacturers and they're rarely willing to give up information (for the big publishers anyway).

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Fri, 04/07/2017 - 05:08
#5
vitogesualdi
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Silkscreening is usually

Silkscreening is usually limited to 4-5 colors max (you have to make a seperate screen for each unique color). I can't imagine the star wars destiny dice are silkscreened.

The Panda dice were... yeah, disappointing. One of the dice was supposed to have a teddy bear face on it, but the brown hue was almost turned green. A circular token with the heat transfer looked very faded, like only half of the color had transferred onto the token.

Anyway, would love to see your results.

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Fri, 04/07/2017 - 05:09
#6
vitogesualdi
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Silkscreening is usually

Dupe

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Fri, 04/07/2017 - 10:46
#7
I Will Never Gr...
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vitogesualdi

vitogesualdi wrote:
Silkscreening is usually limited to 4-5 colors max (you have to make a seperate screen for each unique color). I can't imagine the star wars destiny dice are silkscreened.

The Panda dice were... yeah, disappointing. One of the dice was supposed to have a teddy bear face on it, but the brown hue was almost turned green. A circular token with the heat transfer looked very faded, like only half of the color had transferred onto the token.

Anyway, would love to see your results.

Silk screening is most definitely limited to 4-5 colors.

HOWEVER, that can be CMYK. Using CMYK you can create the entire color spectrum and is far more reliable than heat transfer. Silk Screening with CMYK can provide photo realistic images, so it's absolutely probably that the SW Destiny Dice are silk screened.

(Source: I worked 13 years as a silk screen printer for one of the worlds largest CD/DVD manufacturers)

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Fri, 04/07/2017 - 16:58
#8
vitogesualdi
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Interesting, I didn't know

Interesting, I didn't know silk screening was capable of such colors but it makes sense.

Anyhow, the official description says the SWD dice are "heat pressed"

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/7/29/star-wars-destiny/

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Fri, 04/07/2017 - 23:58
#9
I Will Never Gr...
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Curious

vitogesualdi wrote:
Interesting, I didn't know silk screening was capable of such colors but it makes sense.

Anyhow, the official description says the SWD dice are "heat pressed"

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/7/29/star-wars-destiny/

Interesting. There are a lot of manufacturers using those dice as "examples" of silk screened dice!

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