Five Elements Playing Cards Wooden Collection Set - KS

[Fes]

[Decknowledgy]

金玉其外，敗絮其內 in Chinese



Or this:

[EvilDuncan]

Why would they write "Gold" and "Soil" in the text when the boxes clearly say "Metal" and "Earth"?

Regardless...I hate it.

[vasta41]

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS CREATOR HAS WORKED WITH NATALIA SILVA IN THE PAST.

[Fes]

I'm thinking about hopping in on this. Leaning strongly to it actually. Five distinct limited edition decks (not simply recolors) with curious one way backs in a little wooden box shipped for $65 USD. That's not a bad price, not bad at all. I like how the tucks are designed to make the big star when lined up. That's fun. They have their own set up for what the elements are in their interpretation which is also nice, it's not what I'd think and is an open door way into conversation. Some decks are quite good for light social use and these fit that bill. (Definitely better than listening to someone start talking about politics)

Would I have chosen a different set of elements? Naa, I think Metal is just fine and goes in well with Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. They make good sense. The courts are stylized and represent their element pretty well I think. It's an easy thing to understand and doesn't drift too far with the shapes and contours.

I think there's a lot to like with this set. It's certainly funding well. I wouldn't be surprised, given the speedy campaign, if these didn't arrive before their ETA.
(The only thing that gives me pause is the way they handled TheCollectors damaged product in that luxury sword campaign.)

[masagin303]

No.

[Decknowledgy]

Don't be fooled by the quick funding and speedy campaign. As most Chinese based campaigns do (often using Hong Kong as the stepping stone towards the international), the funding can be smashed right at the start because the decks are already produced, and the funds could be spread across multiple dummy accounts by the creator. Why do you think Bocopo's, TCC's, Riffle Shuffle's projects always fund AND fulfill so quickly? Take a guess.

Of course, Riffle Shuffle is in a league of it's own now due to Kevin Yu living and building a reputation in Toronto Canada, and now their projects may fund because of the large following. Yet, to address the elephant in the room, it all started the same way as the other two companies. As much as Kevin wants to deny, he was part of the team of the controversial Bocopo's Luna Moon series who "developed" (copied) the tuck design and the deck design. Apparently, they do have the funds to produce the projects on their own, so one may ask what's the incentives for them to do so?

Branching out to the global market to gain worldwide following. (Not saying it's wrong)

Kickstarter is a place for them to ADVERTISE their brand, its' as simple as that. It's very common to see the decks of these brands already sold on Taobao or 阿里巴巴 (the Chinese domestic version of Aliexpress) through EPCS prior, during, or shortly after the launch of the Kickstarter campaigns.

It's pretty much time to chuck the KS guidelines out the window by now. Gone are the days that people cared about a company holding multiple accounts. Riffle Shuffle used that, Bocopo used that, TCC used that, and now a bunch of US-based projects (a lot of those clip art decks) are also exploiting the system by asking friends and families OR Murphy's Magic to bulk pledge their projects. It used to be a controversial move on Kickstarter. Nowadays, it's the norm. The only difference is that the US-based creators can't get their decks printed prior to the end of funding whereas the Chinese brands would print first then launch/market the decks on Kickstarter. How is this not picked up and dealt with by Kickstarter? Simple, the funds and production could hide behind the great Chinese internet firewall while using VPN to set up dummy accounts all over the world. These are brands of wealthy Chinese business people, the reach they have are extraordinary, I'll say that much.

In conclusion, smashing the funding goal doesn't mean $h*t in today's Kickstarter playing card arena. There are so many loopholes that help creators bypass the guidelines. It's happened so many times that to be honest even I don't care anymore. But I'm just here to say that the phenomenon is there. Also, I'm not complaining about Riffle Shuffle in anyway because what they're doing nowadays has excelled beyond that initial stage of double-dealing; that is, they got the fame they want, now they have no need for the tactics anymore since the backers now are the fan base per se. As for this campaign, like many Bocopo and TCC campaigns, it uses Hong Kong as a base and a brand title without much background. I won't say that it's sketchy; it's just how Chinese brands find their way into the global market.

Besides what Paul said about the creator having worked with Natalia Silva before, rest assured this campaign will "fund" (if that means anything at all) and will be delivered crazy quick. Folks could just recall how quickly all those campaigns by those brands get fulfilled.

[PiazzaDelivery]

uhhhhhh, what he said ^^^


also the courts are awful.

[Harvonsgard]

uhhhhhh, what he said ^^^


also the courts are awful.

What he said .

[macstrat]

Full Deck Scans:
Metal - https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 8232711137
Water - https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 8230436478
Wood - https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 8230445793
Fire - https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 8227593256
Earth - https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 8227582936

Note: This was a surprising purchase. The original images made it look cheesy, like a deck you might find at a gas station. I was pleasantly surprised when i got to look at all the cards at once. First: they handle well, and the tucks are very well made. Second: All playing cards riff of a concept of a variation on a theme. Difficult to do when you are making 56 cards, but 5 decks is a true show of force. You really see the variation within a theme in these decks and even narrowing that down to using the same general patterns. As a designer myself, setting boundaries for a design is a good thing, but taking that too far can create chaos. While not as quite well done as The Planets collection, it is something to take notice of, and despite the courts, deserve more attention than I think they received. All things considered, very well done!