007 Playing Cards by theory11 [James Bond] (ill. Mattson Creative, Russ Gray)

[Harvonsgard]

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[BaconWise]

Awesome theme, though I was just slightly disappointed with the courts. I know T11 typically caters to magicians and this is a beautiful deck. The tuck box is superb and that AoS is perfect. However, I can't help but wonder what the Golden Gun would look like with gold metallic ink, or how the villain Jaws would look with silver metallic ink teeth. How would Le Chiffre look with a tear of blood in red metallic ink? It's just selfish reasons I would prefer custom courts. I just think it was a missed opportunity, though the cost for licensing the characters and villains were probably pretty high...

[MagikFingerz]

Awesome theme, though I was just slightly disappointed with the courts. I know T11 typically caters to magicians and this is a beautiful deck. The tuck box is superb and that AoS is perfect. However, I can't help but wonder what the Golden Gun would look like with gold metallic ink, or how the villain Jaws would look with silver metallic ink teeth. How would Le Chiffre look with a tear of blood in red metallic ink? It's just selfish reasons I would prefer custom courts. I just think it was a missed opportunity, though the cost for licensing the characters and villains were probably pretty high...

+1. We haven't seen it yet, but knowing T11 I'm sure I'll be disappointed by the back design as well.

[BaconWise]

Not the most memorable back design, unfortunately. It's pleasant and safe - not exactly words I would use to describe James Bond...

[MagikFingerz]

T11 sure do love monochrome backs...

[Strag]

Not interesting or on theme to me. Waste of IP.

[guru]

Being a die hard 007 fan, I had to take a hit even with the standard courts.

[Decknowledgy]

That monochromatic back and boring courts.... I could imagine TGW taking a dump on these again in which I fully agree to. Hyped up the reveal in the past few days, ended up as a meh disappointment.

[rousselle]

Imma pick up a couple because I have a couple of *most* T11 decks, but... yeah, this had the potential to be *so much* better, even sticking with mostly standard-ish courts. I'm sure this deck will sell well enough, and the pricing is fine. But, I like the point made above: there are a lot of "safe" choices here, which is ironic given the character they are paying tribute to.

[sinjin7]

I think one of the reasons T11 stays in business is because there are so many tuckists among collectors. The typical T11 tuck would be the equivalent of most KS deck's version of an upgraded "limited' tuck with all the foiling and embossing, but T11 gives it to you at a $10.00 price point due to volume. If you never open and use your decks, why care how bland the cards are if the tuck is blinged out enough? But as nice as the tucks are, this is why their cards don't inspire me to buy more than a couple only just for the sake of my collection, which like rouselle, include all of T11's decks. I think when T11 conceives of a deck, they target that $10.00 price point and then put the majority of their budget into the tucks, so they don't have enough to spring for multi-colored backs or an artist to design truly custom courts. Even if they made the design on the front of the 007 tuck the actual back design (slightly modified to make it 2-way), that alone would've made this a much better deck. I can't remember the last time I was excited about a new (non-foiled) T11 deck...it might have been the Artisans. That's a long time ago.

[montenzi]

I think when T11 conceives of a deck, they target that $10.00 price point and then put the majority of their budget into the tucks

No, it does not matter. All decks at this volume are less than $2 to produce (printing costs, including boxes). If you print 50k-100k each edition, you can pay for ANY design. It will not affect prices.

[masagin303]

I think one of the reasons T11 stays in business is because there are so many tuckists among collectors. The typical T11 tuck would be the equivalent of most KS deck's version of an upgraded "limited' tuck with all the foiling and embossing, but T11 gives it to you at a $10.00 price point due to volume. If you never open and use your decks, why care how bland the cards are if the tuck is blinged out enough? But as nice as the tucks are, this is why their cards don't inspire me to buy more than a couple only just for the sake of my collection, which like rouselle, include all of T11's decks. I think when T11 conceives of a deck, they target that $10.00 price point and then put the majority of their budget into the tucks, so they don't have enough to spring for multi-colored backs or an artist to design truly custom courts. Even if they made the design on the front of the 007 tuck the actual back design (slightly modified to make it 2-way), that alone would've made this a much better deck. I can't remember the last time I was excited about a new (non-foiled) T11 deck...it might have been the Artisans. That's a long time ago.

I don't think it's a bad strategy. They don't do cards for collectors but for players, as an nicer alternative to their Bikes and sell their decks in groceries just next to Bikes.

[BaconWise]

No, it does not matter. All decks at this volume are less than $2 to produce (printing costs, including boxes). If you print 50k-100k each edition, you can pay for ANY design. It will not affect prices.

Is this really the volume of cards they print?! Holy [MOD BAN] that is a lot of decks. Unreal.

[philmyer92]

No, it does not matter. All decks at this volume are less than $2 to produce (printing costs, including boxes). If you print 50k-100k each edition, you can pay for ANY design. It will not affect prices.

Is this really the volume of cards they print?! Holy [MOD BAN] that is a lot of decks. Unreal.

It does sound like a lot at first but when you think that Target has over 1800 stores and Barnes & Noble has over 600 stores, if they send 10 decks to each store that would account for half a 50k print run.

[montenzi]

Is this really the volume of cards they print?! Holy [MOD BAN] that is a lot of decks. Unreal.

I believe they produce even more decks per edition.

[hsbc]

Can anyone confirm or deny whether these will also be sold at Target?

[hsbc]

Theory11 x James Bond

In 2020 I had the opportunity through my friend Ty Mattson (mattsoncreative.com) to work on a card deck for Theory11 and James Bond. The brief for this deck was not to create likenesses as I had done for Star Wars, but to evoke a card deck that we might see Bond using in one of his movies — a high-end, elaborately decorated deck with small nods to the franchise. It was a lot of fun dabbling in a style I don't normally work in. The cards were also a fun challenge — making a completely custom set of cards, while staying more true to the standard court card design than I have done on any other deck. Luke Bott from Mattson Creative also collaborated on designing 5 of the face cards. Photos are courtesy of Theory11, along with some Photoshop renders mixed in that I created myself.



For defining the composition, sketches were pretty loose. Once composition was figured out, they were tightened to show the client and were fairly close to the final. A gradient overlay in Photoshop was applied to the sketch layer to make it look more finished.

Client: Theory11 / Mattson Creative
Agency: Mattson Creative
Creative Director: Ty Mattson
Project completed September 2020

[vasta41]

New box set and golden deck. $100 total, including a secret pen:




https://store.theory11.com/products/james-bond-box-set

[Fenrir]

Yep, that’s an easy buy for me. I’m a huge bond fan.

[PiazzaDelivery]

Easy pass here. One of their most disappointing decks of the past few years. Extra bling does nothing to fix the issues.

[Evilgamer]

Im going to give this one a maybe if I could buy 1 of the new gold decks but not 3 in a box.

[Fenrir]

Easy pass here. One of their most disappointing decks of the past few years. Extra bling does nothing to fix the issues.

I can’t agree with this but to each their own.

I am curious what you were so disappointed with.

[laitostarr777]

Well, for one, the courts that uses the classic royal faces… the deck COULD have shown a diverse selection of characters from James Bond story, including the agent himself, but the deck chooses not to..

[Fenrir]

Well, for one, the courts that uses the classic royal faces… the deck COULD have shown a diverse selection of characters from James Bond story, including the agent himself, but the deck chooses not to..

While I agree it would have been really cool to see Bond figures, remember that licensing for real people is insanely expensive and sometimes impossible to do. You have to pay for the likeness of Sean Connery, Pierce etc....

[laitostarr777]

Well, for one, the courts that uses the classic royal faces… the deck COULD have shown a diverse selection of characters from James Bond story, including the agent himself, but the deck chooses not to..

While I agree it would have been really cool to see Bond figures, remember that licensing for real people is insanely expensive and sometimes impossible to do. You have to pay for the likeness of Sean Connery, Pierce etc....

Perhaps this explains why T11 decided to opt for just using the classic royals for the faces instead…

Still, making this deck into gold foil is such a waste imo - like they are trying to turn “poop” into gold (no offense for those who still getting the deck nevertheless, just wanted to make an analogy)