The Planets: Venus (now shipping)

[Ace]

I dont have my backerkit order email or details. Now I am questioning if I ordered one or two. I do normally double up and got 2 decks.

[gcxmr2]

I've just recieved my decks. They are beautiful but it seems to me that the Limited edition's foil on the tuck flakes off. There are tiny foil flakes under the cellophane wrapper. Compared to the SE decks, the lines on the LE decks doesn't seem to be as clean.
As for the cellophane, has anyone else notice that the tab to open the cellophane is directly in the middle of the back of the tuck box directly underneath the seal instead of the typical side of the tuck box?
Anyhow, that's my little review of the decks.

Update: David reached out to me noting that the flaking tuck box was in fact supposed to be discarded but somehow found its way to patrons still. I was sent replacements and they look great! No missing flakes of foil on the printing and no flakes of foil all over the cellophane. Thanks again David.

[PipChick]

I took some pics of the Mercury and Venus LEs side by side to show the very noticeable differences in precision of foiling and flaking, but the pics won't upload as an attachment because they're "too big" - how can I fix that??

[JuFiN]

Upload elsewhere like imgur and post the link!

[shermjack]

I took some pics of the Mercury and Venus LEs side by side to show the very noticeable differences in precision of foiling and flaking, but the pics won't upload as an attachment because they're "too big" - how can I fix that??

Reduce the size of your photo. What I usually do is go into Preview mode and then adjust size to about 200 x 150, which is around 1MB depending on the image. You cannot upload anything bigger than 1MB I believe.

[PipChick]

Okay, the pictures are not great (just what I was able to quickly snap before going to work, but still good enough to see the disparities in quality between the two decks)

Mercury LE is on the left; Venus LE is on the right

As you can see from the close-up pics, the differences are most noticeable in the border details and in the smaller lettering - it just seems like the foil on everything in the Venus LE didn't come out nearly as clean and crisp as the foil on the Mercury LE - not to mention all the flakiness which is a bit more difficult to capture with the camera but the small flecks are there nonetheless.

[PipChick]

Here's also a couple close-up pics of the back of the tuck as well:

[PipChick]

seeing how nice the foil on the Mercury LE makes it so disappointing that the foil on the Venus LE came out the way they did... bummer

[Bradius]

I don’t know that there was any quality difference from Mercury to Venus. There are variations in each imprint. Foil quality is hard to have perfect on every printing. You can see that when carefully studying just about any foil work. That said, there are some times where it is consistently bad. Let’s see if many others observe the same thing. Your Venus tuck may be more of an outlier.

If you want to see variation. Look carefully at the backs of several MetalLuxe decks. The variations from card to card can be huge.

[PipChick]

I don’t know that there was any quality difference from Mercury to Venus. There are variations in each imprint. Foil quality is hard to have perfect on every printing. You can see that when carefully studying just about any foil work. That said, there are some times where it is consistently bad. Let’s see if many others observe the same thing. Your Venus tuck may be more of an outlier.

If you want to see variation. Look carefully at the backs of several MetalLuxe decks. The variations from card to card can be huge.

Yea, I totally agree that some inconsistencies are to be expected when it comes to foil, but there's not one area on the Venus LE that is anywhere near as clean and crisp as that on the Mercury LE; and its a real shame because, for example, if you look closely at the top front of the tuck, the small star details of the top border are nearly lost all together from the imprecision - same with the details of the diamond border around the center design on the back of the tuck - it all just looks sloppy, but that's the deck I got and maybe you're right; it's just an unlucky fluke.

Anyone also have a less than perfect Venus LE? I'd be curious if there are others out there too

[shermjack]

I don’t know that there was any quality difference from Mercury to Venus. There are variations in each imprint. Foil quality is hard to have perfect on every printing. You can see that when carefully studying just about any foil work. That said, there are some times where it is consistently bad. Let’s see if many others observe the same thing. Your Venus tuck may be more of an outlier.

If you want to see variation. Look carefully at the backs of several MetalLuxe decks. The variations from card to card can be huge.

Yea, I totally agree that some inconsistencies are to be expected when it comes to foil, but there's not one area on the Venus LE that is anywhere near as clean and crisp as that on the Mercury LE; and its a real shame because, for example, if you look closely at the top front of the tuck, the small star details of the top border are nearly lost all together from the imprecision - same with the details of the diamond border around the center design on the back of the tuck - it all just looks sloppy, but that's the deck I got and maybe you're right; it's just an unlucky fluke.

Anyone also have a less than perfect Venus LE? I'd be curious if there are others out there too

I think you should reach out to Dave like gcxmr2 and see what he will do...Apparently the flaking foil tucks were a mistake, so you might be able to get a replacement.

[PipChick]

I think you should reach out to Dave like gcxmr2 and see what he will do...Apparently the flaking foil tucks were a mistake, so you might be able to get a replacement.

yea, maybe I will later after work; I had initially assumed that all the foil on the tucks came out like this on the Venus LEs, but it seems that perhaps that's not the case....

[CupcakeBaron]

I don’t know that there was any quality difference from Mercury to Venus. There are variations in each imprint. Foil quality is hard to have perfect on every printing. You can see that when carefully studying just about any foil work. That said, there are some times where it is consistently bad. Let’s see if many others observe the same thing. Your Venus tuck may be more of an outlier.

If you want to see variation. Look carefully at the backs of several MetalLuxe decks. The variations from card to card can be huge.

Yea, I totally agree that some inconsistencies are to be expected when it comes to foil, but there's not one area on the Venus LE that is anywhere near as clean and crisp as that on the Mercury LE; and its a real shame because, for example, if you look closely at the top front of the tuck, the small star details of the top border are nearly lost all together from the imprecision - same with the details of the diamond border around the center design on the back of the tuck - it all just looks sloppy, but that's the deck I got and maybe you're right; it's just an unlucky fluke.

Anyone also have a less than perfect Venus LE? I'd be curious if there are others out there too

I have varying levels of flaking with my standard edition decks so far so I'm kinda thinking this is just going to be how things come out. I've pretty much noticed the same issues you've been dealing with across the board with the foil tucks being produced of late.

[davegk]

Hey guys,

gcxmr2 is correct...the initial batch of Venus LE tucks were essentially defective and were supposed to be thrown away by Art of Play during assembly. However, they didn't get tossed and as a result were shipped along with the good tuckboxes to Gamblers, where some of the defective tucks were then inadvertently assembled and shipped out. So, if you think you have defective tucks (messier lines, noticeable amounts of foil rubbed off, & glittery foil flakes inside the cellophane), then please send photos of the decks (including an image of the seal #s) to me at ace@vandacards.com

Thanks,
David

[Kage X]

Dave, will this foiling issue affect those that have pledged for the whole set from the beginning? We wouldn't have had the opportunity to check the decks and return them to you for replacement until the end of the campaign.

[davegk]

Dave, will this foiling issue affect those that have pledged for the whole set from the beginning? We wouldn't have had the opportunity to check the decks and return them to you for replacement until the end of the campaign.

Nope. Any LE decks still at GW (full set decks) have been checked and swapped for the new tucks if needed.