Bicycle Viking Playing Cards - Now LIVE on KS

[CBJ]

I also updated original post

[badpete69]

went for the boat pledge

[chach]

We'll these should go well with the mead I'm brewing up. In for one deck for now, artwork is nice but prices are a bit high. Wish I could afford the ship display.

[Eoghann]

went for the boat pledge

Hah, went for the full package as well.
Like the young'uns say: "that's dope, daddy-o!"

[Bikefanatic]

A Bicycle brand deck might be a stretch goal. If not, I like it anyway.

[MagikFingerz]

Don't really have that much interest in coins, so I passed on the ship levels.

$11 for EB and £13 regular price? It just keeps trending upwards, doesn't it...

These do look awesome though, hopefully the second deck will be more than just another box or another back design color.

[volantangel]

Not my cuppa tea. I have the same complaint with this deck as the aesir deck. The headgear of courts force some of the courts to be shrunk, and ironically its usually the larger men with these headgear, and it just looks like they are ten paces further back than the queens, giving this an inconsistent look.

Well im out of budget anyways.

[Magic_Orthodoxy]

I'd bid, but his gentlemen deck - has a lot of comments from his backers saying they have not received product yet.... so..... I'm out.

[badpete69]

Weird I bought the gentlemen deck after the fact on his website and it was promptly shipped

[louizz]

I'd bid, but his gentlemen deck - has a lot of comments from his backers saying they have not received product yet.... so..... I'm out.

So, I totally have no clue what I'm doing, as I'm by no means a forum poster, so please bare with me if this post comes out weird. I'm Scott King, the creator of both G52 and V, and I was browsing around trying to see the feedback from my most recent project and came across this post (above hopefully) . Typically, I wouldn't respond as I don't generally like to get involved on forums, but I figured I'd like to talk about this post.

Magic Orthodoxy is correct in that I had a few shipping issues on G52. Mostly, I would send stuff out, and it would simply disappear into the abyss. Most the time, I wouldn't even get a return package. But, I believe in doing the right thing, and if you could read my personal messages on KS, you'd know that not only did I resend out orders that weren't received, but I would also send them additional items for their troubles.

I really appreciate your research on my past project, Magic Orthodoxy, and respect you informing you friends on here, but, I can assure you I'm not all that seedy.

[CBJ]

Welcome Scott!!

It's good to see you on here

[CBJ]

Update! 2nd deck UNLOCKED!


"OVER $10,000! PRESENTING IRON SCALE

WOW! Thank you all for helping this project reach 10k so quickly! I'm happy to now share with you all the newest unlocked deck: Iron Scale!!!





As you can see above, not only have the colors on the tuck box become an emerald green, but a new illustration adorns the cover showing two new fierce warriors! All of the tuck box styling, such as the embossing and diecut window have carried over from Blizzard Wing too!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL-





Strike both fear and uncertainty in your opponents, with these new backs that reflect the mighty Iron Scale Dragon emblem.

AND...





It wasn't enough to simply do a new tuck box AND back, you all deserve more! I have recolored every court in the Iron Scale deck to match the lush environment that these VIKINGS come from. Additionally, you will notice that all of the Iron Scale cards have a new frame, displaying a fierce dragon in each corner.





This is a perfect time to up your pledges to include both VIKING decks. Or, even better, back the complete set to include the VIKING ship, both decks, all four card guard characters, and the dealer button, for only $209!!!

As Always, thanks for backing. It wouldn't be possible without your support!"



Man, that viking ship is insane!


CBJ

[GBAllison]

I love the artwork, the backs are terrific, it's a double deck, I'm in. But ...

1. Kings vs Jacks: When I throw a court on the table, I should know what it is. Aces and Queens are easy. Great job there. But Kings vs Jacks? I'm not seeing any theme here to help the card player. Tall headgear vs short? Nope. Axes vs swords? Nope. Furs? Crooked headgear? Help me out here Scott ... gimme something!

2. Sad to see no one-eyed jacks. I'm hoping at least that the Suicide King is deadly.

3. Maybe here's a solution to the Kings and Jacks: volantangel is right that the men with tall headgear turn out to be smaller and the Queens are all full-size/out in front. How about if your Kings all have short headgear, and they bust the borders a bit like the Queens to make 'em full size like the Queens? And then make all the Jacks have tall headgear ... or even if the headgear doesn't force a further-away/smaller perspective ... force them to be smaller like that anyway. Kings and Queens ... all the larger scale/same scale ... Jacks ... all in a smaller scale/same scale.

4. Early Bird Math: I'm in time for the $11 early bird blue. And I'm in time for the $11 early bird green. So what if I want both early birds for $22? Answer: Sucks to be you. Both decks = $25. Answer2: Early bird one of 'em and add-on the other = $24. OK, it's only a buck or two either way, but still ... I'm always surprised when project creators have a difficult time with this.

[markjanderson]

Looks like he just posted an update on Kickstarter and the decks are now both Bicycle branded.

[Eoghann]

So now they're all Bicycle. The teaser pic had the Bike logo on it. Wonder why they released it without when it launched? They needed permission I guess?

[CBJ]

AMAZING UPDATE!!!

Here it is ...


"So after a long and arduous journey, I'm am pleased to let all of you know that we are updating everyone's cards to Bicycle branded for absolutely FREE!

I have said many times, that you all are what make KS such an awesome website, and it's time you all got a little love for that.

There is no need to change any of your levels, unless you want to increase your support, which I highly recommend, but we have done away with the unbranded decks entirely. EVERYTHING IS NOW BICYCLE!

MORE COOL STUFF COMING!

On top of this awesome news, and in addition to any unclockables we have coming, we will be doing some very cool updates next week with a whole slew of very cool offerings so stay tuned!

SPREAD THE WORD!

I've had a good amount of people asking about spreading the word about this deck on social media, forums, and blogs, please know that you don't have to ask my permission to share this great project with your friends. Feel free, because the more love this project gets, the more stuff we can offer to all of you amazing backers!

As always, thanks for everything!"















This is amazing news!!!


CBJ

[MagikFingerz]

This is amazing news!!!

To each his own

[DukeBoy]

This is amazing news!!!

To each his own

I agree Fingerz, The deck was strong enough to fund without the Bicycle band, so now he sells out and adds it.

Hold On

Sell out might be harsh, but I am tired of all the Bikes - at least have unbranded too.

[Eoghann]

I corresponded with him after the comment I made on that update. When he said they would only let him print 2500 of blue and 2500 of green, it was either branded or unbranded. No tuck swaps. That it was only reserved for "high rollers", campaigns raking up 100K or something. But I pointed out that Venexiana, Civil Unrest did tuck swaps with no problem, and they were far from 100K. Then again his are die cut and embossed, maybe the rules change in that situation?

It's odd however, how out of the blue they go for Bikes. I never got the perception that people were clamoring for it. It was perfectly fine unbranded.

Me thinks a certain Bicycle enthusiast gave them the ol' "everyone loves Bikes!" speech.

[CBJ]

Nope, wasn't me.

You can see by the original teaser pics that these were "Bicycle" decks.


Jay

[louizz]

I corresponded with him after the comment I made on that update. When he said they would only let him print 2500 of blue and 2500 of green, it was either branded or unbranded. No tuck swaps. That it was only reserved for "high rollers", campaigns raking up 100K or something. But I pointed out that Venexiana, Civil Unrest did tuck swaps with no problem, and they were far from 100K. Then again his are die cut and embossed, maybe the rules change in that situation?

It's odd however, how out of the blue they go for Bikes. I never got the perception that people were clamoring for it. It was perfectly fine unbranded.

Me thinks a certain Bicycle enthusiast gave them the ol' "everyone loves Bikes!" speech.

Nope, no speech.

Basically, we had planned to launch with the Bicycle decks out the gate, but ran into problems with Bicycle. Their legal department declined out project 3 days before our self imposed launch date, stating that they were currently working on a Viking deck and that the artwork and theme was too similar, which could create brand confusion. There are soooooo many problems with that situation, it's not even funny. Basically, I threw a fit because you HAVE to submit your project to them, and what's to stop them from yoinking a good idea if they see it? The little guy has no legal protection or ownership of IP, and all they have to seemingly do is deny it, and say they were already working on it... I digress.

From there, our contact at Bicycle said she would present it to the CEO to see if we could get approval. This took quite a few days, as I'm sure you can imagine. She finally contacted us on Wednesday to let us know he sided with us, stating that we "beat them out the gate". Good news, or so we thought.

Our original plan was to offer 4 total decks. 2 branded, 2 unbranded. We knew from our previous deck that a minimum of 2500 decks were required, so we were planning on just dividing out that 2500 among the 4 decks as needed. We had done a lot of research on other KS projects and noticed that others are offering the same type of deck breakdowns as we wanted to, so we didn't think it would be an issue. Apparently, we were wrong.

We contacted Bicycle yesterday to get some information about the decks, and casually mentioned breaking the 2500 up between the branded and unbranded decks, and she responded saying that orders/runs could not be broken up. She said that if we wanted to do 4 decks, we would have to order 2500 branded, 2500 branded, 1500 unbranded, and 1500 unbranded... 8000 DECKS! REALLY?!? So we responded back to her and asked how other decks on KS were doing EXACTLY what we wanted to do. She said that my deck isn't just a tuck change, so that the press would have to be loaded multiple times. Then we sent her more examples of how other projects were running multiple decks that changed the actual cards not just the tucks. Specifically, I recall we referenced Ornate. She said that those guys were (I'm paraphrasing here) "VIP customers" and since they spend over 100k a year with Bicycle, they have special options for producing small 500/1000 count runs. She then continued to say that she would let us split our 2500 order into 2 BRANDED decks only. Our, we could do 1500 UNBRANDED split between 2 decks. So, that put us in a tough spot.

We knew our project was being well received, but I have seen in a lot of traffic on forums and pms via KS, people inquiring as to if we were going to be offering a Bicycle deck. So we had to pick one or the other. I figured most collectors typically collect Bicycle branded decks (not to say all, but most), so even though the Bicycle decks are considerably more, we opted to pick those over the unbranded decks. Additionally, I know we are on the higher side of the KS decks (factoring in the embossing and diecut, which is not cheap), so I figured it would be nice to all of our supporters if we just ate it. So, we did.

I hope this at least gives you a little insight as to why I'm not offering both branded and unbranded decks, because I REALLY wanted to. I still think it's a really cool project and had a great time working on it. I hope you all like it too!

Lastly, Bicycle is a bunch of A-holes.

[Eoghann]

Man that sucks. Their rules are so arbitrary sometimes. Well you've earned that Bicycle logo Scott. Go for it. Some of us just thought the deck didn't need it.

Can't wait for what other treasures you have in store for us.

[MagikFingerz]

Wow, they have VIP stuff now too? Sheesh, sounds like a bunch of a-holes to me too.

Oh well, it's still a great looking deck

[Mike Ratledge]

Wow, they have VIP stuff now too? Sheesh, sounds like a bunch of a-holes to me too.

Oh well, it's still a great looking deck

Never one to mince words: it sounds like a bunch of pooh to me, frankly...

[Sher]

I think the VIP stuff is BS. It looks like it just so happened that the example you gave them - the Ornates - were from a company that spent a lot at USPCC yearly, so it was easy for them to respond, "Oh, it's because those guys are VIP." However, I can think of other creators who probably dont spend as much as HOPC that did tuck swaps. Uncommon Beat with their Black Book of Cards, and Nat Iwata with his Steampunk Pirates comes into mind.

[Eoghann]

I had the same argument Sher. Venexiana, the Unrest Series, Black Book, Steampunk Pirates all did tuck swaps. The only reason I can think they'd give him the "VIP" shtick is because he has the die cut window in the back. Either way their rules sway with the wind.

[louizz]

Not to beat a dead horse, but you all seem much more educated in past KS projects, and I was at work before, so I didn't have access to the email. This is right after I found out you "couldn't" split an order, and I would have to purchase 8000 decks to do all 4 print runs.

Here's the exact email and response. Her response she put in my email. I've made them green for easy reading

"Tiffany, I really need clarification prior to moving forward.


I was under the impression that the Bicycle branded minimum order of 2500, was able to be divided up into "separate” decks while still maintaining the same theme, but showing different artwork. I have seen multiple projects on Kickstarter that offer multiple Bicycle decks, that do just this. These referenced projects change include not only the tuck, but the actual artwork as well. Some examples are below;
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... n?ref=live" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/21 ... ref=search" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37 ... cycle-deck" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will compromise. As long as all 2,500 are branded you’re fine.

This is the most recent update on the Ornate card project: "If any Obsidian Deck is over the 1,000 (Bicycle) or 1,500 (Unbranded) minimum, there's a good chance any late BackerKit additions may not receive a Deck.”

How are they able to get the Branded numbers at 1,000?
They are doing multiple Bicycle decks, they are also a top customer. When a customer exceeds $100,000 per year in sales we will work with them for special requests as well.


To be honest, this news throws a wrench into our project, so any direction/assistance on this topic would be GREATLY appreciated. I know if anyone can help, it’s you!



You can see where we currently are with our project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cr ... e_location" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Thank you again so much for all you have done! I am looking forward to hear back from you soon.

[Eoghann]

able to be divided up into "separate” decks while still maintaining the same theme, but showing different artwork.

I think that's your key element that's causing the confusion. Sounds like you're asking for different decks when you should be asking for different tuck only.

Separate decks, as in different cards are definitely 2500 minimum no matter what whether you go branded or unbranded. Your blue and green for example. 2500 of each, right?. That's why it's hard to understand why they're not letting you go branded/unbranded. 2500 of blue deck, half the tucks branded, the other half unbranded. Same for the green. Should be simple and straightforward.

Let me break down the projects mentioned:

Steampunk Pirates: Steampunk pirates (standard), plunder edition is a tuck swap and black flag is a tuck swap. All standard decks inside.

Dia de los Muertos: that's three completely separate decks I believe. 2500 of each style.

Venexiana: 2500 standard Venexiana decks, half black tuck, half cream tuck, cream Venexiana decks Inside both.

Black book: 2500 black book decks total. 1000 standard decks, 500 horizontal bike tuck swaps, 500 vertical bike tuck swaps. Same deck inside all three.

Global Unrest: 2500 decks. Half allies tuck, half axis tuck. Same deck inside both.
Civil unrest: 2500 decks. Half union tuck, half confederate tuck. Same deck inside both.



I think it was RJ Tomlinson who said that a simple tuck swap, as in just changing the artwork of the original, doesn't cost more than a few dollars extra. You should be able to take the bulk of your blue or green decks and change the tucks to as many as you want. Heck, I remember a project that had the same deck inside yet like 6 different boxes. But that's just ludicrous. Or like Jackson with Sherlock, who took a slice of the Baker Street edition deck and made a fancy limited edition tuck swap.

It's been the same (ish) pattern for most of these projects, so I don't understand why they're not letting you do it. It's either the die cut or a simple misunderstanding if you ask me.

[Sher]

I think Eoghann got it right. It may be just a case of miscommunication. Make it clear that you intend to produce two decks, each with a different back, with a minimum order of 2,500 for each. So that will be one blue deck with a 2,500 print run and one green deck with a 2,500 print run. Then, tell them that for the blue deck, you want 1,000 (or however many you like) to have a different tuck. Same for the green deck. Ensure that they understand you want only a tuck swap, not another variation of the blue or green deck.

[Bikefanatic]

2 more Bicycle decks for me instead of them being on the non Bicycle shelf. . . . . . .